What is a lay minister?

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TheMarriedKnight

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What is a layminister? What is their purpose in the church? Are these people married or single?
 
A minister is anyone who’s active in ministry, married or single. This could be an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, a lector, an usher, an evangelist, etc.
 
You’d have to ask your Parish priest. My Parish is always looking for people, but others might not be looking for lay ministers. Regardless, we’re all called to some sort of ministry, I’d say, whether it’s a ministry in your Parish (like those I mentioned) or one outside of it.
 
Hey is there a difference between a lay ecclessial minister and lay minister?
 
More letters 🙂

Ecclesial means having to do with religion.

Guess it is like saying “ATM Machine”, redundant.
 
I see so they are just lay people (married or single) that have roles in the church?
 
Basically, I believe ministers are lay people who carry out some function in the liturgy. They are often functions that would have been carried out by clerics in minor orders. For example, altar servers who replaced acolytes; readers who replaced lectors; ushers who have replaced the porter. Others are much more novel such as lay people being commissioned as extraordinary* ministers of the Holy Communion.

However, in many places it now seems that any lay person fulfilling any role in a parish is called a minister such as those who may sing in the choir, provide religious education, clean the church, etc.

*In this sense ‘extraordinary’ meets out of the ordinary rather than the meaning of special.
 
In one diocese where I worked, we had Commissioned Lay Ecclesial Ministers. They were
“commissioned” following 3 (and later, 2) years of a formal formation process, directed by a Diocesan Director, a process of supervised ministerial works, mentoring with an advisor, retreats, formal classes, written papers, interviews, and final acceptance with commissioning.
They were “ecclesial” to specify that they were part of the Church, part of the ministry of the diocese under the supervision of the diocese and their own parish priests.
For some men, this was preparatory to application for the diaconate.
The bishop later closed down the whole diocesan office and program, in favor of local parish operations.
 
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ecclesiastical​

adjective

ec·cle·si·as·ti·cal | \ i-ˌklē-zē-ˈa-sti-kəl , e-ˌklē-\

Definition of ecclesiastical​

1 : of or relating to a church especially as an established institution

2 : suitable for use in a church
 
Can an extraordinary minister bless children? I’ve heard some exorcists are warning not to allow a lay person lay hands and pray over you.
 
The laity can bless their own children (I used to bless my son every time he left the house), so an EMHC may bless their own children. In a communion line, the EMHC is not permitted to mimic a blessing over anyone.

Not touching the exorcist part, that just sounds odd.
 
That’s amusing, in the UK you’d be hard pressed to find a parish that calls them anything else…how funny language is. I am from neither country, where I was born, we borrow from both and have our own.
 
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