July 15, 2011
Lynda Provence
Meet Bishop Thompson’s new administrative assistant
Lynda Provence is the administrative assistant for newly-ordained Bishop Charles C. Thompson. She has served as the pastoral associate at St. John the Baptist Church in Newburgh since 1995. (Message photo by Mary Ann Hughes) Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Years ago, Lynda Provence made a promise to God, and now at age 62 and starting a new job, she’s still faithful to it.
She is the administrative assistant for the newly-ordained Bishop Charles C. Thompson. She comes to the job at the Catholic Center in Evansville from St. John the Baptist Church in Newburgh where she was a long-time pastoral associate.
She’s originally from Huntingburg, the oldest child of Cyrinus and Lillian Becher. Her dad was the maintenance director at St. Mary Church, and she remembers, “nuns and priests were part of our family.
“As young children, the Sisters were often our babysitters, and all the priests frequented our home, including Archabbot Lambert Reilly with his infamous wit and love for storytelling.
“The ‘face’ of the Church was very real to us!”
She attended the Academy of the Immaculate Conception in nearby Ferdinand, and received a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Southern Indiana. She has a master’s degree in rehabilitation administration from Southern Illinois University.
For six years, Provence was a member of Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, and when she left the convent she made a promise to God to “serve the Church” in other capacities.
She married George Provence in 1976, and they became the parents of two children, Jason and Jennifer. Shortly after the family moved to Newburgh, she was asked to work part-time with the religious education program at St. John’s. She was a stay-at-home mom at the time, and after saying “no” once she said “yes.”
That job evolved into the pastoral associate job which she began in 1995. She says of parish work “there is nothing like working with and for a community of believers. It’s a shared ministry of Catholic values,” she said, quoting Blessed Mother Teresa, “I can do what you can’t do. You can do what I can’t do. Together we can do something beautiful for God.”
Her best days at the parish were the days “when someone ‘got it,’ that God is in charge of our lives, when I felt I was truly of service to someone.”
And the hardest days? “Walking the journey with parishioners who suffered infertility, who lost loved ones and who dealt with serious illness.”
Her pastor, Father Joe Ziliak, says of her, “She is a generalist. She does it all.” He notes her work with parishioners of every age — the pre-schoolers, the young mothers who are members of the Elizabeth ministry program that she brought to the parish, and the older parishioners who are part of the Fit Over 50 program which she also began.
As the pastoral associate, she oversaw the annual stewardship program, was a key figure in the parish thrift store project, and “one of her great loves” was visiting those in hospitals or otherwise physically impaired.
She was an organized, detail person, and “always aware of parish needs,” Father Ziliak said of her.
And this May — 16 years into her job as pastoral associate — things were going well.
Then one Friday, she attended early morning Mass, and then walked over to her office in the parish center. The phone rang, and it was Tim McGuire, the diocesan chief operating officer. He told her he would like to meet with her, cautioning her that the topic was “too serious” to talk about over the phone. He said his schedule was too busy to meet that Friday, and asked her to meet with him at a Starbucks first thing Monday morning.
She agreed, and then spent the day wondering what was up. She asked herself, “Am I being reprimanded?” She e-mailed Tim, and asked if she could have a little more information.
He responded that the meeting would relate to “a different job.”
“I prayed about it all weekend,” she remembers. “I was a nervous wreck.”
At 8 a.m. the following Monday the two met, and he asked her to consider being Bishop-elect Thompson’s administrative assistant.
Her answer? “I have to pray about it.” She drove to the parish and talked to her pastor.
Ten days later Provence, McGuire and Deanna Ruston who was Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger’s secretary, met the bishop-elect at the Overlook Restaurant in Leaven-worth. “He asked me a few questions,” Provence said, and she was offered the job.
“I met with Father Joe, and we talked about the changes — for me and St. John.
“He was so gracious. He said, ‘I would never hold anyone back.’”
There are tears in her eyes as she remembers him telling her, “You can be very helpful to the bishop. You know parish life, and you know our diocese.”
His kindness and those words “helped move me in the direction of saying ‘yes.’”
She realized that “it wasn’t about me anymore. I was able to help the diocese.”
She feels “God has his hand in every situation, and I feel he went before me. I was honored — and humbled at the same time — to be asked.”
In June she came to the Catholic Center to work with Ruston. The “learning curve” is huge, she admits, adding, “It helped me to have five days with Deanna. She would share her duties with me during the day, and I went home at night and typed them up.
“That week was invaluable. I can’t thank her enough for that. In the midst of the ordination [planning] she devoted that time to me.”
Provence says her faith was shaped by her parents who were “very close to the Church,” and the Sisters of St. Benedict. She cites a prayer written by St. Clare of Assisi that gives her strength: Love God, serve God . . . Everything is in that.”
The new job is a “leap of faith. As my two-year-old grandson, Gavin, says, ‘It’s scaaaaaary.’
“I truly believe, though, that God will not lead us where grace cannot hold us. It’s a huge learning curve, but Bishop Thompson and I are learning together.
“I am especially grateful for his incredible support and witness of faith. With God’s help, we will do well together.”