Subseries 1 - Office on the Laity - Department of Lay Association - Lay Mission Office

Identity area

Reference code

CA ON00389 F26-5-1

Title

Office on the Laity - Department of Lay Association - Lay Mission Office

Date(s)

  • 1957-2016 (Creation)

Level of description

Subseries

Extent and medium

1.7 m of textual records. -approx. 50 optical discs (DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW). -45 photographs : col. ; most 13x18 cm. - 1 floppy disc (3inch). -24 GB of electronic records

Context area

Name of creator

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Having considered the possibility of introducing lay people as members since the late 1960s, Scarboro Missions approved Fr. Joseph Curcio's proposal to establish an office in order to experiment with, and assess the feasibility of, the introduction of laymen into missionary work. Founded in December 1972, the Office on the Laity was also developed as a service of information for those seeking acceptance regarding missionary work. That is, Fr. Curcio also founded the Office as a means for laymen to acquire instruction for the purpose of helping them come to a decision regarding their motivations. In 1974, Scarboro Missions slowly began accepting laity into the Society through the Office on the Laity, wherein they offered a four-month long formation for cross-cultural mission work for single men, single women, and married couples.

During the 1987 Chapter, it was formally recognized that lay associate membership should no longer be considered an experiment, and the establishment of a Lay Department was mandated. As a result, the Department of Lay Association (DLA) was formed in September 1987, which gave lay associate members more responsibility and helped legitimize the lay mission vocation. The DLA itself was run by the Society's lay members and served to facilitate communication between them and the priests of Scarboro Missions, and to support the laity and the lay movement's growth. As such, it worked closely with the Formation-Education Department, which by now was predominantly training lay candidates interested in missionary work.

In 1993, the DLA was reconstituted as the Lay Mission Office (LMO), at which point laity were given more autonomy and authority over their own affairs within the Society. This restructuring served as an attempt to better integrate lay members with the community of priests at Scarboro Missions. The founding of the LMO thus renewed the laity's sense of belonging within the community by providing them with a space of their own while still remaining connected with the Society structure. LMO staff were given the responsibility of training, recruiting, sending, and directing new lay missioners, as well as supporting members in mission. Before long, the department instilled itself as a crucial part of Scarboro Missions.

The Lay Mission Office officially closed in 2018.

This subseries consists of records produced by the three successive offices. These include: discussions on lay membership and recruitment, policies and guidelines on laity membership, meeting and workshop transcripts, lay mission reports, departmental reports, circulars, correspondence, and lists of lay members.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Electronic records (including optical discs) from the LMO were not included in the existing arrangement upon transfer to USMC, these were integrated by the processing archivist.

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Access is open, except for the personnel records of Lay Missioners.

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

    Script of material

      Language and script notes

      Physical characteristics and technical requirements

      Finding aids

      Allied materials area

      Existence and location of originals

      Existence and location of copies

      Related units of description

      Notes area

      Alternative identifier(s)

      Previous Identifier

      F01-S704/705/706

      Location

      Boxes 125-139

      Access points

      Subject access points

      Place access points

      Name access points

      Description control area

      Description identifier

      Institution identifier

      Rules and/or conventions used

      Dates of creation revision deletion

      Created by F Rousselle 2 April 2025.
      Revised by F Rousselle 22 April 2025.

      Language(s)

        Script(s)

          Sources

          Subseries description inherited upon transfer to USMC. They were edited for brevity when the series for the successive offices were combined.

          Accession area