Henderson woman heeds ‘calling,’ becomes bishop

The storefront windows of St. Valentine Faith Community, 2520 Mesa Verde Terrace in Henderson, proclaim in big print: "All are welcome. For information, call Pastor Sue."

On Sept. 25, Pastor Sue became Bishop Susan Provost when she advanced from priest and was consecrated to the episcopacy by the Rev. William A. Wettingfeld, presiding bishop of the National Catholic Church of North America, an Independent Catholic jurisdiction with churches in Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Maryland and Indiana.

Provost's road to bishop started with an upbringing in the Roman Catholic Church.

"I was Roman Catholic all of my life, and I never even thought about getting ordained," she said.

Since ordination wasn't a possibility, she sought other ways to serve.

"I was involved in all kinds of ministries in the Roman church and never was satisfied," she said.

About six years ago, she encountered a woman who had been ordained a priest in the Independent Catholic movement, a branch of Catholicism independent of Rome and the pope that embraces teachings of Catholicism prior to changes made in 1870.

"She was telling me about Bishop Bill, who is the one who ordained me, and how welcoming he is. He believes in equality. And it sounded great," Provost said.

Still, Provost clung to her Roman Catholic upbringing.

"But it kept coming up, and coming up," she said. "I believe, as people say, they get a calling. I got a calling, and God wouldn't let me rest until I actually did what he wanted me to do."

She arranged to meet with Wettingfeld in Las Vegas, and they talked for more than three hours.

"And he said to me, 'I usually make people wait for six months before I even think about ordination. But I'm the bishop, and I can do what I want, and I will ordain you when you are ready.' "

As Provost explains, it's not as if she asked to be ordained without any education. When she was still Roman Catholic she was involved with the lay ecclesial ministry program. She got a master's degree in theology, went to spiritual direction school in Kentucky and studied with the Ursuline Nuns. After her ordination, she trained in clinical pastoral education so she could work as a chaplain.

"So it's important that people don't think you just walk off the street and get ordained," she said. "There is preparation, and I had already done a lot of that."

Her husband and their children welcomed her choice. In fact, her husband, Joseph Provost, serves as business manager for St. Valentine.

"He's another person who believes in equality and that there should be no difference between men and women, at least in the priesthood, and my daughters and son had no problem," Provost said.

"As for my parents, and some of my husband's sisters and brothers, and my brother, it was a whole other story. I was leaving the church. I was committing a sin because women don't get ordained. I am going to hell."

Provost's St. Valentine flock is small, but she likes it that way.

"If everybody were to show up all at the same time, we've got about 30 people," she said. "Is it enough, yes. Would we like to expand, sure."

Provost said she caters to the disenfranchised, just as Jesus did.

"In that area of town, we're right down the road from the AA people, and we also have a lot of homeless in our area right around the church," she said. "We offer services for anybody, but those people come to our church, and it's really beautiful. They feel they have been disowned by the Roman church, that nobody cares about them. And in a small group we can get to know everybody ... . Is it enough? It's whatever God wants us to have. So when he wants us to expand, he will facilitate that."

Provost and the rest of the leadership at St. Valentine, the Rev. James P. Morgan and Deacon Linda Pilato, do the job for the love of the parishioners.

"Our church ministry is all a volunteer situation for us," she said. "We are able to sustain our church, pay the rent and the utilities from our parishioners, but we don't take anything."

Only five years after ordaining her as a priest, Wettingfeld felt compelled to advance Provost to bishop and designate her as his eventual successor.

"She's a very spiritual woman, very caring of others," Wettingfeld said of Provost. "In church language, we would say she's pastoral."

Perhaps more importantly, he said, Provost shares his ideals.

"I saw in her the vision of the church, basically the same vision I have. I saw in her the capability of leadership, the power to listen and continue this organization."

Part of that vision is the philosophy that everyone is welcome.

"It doesn't matter whether you've been married and divorced afterwards or what sin you have committed," Provost said.

That invitation means she is willing to perform ceremonies Roman Catholics don't, such as marriages for the divorced or same-sex couples and funerals for people who committed suicide.

"Everybody is invited to the table of God. It's not our table. It's God's table," Provost explained.

"We always try to make people feel welcome," she added. "We always have food after the Mass, so that people can stay and socialize, get to know each other, and that feels like family.

That feeling of family extends beyond her Las Vegas flock. She and her husband founded the Friends of Haiti, a nonprofit that helps doctors and nurses train in Haiti.

Despite the popularity of Pope Francis, Provost said she can't imagine going back. As a female bishop she knows she wouldn't be welcomed.

"So I'm going to stay put right where I am and be an inspiration to women who feel they have a calling," she said.

For more information, visit stvalentinefaithcommunity.org or tnccna.com.