The National Ministry Summit

 

Our thanks to all who participated in the Summit!

Recommendations for supporting future excellence in pastoral leadership were developed.

Summit Keynote Addresses

Latest News and Reports

Ministry Summit Participants Address the Future

May 8, 2008
Working on a tight timetable and employing state-of-the-art technology, lay and ordained pastoral leaders from fifty states and six foreign countires engaged the six research areas of the Emerging Models Project to develop practical recommendations that can be implemented now.

National Ministry Summit on Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership

May 6, 2008
“Create a culture of accountability through performance reviews for all ministers – ordained, religious and lay – that reflect the application of best practices of emerging models of parish leadership.” That was one of the key recommendations from over 1,200 lay leaders, deacons, priests and bishops who gathered in Orlando last week for a national ministry summit on emerging models of pastoral leadership.

Shaping Catholic Parishes
by Carole Ganim, Ph.D., Editor
May 2, 2008
Now available! First in the Emerging Models of Catholic Leadership Series, this new book from Loyola Press can be purchased now from any of the Project Partners or from Loyola Press.

Unprecedented Ministy Summit Calls for Action

May 2, 2008
Some 1,200 priests, deacons, lay ecclesial ministers, and vowed religious took part in the National Ministry Summit in Orlando. The three-day Summit, convened by six national Catholic organizations intent on addressing changes in U.S. parishes, employed a collaborative process that yielded recommendations that the sponsors will study and begin to implement.

Ministry summit–goers see diverse leadership as a key to church’s future – but don’t see it in themselves.

April 24, 2008
Catholic ministry leaders detailed lifelong learning, collaborative ministry, solid formation and a greater need to encourage diverse leadership as crucial to the further growth of a healthy church on the last day of an unprecedented summit meeting.

Expanded role for lay ministers emerges as a Summit topic

April 23, 2008
[Bishop Blase Cupich] He said that what’s being created through the summit is a leaven that the participants can take back to their parishes and dioceses to see what develops.

Summit–goers grapple with changing church: multi–parish pastors, more lay ministers, growing diversity.

April 22, 2008
An expanded role for professional lay ministers is high among possible models for pastoral leadership emerging from an unprecedented gathering here of 1,200 Catholics — clergy, vowed religious and laity — preparing for the future of a changing church.

Ministry in Multicultural and National/Ethnic Parishes
by Kenneth Johnson-Mondragon
April 9, 2008
The growing multicultural diversity of parishes in the United States is impacting every dioceses. In order to better understand some of the implications for pastoral leadership, the Emerging Models Project asked for an evaluation of their research through the lens of diversity.

Listening to the Spirit: Bishops and Parish Life Coordinators
by Mary Bendyna, RSM, Ph.D., Tricia C. Bruce, Ph.D., Mary L. Gautier, Ph.D.
March 17, 2008
Bishop focus groups discussed the use of Canon 517.2 and the use of parish life coordinators and sacramental minsters. "Overall, bishops report a positive assessment of their experience with PLCs. Most, however, identify this as a less-than-ideal solution to the priest shortage, describing PLCs as a 'temporary' measure until priests can be assigned as pastors." An in-depth study of Canon 517.2 is one of a number of research initiatives conducted on different emerging models of pastoral leader

U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

March 3, 2008
New study of U.S. religious affiliation released. Study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a subsidiary of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Next Generation of Pastoral Leaders

January 17, 2008
The Emerging Models Project is announcing the findings of an extensive on-line study of active Catholics in their 20's and 30's. They are telling us they are interested in ministry, whether lay, ordained, or vowed, but they want to be involved in the Church NOW! They are telling us what we need to know to develop their leadership. The Church has its work cut out!

The Holy Spirit's Call in Ordering Lay Ecclesial Ministry in Our Church
by Edward P. Hahnenberg, Ph.D.
September 17, 2007
"The emergence of lay ecclesial ministry over the past forty years stands out as one of the top three or four most important ministerial shifts of the past two-thousand years. It is on a historical par with—and in fact may even eclipse—the changes to the church brought about by the rise of communal forms of monasticism in the 5th century, the birth of mendicant orders in the 13th century, or the explosion of women’s religious communities in the 19th century."