Our Mission

We are Catholic ministers, lay ecclesial, religious, deacons, and presbyters. We deeply love the Church and desire, with earnest concern, to incarnate the vision of Vatican II in our life as God's People. As ministers grounded in theological reflection, prayerful discernment, and the experience of pastoral life, we gather to encourage mutual support and collaboration in ministry, to be agents for renewal, to be responsive to the realities present in our Church and our world and to be a strong and courageous voice in proclaiming the gospel.

Our History

In October 2002 Seattle University hosted a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Archbishop Hunthausen asked those in attendance, "Where are we today as the people of Vatican II?"

Fr. Pat Howell, SJ, and Seattle University accepted a request to offer the hospitality of their campus. Thus began the gathering of lay, ordained and religious ministering to the Catholic Church of Western Washington to dialogue on the above question. Our overwhelming response at the initial gathering on Oct 25, 2002, was that we are not where we had hoped we would be forty years after Vatican II.

Out of that experience came the resolve to work collaboratively to be a constructive voice and energy toward implementing the vision of Vatican II.

I have come to cast fire upon the earth;
and how I wish it were already kindled!
But I have a baptism to undergo,
and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!
(Luke 12:50)

Why We Gather

Four decades after Vatican II, we have yet to fully realize its hoped-for promise and potential in our Church or world.  In fact some have worked globally, nationally, and locally to reverse the strides of Vatican II.  At the time we began meeting, there had been no conversation, no meeting place, no common ground for religious, lay ecclesial (including religious) and ordained ministers to come together to discuss ministry within our Archdiocese.

Leadership Team

The 2009-2010 leadership team consists of the following members:

• Luciann McDonald, co-leader
• Rev. Roger O'Brien, co-leader and executive secretary

Past Activities

Lively dialogues on pressing issues in our church, including:

• Collaborative ministry

• Lay preaching

• Support structures for lay ecclesial ministers

• A Future Full of Hope: Vision, Priorities and Goals for the Archdiocese of Seattle, 2004-2009

• Priest Policy and Placement Issues

• Situation of Colleagues who lost ministerial service through restructuring

• Challenges of being church in Africa

• Training of ministry candidates in collaborative ministry

• Joys and challenges in ministerial service

Major Position Paper

• A Prophetic Stance of the Heart: Collaborative Ministry Today

Letters

• Accountability of bishops and cardinals in the clergy sexual abuse crisis
• Bishops advising Catholics how to vote or endorsing refusal of Communion to some politicians and voters as a sanction
• Homosexuality and the priesthood

Hosting conversations with

• Bishop Remi De Roo
• John Markey, OP Paul Lakeland, author of The Liberation of the Laity
• Mary Santi and Carla Caldwell from the Chancery
• Rev. John Heagle & Sr. Fran Ferder
• Fr. Paul Magnano and Leigh Stringfellow from the Chancery
• Rich Shively from the Chancery and Mark Taylor from SU School of Theology and Ministry
• Dr. Marianne LaBarre from “Pastoral Leadership Program” at SU School of Theology and Ministry
• SU School of Theology Advisory Board, on A Prophetic Stance of the Heart: Collaborative Ministry Today
• Fr. James Eblen and Victoria Ries
• Dr. Anne Frederick, Director of Religious Education, from the Archdiocesan Office of Catholic Faith Formation
• Dr. Mark Markuly, Dean of Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry

Annual "Solidarity and Hope" Workshops

• 2005.  Partnership in a Church in Crisis
• 2006.  Keeping the Promise: the Unfinished Work of Vatican II
• 2008.  Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord: Resources for Guiding the Development of Lay Ecclesial Ministry
• 2009.  Evening of Prayer and Reflection in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Vatican II.
• 2010.  Surviving in a Polarized Church: Spirituality for Living with Ecclesial Tension.

"The common priesthood of the faithful
and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood
are interrelated. Each, in its own special way,
is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ."
(Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,
No. 10, Nov. 21, 1964)

We invite you to join us!

Meetings take place the fourth Friday of October, January, March, and June, and the third Friday of November, from 10:30am to 1:30pm at Seattle University.  We offer an annual workshop in the "Solidarity and Hope" series in May.