SALT LAKE CITY - Responding to the call to be co-workers in the Lord's vineyard, 20 men and women will receive certification as lay ecclesial ministers at a special Mass celebrated by Bishop John C. Wester on Jan. 30.
Members of the group spent four years studying theology and other topics through an online program presented by the University of Notre Dame.
The Salt Lake diocese is one of a handful across the United States to certify lay ecclesial ministers in response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' 2005 document "CoWorkers in the Vineyard of the Lord."
The certification will give lay ministers "the opportunity to work with their pastor and offer their skills and service in the parish and if the bishop calls them to other duties, they will be able to say yes," said Susan Northway, the Diocese of Salt Lake City's religious education director, who oversaw the lay ecclesial minister (LEM) formation program.
A desire to learn more about the faith led Mary Gesicki, a parishioner at Saint Mary of the Assumption in Park City, to apply to the LEM program. Although she was born into the faith and graduated from a Catholic high school, she fell away from the faith, but returned when her son asked to be baptized. After taking an RCIA class, she helped form a religious book club and took a faith formation class taught by Father Rick Sherman. Her education continued with courses at Creighton University and the Mercy Center, where she was certified in spiritual direction. In 2006, she applied for the LEM program.
Although the classes were taught by Notre Dame professors, she found the program user-friendly and not intimidating, she said.
The program has given her the confidence to talk about her faith to almost anyone, she said. "I never had the vocabulary before. I didn't know what should be said, I only knew what I could say. I didn't know what the experts were saying. Well, here I was being taught by the experts, so I was very confident knowing, ‘This is what the Catholic community is talking about, and this is what our faith stands for. These are the ideas that are being discussed, these are our beliefs."
Since undertaking the LEM program, she has started two prayer groups and agreed to act as spiritual director to two women. In addition, she is returning to the master's degree program at Creighton University.
Like Gesicki, Christy Kelley, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception in Copperton, applied to the LEM program to learn more about her faith. In addition to knowledge, she found a faith family that includes people across the United States who participated in the online classes. "I made personal contacts I can have for a lifetime," she said. "I met people I never would have met otherwise.... Now they're a part of my life and they'll be a part of my life forever."
The course taught Kelley not only about Catholicism, but also about herself. "I was lacking courage," she said. "I knew there were ministries I wanted to do, but I never would have had the courage to do them without having the credentials behind me." Now, she said, she discusses ideas with people after Mass, something she never would have done before.
Like Gesicki, Kelley plans to continue her religious education, but not in a master's program because she has a young family. She also is investigating the possibility of beginning a hospital ministry of some sort, perhaps at a nursing home or visiting the homebound, she said.
The diocese will offer another LEM course starting in August. Both Gesicki and Kelley recommend it to anyone seeking to deepen their knowledge of the Catholic faith. "It's a lot of work and it takes a lot of dedication, but it is so worth it," Kelley said.
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