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The lay Dominicans in South Africa, originally known as the Third Order of the St. Dominic, consist of lay associates of the Friars of the Order of Preachers (or the Dominican Order). St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers in 1216. From the Order's earliest foundation, lay people were associated with its life and preaching mission. Originally known as the Order of Penance, it emerged out of the thirteenth century reform movement of church and society known as the vita apostolica. One of the most prominent of these was St. Catherine of Siena. Many women were inspired to follow her example. Later a rule was developed for the Third Order, also known as tertiaries. The tertiaries were first introduced into South Africa in 1888 by the Dominican sisters of Kingwilliamstown who accepted some women as candidates for the congregation of sisters. Later when the Dominican friars arrived in the country in 1917, Fr. Laurence Shapcote who started the first Dominican mission in Boksburg, accepted tertiaries. The first chapters were established in Boksburg, Louis Bertrand mission near Potchefstroom and Stellenbosch. The tertiaries were primarily a pious or devotional society of associate priests, solitary members (lone tertiaries) and chapter members. They emphasised the importance of the spiritual life, understood at the time, as attaining Christian perfection. From their origins in South Africa, the tertiaries included both men and women from the various racial and economic strata of apartheid society. The tertiaries grew and developed rapidly from 1940 to 1960. They had a wide appeal because of the resurgence of contemplation and the monastic life during this period. In some parishes, particularly African ones, the Dominican friars were training tertiaries as lay ministers. In this way the tertiaries anticipated the changes that took place during the Second Vatican Council and the greater role given to the laity in the church. During the 1960s, the first signs of a decline in interest in the tertiaries becomes apparent. Initially, the tertiaries responded well to the challenges of Vatican II but membership of the chapters declined considerably during 1970s and 1980s. The social conditions within church and society began to change. The changes allowed by Vatican II gave laity greater responsibility within the church as catechists, communion ministers, members of the parish council and deacons. This caused a crisis of identity for the lay Dominicans after the Council. By the early 1980s many groups had collapsed as fewer laity joined the lay Dominicans preferring to involve themselves in parish ministries than join a chapter. The lay Dominicans remained primarily a pious society. Some of the tertiaries involved themselves in lay ministries. In African parishes, lay Dominicans like Nicholas Lekoane, Joel Moja, Sixtus Msomi in Kwa Thema and Thomas Moeketsi in Heilbron rose to prominence as lay ministers. It was particularly in Kwa Thema that some innovative contributions were made in parish apostolates with the establishment of the parish ward system. However, the intensification of the struggle against apartheid highlighted the need for a more prophetic spirituality which encouraged people to involve themselves in social change. As an organisation the lay Dominicans were never involved in anti-apartheid work with the exception of a few of individuals - Advocate Herbert Vierya, and Jimmy and Joan Stewart, Major Mehan, Barbara Versfeld and Fr. S'mangsliso Mkhatshwa. Consequently, the lay Dominicans were considered, even by the Dominican friars, as increasingly irrelevant and neglected them in their ministerial outreach. By 1984 the Lay Dominicans were still in existence but even the National Promoter, Douglas Wiseman, called for the disestablishment of the lay Dominican groups in their present form. This never happened. During the 1980s, there were some creative attempts to revive and renew the lay Dominicans. The Dominican Family group was started in Cape Town that sought to bring together all the different members of the Dominican family: friars, sisters and laity. Another group was also established with a specific focus and mission as teachers in Dominican schools in Cape Town. This group developed into the Blessed Jordan of Saxony chapter. Even though the number of lay Dominican chapters declined, nevertheless, the organisation did not collapse. The lay Dominicans battled to come to grips with the challenges of a church that allowed greater participation of the laity in parish life. It was unable to transform its spirituality to allow for this shift in ecclesial life. Neither did it take up the challenges of involvement in issues of justice and peace. Young people did not find involvement in the organisation attractive and so membership continued to dwindle. The question remains whether the lay Dominicans can provide a genuine lay spirituality according to the mind of Vatican II? / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This study in Contextual Missiology has been motivated by seeming inadequacies and hazy pictures of the training of lay people for evangelization in Zimbabwe. It therefore seeks to identify ways in which Pastoral Training Centres can train lay leaders to animate local communities, take up lay ministries satisfactorily and move the agenda of the local Church forward. Ways were sought through engaging in a critical hermeneutical method of understanding and interpreting praxis, so that the meeting of praxis with faith leads to new practice in an on-going hermeneutical spiral. The task involved is to listen to those who evangelise and those evangelised to get a deeper understanding of the mission of the Church. This is a method employed by S Bate and F. J. Verstraelen. The research findings were that Pastoral Training Centres were established and started training laypeople over thirty years ago and yet the training seems inadequate and unsatisfactory. People from an African background in Zimbabwe have been converted to Christianity over a century ago and yet they seem to adhere to their traditional religious rituals along side the Christian belief. The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe has accepted small Christian communities as the locus of evangelization and yet on the ground what are operational are prayer groups. Lay leaders have taken up and exercise lay ministries and yet some communities seem not satisfied with the quality of services rendered by some of them. There is collaboration in the parishes between parish priests and laypeople especially in the work done by parish councils and lay associations and yet there seems to be some reluctance in giving laypeople key-decision making posts in the Church. The findings revealed a gap between the lived experiences of people and the critical reflections on those experiences. Narrative Theology was adopted to try to bridge the gap. It was within Narrative Theology that a theological model of training laypeople was developed. It is a proposal to start all pastoral situations, which include, lay leader training courses, seminars, discussions, homilies, catechetical instructions and Bible sharing, from either events experienced, proverbs, sayings or stories. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

The present study explores how the guiding principles and aspirations of the II Vatican Council concerning the theological status and significance of the laity and their involvement in the apostolic mission of God come to fruition in the `movement church' within the Roman Catholic Church of Hungary. The restoration of the lay status and function, distorted through the centuries in the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, is a crucial and indispensable task of the Roman Catholic Church if she wants to fulfil her prophetic, pastoral and holistic mission. This is indispensable for the Church to become what she really is, the eschatological people of God. Two revival movements in the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary are studied: the Bokor Movement and the Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement from the perspective of the role of the laity. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

The present study explores how the guiding principles and aspirations of the II Vatican Council concerning the theological status and significance of the laity and their involvement in the apostolic mission of God come to fruition in the `movement church' within the Roman Catholic Church of Hungary. The restoration of the lay status and function, distorted through the centuries in the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, is a crucial and indispensable task of the Roman Catholic Church if she wants to fulfil her prophetic, pastoral and holistic mission. This is indispensable for the Church to become what she really is, the eschatological people of God. Two revival movements in the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary are studied: the Bokor Movement and the Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement from the perspective of the role of the laity. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

Funeral leaders share the ministry of comfort with others. They make a specific religious contribution towards restoring life or decontaminating from death, which affects the faith and hope of the bereaved. Their ministry responds to a need of the bereaved by affirming community in the face of death. It is based on spirituality and grounded in the biblical and apostolic tradition; it is carried out in a catholic contextualisation. The leaders' insertion into both the cultural background and the religious realm encourages contextualisation. Their verbal proclamation is done in various ways and is linked to ritual. It reflects the three dimensions of the model employed in pastoral theology by taking life seriously, interpreting it in the light of faith, and leading a celebration that opens up the future of the participants. The leaders' proclamation is sincere when they link cultural family-procedures and church rituals in a parallel way. Sincerity suffers when community leaders, used to provide a comprehensive service, cannot preside over the promised celebration of the Eucharist, which could be the culmination of the rite of passage. Their ministry remains incomplete because of factors beyond their control. It nevertheless contributes to justice in many ways, in particular by deploying local people. While the ministry is carried out independently, it depends on collaboration with the pastoral staff, in particular the priests. They safeguard the quality of ministry by formation and through supervision. The collaborative formation contributes to the cultural insertion of the local and expatriate staff and enhances their competence. This collaborative ministry serves the bereaved, the community of faith, and theology. It allows the development of a contextualised liturgy, and a local theology. It is a step forward on the road towards a genuine form of community ministry in this particular African context. It corresponds with contemporary secular approaches towards leadership and management. African approaches emphasise the need for contextualised management forms. They assume the compatibility of different practices employed in different contexts. The comprehensively grounded ministry seems to contribute to the avoidance or overcoming of some of the grave shortcomings of ministry as provided in the past. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)

Funeral leaders share the ministry of comfort with others. They make a specific religious contribution towards restoring life or decontaminating from death, which affects the faith and hope of the bereaved. Their ministry responds to a need of the bereaved by affirming community in the face of death. It is based on spirituality and grounded in the biblical and apostolic tradition; it is carried out in a catholic contextualisation. The leaders' insertion into both the cultural background and the religious realm encourages contextualisation. Their verbal proclamation is done in various ways and is linked to ritual. It reflects the three dimensions of the model employed in pastoral theology by taking life seriously, interpreting it in the light of faith, and leading a celebration that opens up the future of the participants. The leaders' proclamation is sincere when they link cultural family-procedures and church rituals in a parallel way. Sincerity suffers when community leaders, used to provide a comprehensive service, cannot preside over the promised celebration of the Eucharist, which could be the culmination of the rite of passage. Their ministry remains incomplete because of factors beyond their control. It nevertheless contributes to justice in many ways, in particular by deploying local people. While the ministry is carried out independently, it depends on collaboration with the pastoral staff, in particular the priests. They safeguard the quality of ministry by formation and through supervision. The collaborative formation contributes to the cultural insertion of the local and expatriate staff and enhances their competence. This collaborative ministry serves the bereaved, the community of faith, and theology. It allows the development of a contextualised liturgy, and a local theology. It is a step forward on the road towards a genuine form of community ministry in this particular African context. It corresponds with contemporary secular approaches towards leadership and management. African approaches emphasise the need for contextualised management forms. They assume the compatibility of different practices employed in different contexts. The comprehensively grounded ministry seems to contribute to the avoidance or overcoming of some of the grave shortcomings of ministry as provided in the past. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)