Church of the Beloved
Ecumenical Catholic Community
10500 Grant Dr
Northglenn, CO 80233
Northglenn, CO 80233
The Right Reverend Kae Madden was recently elected the first bishop to serve the five communities of the Rocky Mountain Region of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC). She is the co-founder (2004) with Fr. Paul Burson, and pastor (2006) of Church of the Beloved Ecumenical Catholic Community in Northglenn.
Kae’s personal mission is to serve God and to call forth, create and build authenticity, harmony and synergy with individuals, groups and communities. Prior to ordained ministry, she was involved in programs of service in a variety of programs including Catholic Charities through church-based community organizing and SHARE Colorado which distributed monthly food packages through statewide neighborhood host sites staffed entirely by volunteers. Little did she know that her professional experience in visioning, "startups," facilitation, team building and volunteer management would serve her well as a pastor and now with initiatives on a regional level as a bishop.
Bishop Madden earned her Master of Arts degree with a focus on Adult Christian Community Development and her Bachelor of Arts from Regis University, Denver CO. Her degrees include components on Adult Education, Grief, the Spirituality of Family, and Organizational Development.
A farm girl from Nebraska, Bishop Madden is married and in ministry with her husband Greg. They are blessed with an ever-expanding family of kids and grandkids and friends. She enjoys creating oil pastel mandalas, walks, and relaxing with mindless fiction.
Pastoral Associate, Mother Alice, is the newest addition to our clergy team, ordained to the presbyterate by Bishop Kae on October 10, 2021. She has one adult daughter, Amanda, who lives in Seattle. Alice lives with and cares for her mom, Irene. Alice grew up in suburban Chicago, attended Mundelein College in Chicago majored in Religious Studies and attended Loyola University's Institute of Pastoral Studies in Chicago for her master's degree. She taught Religious Studies in a large girls' Catholic high school for 7 years, lived in a community modeled on John Vanier's La Arch for a year and a half, and moved to Colorado Springs, CO where she served as the Director of Religious Education for Sacred Heart Catholic Church for 6 years. After a year of graduate studies in Clinical Psychology, she began a long career providing education and support for people with cancer until her retirement in 2019. Alice first attended Church of the Beloved on March 31, 2018 and became a formal COB member on May 12, 2018. Whether at the Denver Botanic Gardens or up in the mountains, Mother Alice loves spending time enjoying the beauty of creation with friends and family.
The Most Reverend Fr. Paul Burson has had the joy and privilege of being connected to the Church of the Beloved as co-founder since 2004. Fr. Paul Burson received his MDiv in 1985 and has since worked in the Hispanic Community for over 20 years. Paul or Pablo (depending on the world he is in) began with the Center for Service Learning in 2004 and has been working in the area of transformational education since 1990. As a former Vincentian, he has served in many communities in Guatemala and California in pastoral ministry before working as the director of and a professor within a semester abroad program in the Dominican Republic for Creighton University. Two of his three children were born in the DR. and continue to grow in being bicultural and bilingual. Pablo has been very involved with the development of the Romero House Program as well being their professor for the past 17 years which involves a community-based learning experience each year in El Salvador and Guatemala. He has the joy of working with his wife, Rosa Maria in the innovative Community Based Spanish/English Exchange Program. Transformational Education is what drives his motor at Regis University.
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Deacon Christy was ordained in August 2024 by Bishop Kae Madden at Church of the Beloved. She is currently working on her MDiv certificate and preparing for ordination to the priesthood in 2025. She first attended COB in September 2017, and became a formal member on May 12, 2018.
Christy earned a Master's degree in Anthropology and worked as an archaeologist in the Rocky Mountains, assisting with fieldwork and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping of archaeological sites. Her master's thesis used GIS to analyze the interconnection of prehistoric sacred sites with each other and with surrounding natural features. She currently works for a library district as a Cataloging Associate and has participated in groups that promote inclusion in subject heading language and within the library. She catalogs most of the Spanish materials and continues to learn about how to cultivate the Spanish collection to serve the community's needs.