DISCIPLE BY BAPTISM, MINISTER BY CALL: Reframing the Theologian’s Vocation in Light of Synodality, Locality, and Catholicity

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CONFERENCE: Catholic Theological Society of America

PANEL: Walking Together as a Synodal Church: Ministerial and Sacramental Prospects for Communion

TIME: Saturday (6/14/25), 2:30pm-4:15pm (PST)

WHERE: Salmon Meeting Room (Portland Marriot Waterfront Hotel (Portland, OR)

DID YOU MISS THE PAPER?

Keep an eye out for the anticipated article version of this conference paper. In the meantime, you can connect with the author on socials and view the paper précis below.

In a synodal church, ministerial identity is relational; apart from the ministers and disciples who constitute the local church, one’s own ministerial identity and function lose their meaning. Problematically, the U.S. implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesia frames the theologian-bishop relationship in juridical terms and dislocates this relationship from the rest of the local church. To reposition the theologian in relation to the ministers and disciples who constitute the local church, I argue that the theologian is an installed minister in the local church who requires an installation rite that gives ecclesial recognition to this synodal, relational, and ministerial identity.

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