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Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Schenectady found its newest pastoral council members using a popular discernment method begun more than 2,000 years ago by the disciples of Jesus.

The parish's bulletin called for parishioners to nominate possible candidates. More than a dozen of those named attended a discernment evening, where current and past council members described their responsibilities and experiences.

Attendees learned how to discern - Latin for "to sort" or "to sift through" - and prayed together and alone for the freedom to accept or decline the position.

Those who wished to continue wrote their names on a board; then attendees wrote the names of three people whom, they felt, God was calling, and analyzed the resulting list of names for trends.

"It feels like a vote, but it really isn't," said Sister Katherine "Kitty" Hanley, CSJ, facilitator of the evening and associate dean and director of St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry in Albany, which offers graduate degrees in theology.

She has led similar gatherings in a handful of other parishes.

"It allows the participants to build a council, rather than ending up with the people who got the most votes," she said. "It's a very good way to bring new blood into a council. It eliminates the notion that it's a popularity contest. This makes it a little more spiritual, I think."

Every two years, Our Lady of Mount Carmel looks for five new council members. The discernment evening produced those five - four of whom had never been on the council before.

"It's so totally fair that anyone in the parish can be a part of it," said Rev. Robert Hohenstein, pastor. "It's a beautiful process. The people that go through it - whether they're on or not on - feel like they got a lot out of it."

Discernment is the same process, Father Hohenstein said, used in religious communities and even diocesan offices to select new leaders.

Quoting the Acts of the Apostles, Sister Kitty added that the disciples used it to choose a replacement for Judas: "So they proposed two men: Joseph, who was called Barsabbas (also known as Justus), and Matthias. Then they prayed, 'Lord, you know the thoughts of everyone, so show us which of these two you have chosen to serve as an Apostle in the place of Judas, who left to go to the place where he belongs.' Then they drew lots to choose between the two men."[[In-content Ad]]

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