John’s Lane
D08 F8NW
11 May 2025
John 10:27-30
Good Shepherd Sunday
Welcome
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. By recent tradition, on this Sunday we reflect on and pray for vocations to ministry, in the community of faith, the church. Of course, times have changed and it may be that we are no longer sure about “vocations” or indeed what we should pray for.
Topic
Some reflection on my own experience may shed light.
Steps
I belong to the Order of St Augustine, which is a surprisingly democratic organisation. Every four years, we elect our leadership team, including our boss, the provincial. We also agree policy and make decisions. The election is a four-year appointment, usually repeated. Before voting for our leadership, I ask myself what I am looking for in leadership in the faith community. Four criteria or ideals came to mind — I’m well aware that you might never get all four in one person!! There are these:
- A person of faith and prayer
- Someone who is genuinely pastoral, caring for those in his/her charge
- A person who can name the times we live in and speak the faith in new ways.
- Someone with some skill in administration and management.
You never get all four equally, of course. There is a corresponding question for me as a member of that community: how can I be/act so that the leadership team can lead and guide us to the best of their abilities. I would describe my role as critically supportive. In other words, there can be no out-sourcing of responsibility — in an Order, as a community of faith, we are all in this together.
That experience is a microcosm of the wider faith community. If the wider community is not just to survive but even to flourish, we will need good leadership, good pastors, reliable spiritual guides. In our day, the lack of vocations to ordained ministry represents a challenge and opportunity to the community of faith. It is a challenge: in the short-term who will be the pastors, leading us in service and prayer? Who will hold the community together?
It is also an opportunity: for far too long the gifts of the ordinary membership have been under-used and even suppressed. That day is over. Every community will require the obvious ministries: baptism teams, catechists, bereavement counselling, as well as administration and guidance such as parish councils. I’m sure there will be new ministries emerging of which we are as yet unaware. The collapse of one, highly, hierarchical clerical, way of being “church” is giving way to new models. There will be surprises. The recent Synod in Rome is very open to new ministries. There we read:
§ 66. At the behest of Pope Francis (cf. Apostolic Letter issued “Motu Proprio” Spiritus Domini, 10 January 2021), the synodal process urged local Churches to respond with creativity and courage to the needs of the mission. This response should involve discernment among the various charisms in order to identify which of these should take a ministerial form and thus be equipped with adequate criteria, tools and procedures. … A missionary synodal Church would encourage more forms of lay ministries, that is, ministries that do not require the sacrament of Holy Orders, and this not only within the liturgical sphere. They can be instituted or not instituted. Further reflection should be given to the most effective way of bestowing lay ministries at a time when people move from one place to another with increasing ease, specifying the times and areas of their exercise.
Some of the new models already exist elsewhere. My Order had a very successful mission in northern Nigeria in the mid-twentieth century. It would not have been possible without a huge investment in lay catechists, who sustained the faith and the practice of remoter communities of faith. We also had a mission in Ecuador — again totally dependant on local people, with training and support. It is no accident that the inspiration for the Synodal Pathway came from an Argentinian pope and a Jesuit. This Synodal Pathway represents a fundamental re-orientation of how to be church. It is, perhaps, new only to us.We shall have to wait and see how it all evolves. A strong voice already emerging points to the inclusion of women in government and ministry in the church. An urgent question is who should lead the Eucharist? The question is urgent because this table-sharing holds us together in the community of faith.
Conclusion
If I may end on a personal note: being involved in faith and ministry has been a tremendous source of personal fulfilment and profound happiness. I know that is not the main goal, of course. But when it works, it really works at all levels in a person’s life. I think this is true of both lay ministry and the ordained ministry. So, if you were thinking of making your gifts available to the community of faith, I would encourage you to explore further. Don’t be deterred by my idealistic criteria! What we really need is caring people of faith who can give an account of the hope that is in them.
