Pastor Gary Zender of St. Anthony Parish in Renton this month announced he will be moving on to St. Louise Parish in Bellevue, starting July 1.
He has been the lead pastor at the Renton Catholic church for the last 15 years.
“I’m excited,” Zender said.
He will replace St. Louise’s current Pastor Tom Belleque.
Zender said his legacy will be bringing the diverse communities of St. Anthony together and outreach to the community.
“Well, I think there are a couple of things in the time here and I wouldn’t give all the credit to myself; it’s really the gift of the community and the Holy Spirit working among us,” Zender said. “I think we’ve been able to draw the various ethnic communities closer together, but especially the Spanish and English-speaking communities.”
Zender described the gap between the communities as being pretty far apart early on in his time at the church, but the divide has become smaller with multilingual prayer services together.
An example of how far the church has come is the “Taste of St. Anthony,” a food festival they host that features a broad range of ethnic food and entertainment. The festival took place at St. Anthony last weekend.
“So prayer, music, food has really helped to bring us together,” said Zender. “I’m really very pleased about that.”
He is also the vicar of charities and chairman of the board for Catholic Community Services. He’s proud of such community projects that he’s been involved with, such as reviving the Way Back Inn, starting ARISE in Renton, or Area Renton Interfaith Shelter Endeavor, to name a few.
“I will continue my role with Catholic Community Services and St. Louise in some ways like St. Anthony in the sense that it’s very diverse…,” said Zender.
His first task, he said, is just to get to know the community at St. Louise, then to help move forward the master plan for addressing the facilities needs.
Zender doesn’t know what he’ll preach about for his last sermon at St. Anthony, but he does know that gratitude will be part of the focus.
“It’s just the gratitude for the gift to be here; it’s been a wonderful gift to be at St. Anthony and (in) the Renton community,” he said.
