Baptismal Consciousness and Ecclesial Leadership
Impulses From the Global Church
The conference we had been invited to attend focused on baptismal call and lay participation. The presentations were in a variety of languages but primarily German and English. We all wore headphones to hear simultaneous translations. We were a learning communit of the global church.
Four speakers set the stage for the conference:
Professor Wilhelm Dahmburg, Dean of the Catholic theology faculty at the university opened the conference reminding us that Vatican II was geared towards the future. The event began with a panel. Here are some of the things we heard:
Professor Klaus Kramer, president of Missio, Auchen: The essence of church is not institution but communio. We have a missionary mandate. In the Congo where he was from laity are taking on the work of the parishes.
Dr. Herbert. Schonemann, Dierctor of KAMP Ehrfurt: Conventional formats of church are no longer serving us. We need to rediscover the kingdom of God outside of the institutional. God has given us all we need to be redesigned! We need to look at baptism and our understanding of the People of God. Are they too narrowly defined? Can baptismal consciousness be seen as participation in ministerial offcies and if so how empoowered are the laity?
Dr. Matthias Sellmann, chair of pastoral theology: Are we looking at structural change in order to realize a participatory church?
And we were off on a wonderful adventure!
