Ecclesial Identity in Ministry
Saturday, January 27th, 2007The following is a paper I wrote for my Lay Liturgical Leadership class I’m taking this semester. The questions from the original assignment are maintained within my response. The goal of the assignment is to reflect on where we’re coming from in ministry, and then to reflect on what we’ve learned at the end of the semester.
“What is your ecclesial identity and what does that have to do with worship? What is meant by the “authority to lead” and where is it rooted?”
My personal understanding of my ecclesial identity begins with the black and the white—with what I am and with what I am not: I am a baptized Christian. I am not (going to be) an ordained priest. I am a lay woman. I am active in two parish communities. And gradually, my identity moves toward the grey: I am post-Vatican II worshiper; I have only been to a Latin Mass twice. I am a ministry student seeking both an academic and a professional/pastoral degree (Master of Divinity). In one parish, I am a trained, certified catechist. In another, I am a ministry intern working under the supervision of a female pastoral associate.
The later parish above is my field education practicum site. As I reflect and write goals for my learning contract this semester, I wondered about what connection (if any!) there is between “pastoral leadership” and the “authority to lead”. Could I have the authority to lead and not be a pastoral leader? And, if these two are related, how are they connected to our baptismal identity as priest, prophet, and king? While I do not have a definitive answer to my questions, I posit that both pastoral leadership and the authority to lead flow directly from our baptism. And while is it necessary for pastoral leaders to have authority, it is not necessarily the case that those with the authority to lead will also be pastoral leaders.
“How do you feel about exercising a leadership role in your community’s worship?”
Having been at this parish for a semester already, I wonder if my prolonged presence has given me authority—internal authority as I gain my bearings, and a visibility and willingness to help out in the parish. But even more so, I wonder if my authority as a lay minister, in large part, has been “given” to me by those lay ministers who have paved the way for me in the past forty years. Even ten years ago, I wonder what kind of welcome at 23 year-old woman would have received as she brought communion to the homebound.
“Is there anything distinct for lay presiders to do, or are they just simply substitutes for the priests?”
In order for the Church as a whole to answer this question adequately, there is much work to be done in the development of a theology of lay ministry and a theology of ordained ministry. And such theologies, in addition to be rooted in scripture and tradition, ought to be harmonious and not undermine the other. Richard Gaillardetz’s presentation of an ordered communion (”The Ecclesiological Foundations of Ministry within an Ordered Communion”, in Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood, Susan K. Wood, ed.), based out of our baptismal call, gives power and authority to groups within the church without confusing or subjugating such power. From a practical, and particularly a liturgical standpoint, Gaillardetz’s line quickly becomes blurred. But it is necessary for this tension to inform our theology and how we do ministry.