MBIT to host discussion on the Synod's Instrumentum Laboris

On Thursday, 5th October, the Margaret Beaufort Institute in Cambridge (MBIT) will host a Zoom session - a conversation and exchange of views rather than a talk - which will focus on the working paper (IL) of the Synod that Pope Francis opens on Wednesday, 4th October. The session is titled 'A Conversation in the Spirit', the title of the Synod working paper itself.

That title suggests three words - speaking, listening, and discerning - that characterise the synodal process the pope set in motion two years ago: speaking honestly and boldly, listening carefully and intently to one another, and seeking to discern the pathways the Spirit is inviting us to walk along as individuals and as one People of God. The purpose of the IL is to offer a working paper that encourages and develops that process.

The IL does two things: firstly, it articulates priorities - 'pathways the Spirit invites us to walk along' - that have emerged in the worldwide consultation over the last two years; secondly, it presents these priorities not as solutions or decisions, but as questions or paths that require further discernment and action in the years ahead.

It is important to bear in mind that this Synod on Synodality is not primarily an exercise aimed at achieving better business processes and reorganisation - looking to improve operating procedures, reorganising parish, diocesan and national structures, and so on. Those things have their place, but synodality is concerned with something far, far deeper. It is concerned with seeking to respond to the Spirit who was sent by the Father as the gift of the Risen Christ - the Spirit who is gradually moving all of history and creation itself towards its eventual fulfilment in God.

As Cardinal Michael Czerny observed recently, 'For the Pope, the reform of the church takes place "from within", that is, by virtue of a spiritual process … this is the only real guarantee that the institutional structure of the church can undertake and successfully pursue the communal path of following Jesus, that is, synodality'. That is why Pope Francis has repeatedly stated that without the Spirit there is no Synod.

Furthermore, we need to see the synodality themes of communion, mission and participation against the backdrop of the immense challenges facing our world - a world in which instant communication and increasingly rapid mobility have drawn all of humanity into closer contact than at any other time in history.

'Care for our common home' and 'universal brotherhood' are phrases that have resonated repeatedly throughout the pontificate of Pope Francis. They point us to the fact that synodality is not merely concerned with the church's inner structures. It has to do with promoting, as God's people and under the dynamism of the Spirit, the mission of Christ towards the entire human family. It has to do with witnessing to the supreme truths of the mercy and love of God, revealed in Jesus Christ.

That is what synodality is ultimately about - fashioning the church as a communion that is in itself mission. In the words of the Second Vatican Council, 'because of her relationship with Christ, the church is a kind of sacrament of intimate union with God, and of the unity of all humankind'. At this time, with synodality itself as a providential means, the church - and Christianity itself in the words of Czech theologian Tomas Halik - is called to be 'more open and receptive to God's call, hidden in the pains and anxieties, joys and hopes of the people with whom we share the oikumene, the common world'. The synodal process invites all the baptised to be receptive to God's call and to respond to wherever his Spirit leads us, bearing in mind that the One in Three, whose love sustains all creation in being and leads it towards its fulfilment, is a 'God of surprises'.

If you would like to sign in for this event, please follow the link below:

Discussion on the Synod's Instrumentum Laboris Tickets, Thu 5 Oct 2023 at 5pm Eventbrite