Lay ministry consultant
to speak in Monroe
Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 17, 2006
Detroit – You may never have worn a Roman collar or joined a religious community – but the Church still expects you to exhibit Christ to the world and serve His Church in a significant way.
This is part of the message people from the Archdiocese of Detroit will hear at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Monroe on March 28. Zeni Fox, a doctor of theology who consulted for a decade with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, will give two talks at the church that day – one for lay ministers and one for the laity.
Fox helped the bishops in drafting the document "Coworkers in the Vineyard of the Lord: Resource for Guiding Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry," which was released last year to define and affirm the role of the laity.
"Since Vatican II, there's a fuller appreciation of the role of the laity in the Church," says Fox, who also is the director of lay ministry and associate professor of pastoral theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall University. "This is affirmed both theologically and in the ways in which laity have been called forth into diverse roles in the Church."
Fox, who was contacted by St. Michael's staff to be part of a regular series of talks, says the new understanding of the role of lay women and men among priests and bishops reflects the earlier days of the Church.
The situation is not one in which laypeople are fulfilling priestly duties – though the role of pastoral administrator is specifically meant to take administrative burdens off pastors – but rather one in which laypeople are performing tasks in the Church, in the family and in their social circles as part of their baptismal calling.
"There's the sense that the Church is the laity and the ordained together, and not just the ordained and the avowed religious," Fox says. "The importance of the role of each baptized person is more clearly understood and more fully celebrated."
 Talks for laypeople What: Zeni Fox, PhD, will speak on the role of the laity in the Church.
When: At 1:30 p.m., March 28, she will address lay ecclesial ministers. At 7 p.m., March 28, she will address all laypeople.
Where: Talks are at St. Michael the Archangel Parish, 502 W. Front St., Monroe.
Cost: Free and open to the public.
For information: Call (734) 241-8645. | Fox adds that the enhanced perception of the laity's role in the Church is a result of the Vatican II culture being embraced by Church leaders. It also escalates as the West faces a shortage of priests and avowed religious – although, Fox points out, the rise of the laity in the U.S. Church can be traced back to before the numbers of priests began to shrink.
Kathleen DuBay, director of religious education at St. Michael the Archangel Parish, says the parish invited Fox to convey to people in the pews how vital their roles are in fostering the Church's life.
"The initial reason we asked her to speak on that topic was to encourage all parishioners to embrace their role in laity in the Church and their individual role," DuBay says. "The purpose is to both encourage and give parishioners an idea of how they can be in the Church, and how much we want them to be."
Fox is the ideal speaker on the subject, DuBay adds, because she's worked with the U.S. bishops on defining the laity's role.
Fox has spent more than 20 years teaching at the graduate level, and has authored books on the subject of lay ministry. Her work in lay ministry began because of her students early in her teaching career, she says.
"I had students in my courses who impressed me very, very much with their desire to serve the Church and their commitment to faith," she says.
Their witness even prompted her to explore lay ministry as her topic when she wrote her doctoral dissertation at the Jesuit Fordham University in New York.
"I was particularly happy to accept the (speaking engagement) in Monroe because it was from a lay group in a parish," Fox says. "And I wanted to experience them and be part of that, and perhaps give them something from what I've been experienced in."
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