01: Lay parish ministers in the Catholic Church in the U.S. have grown rapidly since the early 1990s and are increasingly viewed as a full-time ministry, according to a recent study.
Lay ministers often work alongside clergy in local parishes, and usually take up the responsibilities of administration and teaching. A study by sociologist David DeLambo finds that the number of lay parish ministers grew rapidly between 1990 and 1997, and since then has grown at a moderate rate. Three-fourths of lay ministers work full-time in parishes, with the majority of them being women (though the number of men are growing). But the average age is 52, making some wonder if lay ministers may be going the way of aging clergy.
They are also usually married with children. DeLambo documents the movement of nuns out of parish ministry and the influx of lay parish ministers into the inner city, urban business districts and small town parishes, “beyond the mega-parishes where one would expect large lay staffs,” reports America magazine (Feb. 27).
02: The Alpha program, an international evangelism course, continues to expand worldwide, according to a new report.
Quadrant (March), the newsletter of the London-based Christian Research Association, reports that the latest estimates of attendance in the UK (where it originated) in 2005, shows a four percent increase in attendance over 2004; 182,000 attended in 2005 compared to 175,000 in 2004. There are now Alpha courses in three-quarters of the world– moving up from 149 countries in 2004 to 155 in 2005.
A projected nine million people will have attended Alpha courses by the end of 2006. About half of the attendance is found in the U.S. In an age breakdown of Alpha attenders in the UK, the non-churchgoing attenders were younger than their churchgoing hosts who run the programs. — suggesting that the courses are doing a better job of appealing to young people than the churches. Yet churches are increasingly benefiting from these programs.
In 2003, 9.6 percent of British church attendance came from those who have attended Alpha courses, whereas by 2005, the percentage rose to 11.9. The newsletter concludes that “If these are roughly averaged to ten percent, and if the UK percentage applies worldwide, then this would mean that some 300,000 people are now attending church as a result of Alpha.”
(Quadrant, Vision Bldg., 4 Footscray Rd., Eltham, London SE9 2TZ, UK)