Edward P. Hahnenberg, the speaker for a 2006 Oakland diocesan LEM formation day, served as a project coordinator for the U.S. bishops’ lay ministry project which led to their 2007 document on lay ecclesial ministry, “Co-Workers in the Vineyard.”

An associate professor of theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, he was a major presenter at the National Symposium on Lay Ecclesial Ministry at St. John’s University in Minnesota in August 2007. Below are excerpts from that presentation.

“The emergence of lay ecclesial ministry over the past 40 years stands out as one of the top three or four most important ministerial shifts of the past 2000 years. It is on a historical par with — and in fact may even eclipse —- the changes to the Church brought about by the rise of communal forms of monasticism in the 5th century, the birth of mendicant orders in the 13th century, or the explosion of women’s religious communities in the 19th century.

“The rise of lay ecclesial ministry brings something new . . . It affirms that lay ecclesial ministry is in continuity with the Church’s theological tradition and doctrinal history . . . and it also brings a challenge to the way things have ‘always’ been done, a challenge to the ministerial order of the Church just as radical as that brought by the mendicant friars or the active friars.

“I would go so far as to say that one of the great things about lay ecclesial ministers is that, in important ways, they just don’t fit. It has been hard to find categories to describe what they are doing. But that is not their fault. The fact that lay ecclesial ministers do not fit does not make them misfits. It does not mean that there is something wrong with lay ecclesial ministry. It may very well be that there is something wrong with the categories into which we are trying to fit them. Maybe it is not the peg that is the problem. Maybe it’s the hole.

“The single most important line of “Co-Workers in the Vineyard” says, ‘lay ecclesial ministry has emerged and taken shape in our country through the working of the Holy Spirit.’ Whether or not the bishops realized it, here they committed themselves to an important theological claim: this thing is of God. The Spirit is spread out, calling lay ecclesial ministers through the voices of many members.

“The rise of lay ecclesial ministry can be heard in colleges and schools developing programs for lay ministry formation; it can be heard in pastors and other leaders inviting and encouraging new roles on the parish staff; it can be heard in parishes and whole communities welcoming lay ecclesial ministers into their midst.

“Everybody talks about collaboration, but few of us actually know how to do it well. What can we do concretely to foster great collaboration between lay ecclesial ministers and others, especially ordained ministers? . . . We need psychologists, those schooled in group dynamics and organizational change, pastoral practitioners and others to help us negotiate the historic ministerial shift through which we are passing.”

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