Worship Times

Ecumenism lives

After an initial burst of fervor for ecumenical activities after the Second Vatican Council, things seem to have grown very cool on the unity front. However, according to Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, ecumenism is progressing slowly but surely.

In a report in the September 13, 1996 issue of the *National Catholic Reporter*, Cassidy cited the accords signed last year by the pope and the heads of the Assyrian, Ethiopian Coptic, Syerian Orthodox, and Syrian Malabar churches. Bridges were made between these churches and Roman Catholics over the role of Mary as mother of God or only as mother of Christ and over the divine and human natures of Christ.

Lutheran liturgical design

Suomi College in Hancock, MI, recently received a $40,000 grant from Lutheran Brotherhood to incorporate liturgical design in the Suomi International College of Art and Design. The month will be used to provide scholarships and to conduct workshops by nationally recognized liturgical artists. Suomi College is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (ML sometimes has trouble keeping all the Lutheran branches straight, but ELCA is the largest one in the U.S.). For more information, contact the college at 906-487-7298 or send e-mail to the communications office at comm@suomi.edu.

More Lutheran art

The Historic Trinity Lutheran Church in Detroit will hold its 11th annual Ecclesiastical Art Exhibit, May 16 - June 1, 1997. All entries will be judged from slides and are due March 1. Liturgical artists can win prizes of $500, $300, or $200.

The judge for this year's contest is Marion (Mame) Jackson, Chair of the Department of Art and Art History, Wayne State University, Detroit. She holds a PhD in art history from the University of Michigan. Her primary interests are in native North American art and arts of the African Diaspora.

For more information or for application forms, contact Karl Osterland at (313) 567-3100 or Grat1345@aol.com.

And don't forget about ML's Visual Arts Award contest. See the ad on page 24 for more information.

Lay ministry and baptismal priesthood

ML hates the term "lay" ministry (there is only one ministry for Christians), but we seem stuck with it for the time being. The National Association for Lay Ministry, however, seems to move away from the phrase slightly in the title of their new publication, *No Turning Back -- A Lay Perspective on Ministry in the Catholic Church in the United States.* The 58-page booklet examines formation, support, and recognition issues for those ecclesial ministers among us who are not clergy. $5 per copy from NALM, (312) 241-6050.

The fact that the "laity" can even have a perspective on ministry, of course, arises from our baptism. Christian baptism has always provide full access to the grace of God and the mission of Christ for all who entered the water.

"Baptismal water was the universal solvent not only of traditional religious distinctions ... but also of the foundations stones on which the ancient city rested; for the church, it was the *sole* initiation and not confined to a single family, clan, race, or social class. Everyone within the watery wall of *this* city participates in the rites and shares in the *santa*; holy things are for holy people, but all the people."

So writes Peter J. Leithart in an article titled "The Politics of Baptism" in the December 1966 issue of *First Things*. Leithart, a Presbyterian minister from Alabaster, AL, points out that Christian baptism -- from the time St. Paul "first wrote the formula, `justification by faith and not by the works of the law' (Gal 2:16) -- has served to break down the ancient social structures between those of high standing and those of lower class. Baptizing people of any class into the one priesthood of Christ not only affected religious structures but also changed political structures. Leithart says it is the democratic implications of this universal baptism also changed the economic structures of the ancient world, leading to a capitalist, free market system. Leithart is currently working on a Ph.D. in theology at Cambridge University.

The theology of the "one priesthood of Christ" is getting talked about more often these days. No doubt that is due in part to the shortage of ordained clergy. Bernard Häring, a pioneering moral theologian and one of the important influences on the drafting of the "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World," has just written a new book title *Priesthood Imperiled* (Triumph Books, Ligouri, MO). The current clerical system is not working according to Häring. He says, "At our present historical juncture, the idea of a completely `uniformed' clergy with uniform rules determined by one geographical outlook on the globe (namely, a purely Western point of view with centralized power and complete control) is, at the very worst, an ecclesial monstrosity." Häring does not set out a systematic study of clerical ministry. Rather, he tries to answer the question about what kind of minister the church needs today. That question reminded ML of the New Testament description of a good presbyter: "For this reason I left you in Crete so that you might ... appoint presbyters in every town, ... on condition that a man be blameless, married only once, with believing children..." (Titus 1:5-6).

But ML will take just a moment here to remove its tongue from its cheek to try to answer the question about what kind of minister the church needs today. A very good article on the issue of leadership in general and theological or ministerial leadership specifically appeared last summer in *America*. In the July 20, 1996 issue, Richard McCormick, SJ, wrote about "Authority and Leadership: The Moral Challenge." He made the point that a true leader is not someone who uses an office, position, or institution to claim authority. He identifies those who do and those who go along with such institutionalism as "contemporary Galatians." St. Paul, he notes, inveighed against the Galatians who fell back into relying on conventional structures for a sense of religious security instead of trusting in the Gospel. McCormick, an ethics professor at the University of Notre Dame, says we get the kind of ministers and leaders we deserve. "As U.S. Catholics we can and should insist, not least by our own example, on what we learn from Christ's example: that authority and leadership will begin to conjoin and that we will begin to experience true leadership in the church if every office, every authority, every competence is approached exclusively and lived perseveringly as an opportunity to liberate others into the fullness of their Christian potential....

"When this challenge is met, Catholics in authority, be they pope, bishop, theologian, parent, or other professional, will attract a following, not just an entourage, have imitators, not just subordinates."

Looking for a job?

Check out these two Web sites. Ministry Link (http://www.csbsju.edu/sot/MinistryLink/) is sponsored by St. John's University School of Theology in Collegeville, MN. It lists job opportunities in all areas of church ministry. It also lists names and qualifications of people who are seeking jobs.

Ministry Connect (http://ministryconnect.org/) is another job listing service, this one sponsored by The Ministry Resource Center for Women Religious. According to information on the site, the center "was founded to assist members of religious congregations and others who are seeking a change in ministry." The center provides assistance with ministry discernment and preparation for new ministries. Even though it is a women's center, the site welcomes "all persons interested in finding employment that serves others and brings about a greater good for our society."