Lay & Ordained Leadership Events
Today our parishes, schools, and diocesan offices are filled with the ministries of many dedicated, competent lay women and men. Our faith communities today still find themselves mirrored in the words of St. Paul to the community in Corinth,
“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes”
(1 Corinthians 12.4-11).
It is commonplace to find lay people working side-by-side with priests and deacons. The Second Vatican Council foretold this when it said “Participators in the function of Christ, priest, prophet and king, the laity have an active part of their own in the life and action of the Church. Their action within the Church communities is so necessary that without it the apostolate of the pastors will frequently be unable to obtain its full effect” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, n. 10).
This “co-working in Christ Jesus” (see Romans 16.3) is placing new questions upon our laity and the ordained. One such question is describing what the famous theologian Yves Congar called “a new relationship between pastors and people….I do not mean, of course, in any sense that would deny or disregard the hierarchical ministry of the clergy… but in the sense of an organic co-operation between the two.”
Through the following events we are hoping to promote between the ordained and laity what Congar envisioned – “an organic co-operation between the two”.
