Skip to main content

Focus: Synodality: The Church on the Way experiments in learning synodality. There is no space here to discuss the mixed and inconsistent experience of parish, deanery and diocesan pastoral councils for example, or whether the new forms of pastoral organisation – merged parishes, clusters or pastoral areas – have enabled more synodal ways of organising our Catholic life and mission. But we still have much to learn about the generative potential that synodality holds. The newness offered by the emerging theology of synodality turns on how we learn and practice some core skills and dispositions. The first, frequently stressed by Pope Francis, is communal discernment. We can draw here from religious communities’ experience and traditions such as Ignatian spirituality. The elements of discernment – the belief that the Holy Spirit can take us somewhere new, the importance of listening to how the Spirit moves each person, the need to pray both with the Word of God and with the facts of any given situation – are a practice to be learned and placed within the heart of a synodal process. Too often our synodal processes have relied on formal prayer and eucharistic punctuation rather than the spiritual dynamics of individual and communal discernment within each heartbeat of the process itself. there is honesty, openness and mutual accountability, then we can work through the hard edges and the deep spiritual movements that combine in authentic synodality. Conclusion To become a truly synodal Church, we need both the mountain-top experiences of events that make visible our whole ecclesial body, with its complex unity in difference and daily practical work of building different relationships and structures. We need the courage to address the most divisive and difficult issues, as the German Church is currently trying to do in its synodal path, focusing on the aftermath of the child abuse crisis, questions related to power and to women in the Church. We can be encouraged by realising both that we have already made some significant parts of the path; and that we still have far to go. Pat Jones is a post-doctoral research associate in the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University. She was a member of the National Pastoral Congress Planning Committee, 1978–80. __________________________________________ The second is concerned with what it means in practice to listen to the sensus fidelium. The ‘f lock’, Pope Francis says, ‘have an instinctive ability to discern the new ways that the Lord is revealing to the Church’.9 Put simply, perhaps this means ‘trust the laity’, particularly when the issues in focus are sensitive either doctrinally or pastorally. This is the radical challenge and invitation at the heart of synodality that emerges repeatedly in our experience of consultation. The Catholic default of locating most of the power to interpret or decide in clergy hands still restricts us unless we intentionally and consistently imagine and enact how it can be otherwise. To trust the sense of the faithful (which of course includes the ordained, but among ‘the many’, rather than separated out above the communal voice) is still complex. Even when engaged in prayerful discernment and open to be changed as the Spirit guides us, people will disagree. There will be minority views and disruptive voices. But if people feel that the process is genuine, that 1 Liverpool 1980: Official Report of the National Pastoral Congress, Slough: St Paul Publications, 1981, p. 302. 2 Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church (SLMC), 2 March 2018, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_do cuments/rc_cti_20180302_sinodalita_en.html, accessed 26 August 2021. 3 There were 32 topic groups, each with 60–70 members. Topic groups variously produced 25–50 recommendations which were voted on at two levels. All the reports can be found in Liverpool 1980. 4 Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium 222–3. 5 Deepening and Widening Our Faith, Norwich: Diocese of East Anglia, 1988. 6 Pastoral Renewal Exchange 6/03. 7 Report on Evaluation, Hallam Diocese, privately circulated. 8 See Jim O’Keefe, A New Way of Being Church, http://www.hope.rcdhn.org.uk/pdfwod/2019/A%20New%20Way %20of%20being%20Church.pdf, accessed 26 August 2021. 9 Ceremony commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops, 17 October 2015, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/octo ber/documents/papa-francesco_20151017_50-anniversariosinodo.html, accessed 26 August 2021. 20 | Pastoral Review Vol 17 Issue 4 | October/November/December 2021

Leadership and Ministry Guardians of Creation Edward de Quay explores how the Church can and does get involved in responding to the climate change crisis. ‘Code red for humanity.’ This was how the UN Secretary General described the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. It states that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation are ‘choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk’.1 The situation is overwhelming, and especially this year, as the UK hosts the COP26 and the G7 conferences, there is pressure on the Church to show that it is working to tackle climate change within its own influence. This is not a straightforward task, which is why the ‘Guardians of Creation’ project was established to provide some guidance. Our ecological crisis it. The fact that our planet is in serious disrepair, that we are responsible, and that we need to reestablish an understanding of the lives we ought to be living as children of God to tackle these issues, seems clear. How do we go about responding to a problem as big as the fundamental degradation of the only planet we can call home? The solution, Pope Francis argues, is found in a profound ‘ecological conversion’, whereby the effects of our encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in our relationship with the world around us (Laudato Si’ 217). That implies each of us doing what is in our power to heal broken relationships with God, our neighbour and the earth. From the understanding of the Church, we are undergoing an ‘ecological crisis’. That’s much more than climate change; it is climate change and a crisis of society feeding from each other. This is spelt out in detail in Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, or in numerous articles deconstructing For several years, a variety of groups in England and Wales have been encouraging church leaders and dioceses to show urgency in responding to climate change. A diocese has, generally, a portfolio of buildings including churches, presbyteries, halls and schools, central offices, staff, supplies to buy, money October/November/December 2021 | Pastoral Review Vol 17 Issue 4 | 21

Page Text

Leadership and Ministry

Guardians of Creation Edward de Quay explores how the Church can and does get involved in responding to the climate change crisis.

‘Code red for humanity.’ This was how the UN Secretary General described the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. It states that greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation are ‘choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk’.1 The situation is overwhelming, and especially this year, as the UK hosts the COP26 and the G7 conferences, there is pressure on the Church to show that it is working to tackle climate change within its own influence. This is not a straightforward task, which is why the ‘Guardians of Creation’ project was established to provide some guidance.

Our ecological crisis it. The fact that our planet is in serious disrepair, that we are responsible, and that we need to reestablish an understanding of the lives we ought to be living as children of God to tackle these issues, seems clear.

How do we go about responding to a problem as big as the fundamental degradation of the only planet we can call home? The solution, Pope Francis argues, is found in a profound ‘ecological conversion’, whereby the effects of our encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in our relationship with the world around us (Laudato Si’ 217). That implies each of us doing what is in our power to heal broken relationships with God, our neighbour and the earth.

From the understanding of the Church, we are undergoing an ‘ecological crisis’. That’s much more than climate change; it is climate change and a crisis of society feeding from each other. This is spelt out in detail in Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, or in numerous articles deconstructing

For several years, a variety of groups in England and Wales have been encouraging church leaders and dioceses to show urgency in responding to climate change. A diocese has, generally, a portfolio of buildings including churches, presbyteries, halls and schools, central offices, staff, supplies to buy, money

October/November/December 2021 | Pastoral Review Vol 17 Issue 4 | 21

My Bookmarks

Skip to main content