Thank you to everyone who came along to our three meetings discussing themes from the synod on synodality. A summary of our meetings has now been sent to the Bishop. The summary is now available, together with notes of all 3 meetings.

We’re holding a series of meetings to talk about some of the issues raised in the summary document from the Synod Assembly in Rome last October. The second meeting will be on Sunday 11th February at 2.30pm, at St. Cuthbert’s, and the subject will be ‘Ministry and Co-responsibility’.  

Please come along and share your ideas on the following questions: 

The Synod Assembly said that ‘it is necessary for all the baptised to commit themselves to the reciprocal exercise of their vocation, charism, and ministry’ and talks about co-responsibility for our mission. It asks that the church explores further the formation of priests, the permanent diaconate, the increasing role of lay people in ministry and the possible need for new ministries. What do we think are the priorities? And how can the priests, deacons and lay people of our Partnership best work together?

We’re planning a series of meetings to talk about some of the issues raised in the summary document from the Synod Assembly in Rome last October. The first meeting will be this, Sunday 28th January at 2.30pm, and the subject will be ‘Formation’.

Please come along and share your ideas on the following questions:

Many people have said that they have not had the chance to learn more about their faith since they left school. The Synod Assembly suggested more formation in subjects from Vatican 2 to the church’s teaching on social issues and relationships. But what should be our priority locally? And how should we go about this formation?

The National Synthesis, reflecting on Synod reports from all round England and Wales, has now been published by the Bishops’ Conference on their website. The Bishops of England and Wales are gathering to discern their response to this National Synthesis.  Their work, together with the synthesis document itself, will be sent to the Synod Office in Rome as the formal submission to the Synod from England and Wales. 

The Diocesan submission to the Synod process is now available on the Diocesan website at https://diocesehn.org.uk/news/diocesan-submission-to-universal-synod/. There’s also a message from Bishop Robert thanking everyone for our contributions and encouraging us to continue the conversation.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part in our discussions as part of the Synod process. Our discussions have now been included in a summary for the Partnership, and the summary has been submitted to the Diocese, where it will be used, together with contributions from other Partnerships and Diocesan groups, as the Bishop prepares his report forour Diocese.

You can read the Partnership summary by following the link below, and the Diocesan document will also be published when it is submitted in April.

An online survey to gather feedback from Catholic women from across the world to provide data for a submission to the Synod of Bishops meeting in 2023. The survey is open until 26th April and is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Polish. https://redcap.hmri.org.au/surveys/?s=HYAKA3NJAWX9NKYD

Pope Francis has invited us all to take part in a process of discussion and listening about how we are journeying together in the church. The Finchale Partnership will be contributing to the views of the Diocese, and the whole church, leading to the Synod of Bishops in October 2023.

To help us bring together the views of the Partnership you are invited to a meeting where you will be able to hear about the discussions in each of our parishes, and you’ll have the chance to share your own views too.  This will help us to prepare the summary we need to send to the Diocese.

The meeting will be at 7.00pm on Thursday 3 February. Due to the current COVID situation we will be meeting on Zoom and the joining details are available in your parish Facebook Group or from margaretdoyle1066@sky.com. If you aren’t able to attend an on-line meeting you can still contribute your views, by getting in touch with Margaret Doyle. 

Many thanks to everyone who attended our first meeting as part of the synodal process. Our discussions identified some themes for our next meetings. In particular, people raised issues about:

• Celebrating: Lockdown made several people think about the importance of being part of a congregation, and of good liturgy and preaching.  It made others think more deeply about scripture as we introduced on-line Gospel reflections
• Listening: how do we listen to young people who do not see church as relevant, and how do we engage with the world which is very secular, individualistic and has no concept of objective truth?
• Authority and Participation / Discerning & Deciding: why do we always try to fit things into our existing structures? Church is very institutional, institutions are very defensive and society is unforgiving of the church’s institutional failings. How do we address this at parish and Diocesan level?

The first of these, Celebrating, will be the subject of our next 2 meetings, on Wednesday 24 November, when we’ll meet in the parish room at 10.30am, and on Monday 29 November, when we’ll meet on Zoom at 7.00pm. See our Facebook group or email margaretdoyle1066@sky.com for the Zoom dial in details. You don’t have to have been at the first meeting to join in the discussion. And you’re welcome at either (or both) of these meetings. Although they are both on the same subjects, there will be different people there and different views to listen to.

Pope Francis has asked the whole Church to begin a process of listening and discernment, in preparation for the Synod of Bishops to be held in 2023.

The theme is:

For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.

Every member of the Church is asked to contribute to this synodal process, and we had our first discussion in the parish on 30 October. We talked about our experiences of church during the pandemic, the challenges we face in a secular world and practical issues about our parish and diocese.

We’re planning more meetings so that you will have the opportunity to talk about these issues and anything else you want to raise, and you’ll be able to join discussions face to face or on-line, during the day or in the evenings. Our next meeting is planned for Wednesday 24 November at 10.30am, face to face, in the parish room, and there’ll be more information soon about the subject for that meeting.

If you aren’t able to attend, you can still contribute your views by contacting Fr. Andrew or Margaret Doyle. Full contact details, information on our meetings and resources about the Synod are on our new webpage.