Newsletter

Following the opening of the Synodal Process last weekend,  These questions will be considered at the meeting: 1). What is our dream for the Church, for our parish/chaplaincy, so that it can become more outward-looking, more missionary? 2). To achieve this dream, what do we need to stop doing? What are we doing that needs to be developed or done differently? If you cannot make the meeting but would like to contribute, please email your opinions to the parish Office at: secretaryccolsp@gmail.com or drop a note into the presbytery.  Information in relation to the Synodal Process can be found below.

Saturday4th /Sunday 5th December 2021 –to consider what a Synod is, and how my parish can contribute to the Synodal Process. Suggested questions for each parish to consider;

1) As a parish do we know who are the people who feel marginalised or separated from the parish and society?

2) How best can our parish respond? Suggest at least two identifiable ways (an immediate action and a long-term change) in which, as a parish, we will reach out to, and listen to, the marginalised or separated.

Pope Francis is asking us to dream what the Church could be, and to walk together into God’s future, where that Church becomes a reality. This Synod isn’t about changing the Church’s doctrine, nor about finding the ‘right’ answers to questions. Let us pray that we can dream with, listen to, and journey together with as many of our communities as possible, so that together we help to build up the Church in our Diocese, and pass that message, loud and clear, to the bishops of England and Wales, and then to the Pope himself.

What is a Synod?

You will hear this word quite a lot in the next few months, because Pope Francis has asked every parish across the world to join in a global conversation about the life and mission of the Church. In our Diocese, we will be asked to think about six questions across three months, all of which will ask us to think about what kind of Church we want and are to be, and how we reach out to those on the edge of society and the church community. We will focus on communion, participation and mission. Watch this space for details as to how you can join in this conversation.

The official logo of the synodal path

A large, majestic tree, full of wisdom and light, reaches for the sky. A sign of deep vitality and hope which expresses the cross of Christ. It carries the Eucharist, which shines like the sun. The horizontal branches, opened like hands or wings, suggest, at the same time, the Holy Spirit. The people of God are not static: they are on the move, in direct reference to the etymology of the word synod, which means “walking together”. The people are united by the same common dynamic that this Tree of Life breathes into them, from which they begin their walk. These 15 silhouettes sum up our entire humanity in its diversity of life situations of generations and origins. This aspect is reinforced by the multiplicity of bright colours which are themselves signs of joy. There is no hierarchy between these people who are all on the same footing: young, old, men, women, teenagers, children, lay people, religious, parents, couples, singles, healthy, disabled; the bishop and the nun are not in front of them, but among them. Quite naturally, children and then adolescents open their walk, in reference to these words of Jesus in the Gospel: ” I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children.” (Mt 11:25) The horizontal baseline: “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission” runs from left to right in the direction of this march, underlining and strengthening it, to end with the title “Synod 2021 – 2023”, the high point that synthesizes the whole.