Loading...Bishop Young is pleased to announce that Kirby Purjet has joined the staff of the Diocesan House as diocesan administrator.
Kirby previously served on the staff at the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, Texas, as parish administrator. He grew up in Galveston, Texas, and has served churches in Texas, Tennessee and Illinois, primarily in church administration but also briefly in youth ministry. He was formerly president of the Presbyterian Church Business Administrators Association and has served as coordinator for the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes Administrators’ group and on CEEP’s annual planning team.
Kirby and his wife, Gloria, traveled to East Tennessee for a week in mid-January to meet and work briefly with Mary Berl before her retirement and to look for a home in Knoxville, then went right back to Texas where Kirby worked at the Church of the Transfiguration through Friday, Jan. 31 training his replacement at the church.
We won’t say that Kirby and Gloria are diligent, prepared and organized, but before they arrived in East Tennessee two and half weeks ago to look for a home, they had already done copious research and narrowed the field down to 20 homes. Working with their realtor, they looked at homes on a Saturday and made an offer on Sunday. The home, in a new Knoxville subdivision, is finishing construction, and they are hoping to close in late February.
Kirby said, “My interest in coming here is primarily in working for the diocese. I’ve always been attracted to working with groups of churches as opposed to just one church. I want to share my knowledge base and be a resource to churches. I wanted to work with churches at a different level so this job gave that opportunity.” Kirby said that if it had been in a different area, he might not have been interested. But from 1984-1996, he and Gloria lived in Nashville and liked Tennessee, especially the seasonality of the region.
“The past few weeks have been a whirlwind,” Kirby said, “closing out a job and closing on a house. But I’m looking forward and excited at getting to know folk here and developing relationships over time with churches.”
