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Reviewed by:
  • Lay Ecclesial Ministries: Pathways Toward the Future
  • Paul Lakeland
Lay Ecclesial Ministries: Pathways Toward the Future. Edited by Zeni Fox. Lanham, MD: Sheed & Ward, 2010. 230 pp. $29.95.

Lay ecclesial ministries, like the permanent diaconate, seem to have taken root in the United States Church more firmly than in any other sector of global Catholicism. This is due in part to the American culture of participation, in part to the far-sightedness of the United States bishops, who as far back as 1980 produced their pastoral statement on lay involvement in the life of the church, Called and Gifted. A second document followed in 1995 and then, in 2005, a further and more extensive publication, Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord: A Resource for Guiding the Development of Lay Ministry. The present collection of essays is a kind of extended commentary on Co-Workers, in which a talented array of theologians, pastors, and canon lawyers amplify and complement the original text.

The two opening pieces in the collection look at Co-Workers as an exercise in reception, and Richard R. Gaillardetz’s essay, in particular, strikes an interesting note by seeing it a sign of the bishops’ reception of the phenomenon of lay ecclesial ministry, rather than the more [End Page 89] familiar use of the term reception to indicate reception of episcopal teaching by the whole faithful. These opening essays are followed by three sections that consider the document broadly from theological, spiritual, and pastoral perspectives. While there are no weak pieces in the book I was particularly struck by those by Thomas F. O’Meara, OP, and Edward P. Hahnenberg, who provide rich discussions of historical and theological dimensions of ministry, Sharon Euart’s very informative piece on the place of lay ministry in canon law, and the concluding essay by the editor, Zeni Fox, which pushes the envelope a little more than most.

Because lay ecclesial ministry is such an obvious blessing on the United States Church and because the bishops as a whole recognize it as such, there is understandably little in the way of critical reflection in this volume. Aside from the forceful piece by Zeni Fox, Tom O’Meara’s is perhaps the most challenging, asking searching questions about the history of the understanding of lay ministry relative to that of the clergy and probing John Paul II’s reluctance to let the word “ministry” be used at all for the work of the laity. And although this book may not be the place to be investigating the middle and longterm future of ministry in general, I would have welcomed a more focused attention somewhere in the volume to the way in which Co-Workers employs the term “ministry.” Stressing that lay ministry is always something somehow commissioned by the church leaves us in the odd position of recognizing a director of catechetics in a local parish is doing lay ministry, but being unable to say the same for Dorothy Day. Minor quibbles aside, this collection is welcome as a contribution to the growing understanding of ministry in general and lay ministry in particular. No one, of course, should imagine that either Co-Workers or this set of essays is or purports to be the last word on lay ministry. But they may be important precursors to asking the really difficult questions about ministry in general. [End Page 90]

Paul Lakeland
Fairfield University
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