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This article is based on an observation of the situation of lay pastoral ministers – mostly women – in the French-speaking part of Belgium. After providing some quantitative information on their presence in southern Belgium, the article focuses on the process of formation and accompaniment of these pastoral workers; it describes the experience of one such group and sheds light on the participation of some of them in ecclesial governance. The various signs of a slow but sure process of institutionalisation highlight the theological debate elicited by these new pastoral ministers, and relate their mission to that of the ordained ministers. The fragility of their status points to the need to offer them spaces to dialogue, as well as for developing spaces of reflexion in order to promote and think “a more incisive female presence in the Church” (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 103).