Hairdresser. School of Ministry. Deacon. Head of church. Ordained Priest. Church for sale.

Whew.

It was a busy few years for Mother Teresa Lahar. Oh, and that all took place through Covid. Yeah.

Now the Ordained Priest has a much calmer situation as she leads the St. John’s Episcopal Church in Great Bend.

After spending 50 years as a hairdresser, Lahar said a change in her profession came to her in 2015.

“I felt the calling in 2016 to go into the priesthood,” Mother Teresa said. “I began schooling at the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry to become an Episcopal Priest.”

So at age 63, she began her path to a new calling, enrolling at the Topeka school.

“I felt I needed to do this,” Mother Teresa said. “It was like God hit me over the head and said do this.

“Mother Phyllis (Flory) encouraged me quite a bit. She was based in Salina and was a supply priest with us for nine years.”

A supply priest is one that fills on a temporary basis for Episcopal church when needed. It could be for one service or a short-time stint.

While at Bishop Kemper, Lahar, a deacon at the time, began her ministry with the St. John’s Episcopal Church in Great Bend where she was a member about 10 years before beginning her new journey. She was ordained in 2018. A deacon in the church is a step before being ordained as a priest.

The following year, 2019, the St. John’s Episcopal Church, then located at the corner of 17th and Adams, went up for sale.

“I had barely been ordained and took over as priest and the talk of selling the church began,” Mother Teresa said. “Our congregation had dwindled to eight people. It was hard.

“I eventually asked myself ‘Is St. John’s the building or the congregation?’ That was an easy answer for me. It was the congregation. So we scoped out some other churches as options.”

The First Congregational United Church of Christ on 21st street opened its chapel up to St. John’s. The building is separate from the main building and offers offices and a chapel with the entrance on Tyler Street.

The move was completed in May of 2021. Since that time, things have been a bit more steady for Mother Teresa and the congregation of the St. John’s Episcopal Church.

“I like being able to serve the body and blood of Christ,” Mother Teresa said. “That is the main goal of mine.”

That same year, Mother Teresa and the church started a Feeding the Children program to help children in the area that are in need of assistance.

“Coming out of Covid, we were under the belief that the summer food program would be dismissed,” Mother Teresa said. “We looked into how we could help, but we knew we could not do anywhere near the 900 youth it was feeding.”

The program did not end, but Mother Teresa and the church went to Plan B.

Starting in 2025 they began the Feeding the Children program in partnership with Kansas Children’s Service League.

Currently they serve eight families and 22 children seven weeks out of the year. There is a two week stretch before school starts. A two week stretch over the winter break, spring break week and two weeks after school is out.

“We pack up the lunches at our facility and a social worker picks them up and delivers them. We have had students as old as 17 and young enough we have baby formula for them.”

Another partnership is with CarePortal and USD 428, helping find families in need of assistance.

This is in association with The Global Orphan Project, which also helps purchase caps and gowns for students in need and helps families ‘keep the electricity on and the refrigerator running.’

The church is also very active in Laundry Love through the United Way, helping with the Food Bank and providing meals at the Dream Center.

St. John’s has also joined with some other area churches to come together for Fifth Sunday Service. Every time a month has a Fifth Sunday, four churches join together for the service and a lunch afterwards.

St. John Episcopal and its neighbor the First Congregational United Church of Christ join with St. Mark’s Lutheran and the First Presbyterian Church to rotate hosting the event. King United Methodist was a fifth member until its closing about a year ago.

During her time with St. John’s, the congregation has grown under the direction of Mother Teresa.

“We even have some toys in some of our pews,” Mother Teresa said. “We have added a couple toddlers.”

Services take place at 11 a.m. Sunday mornings.