By Sharon Abercrombie
Staff writer

Annette Roux did not go to church for 27 years. In 1998, her lengthy status as a non- practicing Catholic took a swift reversal. “God called me back on the day of my granddaughter’s First Communion,” she said.

The Divine bid prompted Roux to make up for lost time. She became a lector, an Extraordinary Minister of Communion and a volunteer in the RCIA program at St. Stephen Parish in Walnut Creek.

Later Roux was hired to be the parish’s RCIA director, and then she moved into Children’s Faith Formation. Along the way, she earned a certificate from the School for Pastoral Ministry at Holy Names University in Oakland.

Roux now carries the title of Lay Ecclesial Minister and serves as the parish’s pastoral associate. Lay Ecclesial Ministers are called to particular religious roles, such as pastoral associate, catechist, school principal, social justice coordinator, RCIA director, and prison, hospital and hospice ministers. Their title is the result of numerous studies, papers and reflections on the part of recent popes and bishops to define the emerging role of lay people in Church ministries.

The 355 lay ecclesial ministers presently serving in the Oakland Diocese “collaborate with the pastoral ministry of the ordained,” explained Michele Walsh, current chair of the diocesan Lay Ecclesial Ministers Council. The LEM Council is a consultative body accountable to the bishop that functions within the office of the chancellor through the department of evangelization and catechesis.

Walsh, who directs religious education at St. Joachim Parish in Hayward and is a 45-year veteran of parish work, emphasizes that a Lay Ecclesial Minister is a fully initiated faithful Catholic who exercises parish leadership, responding to a discerned call, and validated by ecclesial leadership. Lay Ecclesial Ministry is a vocation rooted in Baptism and the other Sacraments of Initiation, rather than the sacrament of Ordination, she said.

Annette Roux’s baptismal call to ministry was particularly timely. Had she been active in parish programs before 1998, she would have been among the devoted ranks of lay people who simply “took the initiative” to serve their parishes, making a decision to do so “with little assurance of job security in an era when the concept of lay ministry was still developing for pastors,” remembers Oakland Bishop Emeritus John Cummins.

Bishop Cummins helped to open things up during his diocesan tenure.

In 1999, two years after Pope John Paul II told a group of French bishops that he “saw a true source of hope in the willingness of a considerable number of lay people to play a more active and diversified role in ecclesial life and to take the necessary steps to train seriously for this,” Bishop Cummins established one of the country’s first consultative bodies of lay people within a diocesan structure. He named it the Lay Ecclesial Ministers’ Council.

That same year, as a result of input from the lay ecclesial ministers, the diocese adopted its first mandatory salary scale and job classification system for parishes.

Since then, the LEM Council has sponsored several convocations and study days for lay ecclesial ministers, priests and deacons. In 2001 it established a three-year affordable weekend School for Pastoral Ministry program held at Holy Names University. The school meets one Saturday each month for three years.

Lay Ecclesial Ministry might still be considered a work in progress, as the term and its functions become better known throughout the diocese. At least that would seem to be the case, according to both Annette Roux and one of her colleagues, Laureen Aguayo. Both women serve on the LEM Council with Walsh.

What would each of them change if they could? Roux would like to see the School for Pastoral Ministry become better known. “I would never have had the courage to pursue a career in ministry without it. I think it needs more exposure in our local parishes.”

Another factor which needs tweaking, she is said, is the collaboration between lay ecclesial ministers and some clergy. “I’ve spoken to clergy who act as though a LEM was a threat to their authority. They aren’t clear about the LEM’s role —as a carrier of the Word outward after the clergy defines it,” said Roux.

She believes “a good pastor is one who recognizes that a LEM can benefit not only the parish, but the pastor himself.”

Roux cherishes her role as a pastoral associate and credits her fortunate situation to a supportive pastor who provides her with the opportunity to do hands-on work. “I can interact with parishioners on a personal level and honestly state that no day is ever the same. Whether it’s a funeral vigil, a children’s play, or a retreat, I feel that God has blessed me with the opportunity to serve others through my ministry.”

Laureen Aguayo has a 21-year history in ministry. Also a graduate of the School for Pastoral Ministry, she served for 19 years at St. Clement Parish in Hayward in youth and young adult ministry and then as a religious education director at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Berkeley for two years.

This past November she was one of six youth ministers from the Oakland Diocese to receive the “Companions on the Journey” award from the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry. Aguayo is now completing her third year of a master’s program in theology for a multicultural church at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley.

Aguayo said that many lay ecclesial ministers end up wearing many different hats in their parish settings and as a result often feel bogged down. After completing her degree, she hopes to be able to work as a pastoral associate somewhere in the diocese to help both staff and their pastors identify their strengths and talents so they are better able to serve in ministries that fit them best.

Aguayo’s hoped-for position comes out of her involvement with the diocese’s “Living Your Strengths” program, which assists both lay people and clergy to identify their unique gifts and talents for various ministries. She is currently working with the Hispanic community at St. Joseph the Worker in the “Strengths” program.

Meanwhile, Aguayo is concerned that people such as herself “who are receiving higher education will be able to find work with pay within the parish/diocesan structure.”

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