Ecclesial lay ministry in a local Church

This paper begins with a review, of the "explosion in lay ministry" over the last thirty years by citing the statistics for a single parish. It comments on the signs of the times": a renewed awareness of the role of the laity, who are eager and well-educated; the emergence of new, roles for women; the decline in the number of priests and religious; and the struggle to become a world Church. It includes the first-person stories of two among the approximately 6,000 persons who have participated in the diocesan ministry formation programs. It notes the development of the role of pastoral leaders and the significance of an ecclesiology of communion for reflecting on that role. This paper also raises questions about the degree of emphasis given to teachings about the priesthood of the faithful, about the understanding of the difference between that and the priesthood of the ordained, and about the implications of that difference for questions of governance. An appendix lists twenty-five supervised ministries that were part of the diocesan ministry formation program in 1996-1997.