Catholic Thought and Practice The Theology and Practice of Lay Ministry Dr Oonagh O Brien Lent Term 2016
Module description This course is an opportunity to reflect upon the theology and practice of lay life and ministry. Each week there will be a chapter or article to be read for discussion during the seminar. Participants will also be required to bring one piece of evidence relating to their own experience and practice of lay life or ministry. Learning outcomes By the end of the course the student will be able to: Identify a variety of different approaches to lay ministry through an historical lens; Critique the implications of the shifting balance between theology and practice; Articulate key continuing debates within the contemporary study and practice of lay ministry; Reflect on how they themselves practice ministry as lay women in the Church. How we will use our weekly readings Readings are supplied for each week. Each week deals with a different area in relation to the overall theme of lay ministry. For this module, the choice of texts has been made to prompt your thinking about that week s particular area. The questions that accompany each reading are designed to get you thinking critically about the viewpoint in the text, so that as we broaden the issues out in the classroom, you will already have a sense of where you might stand. In this way you are learning to interrogate a text when you read it and relate it to your own thinking. Often these questions will include asking you to reflect on your own experience in relation to the argument or description being offered in the text. So during class we ll be able to draw on each other s experience or critical thinking to mutually shape our understanding of lay ministry - this allows a balance between learning from each other and contributing wherever we are each able.
Sample essay titles Lay ministry only exists because of lack of ordained priests. Discuss Describe how prophet, priest, king offers a theological grounding for a theology of lay ministry and comment on the effectiveness of this approach. Write a critical commentary on what you have learned from this course including some historical overview and some reflection on contemporary Church life. Outline of Course Content Week 1: The Role of all the Church Reading: Richard Lennan, The church as Mission in: Christopher Jamison (Ed), The Disciples Call (Bloomsbury 2013), 43-63. What does this tell you about vocation and ecclesial context for lay people? Week 2: Lay Identity: Historical and Biblical perspectives Reading: Carol Dempsey, Be Holy for I am Holy : Clothing ourselves in our Biblical Identity in: T. Muldoon (ed), Catholic Identity and the Laity (New York, Orbis Press, 2009), 34-44. Do you agree with Dempsey s reading of 1 Peter 1:13-2:10? Week 3: Baptism and Ministry Reading: Thomas F. O Meara Theology of Ministry (NY: Paulist Press, 1999, 199-212) Are we baptised into ministry? Week 4: On Being a Prophet, Priest, King 1
Reading: Timothy Radcliffe, Taking the Plunge: Living Baptism and Confirmation Bloomsbury 2012, 185-202. How does Radcliffe s account challenge your understanding of your own baptism? Week 5: On Being a Prophet, Priest, King 2 Reading: Paul J. Philbert, The Priesthood of the Faithful (Minn: Liturgical press, 2005, 56-92) Are we all prophets, priests and kings? Week 6: On Being a Prophet, Priest, King 3 Reading: Paul J. Philbert, The Priesthood of the Faithful (Minn: Liturgical press, 2005, 56-92) As above Are we all prophets, priests and kings? Week 7: Lay People and Lay Ministry Reading: Susan K. Wood, A Theology of Authorization of Lay Ecclesial Ministers in: William J. Cahoy (Ed) In the name of the Church (Liturgical Press, 2012), 99-116 And/or Z. Fox, Snapshot of the Laity in Mission in: T. Muldoon (ed), Catholic Identity and the Laity (New York, Orbis Press, 2009), 197-206 How important in your opinion is authorisation for lay ministry? Week 8: Lay Ecclesial Ministry Reading: www.usccb.org/laity/laymin/co-workers.pdf Section 1
Selected Bibliography Books Bernier, P., Ministry in the Church. A Historical and Pastoral Approach. Mystic Ct.: Twenty Third Publications, 1992. Congar, Y., Lay People in the Church. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1957., Laity, Church, World. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1960. Cooke, B., Ministry to Word and Sacrament. Philadelphia, Penn.: Fortress Press, 1976. Doohan, L., The Lay-Centered Church. Theology and Spirituality. Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1984. Fox, Z., Together in God s Service. Towards a Theology of Ecclesial Lay Ministry. Washington: National Conference of Catholic Bishops Subcommittee on Lay Ministry, 1998. Hahnenberg, E., Ministries. A Relational Approach. New York: Herder and Herder, 2003. Jamison, C., The Disciples Call (Bloomsbury 2013) Kerkhofs, J., (ed), Europe Without Priests? London: SCM Press, 1995. Lakeland, P., The Liberation of the Laity. In Search of an Accountable Church. New York: Continuum, 2003. McBrien, R., Ministry. A Theological and Pastoral Handbook. San Francisco: Harper, 1987. O Grady, J. F., Disciples and Leaders. The Origins of Christian Ministry in the New Testament. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1991. O Meara, T., The Theology of Ministry. New York: Paulist Press, 1999.
Osborne, K., Ministry. Lay Ministry in the Roman Catholic Church. New York: Paulist Press, 1993. Rademacher, W.J., Lay Ministry. A Theological Spiritual and Pastoral Handbook. England: St. Paul s Publications, 1991. Stevens, R. P., The Other Six Days. Vocation, Work and Ministry in Biblical Perspective. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2000. Wood, S., (ed), Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood. Theologies of Lay and Ordained Ministry. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2003. Articles Austin, G., Baptism as the Matrix of Ministry, in: Louvain Studies, vol. 23, 1998, 101-113. Bergant, D., Biblical Foundations for Christian Ministry, in: Z. Fox, (ed), Together in God s Service. Towards A Theology of Ecclesial Lay Ministry. Washington: National Conference of Catholic Bishops Subcommittee on Lay Ministry, 1998, 87-102. Coffey, D., The Common and Ordained Priesthood, in: Theological Studies 58, 1997, 209-236. Congar, Y., My Path-Findings in the Theology of Laity and Ministries, in: The Jurist 1972, 32, 169-188. Dias, Z., Baptism and the Baptised in Church Leadership in: Z. Fox, (ed), Together in God s Service. Towards a Theology of Ecclesial Lay Ministry. Washington: National Conference of Catholic Bishops Subcommittee on Lay Ministry, 1998, 51-69. Downey, M., Ministerial Identity: A Question of Common Foundations in: S. Wood, (ed), Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood. Theologies of Lay and Ordained Ministry. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2003. 3-25. Ford, J., Ministries in the Church, in: P. Phan, (ed.), The Gift of the Church. A Textbook on Ecclesiology. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2000, 293-314.
Fox, Z., Ecclesial Lay Ministries: An Overview, in: Z. Fox, (ed), Together in God s Service. Towards a Theology of Ecclesial Lay Ministry. Washington: National Conference of Catholic Bishops Subcommittee on Lay Ministry, 1998, 3-22., Laity, Ministry and the Secular Character, in: S. Wood, (ed), Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood. Theologies of Lay and Ordained Ministry. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2003, 121-151. Gaillardetz, R., In Service of Communion: A Trinitarian Foundation for Christian Ministry, in: Worship 67, 1993, 418-433., Shifting Meanings in the Lay-Clergy Distinction, in: Irish Theological Quarterly, 64, 1999, 115-139., The Ecclesiological Foundation of Ministry within an Ordered Communion, in: S. Wood (ed), Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood. Theologies of Lay and Ordained Ministry. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2003, 26-51. Grondelski, J.M., Lay Ministries? A Quarter Century of Ministeria Quaedam, in: Irish Theological Quarterly, 63, 1998, 272-282. Hagstrom, A., The Secular Character of the Vocation and Mission of the Laity. Towards a Theology of Ecclesial Lay Ministry, in: S. Wood, (ed), Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood. Theologies of Lay and Ordained Ministry. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2003, 152-174. Kavanagh, A., Unfinished and Unbegun Revised: The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, in: Worship, 1979, 53, 327-340. McBrien, R., The Future of the Church and its Ministries: Imperatives for the Twenty-first Century, in: New Theology Review, 6, 1993, 42-52. Neuner, P., Ministry in the Church: Changing Identity, in: J. Kerkhofs, (ed), Europe without Priests?, London: SCM Press, 1995, 121-143. O' Meara, T., 'Ministry' in: J. Komonchak, et al. (eds), The New Dictionary of Theology. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1987, 657-661.
Osborne, K., Envisioning a Theology of Ordained and Lay Ministry: Lay/Ordained Ministry Current Issues of Ambiguity, in: S. Wood, (ed), Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood. Theologies of Lay and Ordained Ministry. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2003, 195-227. Rahner, K., Notes on the Lay Apostolate, in: Theological Investigations II. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1963. Sesboüe, B., Les animateurs pastoraux laïcs. Une prospective théologique in: Études. Vol. 377, 1992, 253-265 (Published in English as Lay Ecclesial Ministers. A Theological look into the Future, in: The Way 42, 3, July 2003, 57-72.)