Caring for the souls at the Church of the Holy Trinity has taken a team approach with Rick and Tami Roessler.

The Rev. Rick Roessler is Holy Trinity’s rector. His wife Tami is the church’s deacon. She was ordained in Albany, N. Y., shortly after the couple moved to Vicksburg. Both were installed as Holy Trinity’s priest and deacon by Bishop Brian R. Seage on June 28 during services at the church.

The bishop, Tami said, decides what deacons will do in the diocese. Seage, the reverend said, “Indicated that he desired for Tami to work here at Holy Trinity but also work with the other four parishes in Vicksburg to help the parishes work together, especially on mission-type things.”

“I think for the Church of the Holy Trinity it’s really nice for them to see that they have a deacon because one of the big questions as we were coming here was, ‘Are you going to work for us?’” Tami said. “I said, ‘Yes I am really going to work for you.’”

While her husband’s call to the ministry came later in his life after retiring from the military, Tami’s path began early.

“I grew up knowing from a very young age that I wanted to go into the helping professions,” she said.

She became a licensed practical nurse working in long-term care and later received a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Vermont. But there was something deeper. She remembers telling their parish priest at one time, “I know that the Lord is calling me to something, but I also know it’s not time.”

That call led to her decision to be a deacon and her subsequent ordination.

Tami said deacons have two primary functions.

“Deacons proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and they serve the sick, the friendless, the needy and especially the poor. My ministry here at Holy Trinity is every Sunday to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ,” she said. “I am the gospel bearer. However, if I preach, which I also am allowed to preach — Father Rick will do the gospel.”

She is also working with the church’s pastoral care team that meets the needs of people that have been sick or hospitalized and with the people who are Eucharistic visitors.

“In other words, the people that would receive communion because they’re not able to come to church,” she said. “I’m trying to then take communion also to the people on our prayer list.

“And I’m trying to build an umbrella that encircles all of these people that may be in these many situations, to streamline their care so that we are more ready and more able to meet people’s needs after they come out of the hospital or they’ve had surgery or serious medical issues or could be emotional issues too.”

The Roesslers said there are no problems working as priest and deacon.

“It works out fine for us,” Rick said.

“We’re both called to our respective ministries and Tami and I come at the ministry from two different perspectives,” he added. “A lot of the places where I’m not as strong, she’s strong, and in some of the places where she’s a little weaker, I’m stronger in those areas. And so we complement each other, pretty well. Tami comes by about once a week or so in order to see how everything’s going on and I’m here basically Sunday through Thursday. And so that’s how we work things out for now. We go by what the Book of Common Prayer says for who does what.”

Roessler said he was surprised when his wife said she was going to become a deacon but added she has good skills in ministry  “so I’m quite supportive of Tami being a deacon here at Holy Trinity. She does a lot for folks here at Holy Trinity by visiting people and she just enjoys that aspect of the ministry.”

He said the couple’s two daughters, Allyson and Megan, support their mother’s decision.

“What I have done is, we have set up a system,” Tami said. “If somebody is hospitalized, we both go the first time, kind of see what the situation is, you know, see what people, you know, how people are doing.

“And then if they’re in the hospital for a number of days, I do the follow-up,” she said. “The things — the three things that a deacon cannot do fundamentally that a priest can, is a deacon cannot perform last rites. Only a priest can do that. A priest can absolve anyone of sin. I am not able to do that. I’m also not able to consecrate the Eucharist.”

After 36 years of marriage, Tami said, “We kind of have a lot of the bugs worked out in the marriage. We know what is helpful to one another. We know how to counsel each other. We know how to love each other and we also know how to stay in each other’s lane. We also know what buttons we just don’t push.

“So really, we don’t have a lot of difficulty working together, I think because of the longevity of our marriage,” she added.

For a good part of their marriage and before their ordinations, the Roesslers were in the military, which meant making a lot of moves across the country.

“We moved to nine different locations in 20 years,” Tami said. “In some years, we moved every year.”

It was Allyson, the Roesslers’ oldest daughter, who in a way brought them to Vicksburg, Rick said, adding Allyson lives in Monroe, La.

“As we like to say, ‘Well, you know, we moved her around all the time while we were pursuing a military career.’ So now she’s moved us here,” Rick said.

“And it’s been good for us,” Tami said.