ALAMOSA – The Rev. Dr. Leigh Waggoner of Cortez will preach at the Holy Communion service at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church, 607 Fourth Street, Alamosa, at 9 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 4.

Waggoner, regional missioner for the Southwest Region of the Episcopal Church in Colorado, recently retired as rector of St. Barnabas of the Valley Episcopal Church, Cortez.

Waggoner will preach on All Saints.

Waggoner hails from Northern Wisconsin.  She was ordained to the priesthood in 2003 having graduated from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.  In 2010 she received her Doctor of Ministry in Congregational Development, also from Seabury.  Then she served a small congregation in Northern Wisconsin for seven years before going to St. Barnabas in Cortez in 2011.

She has four children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She and her husband, Bob, have been married for 38 years. They love Southwestern Colorado and plan to stay, she said. 

As regional missioner for the Southwest Region—one of five regions in the diocese of the Episcopal Church-Colorado--Waggoner plans to travel to the 15 congregations in the region on a regular basis. At coffee hour, she will acquaint those attending services with what a regional missioner does.

All are welcome at the service and coffee hour.

As a lay-run special congregation, St. Thomas usually has Morning Prayer at 9 a.m. Sundays, utilizing supply priests and other clergy on occasion so that members can have Holy Communion. The next time St. Thomas will have a priest will be on Dec. 2 when the Rev. Twyla Zittle of St. Raphael’s, Colorado Springs, takes the service.