Month: January 2021

Faith news

Wyandotte County is in Phase 3 under Kansas Ad Astra reopening plan. Local health officials said under Phase 3, people should keep a distance of 6 feet between themselves and others. They may sit closer to people who live in their households. Also, people should wear masks and should wash hands or use hand sanitizer. There is a mask order in effect in Wyandotte County, requiring masks to be worn inside any public space.

Some faith groups are holding online or video services. In Wyandotte County, those who are older than 60 or who have other medical conditions should continue being very cautious, according to the Wyandotte County health officials. Those who are sick should stay home, according to officials.

More details about Wyandotte County health guidelines for churches are at https://www.wycokck.org/WycoKCK/media/Health-Department/Documents/Communicable%20Disease/COVID19/COVID-19GuidelinesForChurches.pdf.

Some churches have been changing their services as a result of COVID-19 restrictions for the community. Residents are advised to visit the social media page of their church or faith organization, or to call them or email them, to see changes that have been made to regular schedules, or if there are video services planned on Sunday.

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has information about churches, Masses, and reflections, at https://www.facebook.com/archkck.

Blessed Sacrament, Christ the King and Our Lady and St. Rose Catholic churches have resumed in-person Masses. For more information, visit the churches’ websites or Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/Christ-the-King-Parish-KCKS-1392808997677579, https://www.facebook.com/BlessedSacramentkck, and https://www.facebook.com/ourladyandsaintrose/. Sunday Mass is online at https://www.facebook.com/BlessedSacramentkck.

Casa – Worship House Christian Church, 5217 Leavenworth Road, Kansas City, Kansas, will have services at 11 a.m. Sunday. The church has an online service at www.facebook.com/casadealabanzaKCKS. Check with the church’s social media page for more information on services. For more information, visit Facebook @casadealabanzaKCKS.

The MLK KCK Celebration will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 18, on Facebook. This year the event is online-only because of COVID-19. Those interested in participating in the event honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may visit www.facebook.com/kckmlkcelebration. Several brief speakers are scheduled, with musical performances.Thirty-one scholarships will be awarded. The public is welcome to visit the page.

Open Door Baptist Church, 3033 N. 103rd Terrace, Kansas City, Kansas, will have services in person with social distancing at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 17. There will be a livestream service at https://www.facebook.com/opendoorkc/ and https://www.opendoorkc.com/.

Stony Point Christian Church, 149 S. 78th St., Kansas City, Kansas, plans to livestream at 10:15 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, on its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StonyPointChristianChurch, and people are welcome to attend the service in person, using social distancing, masks and other health measures.

St. Patrick Catholic Church, Kansas City, Kansas, has a Mass online for Sunday, Jan. 17, at https://www.facebook.com/StPatrickKCK. St. Patrick Church also has in-person Masses.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1300 N. 18th St., Kansas City, Kansas, plans online services on its Facebook page and its website Sunday at https://www.stpaulskck.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/StPaulsKCK.

Sunset Hills Christian Church, 6347 Leavenworth Road, Kansas City, Kansas, plans to have services at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. For more information about this Sunday’s plans, visit the Facebook page of Pastor Mike Barnett, https://www.facebook.com/mike.barnett.528. Services are also provided through checkout of DVD or SD Card and can be sent by email upon request. People are welcome to attend the service in person using social distancing and other health measures. Masks are available or bring your own to wear.

Wyandotte United Methodist Church, 7901 Oakland Ave., will have a livestreamed service Sunday, Jan. 17, on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Wyandotteumc/ or online on the website at www.wyandotteumc.com.

Information about other church services in Wyandotte County may be available from the church’s social media page.
To send in items for the Faith News, email information to [email protected]. Please include your name and contact information.

MLK celebration Monday to be virtual this year in KCK

A flier from the Kansas City, Kansas, MLK Celebration Scholarship Ceremony, to be Jan. 18 on Facebook.

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration this year in Kansas City, Kansas, will be virtual.

The event will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 18, with everything taking place online on the MLK KCK celebration page on Facebook, at www.facebook.com/kckmlkcelebration.

Because of the risk of COVID-19, the event is not in person this year. The program will be comparatively short, to keep the audience involved, and the focus will be on the educational aspects of the celebration. Serving as the general chairperson of the event is the Rev. Tony Carter Jr. Also working on the event were Clarence Small and Pastor Ricky Turner.

The event will not have a keynote speech, but some speakers are featured in short segments, according to Joseph Straws, an event planner who is working on the video presentation. The program lists a welcome from Mayor David Alvey. There will be musical performances, including a solo from Alicia Saunders. Scholarship winners will be individually recognized.

The scholarships are an important focus of the event this year. The 37th annual event will award 26 scholarships, plus five additional scholarships sponsored by District Attorney Mark A. Dupree Sr. The scholarships are for $500.

To give a donation to the scholarship fund, visit https://gkccf.kimbia.com/king01.

Straws said he will miss the in-person MLK celebration this year, but the committee decided to continue it virtually this year and will be planning for it to return next year in person. As someone who has worked with churches on their video presentations, Straws said that they are different from being there in person. The usual in-person MLK celebration is as close to a spiritual worship service as you can get, with a keynote speaker and choir, he added. It’s also appropriate as Dr. King was a preacher and did most of his ministry in the church, he said.

He said the public is invited to join in the virtual MLK celebration this year on Monday at www.facebook.com/kckmlkcelebration.

Former KU Med Center administrator charged with embezzlement

The felony charges carry maximum prison sentences of 30 years and three years in prison.

by Dan Margolies, Kansas News Service


A former administrator at the University of Kansas Medical Center faces criminal charges that he embezzled more than $500,000 from KU.

A charging document filed this week in federal court accuses Michael Ahlers of diverting the money from the KUMC Credit Union between 2009 and 2015.

Ahlers, a resident of Lenexa, Kansas, was the administrator of the med center’s occupational therapy education department. According to the complaint, he was the sole signatory on the credit union account.

The document also charges him with income tax evasion because he allegedly failed to report the money on his tax returns.

Ahlers could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Robin Fowler, declined to comment.

KU’s occupational therapy education department is part of its School of Health Professions and offers degrees in occupational therapy.

Ahlers allegedly generated invoices outside of the med center’s financial systems so that only he knew of the funds he withdrew from the credit union account, according to the charging document.

A spokeswoman for KU Medical Center, Kay Hawes, said no state funds were involved. Rather, she said, the account in question involved student fees and payments to the occupational therapy department for services rendered.

“The University of Kansas Medical Center is fully cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding this case,” Hawes said in an email. “A KU Medical Center internal investigation uncovered the fraudulent activities, which were limited to one individual and affected a single department. After the initial internal investigation, the medical center contacted the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which partnered with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to conduct an additional investigation leading to these charges.”

Hawes said the medical center has since taken action to improve financial controls and “takes very seriously its role as a steward of public funds.”

“We continue to examine financial controls to protect the university from dishonest individuals,” she added.

The felony charges Ahlers faces – bank fraud and filing false tax returns – respectively carry sentences of up to 30 years and three years in prison.

A LinkedIn profile for a Michael Ahlers of Lenexa showed his most recent employment was as a revenue cycle analyst at Cerner Corp., the Kansas-City based health information technology giant. The LinkedIn profile, which noted his previous employment at KU Medical Center, was later deleted.

A Cerner spokesperson said she was not able to confirm Ahlers’ employment at the company.

Bankruptcy court documents indicate Ahlers filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2019 and received a discharge of his debts later that year.

On his bankruptcy petition, he listed debts of more than $1 million, including nearly $456,000 in delinquent federal and state taxes. The petition also said that he and his wife owned a retail liquor store in Lenexa.

Ahlers’ initial court appearance is set for Jan. 29.

Dan Margolies is senior reporter and editor at KCUR. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanMargolies. The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.

See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-01-15/former-ku-med-center-administrator-charged-with-embezzlement