‘A completely open mind and heart’
Synod 2023 begins, aims to examine the church
Pope Francis has called the whole world to participate in a synod.
So, what does this mean? The word synod is not a common or understood word, Bishop Anthony Daniels, bishop of the Diocese of Grand Falls, says. A Synod of Synodality is the coming together as an entire people of God to examine where they are as a church and consider the corrections they may need to make.
“The word synod means journeying together, walking together and it really described in many ways the way the early church dealt with their issues,” he says, adding there are examples of this in Scripture.
In ancient times the church gathered - not just bishops but priests and people who had a stake in the topic - and they debated.
“In order for that process to really be effective, everybody who was there had to be willing to listen to the other with a completely open mind and heart,” Daniels says.
“They prayed about it, then shared what they believed was the truth or the right thing to do. They shared from their hearts and eventually through that process of dealing with it together, conclusions were reached and decisions were made.
“It didn’t make everybody happy, of course, but at least everybody had a voice … That’s an ancient tradition in our church but one that has in a lot of ways been lost.”
As the church grew more international and more diverse it became more hierarchical and decisions were more made by bishops, popes and those in power, he explained.
“I don’t want in any way to suggest in those decisions the Holy Spirit was not active. I’m absolutely certain that God was very active but it became a way that almost divided the church between the hierarchy and the people,” Daniels says.
However, the way of thinking is changing, partly due to the Second Vatican Council where the pope gathered the bishops of the world and others including theologians, laypeople and experts in different areas.
“Everybody had a voice, everybody had a chance to speak and everybody felt heard and listened to and as a result of that we saw some revolutionary changes in our church from moving from Latin to speaking in the language of the people, to including more and more laypeople in ministry of the church and in decision-making,” Daniels says.
The pope also decided synods of bishops would be repeated every couple of years.
In the Diocese of Grand Falls, which covers Central Newfoundland as far east as Bay de Verde, west to Baie Verte and south as far as Harbour Breton, Conne River and St. Albans, Synod 2023 is being planned by a committee who is overseeing listening sessions in every parish across the diocese.
They will prepare people by giving them a sense of the questions they want to discuss. They will them gather in prayer and reflection of Scripture before starting a respectful dialogue.
“We really want to hear what God is speaking to them and through them to us. It’s about more than opinions … we need more than opinions we need the word of God,” he says.
What will make this successful is how broadly they can reach people.
“There’s a danger in only hearing from those who agree with everything the church says and does … and we want to avoid that,” Daniels says.
“We want to hear from everybody. People who are happy with us, people who disagree with us, people who love some things and just can’t understand others, people who think we are not listening … people who have left the church, we need to know why and we need to hear it from them.”
They are hoping to gather a broad spectrum of people and are willing to listen to people from other faith denominations or religions.
They are hopeful to begin the listening session by the end of March. With such a large area to cover they will be staggered over a couple of weeks.
Once their sessions are complete, they will create a synthesis of what they have heard.
That goes to the Atlantic region where it will be put together with other findings from dioceses across Atlantic Canada, and from there will go national, and then to Rome.
“This is a huge undertaking,” Daniels says. “I mean the courage of this Holy Father not only to imagine something this complex and worldwide but to have the courage to say, ‘I want to hear whatever it is you have to say, the good, the bad, the ugly’ that takes a lot of courage to actually encourage people to be critical if they have criticism.”
For more information, along with bulletin announcements and flyers, the diocese will use its social media pages to provide updates.