Parish life has changed a lot since decades past when priests and nuns led all church ministries as dramatized in the popular 1945 film, "The Bells of St. Mary's" starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman.

"We're evolving from the model of sister and father doing everything," said St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Carol Quinlivan, archdiocesan director of parish life, at a panel workshop on emerging pastoral leadership roles, "More Than a Job: Responding to the Call," March 4 at the Religious Education Congress in Anaheim.

Most parishes today, Sister Quinlivan pointed out, are dynamic faith communities with ministry meetings almost every night of the week run by a diverse group of ordained, professed and/or lay ecclesial leaders.

While most parishes in the Los Angeles archdiocese are still headed by a priest-pastor, new leadership roles and models, such as parish life directors and pastoral associates, are emerging in response to the ministry needs of churches dealing with the ongoing priest shortage.

Currently, parish life directors serve in four archdiocesan parishes: Holy Child Jesus Sister Susan Slater at St. Stephen Church, Monterey Park; St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Mary Dorothea Quinn at Immaculate Conception, New Cuyama; Sister of St. Louis Karen Collier at St. Agatha, Los Angeles; and Deacon Willard Hall at St. Eugene, Los Angeles.

Sister Slater participated as one of the panelists during the workshop which was attended by several St. Stephen's parishioners as well as people from Northern and Southern California, Idaho, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and the military archdiocese.

According to panelist Father Jim Clarke, director of spiritual formation at St. John's Seminary, there were many different models of ministries in the early church. He said early Christian men and women "grappled" with questions about how to respond to their individual baptismal experience and the reign of God.

The "driving question" for early Christians was: "Who has needs and who has the gifts?" said Father Clarke. St. Paul, for example, was a missionary who was good at founding Christian communities and moving on, but people today would call him an "absentee pastor," he noted.

"Today, parishes have moved from a mission perspective to a maintenance perspective," said Father Clarke. He pointed out that traditional church leadership models people are familiar with from the recent past "might not go back to the early church."

"Since Vatican II, the church has been trying to develop a particular language around full-time lay ministry," said Father Clarke, who added the process is still in its developmental stages. Actual practice, he noted, often drives theology --- "not the other way around."

Father Clarke stressed that ministry is a call from within confirmed by the people of God. In addition, ministry needs to be shared in a spirit of friendship and accountability and must express itself in "radical service" to others. All people working in ministry, he advised, would do well to think of themselves as "co-collaborators."

St. Stephen ministry co-collaborators --- Sister Slater and Father Larry Estrada, sacramental minister --- said they mutually discuss how best to meet the parish's spiritual development and pastoral needs.

"We spend a great deal of time talking together, said Sister Slater. "We support each other and take time to pray," said Father Estrada, St. Stephen's former pastor who added he's never felt happier in his ministry since he became a full-time sacramental minister at the parish.

"If we've learned a lesson," said Sister Slater, "pastoring isn't just the province of the ordained. Pastoring and leadership aren't always the same thing." Sister Slater, who worked at St. Stephen's for two-and-a-half years as a pastoral associate while Father Estrada was pastor before his temporary leave of absence, said her inner call to accept the position as parish life director was validated by members of the community who met in discernment groups to discuss the parish's future.

As for his present ministry as sacramental minister, Father Estrada declared: "My preaching is better, my prayer life is better. I am doing what God called me to do, and that is wonderful."

"Every single parish community has the gifts it needs. We just need to surface them," said Sister Quinlivan.

Workshop attendee Nick De Los Reyes, a licensed psychologist who screens lay pastoral candidates for the archdiocese, said the talk "was good in exposing the possibilities" of parish leadership. He said he appreciated Father Clarke's explanation of past church pastoral models and acknowledgement of the reality of "many more developments."

De Los Reyes said the other panelists "truly are trying to live out the servant leadership model." And, he added, the majority of the candidates he's evaluated have the desire to put their gifts and talents in service of the church.

"Pretty much everyone coming forward is a strong candidate with many gifts," said De Los Reyes.