Tides of change
McCarthy, Abigail
OF SEVERAL MINDS Abigail McCarthy TIDES OF CHANGE LAY MINISTRY COMES OF AGE In this astonishing time we have learned three things about change. It can come when we do not expect it. It can come...
...They carry the sacrament to the sick and dying...
...and, second, those who settle for incremental change-doing what can be done within the boundaries of hard and intransigent reality...
...An emphasis on academic excellence was made possible by the proximity of the original foundation in Washington to numerous theological institutions from which a distinguished faculty was recruited...
...They are in the sanctuary as readers and eucharistic ministers...
...She looked forward to the time when women would join a servant clergy chosen, like the bishops of the early church, by the people...
...Nevertheless, EPS set about seeking students for an intensive adult education program in Scripture and postcon-ciliar theology, and eight influential pastors in the Washington D.C., archdiocese responded and sent the first students...
...All this, if we look back, is an astonishing change from the times, only a generation ago, when a woman, preferably a nun, could lift her voice in church only to utter the responses at Mass when a male server was not present-and then only from a priedieu outside the altar rail...
...Education for Parish Service and similar lay ministry programs ride two tides of change: the perhaps providential decline in vocations in a time when the number of Catholics continues to increase as well as the great demand for, and increase in, programs of social service in parishes and dioceses...
...Those who did envision it did so in terms of relaxing tensions between the two superpowers, of improving relations and trade, and of gradual disarmament and troop withdrawal...
...It can come in ways we could not foresee...
...According to its founder, EPS programs exist: "First, to help meet the urgent need of the Catholic church in the Western world to fill the vacuum created by the sharp decline in numbers among priests and religious...
...And it can come with breathtaking rapidity...
...It is worth remembering the view of Cynthia Wedel, the Episcopal churchwoman who broke many barriers for women in the church and eventually achieved one of its highest offices, the presidency of the National Council of Churches...
...It had seemed a condition of international life...
...The most passionate advocates for women's ordination are apt to see the dedication of these women as the shoring up of an exclusively male clergy and the women themselves as blind to the injustice they suffer in the church...
...Who knows where these tides may lead...
...In my lifetime lay women have become visible and present in the church in ways that would have been unthinkable in my youth...
...Today 825 EPS graduates serve in four dioceses in the U.S.-Washington, D.C., Arlington, Bridgeport, and San Francisco-and in the vicariate of Rome...
...dioceses...
...Education for Parish Service stands out among adult education programs in several ways...
...Second, to help meet the critical need of religious education for adults in a sophisticated and increasingly secularized society so that they can lead authentic Christian lives and bring the gospel message into their homes, their work places, and their communities...
...The same conclusion has been reached in other dioceses throughout the world...
...They plan liturgies, organize parish and ecumenical celebrations...
...It occurs to me that those who work and hope for change in the church-especially those concerned with the position of women and the laity-may be equally overtaken by events in the not too distant future...
...They march before the celebrant carrying the Book of Books in the entry procession...
...EPS students did not have the discouraging experience of many lay persons who acquired knowledge and skills only to find no place to offer their gifts or, worse, to have them refused...
...In 1978, however, when EPS began, the concept of lay ministry was still threatening to many in authority-hence the use of the less threatening term, "parish service...
...In 1989 a consultation of priests, religious, and lay persons in San Francisco resulted in the official conclusion of that archdiocese that the "first order of business is the training of lay ministers to lead several ministries in the face of fewer priests...
...Although the need was all too clear-the decline in vocations was already precipitous, and the exodus of priests and religious was at full tide-few among the remaining clergy were inclined to share responsibility...
...EPS members are definitely of the second group...
...Most of us-even the most dogged in the peace movements-did not expect the sudden, apparent end of the cold war...
...They prepare catechumens and the young for the sacraments...
...And the education received was always seen as a preparation for service to parish or diocese...
...Among those who bring about change there always seem to be two kinds of people: first, those who will settle only for the ideal and keep their eyes and their efforts focused on the distant goal...
...Although EPS students include men, primarily in an evening program and in the programs abroad, the great majority of its graduates have been women-originally for the most part homemakers, "the group who often have some control of their own time...
...Programs are beginning in the Archdiocese of London and requests for programs have come from the Archdiocese of Brussels in Belgium and from other U.S...
...They carry the offertory gifts...
...EPS came into being a decade ago as the brain child of church historian, Sister Joan Bland, SND...
...They assume leadership in parish councils and an ever-increasing variety of parish social services...
...On the other hand, their service can be seen as a penetration of the whole ministering aspect of the visible church-and, as such, a predisposition to change we cannot now foresee...
...A truly dedicated student body was assured by the time requirements of two days a week for two years or an evening a week for four years...
...She did not want ordination, she used to say, to the priesthood as it was, and by that I assume she meant the priesthood as an exclusive and ruling caste...
...Few, if any, among world leaders expected a Gorbachev and an irresistible, peaceable rising of peoples...
...It came to mind when I was reading of the success of a modest, middle-of-the-road effort called Education for Parish Service (known by its acronym, EPS...
Vol. 117 • March 1990 • No. 5
