Call to Baptism:

1
Call to Baptism

• Implications for Publicly Authorised Ecclesial
  Ministry

2
Facing the future

• The unity of the church is not uniformity, but
  an organic blending of legitimate diversities.
  The church of the third millennium will need to
  encourage all the baptised and confirmed to be
  aware of their active responsibility in the
  churchs life. Together with the ordained
  ministry, other ministries, whether formally
  instituted or simply recognised, can flourish for
  the good of the whole community, sustaining it in
  all its many needs
• (Novo millennio ineunte, 46)

3
Local church

• Theologically, local church is diocese
• Community of baptised located in a particular
  place
• Gifts of Spirit find concrete expression
• Word of God, apostolic faith, is proclaimed and
  takes root
• Eucharist is celebrated
• Community life is a witness in concrete situation

4
Local church

• Leadership is important in local church
• Leadership will happen at various levels and in
  various sectors
• Bishop has particular role to foster and preserve
  unity of the church
• Chief minister of communion
• Leadership is exercised in communion

5
Local church

• Needs of this place are recognised
• What the church needs in order to fulfil its
  mission
• Pastoral care of all the baptised
• Response to social, political, economic world
  where church is located
• Responsive to constant change
• Never isolated in communion with other local
  churches
• Catholic identity

6
Permanent Diaconate

• Relatively new expression of ministry in
  contrast to transitional diaconate
• Can raise questions for us
• Why do we need this ministry now if it played
  such an insignificant role in churchs ministry
  for so long?
• Where do we locate this ministry in terms of
  baptismal call?
• Where does this ministry belong in relation to
  other ministries?
• What will be the ministerial tasks of permanent
  deacons?

7
Permanent Diaconate

• Understand diaconate within the ecclesiological
  vision of Vatican II
• Baptism inserts us in communion with God and each
  other
• It calls us to engage in Gods mission
• Communion and mission make us participants in
  Gods saving plan for creation
• In this the church takes on the function of
  sacrament

8
Permanent Diaconate

• Deacon lives as sacrament of Gods saving plan
  for the world
• One dimension speaks of deacon ordained for the
  service of the bishop
• Ministry at the service of unity and communion,
  which are expression of salvation
• This will find expression is multiple ways

9
Permanent Diaconate

• Deacon lives as sacrament of Gods saving plan
  for the world
• Another dimension focuses on service of charity
• Charity is sign of reign of God (cf. place of
  care for widow orphan in Jesus ministry)
• Primary ministry is extra-liturgical, and will
  find expression in various ways
• Liturgical ministry, especially at Eucharist, is
  linked to service of charity

10
Permanent Diaconate

• Diaconate should be permanent in sense that it is
  constant reminder of centrality of service in the
  mystery of Gods saving love
• Issue is not one of being in competition with
  other ministries
• As sign of service deacon should foster ministry
  of service among all the baptised
• As one of the baptised, deacon lives acts as
  member of communion
• As one of the ordained, deacon lives acts in
  appropriate relationship with other ordained

11
General Lay Ministry

• Takes many forms often informal
• Connected to life of witness and mission (cf.
  Evangelii nuntiandi, 70)
• vast and complicated world of politics, society
  economics
• world of culture, the sciences, the arts
  media
• Evangelise culture transform humanity make it
  new from within (EN 18)
• Participation in liturgical pastoral life

12
Lay Ecclesial Ministry

• A more recent development in the church
• Takes shape differently in different places may
  be named differently
• Is identified as a lay ministry
• Is a concrete response to new situation and new
  needs
• Is understood as an ecclesial call that gives
  more specific focus to baptismal call
• Therefore, is not just a measure to get us out of
  a tight spot
• It is a theological statement about the (local)
  church

13
Lay Ecclesial Ministry

• Formalised and set within structures of communion
• Authorised to serve publicly
• Leadership in particular area of ministry
• Collaboration with pastoral ministry of the
  ordained (bishop, priests, deacons)
• Formation for ministry required
• 
  (USCCB, Co-workers in the Vineyard of the Lord)
• Commitment to service in local church for a
  specified period of time.

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Authorising ministry

• Public ministry in the church is authorised by
  the church
• This is marked liturgically
• Person thus assumes a new relationship with the
  church as a particular kind of minister
• Leads to stability of ministry
• Permanent for ordained
• For agreed time for lay ecclesial ministers

15
Authorising ministry

• Background
• Baptism has already set us in relationship with
  God and with others in the church
• Communion of the church is an organic reality
• Diversity of gifts given to the church
• Diversity of ministries necessary for mission of
  church
• Bishop has particular task of oversight

16
Leadership

• Spiritual Leadership
• Christian education
• Evangelisation
• Liturgical ministries
• Pastoral ministries
• Organisational/administrative ministries

17
Leadership

• Attentive to the unity of the faith
• Enchanted by the vision of the gospel, the faith
  of the church
• Has the imagination to find appropriate ways to
  express this as the faith of the whole community
• Avoids turning the timeless faith into a museum
  piece
• Achieves the appropriation of faith by symbol and
  ritual
• Makes a connection between faith/worship, and the
  choices people make in a changing world

18
Leadership

• Thoroughly apostolic
• Helps the community to be attentive to the memory
  of the teaching of Jesus. Encourages on-going
  study of Jesus and his message
• Recognises that the community exists in the
  continuity of the faith through space and time
• Joins the community in discerning the movement of
  the Holy Spirit, reminding and leading into truth
• Helps the community to be missionary in the way
  it faces up to change

19
Leadership

• Recognisably Catholic
• Appreciates the mark of catholicity of the
  church. Values the diversity in the world church
• Is alert to ways the community can become
  isolated from the rest of the church, from the
  world around it.
• Calls the community back from temptation to
  fundamentalism and sectarianism
• Challenges the community to learn from other
  communities and other expressions of faith, life
  and worship

20
Leadership

• Characterised by holiness
• Avoids a managerial approach to leadership
• Communio sanctorum as shared participation in the
  holy, in the life of God, in the Holy Spirit, in
  the gospel
• Recognises that we are confronted with the gift
  of the Spirit as we construct a future.
• Promotes a spirituality that is grounded in a
  recognition of the gift of the Spirit, the call
  to become what God has called us to be, and a
  realistic appraisal of the challenges of the
  world
• Becomes a prophetic sign to the world

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Mutual collaboration

• Bishop
• Ministry of communion
• in local church
• with whole church
• Shows concern for continuity of apostolic faith
• Is Christian with all baptised is a bishop for
  the local church (Augustine)
• Shares relationship with lay ecclesial ministers
  through baptism
• Particular relationship as a result of
  recognising lay ecclesial ministers and
  authorising their ministry in the local church

22
Mutual collaboration

• Priests
• prudent cooperators with the bishop
• Ministers of word and sacrament
• Ministers of pastoral care
• Build up the priestly people of God
• Share relationship with lay ecclesial ministers
  through baptism, and participation in priestly,
  prophetic kingly role of Christ
• Recognise and call forth ministers within the
  community
• Nurture the gifts present in the community
• In collaborative ministry be a sign of what God
  has called the church to be

23
Mutual collaboration

• Deacons
• Share relationship with others through baptism
• May engage in same tasks/functions as lay
  ecclesial ministers

24
Formation

• Familiar with categories of formation
• Human
• Spiritual
• Intellectual
• Pastoral
• Involve other people in their formation (e.g.
  wife or family members)
• Reflection on life experience and existential
  situation

25
Formation

• Larger issues of formation across the diocese
• Discernment of call to ministry and to a variety
  of ministries
• Begins by raising consciousness of baptismal
  calling
• Recognise different levels of engagement among
  the baptised
• Find ways to support people as new forms of
  ministry are put in place

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Synthesis

• Theologies of ministry must begin with an
  experiential description of ministry today
• Baptism is initiation into life of Christ and way
  of discipleship in the church by which all
  participate in the mission of the church
• Mission is grounded in divine missions of Word
  and Spirit, which flow from Gods love for the
  world

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Synthesis

• Ministry, grounded in baptism, is building up the
  body of Christ for the mission of the church.
  Ministry not only serves the internal needs of
  the church, but enables the church to pursue its
  mission for the transformation of the world
• Within the diversity of the Spirits gifts the
  life, communion and mission of the church have
  been served by ordered minsitries

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Synthesis

• What is constant historically is the principle of
  sacramental order. What changes is how ministries
  evolve and are ordered
• These principles call us to an on-going ecclesial
  discernment and a fresh articulation of an
  ordering of ministries in order to recognise
  emerging ministries and changes in church practice

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Concluding comment

• Living with change
• This is not simply structural change
• It is also theological change, as new
  understandings develop
• Idea of living with change is found in gospel
  repent for kingdom of God is at hand
• It began with our baptism
• It continues through life as a spiritual process,
  requiring attentiveness to the Spirit
• It is part of life of church

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Concluding comment

• Ecclesial structures should help us work through
  change
• Structures of communion and dialogue
• Warning unless we follow this spiritual path
  of communion, external structures of communion
  will serve very little purpose. They would become
  mechanisms without a soul, masks of communion
  rather than its means of expression and growth
  (Novo
  millennio ineunte, 43)

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