Together on the road, becoming the Church we are called to be.
By Martyn Griffiths, St Lewis
Back in November 2018 Fr Gordon invited both David Torevell (All Saints) and myself to become Synod 2020 members to represent the Respective Parishes of All Saints, St Catherine’s, and St Lewis’.
Our first formal “Listening” meeting with other Synod Members from the Diocese took place in April 2019. From that David and I organised a Parishioners’ meeting to seek the thoughts and ideas of how the Church can progress / change / widen it’s reach, basically “Becoming the Church we are Called to be”.
Following the meeting we collated and submitted verbatim all the responses from those parishioners who attended.
The Synod Office professionally translated the submissions together with all those from the entire Diocese. As a result there are now FOUR themes that have been identified:
- All called and gifted by God
- Sharing the mission of Jesus
- How we pray together
- Building community, nurturing belonging
We have already held Parishioner meetings on the first two themes and the third theme discussion is being held on Wednesday 19th Feb at All Saints after 7 pm Mass.
After each “theme discussion” Parishioners are invited to submit proposals on how the theme question can be addressed. Ultimately these proposals, together with those of the whole Diocese will be voted on at a Synod members meeting later this year.
David and I will keep you all up to date with progress via the Church Newsletter.
Thank you to all those who have contributed so far .
Martyn Griffiths, David Torevell