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Conversations: Peter Eichten- Parish Administrator
(The following article is an interview with a member of St. Joan of Arc parish. The primary purpose of the interview is to allow a parishioner an opportunity to share some part of their story or journey. These written snapshots are conversations between two people in which the person being interviewed willingly shares their ups, downs, reflections and life lessons with you the reader. We hope that you enjoy these conversations and that they are helpful to you on the journey. - C. MacDonald)
It isn’t often, if ever that I sit down to talk to someone and after we have gone our separate ways, I develop an immediate need to go in search of a copy of the Old Testament. The fault was mine, I was interviewing Peter Eichten for this article and I asked him as a conversational warm-up, who he admired most in the Old Testament. In a biblical moment, he responded in his Germanic voice, “The Prophet Jeremiah”. His answer provoked a skeptical “Why?”. “Jeremiah”, he said, “worked for the welfare of the human city. He brought optimism to a captive people.” He then quoted a favorite line. “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”-(Jeremiah 29:7) “He was a man of great integrity, but more importantly he envisioned God‘s restoration and new covenant that would be written in the hearts of his people.” Speaking of integrity, I have to confess that having talked to Peter for a couple of hours, I spent the following two days on and off pouring over The Book of Jeremiah and several commentaries on this enigmatic prophet. The end result is that in attempting to write this article, my head was hearing the answers that Peter had given me but I was also aware of what another man had written centuries ago.
Peter Eichten is a complex man to interview. Your questions get rich responses and those answers only provoke you to want to ask more questions. After a time I noticed that Peter spoke in a very rational and paced manner if the subject was parish administration, demographics, organizational management, etc.; but that control became lost when the subject of gospel came up. The pace completely changed, his words raced, he became more animated and energized. This transformation was fascinating to watch. Peter cannot maintain his calm when he speaks to what he believes in, or what is of value to him. Words like “respect for creation and the web of life’s relationships” cause him to speak with both arms and full body motion. I thought of Jeremiah ...“Run to and fro through the streets....see if you can find a man who does justice and love the truth.”
( Jeremiah 5:1)
Peter Eichten is one of about one hundred men and women in the Mpls./St.Paul archdiocese who serve as parish administrators. In a word their responsibilities are to manage all things temporal, a staff, buildings, budget, programs, etc. but they are managers of organizations whose product or service are matters of the spirit. Here in lies the rub; what measures the quality of a good parish administrator? Peter’s first answer to this was, “ I believe I am being productive when I am not being pressured to make something better.....if it isn’t broken, etc.” St. Joan’s parish as described by Peter is approximately 3,800 households. There is a strong core group made up of about 50-60% that Peter identifies as spiritually mature parishioners. He believes that maybe another 20-30% are men and women who come to St. Joan ’s during a trying period and they may move on as they feel more grounded within themselves. Finally he talked about the remaining group as those who have a love or loyalty to St. Joan of Arc but they come in and out of contact with programs and worship. Peter seemed to understand all of this ebb and flow of people and their various stages of spirit pilgrimage. When asked if St. Joan of Arc was like a growing number of “mega-feel good churches,” his stern voice barked back “No”! “Yes, we are upbeat and joyful, but people who come through the doors of St. Joan’s do not always hear messages of optimism, we make very sure that they hear messages of the pain and suffering of others, of social injustices, and messages of our social responsibility to this earth and to one another.” My question about a ‘feel good Christianity got Peter Eichten’s teutonic genes moving and he spoke at length about the maturity of many parishioners who have found multiple ways to minister and to witness. The litany of those activities that the people of St. Joan of Arc are involved in, is indeed impressive. Peter talked about at times feeling that the parish gets stuck in a liturgical or theological pattern, and then someone will come forth with a whole new idea like eco-spirituality, small Christian communities, spirit at work, etc. As he spoke the words of Jeremiah started to come back: “God will never judge us because the temple of the Lord is here. If you really change your ways and your actions and treat one another fairly, if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow, if you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods, to your own ruin, then I shall let you stay in this place.” ( Jeremiah 7:7)
Some 53 years ago Peter Eichten was born and schooled in New Ulm, Minnesota. At eighteen he went to St. Thomas and while not negating the school, he doesn’t identify it as very productive period. “I wasn’t interested in studying’, he admits. At twenty-two he married his wife Jane and the two of them joined the Peace Corp. They were assigned to Iran as young teachers, a country who four years later would topple its Shah. He loved the people and identifies it as one of life’s great experiences, except he said you can’t erase the memory of trying to teach children who find it hard to learn because they are malnourished. The Eichtens came home and Peter and his brother co-managed his father’s shoe business. These were good years and five now grown children were born. Peter ’s third world experience made him feel he wanted to do more and he even applied to become the Peace and Justice Coordinator for the New Ulm Diocese and was rejected for lack of training. Without a clear vision he signed up for a 
masters program in theology at St. John’s University in Collegeville. It was a great life move because he was introduced to courses in scripture and theology and to teachers of note. Armed with a masters in theology the next couple of years were rocky. There was a brief stint as a college lay minister which he enjoyed and a painful stab at parish ministry. In 1989 Father Bill Murtaugh hired him as St. Joan’s parish administrator. Peter at forty-two had found a place where one could wave one’s arms in excitement about the message of the gospel. ...”This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: Here the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord.” (Jeremiah 7:1 )
“So tell me Peter are there any on-going tensions to respond to in running a parish?” “Of course there are tensions and disagreements. There are those who want us to work toward changing church structures versus those who want us to help change society.” “What about women and church?” He smiled and then frowned and more quietly said; “ It amazes me that there are any women in the church at all. Much of what the church has done is inexcusable.” Ten minutes later he finished a very interesting discourse on the evil of ‘isms'. He ended this by saying; “ I believe that Jesus wanted to create a ministry of partnerships. His ministry was a social ministry, his message was one of justice and compassion.” “Tell me Peter, what to you is holiness?” He smiled and said it starts with changing holiness to ‘wholeness.’ We are whole if we respect creation and one another. Toward the end of the interview I asked about his vision of church and again it invoked voice and arms in movement as he spoke of the need for us to stop being a church that worships Jesus and become more a church that follows Jesus. “Our purpose is to find new ways of being in the world or being loyal to our partnerships with one another” he said. As I listened to his voice and think about what he was saying, my favorite line in Jeremiah came back to me: “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “ I see the branch of the almond tree.” (Jeremiah 1:11) The Jewish people called the almond tree ’the watcher tree’ because it was the first tree to blossom in the spring. To them it was a sign and symbol of the return of the sun and the warming of the earth. It meant new life, new beginnings, a future. Peter Eichten like a man who lived centuries before him, seems to have the capacity to look forward and beyond and to be optimistic about the journey of a parish called St. Joan of Arc ... “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see the branch of an almond tree.”
Peter Eichten was interviewed on January 4, 2001 by Chuck MacDonald
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