Women in lay leadership: Reflections with Christine Allen

‘Lay leadership, especially for women, is not a substitute for something else.’ Christine Allen is the latest guest on the Things I Wish I Knew podcast, and she talks openly about life as ‘Christine, the director of CAFOD’, ‘Christine who helps with the parish music group’, and ‘Christine – wife and mum’.

Across the Catholic Church, lay leadership is becoming more visible and more widely recognised. Yet the experience of women in these roles is often a mixture of opportunity, expectation and, at times, significant pressure. Christine Allen, director of CAFOD, offers a perspective shaped by years of navigating this landscape while remaining grounded in her own sense of vocation. Her reflections highlight both the promise and the complexity of lay leadership for women today.

Christine’s story begins in what she describes as an ordinary Catholic childhood, one where parish life and family service were part of her everyday experience. Although this provided no grand vision of leadership, it gave her a sense that faith ought to be lived with others and for others. When she joined the Young Christian Students movement as a teenager, that instinct deepened. She discovered a form of discipleship that encouraged engagement with the world’s challenges and fostered confidence that young Catholics could contribute meaningfully to social change. This early environment did not explicitly point to leadership, but it gave her the foundations for it.

Her academic path through philosophy and international relations sharpened her interest in the social and political forces that shape people’s lives. She did not set out to become a senior lay leader within the Church, yet each step drew her closer to the work of justice. As a justice and peace coordinator in Liverpool, she experienced the collaborative, sometimes messy, reality of Church-based social action. It was here that she first encountered the quiet influence of women who sustained local initiatives, managed parish projects and offered pastoral leadership without the title or recognition often given to more formal roles. These women provided models of service that Christine carried with her long before she ever imagined directing a national Catholic agency.

However, her leadership journey has been marked with uncertainty. Christine has spoken openly about periods of self-doubt, especially when stepping into roles where she was often one of the few women, or sometimes the only one, at decision-making tables. The challenge was not only professional. It also touched on questions of personal identity: how to inhabit responsibility without losing a sense of one’s own voice, and how to lead in a way that felt honest rather than performative. She learned that leadership does not require abandoning humility or adopting a style at odds with one’s character. Instead, it grows through self-knowledge, integrity and a willingness to remain attentive to the people one serves.

These characteristics become especially significant for women in lay leadership, who often face expectations that can feel contradictory and deeply ingrained. Christine notes that women can be praised for collaborative and empathetic approaches in one setting, yet the same qualities can signal insufficient authority or decisiveness in leadership. She recognises the subtle pressures to conform to models and the strain of managing perceptions in environments that still bear the marks of male-dominated structures. Her response has been to cultivate a style grounded in transparency and careful discernment. Prayer remains central to this work. It offers a place of stillness where she can bring these decisions before God, and burdens can be shared rather than carried alone.

Christine says she is also conscious of the long legacy of women within CAFOD itself. Many of the organisation’s formative figures were women whose contributions supported communities around the world, shaped organisational culture and influenced Catholic social engagement in Britain. Their names are not always widely known, yet their work is the backbone of the agency’s mission. Christine insists that their stories need to be told, not simply to correct historical omission but to affirm the essential role women continue to play in the Church’s service of the poor. Recognising these contributions broadens the imagination of what Catholic leadership can be and encourages younger women to see themselves as part of that unfolding story.

Her international work has also shaped her understanding of leadership. She has met women in communities affected by conflict, disaster and poverty whose resilience exceeds any formal definition of leadership. They organise local responses long before outside agencies arrive, support families through upheaval and advocate for justice despite personal risk. Christine often describes these encounters as moments that challenged her assumptions and deepened her sense of responsibility. They reveal that leadership is not primarily about position. It is about commitment to the common good and a willingness to act for others.

This perspective carries a vital message for the wider Church; lay leadership, especially for women, is not a substitute for something else. It is a genuine expression of vocation and a sign of the Spirit at work in the life of the Church today. Christine’s experience shows that such leadership grows through lived faith, deep listening and the courage to remain authentic in environments that may not always expect or welcome it. Her reflections invite the Church to consider how it enables women to lead and how it acknowledges the wisdom they bring.

You can hear more from Christine Allen about her journey and her insights in a recent episode of Things I Wish I Knew.

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