A synod is a worldwide gathering of bishops, with other delegates and experts, to discuss and discern how the Church responds to a certain issue. Those bishops representing their country are called to bring the thoughts and hopes of the people they represent.
The 2024 synod will not be responding to a particular issue, rather it will be reflecting on how the nature or culture of the Church can be more synodal - a wider listening to the Holy Spirit speaking through all peoples.
We are inviting each Catholic community to reflect on their dream for the Church and how to make that a reality. We want to listen to everyone, not only the leaders of our parishes, chaplaincies, and schools, but also to those at the margins of our community.
Every Catholic community is invited to meet together and listen to one another and the Holy Spirit, reflecting on how we can become a missionary Church.
We will collect these reflections from across our diocese into a report and present this to the Bishop's Conference of England & Wales, in April 2022.
Our report will help to form the national report that will go to the European Bishop's Conference and then on to the worldwide meeting in Rome.
We are not going to ask parishes, schools, and chaplaincies to do this great work and then wait nearly two years to hear what is said in Rome. We want to see these communities listen to the Holy Spirit and then be empowered into action.
We will invite each parish to make concrete commitments that they will get to work on straight away. It is our hope that Pentecost 2022 (June 5th) can be a wonderful celebration of all the great things that have started to happen in our diocese.
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