Baptismal Consciousness and Leadership Responsibility
Dr. Richard Hartmann, Professor of Theology and Homiletics at the University of Fulda, studied German diocesan documents on leadership. Rooting his presentation in a theology of baptism, and the Vatican II documents on the church and lay apostolate, he addressed different aproaches to lay leadership in the church, discovering tensions that will be familiar to many:
- Does baptism include or exclude?
- What are the pastoral and institutional consequences to recognizing the dignity and equality of baptism?
- Is commissioning required or can disicpleship be appreciated without institutionalizing it?
- If Vatican II called us to be polycentric then leadership as authority (monocentric) is obselete.
- How do we balance technical competence and charism?
- What theology supports or blocks our organizational models of church?
- What supports or blocks vocation?
In the end, so much revolves around power: Who has it? Can it be shared? What is it?
There were two tresponses to Dr. Hartmann:
- Brazilian lecturer and Lutheran theologian Martin Weingaertner called to mind the communal nature of church as well as the personal, suggesting that baptism in ongoing and not a single event.
- Bishop Michael Westenberg from South Africa spoke about Pope Benedict's call to co-responsibility noting that it deals with challenges to old models of leadership. In response to Dr., Hartmann's concern about the pastor having the "ultimate responsibility" who delegated rather than invited participation, he pointed to the tension some pastors feel regarding the responsibility of decision making.
