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Archbishop McMahon asks for prayers for Liverpool Synod


Archbishop Malcolm McMahon and Sr Nathalie from Vatican Office of the Synod of Bishops

Archbishop Malcolm McMahon and Sr Nathalie from Vatican Office of the Synod of Bishops

On Saturday,19 June, hundreds of Synod members and representatives from other Christian denominations will come together online for the first Synod in Liverpool Archdiocese for 66 years. For four years parishes, deaneries, schools and other communities throughout the Archdiocese have been praying, listening, discerning and sharing the fruits of this to help us to discover together where God is calling us as a Church.

"What we have tried to do in this Synod", Archbishop McMahon said, "is to get to grips with the movement of the spirit within our Church because we know that there is so much life and vitality out there, we must be part of a process where we move together as the people of God."

Synod members will be voting on 19 recommendations on a range of topics with a choice of four voting options to give an idea of how important each recommendation and topic is for Synod members. The Synod weekend culminates in a Mass of Celebration on Sunday the 20th. The results of the weekend, which will be published shortly after the Synod, feed into a pastoral planning process, and Archbishop Malcolm will publish and begin to enact the plan at the start of Advent.

Kate, a Synod member in the north of the Archdiocese, is looking forward to the weekend: "it's great to be able to vote at the Synod after all the time we have spent listening, sharing and discerning in our school and in our Parish. We have had countless opportunities to hear the voices of people all over the Archdiocese and what is voted for on Saturday will be an affirmation of this and a recognition of the generosity people have given to our Synod."

The Liverpool Archdiocesan Synod comes at a time when the global Church is beginning a new Synodal journey. At a meeting with over 100 Synod members and observers last week, Sr Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the Vatican Synod of Bishops, spoke about the Church's aspirations to be more Synodal, Sr Nathalie explained: "since 1965 the Synod of Bishops has evolved Synod after Synod and nowadays it's clear that there must be a Synodalization of the Church at all levels, and what you have experienced in your Synod process in Liverpool has to be experienced throughout the whole Church".

For the last week communities and individuals up and down the Archdiocese have been praying for our Synod as it culminates in our Synod weekend. Archbishop Malcolm McMahon has asked for everyone to keep our Synodal process, and its implementation, in their prayers.

Archbishop McMahon continued: "I hope that our Synod weekend will truly be a celebration for all of us. Pope Francis has said, reflecting on a comment from Pope Benedict XVI, that the Church 'grows by attraction. And who provokes attraction? The Holy Spirit.'

"May our celebration of the Synod be filled with the Holy Spirit, that our archdiocese, in renewed ways, will attract people to Christ. Let us make, then, the prayer to the Holy Spirit, in these days leading up to our Synod weekend, our own. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth".

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