I'm Father Cathie*, and I am your Free Range Priest

I help ministers who are 'stuck' trying to navigate institutional church change go 'Cage Free'.

*Yes, I go by the title ‘Father’. If you want to know why, you can find out HERE.

But you can call me Cathie. My full ordained title is the Reverend Catherine A. Caimano, and if you want to see my resume, you can find it HERE.

My ministry is called Free Range Priest…

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Here’s some things to know about me:

I was formed in religious community

I was raised Roman Catholic and I ended up at Georgetown University. I went to study languages, and ended up falling in love with the Jesuit tradition.

At Georgetown, priests lived in the dorms, and we had Eucharist on Sunday nights in the lounge, in our jammies. I sang in the chapel choir. I was part of the retreat program, and my work-study job was at the Campus Ministry office.

I had a similar experience when I went to the General Theological Seminary - we all lived together in what was basically a monastic community. We took all our classes together, we prayed together in the chapel at the center of campus, we all lived on the same block (with our partners, spouses, pets, and all our quirks and issues!). We ate in the refectory.

I’ve been deeply formed on how the church can form our entire life - and our entire life with God.

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I’ve been ordained since the turn of the century, and Free Range since 2016

I’ve served congregations in New York City; Durham, NC; Wichita, KS, and Salisbury, NC.

I always thought I’d serve one amazing congregation after another - in the traditional model. But as I continued down that road, I began to see how things weren’t working like they used to for the church.

Then I spent five years on the staff of the Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina - serving about 60 congregations (mostly small), and their clergy. And I learned that most of them were struggling with the same things - dwindling membership and budgets, inability to support salaried clergy and buildings, the crushing pressure of trying to uphold an institutional system that was no longer serving ministry.

It felt like it was the other way around: communities and ministers seemed more preoccupied with propping up the institution than sharing the Gospel - because their survival depended on it.

I thought: there has to be a better way. We should be able to figure out a new way to share Good News in the 21st century.

Free Range Priest was born.

I’ve always been a ‘techie priest’

In the mid-1990s, right before I went to seminary, I spent a year as the executive assistant to the Chair of Duke University’s Computer Science department. I had to learn HTML and LaTeX.

I built my first website in 1994 - back when websites were new.

Around 1999, in New York City - on a date! - this guy said, “Have you ever heard of this thing called Google?”

The relationship went nowhere. But I fell in love with the new digital horizon.

I didn’t see it then, but God was planting something that would matter enormously to my ministry. I have been watching digital tools change everything for a long time.

I’ve also watched the mainline church stay hopelessly stuck in the 20th century. Not just technologically (though yes, that too), but systematically. Organizationally.

Where I’ve found my niche - and my superpower - over time is discovering the bridge into the future of church that frees the system in a way that grows the church (numerically, yes, and also spiritually).

And how to use technology to get there.

As a Free Range Priest, I’ve helped thousands of ministers - lay and ordained - to reimagine ministry.

I’ve taught preaching (‘Practical preaching in the digital age’), led many online and in-person workshops and seminars, I’ve consulted with dioceses, denominations, congregations and other organizations. I’ve coached clergy and formed online groups and started communities and written books.

I don’t say this as a flex - I say it so you know I’ve walked the walk. I’ve been out there Free Ranging - discovering how we’re bringing church to people, and how we’re adapting and innovating to make the practice of ministry sustainable and JOYful in the 21st century.

My ministry is a business. I’m not on anyone’s salary. I’m neither fish nor fowl (insert chicken joke here). I’m trying to blaze the path as I’m pointing it out. And I’m learning from everyone I meet.

I’m the original Free Range Priest (and the only one - I’ve trademarked the term!)

My ordination certificate and my trademark. I am officially both ‘free range’ and ‘priest’.

But there are Cage Free Ministers everywhere.

Which gives me hope for the future of church.

When I’m not thinking about church you can find me spending time with my awesome husband, out running somewhere, or taking pictures of the sunrise.

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At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
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