Lay Ecclesial Ministry

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Lay Ecclesial Ministry is the relatively new category of pastoral ministers in the Catholic Church who serve the Church but are not ordained. Lay Ecclesial Ministers are coworkers with the bishop alongside presbyters, deacons, and theologians.

Overview

Since Vatican II, several ministries that had for a time been predominated by the presbyterate (priests) were returned to the laity, and several new forms of ministry emerged. On one level, the burgeoning awareness of the vocation of the laity as apostles to the secular world and chief stewards of the church's mission as evangelizer has given rise to the term "lay ministry" to describe the active vocation of all the baptized....

Lay Ecclesial Ministry identifies a broad category rather than a specific job title. It has been adopted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to "establish a framework to indicate what is common to many roles and responsibilities undertaken by lay persons, for example, Pastoral Coordinator or Moderator of a Parish, Pastoral Associate, Director of Religious Education, Youth Minister, Campus Minister, Hospital Chaplain."