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Synodal pathway for Diocese of Ardagh & Clonmacnois
23/Jun/2022
Synodal
pathway for Diocese of Ardagh & Clonmacnois
This report is in four sections:
1. Part
1 is a short description of the main steps taken over a three-year period from
early 2019 to
May 2022. The diocese had already embarked on an assembly
process when the global Synodal pathway was introduced. The diocese was happy to pursue the assembly
process as its synodal pathway. The core purpose of both is identical -
fostering collaboration for mission.
2. As
an inductive process, listening on the ground was a key component. Part 2
details the listening undertaken by delegates both prior to and during Covid.
3. Part
3 details the steps identified in response to the listening.
4. Part
4 offers some reflections from delegates and steering group on the
journey.
1 -The process used
In early 2019 Bishop Francis Duffy formed a planning
committee to prepare for a Diocesan Assembly. The purpose of the assembly was
to bring together delegates from the parishes and diocesan ecclesial groups,
along with priests and religious, to identify pastoral priorities and an
implementation plan for those priorities. It was agreed from the outset that
this process would involve
• Listening
to a wide variety of people across the diocese
• Bringing
prayer and discernment to bear on the results of the listening
• Identifying
a small number of priorities and a set of practical actions
Parishes were asked to nominate a given number of delegates
(related to parish size) considering the need for age and gender balance. The
initial process planned for four stages:
Stage 1 – Reaching out
to listen. A first gathering of the assembly in September 2019 introduced
the process and initiated a listening action on the ground that had two
elements. Firstly, meeting with people in the wider community to explore two
questions: What would you say is the
thing that is most important in your life now? What are your feelings about the church - have you any hopes or
expectations of the church in your life? Secondly, meeting with the local
pastoral council to hear their views on this question: What do you think is the most important issue facing the church in our
diocese that should be addressed at the 2020 Assembly?
Stage 2 – Discerning
pastoral priorities. A second
gathering in November 2019 did a discernment on the results of the two
listening actions, leading to a vote to select three pastoral priorities for
the diocese – mission to youth; mission to families; formation of lay people
for mission.
Stage 3 – Exploring the priorities. This was
originally intended for March 2020 and was delayed because of a national
lockdown that month arising from the Covid pandemic.
Stage 4 – Assembly to
determine pastoral actions. This was intended for May 2020, and again was
delayed because of Covid restrictions.
It was not until May 2022 that stages 3 and 4 were completed.
This involved some additional meetings by Zoom.
• Zoom assembly October 2021. A one-to-one phone call survey of delegates
during the summer of 2020 expressed a strong desire that the assembly process
be restarted as soon as it was safe to do so. The on-going restrictions meant
that an in-person gathering was still not possible at the time, so the assembly
committee opted for a Zoom Assembly in October 2020. The purpose of that was to
initiate a Covid listening exercise in the parishes to determine if new
pastoral priorities needed to be taken on board. This involved one-to-one
conversations with individuals involved in the parish and wider community on
the following questions: From your involvement in the
community/parish what have been the biggest impacts from Covid that you have
seen? Do you see hurt or damage in the community that needs to be addressed
now? Do you see some positive things that have happened that could be built on?
• Zoom Assembly March 2022 – The purpose
of this was to review the results of the Covid listening and adjust the assembly
priorities accordingly. The basic conclusion was to hold on to the three
priorities already agreed but taking the Covid experience into account.
• Zoom Assembly April 2022 – This
explored pastoral thinking and approaches to the three priorities in the diocese
and across the country.
• Diocesan Assembly May 2022 – This
determined strategic direction for the diocese about the three priorities and
an action implementation plan.
During this period the See became vacant. Bishop Duffy was
translated to another diocese and Fr. Tom Healy was appointed Diocesan
Administrator.
2 – Listening to the people
A core part of the process was listening to people on the
ground about their generative issues, and their experience of church. The first
two sections below are in the form of a report on the listening that was
presented to the delegates at the second assembly. The third section is a
summary of points emerging from the listening to the Covid experience two years
later.
a. What are people concerned about now?
At the recent synod on the Amazon Pope Francis said this: We
are here to contemplate, to understand and to serve the people. It has been a
constant theme of his papacy that we can’t effectively offer the gift of the
Gospel to people if we don’t first have a feel for their lives. At our first
gathering in September, we asked that we first listen to people on the ground
before we consider pastoral priorities for our assembly. Not just people who
are involved in church, but all kinds of people who make up the population in
this diocese. We asked you to listen for what is important to them in their
lives right now, and whether they have anything to say to the church. And you
did that. We received reports from a total of 68 listening exercises from every
part of the diocese. You listened to men and women, young and old. You listened
to parents. You listened to people in urban and rural areas, people who are
church goers and people who are not, people who are working and people who are
not. And you listened to minority groups
- LGBT, Travellers, migrants, people living alone, people living with dementia,
people with disabilities, people bereaved.
What comes across most strongly is a sense of people absorbed
in the challenges of daily living. And in the middle of those challenges by far
the most important thing for people is their families. This is true for young
and old, across all the minority groups and obviously for parents.
l The
three core issues for parents are family, finance, and health - trying to
manage a healthy work-life balance in the face of multiple challenges -
especially rearing children and teenagers in a complex and sometimes dangerous
environment and supporting at the same time aging parents.
l For
the elderly, along with family their concerns are for their own health and
independence; they value their faith and they worry about what kind of world is
going to be there for their grandchildren.
l For
the young, the important issues are family, friends, social life and social
pressures. These include pressures of exams, of finding a career path, and also
pressures associated with social media.
l For
the various minority groups, family and community are core - they long for
their families to fit in.
ü For
people living alone, contact with family and the wider community is
crucial.
ü For
LGBT people, their chief concerns are family and relationships.
ü For
the bereaved, the stand out issue is the pain and isolation that comes from
losing their life’s partner.
ü For
people living with dementia in their family, there is the daily struggle just
to keep going with basic tasks.
ü For
the migrants, the concern is to fit in without being discriminated against, and
they worry about how their children are going to do in Ireland.
And in all this, there is a sense that people are resilient -
they experience a lot of joy and can get on with their lives. But there is also the sense of the pressures
they experience. Health and mental health were frequently named as issues.
b. What do people want to say to the church?
So then to the second
question you asked. What do all these
people, absorbed in the daily concerns and challenges of their lives, what do
they want to say to church? There
are several things that come across very strongly.
• On
the one hand there is certainly a sense of hurt and anger at how the church has
been in the past. This relates particularly to the abuse scandals. But there is
also a widely held view that the church people grew up with was often
authoritarian and out of touch with their lives. This view is not just held by younger
generations, but by older people as well. This from a listening meeting with
older people: When we were growing up the
church was in control – the control mechanism is broken now. The pyramid
structure has to change. We need a church where all are equal, no power
struggles; a church where the leader works in harmony with all members. Maybe
the orchestra model would be a good one for the church – a leader working
together in harmony with the members. For some of those we listened to,
that history has resulted in a
deeply felt alienation. A single parent group report: This woman said her feeling about the church
is that it is an out-of-touch institution, created by men and governed by men. So
there is recognition, not just by people who are alienated by the church, but
also by people who care for the church, that damage has been done.
• So
does that mean for people on the ground that the church is no longer relevant
or wanted? At one of the listening meetings with young people at senior 2nd
level they were asked would they prefer if there were no churches, no Christmas
Masses, no priests, no religion. And they said strongly they would not prefer
that. They said that supporting faith is important, promoting values is
important, being there for people is important, creating community is
important. And the church at its best is good at all these things. And it is
the same message that is coming across very strongly from the great majority of
people whom you listened to. They are not looking for the church to go away. In
fact it is the very opposite. They are looking for a church that is closer, a
church that
ü reaches
out to and connects with people in their daily lives and struggles
ü speaks
a language that people understand
ü brings
good news rather than bad news
ü creates
community
ü includes
people on the margins ü treats
people as equals.
It’s more about building the church around the society of today rather
than pulling people back into a society from 30/40 years ago. That is from
a youth meeting. And from a parent meeting the following: The
hope we have for the church is that it will continue to “reach out and connect”
with people – the church needs to tap into the social aspect of life.
• There
is a strong focus on priests as core to the church. And here there is a clear
call for married priests and women priests. There are two values underlying
this call. One that men and women should be treated as equals in the church.
The other is the belief that a married clergy, dealing daily with family
issues, would be in a better position to understand and deal with families in
the community. According to one mixed group of participants the lack of a
married clergy results in a lack of
identity with the congregation and their daily struggles with balancing work,
family and other life responsibilities.
• There
is a certain tension in the feedback between wanting a church that is inclusive
and wanting a church that sets standards. For instance, one report says this: Parents should be committed to First
Communion and Confirmation. They shouldn’t be allowed to do them it if they are
not attending Mass. However, there is another voice, which seems to be the
majority voice, saying that there is more to faith than regular church
going: A lot of people have not lost their faith but they have lost their
faith in the church as an institution and the power that went with it. This
point was echoed by the listeners at an LGBT group: We observed their passion and commitment to church and when asked why…
they spoke of this deep yearning inside.
c. What was the pandemic experience like for
people?
This listening was conducted while there were still
restrictions on gatherings. It was undertaken through one-to-one conversations
with people involved in the wider community, and with people involved in
parishes. There were also a set of questions for the delegates themselves about
their own faith experience during the pandemic.
I. Covid
experience in the wider community
22 sets of delegates conducted the listening exercise. In the
community, they listened to a wide variety of people – shop keepers, GAA
people, health workers, community activists, youth workers, social workers,
farmers, gardai, undertakers, office workers etc.
a. Hurt in the community at large
There is a consistent view across the reports that there was
real suffering during the pandemic, and several categories of people were
highlighted.
• People who were already vulnerable –
isolated elderly, people with mental health conditions, people reliant on
health and other social services, people at risk of domestic violence, people
under financial pressure, people without access to social media, people with
addiction risks. There was a strong sense that the difficulties these people
were already experiencing were intensified by the pandemic.
• People whose loved ones died, were in care,
or hospitalised – the necessary restrictions around hospital visits, visits
to nursing homes, and funeral arrangements caused a great deal of distress to
families and friends.
• Young people – there was a strong sense
that as a general category, young people were particularly affected by the
pandemic. Isolation from peers, loss of sporting and academic opportunities
were among the factors that harmed both physical and mental wellbeing. Families
with young people also felt the pressure of this.
• People at work – healthcare workers
were under consistent and huge pressure over the last two years. Also, people
employed or self-employed in some sectors of the economy experienced huge
financial pressures.
• Impact on normal life - there was also
a sense that community life as a whole suffered. So much interaction at
community and family level, that we had taken for granted all along, was now
curtailed. There was a deep loss felt
regarding the normal social contact between members of clubs, between
neighbours, and even between family members. Here in particular the contact
between grandparents and children suffered to the detriment of both. b.
Positives in the community at large
While the above hurts were widely experienced there was at
the same time, a sense of some strong positives:
• Community solidarity – there were very
many accounts of people who cared for and reached out to people experiencing
these hurts. This both at individual and organisational levels.
• Personal space - for those who were
less vulnerable there was a sense of many personal positives. People felt they
slowed down, were more present to each other, enjoyed the environment and got a
stronger sense of what is important in their lives. This had a positive impact
on many families who weren’t under severe pressures. For many the experience of
working at home and commuting less was very positive.
• Technology – for those who had access
to and were able to manage social media there were also many positives.
II. Covid
experience of the local churches
The delegates also listened to a variety of people with specific
involvement in their local churches – readers, eucharistic ministers, choir
members, members of PPCs, members of finance committees, regular church goers,
clergy etc. While the questions these addressed related specifically to their
local church community, their reading of the situation of the community at
large is in keeping with the above.
a. Hurts
in the local churches
• Personal and social loss – for regular
church goers, their experience of restrictions on the normal church services
was one of personal and social loss. The sudden stopping of what they had been
used to all their lives was a shocking experience. This was so in terms of their own devotional
lives and their church social connections. While this was felt across all the
services, such as weekly Mass and family sacraments, it was especially felt in
relation to funerals. There was also a concern here for the isolation
experienced by many parish clergy.
• Fear of permanent decline in numbers – there
is a widespread concern that many people who stopped going to church services
during the lockdown, especially from younger families, will not return.
• Church finances – there is an
understanding that the income stream to the local churches is well down, and a
concern about the financial viability of local churches into the future.
• Low profile – a sense that some
parishes went into lockdown, with the priest unable to function and
parishioners left feeling on their own.
b. Positives
in the local churches
• Smaller scale services – in many cases
the smaller scale of services imposed by the restrictions resulted in a more
personal faith experience.
• Technology – the use of social media
for services and other church events.
• Appreciation – a greater sense now of
the value of our faith and church life, something that we may have taken for
granted.
• Flexibility – our ability at parish
level to rise to the Covid challenges.
III. Faith
experience of delegates during Covid
Overall, the feedback here was positive. The main thrust was of a people who are
attached to and find nourishment in their regular communal church practice, but
who found faith resources within themselves when they were cut off from that
practice. The main outcome of the Covid
experience was a strengthening of faith and trust in God.
• We
missed the regular routine of church
activity, and the connection with other church people. There was a real sense
of loneliness in this.
• We
found support in the technology that
allowed us to be virtually present at Mass and other services.
• We
found support in our own prayer life,
and prayer practices in the home.
• We
came to a deeper appreciation of
faith and church.
3. Discerning priorities and next steps
As noted, this occurred in seven steps throughout the
assembly process:
1. An
initial consultation by the delegates with parish pastoral councils and parish
assemblies on their sense of priorities for the diocese.
2. An
invitation to clergy and any other interested individuals to send in
submissions on this same question.
3. A
discernment and vote by the delegates on pastoral priorities at the November
2019 assembly considering the listening results.
4. A
revisiting of the priorities at the March 2022 assembly considering the
listening to the Covid experience.
5. An
exploration of agreed priorities at the April 2022 assembly.
6. A
gathering of submissions from delegates on directions and actions for these
priorities.
7. A
discernment and voting on directions and actions on these priorities at the
Assembly in May 2022.
a. Submissions from Parish Pastoral Councils and Parish Assemblies
35 submissions were received from parishes about assembly
priorities for action. These came mainly from Parish Pastoral Councils (with a
smaller number of parish meetings). There were two basic elements to these
proposals - a clear sense of mission, and a recognition of the need to build
capacity for that mission. The missionary impulse had four elements that kept
recurring in the submissions:
1. Connection
with and compassion for people on the
margins - a church voice that speaks out on their behalf and on behalf of
the Gospel.
2. Youth - offering an experience of faith
and church that attracts.
3. Family - supporting parents to promote
faith in the home.
4. Rituals - the potential for our
liturgies (including Sunday Mass) and sacraments to relate better and connect
better.
The internal organisation and capacity building had two
elements:
5. Priests - the role of the priest is
seen as a key element for the future. Here the desire is to promote vocations
and for many, to open priesthood to married men and women.
6. Lay roles - the role of lay people is
seen as complementary to that of the priest. The desire here is to grow the
involvement of lay people and to provide the necessary training and support.
b. Submissions from priests
Five submissions were received from priest-groups in the
diocese. These identify three priorities that very much fit in with what we
have covered.
• the
priority of mission, and mission that is
Christ-centred rather than church- centred. It is not about trying to create
the church of the past but about bringing the Gospel to a new society.
• the
need to address lay roles and lay training for
this mission.
• the
support needs of priests in the face of ‘a
tsunami of change’, including support for priests from overseas.
c. Submissions from individuals
Some 50 submissions were received from individuals. There was
a strong tension in these. Some offered a range of proposals in keeping with
the six priorities above - a church that
connects with the people of today. Other submissions broadly expressed the
view that the church needs to return to
the strong teachings, certainties, and devotional practices of the past.
These submissions hold that it was a moving away from the definite positions of
the past that accounts today for the fall-off in church practice.
d. Discernment and vote on pastoral priorities at November 2019
Assembly
As already noted, the
three priorities that emerged were: formation of lay people, outreach to youth
and outreach to families. A report on the vote offered the following rationale
for this. It was clear from the
submissions that a core concern for all groups that we listened to was family.
It was also clear that the main concern regarding our liturgies was that they
should connect more effectively with young families and youth. So, it was not a
surprise that the delegates opted for a concrete focus on families and youth as
a means of addressing all the mission concerns. Regarding how we organise for
mission there were two main areas identified from the submissions: fostering of vocations to the priesthood and
religious life (including married and women priests); and the provision of
roles and supports for lay people to work alongside priests and religious. There was a strong vote that the immediate
priority for the diocese should be the latter - that we should build on the
opportunities and the capacity of lay people, men, and women, to support our
mission to families and youth.
e. Discernment on priorities in the light
of Covid
The main sense coming from the March 2022 meeting was that
the three original priorities – youth, family, and lay formation – should remain
the same. But they need to be addressed now considering the Covid experience.
• Young people – their distance from
church; their pressures in life; issues that they are concerned about,
especially the environment.
• Outreach to young families – there is a
huge concern about the increased disconnection of young families from church,
but there is also concern about families at the other end of the life cycle,
often made up of isolated elderly.
• Formation of lay people – there is a
strong sense of the need for energy and urgency in developing a mission to the
wider community, and this cannot be left to ageing clergy on their own. The
Covid experience has further highlighted this need for lay formation. Bringing
the Gospel to bear on modern living is key here, but also issues including use
of social technology, and financial management.
f. Submissions from delegates on directions and actions for the
priorities
The purpose of the April 2022 Zoom Assembly was to provide
delegates with the opportunity to explore practical approaches to the three
pastoral priorities. There were presentations made on good practice within the
diocese and from other dioceses around the country. There was also a short
input on the Vatican Vademecum, focusing
on the three main players in the mission – Jesus, the apostles, and the
‘crowd’. Following the April meeting, delegates were invited to make
submissions on how the diocese might pursue the three priorities. In a summary
of the submissions for an assembly planning meeting we noted the
following: There is a strongly positive reaction to the local and inter-diocesan
presentations at the April assembly. There is a desire to promote further what
is already going on, and to strengthen links with and learn from other dioceses
as well. The initial note regarding Jesus and the crowd seems to have resonated
well, with its focus on inclusive means of sharing the Good News.
The main action points from the submissions were
summarised as follows:
1. Youth
• There is a strong sense of the value of
working with systems that already have connection with youth. These are primarily the schools and the
families.
• Explore how best to tap into the capacity
for peer ministry evident at the last Assembly. Maintain
and develop diocesan youth programmes, including pilgrimages.
• Explore means of tapping into young people’s
energy for social action.
2. Family
• Make use of key inclusive moments to share
the Good News – sacraments, seasonal moments.
• Reach out to support families on key issues
for them, such as relationships and bereavement.
• Build parish capacity for parish family
liturgy.
3. Lay
formation
• There is a very strong sense that the time
for change is upon us in the sense that we will not have priests on the ground
in anything like the numbers that we have been used to. At the same time the
implications of that for such things as parish liturgies may not have dawned on
people.
• There was a strong sense of the value of a
pastoral rather than simply a theological approach to formation. Equip people
for leadership. There was also a sense here of a differentiated approach that
considers differing energies and capacities – some will be involved in more
explicitly catechetical work, others administrative etc.
• There is one point on tension in the
overall. For most there is a sense of the church needing to embrace change – in
the role of lay people, the role of women, how we reach out with our Good News.
For some there is an emphasis on tradition – an expectation that people should
understand and adhere to church teachings as we have known them.
g. Conclusions
of the final Assembly May 2022
The purpose of the May Assembly was to finalise the process
considering the original intention – a direction on a small number of pastoral
priorities, and an implementation plan. This was the first in-person gathering
since November 2019. 130 delegates attended. Four presentations were made
during the day – summaries of the broad thrust of the submissions on the three
priorities and a summary implementation proposal. These presentations were
discussed in small groups and open forum, with a view to the delegates making
amendments. The amended summaries were then re-presented to the delegates for
voting. The results of the votes are
recorded below along with the summaries that were voted on.
|
For |
Against
|
Abstentions |
Lay formation |
129 |
1 |
0 |
Youth |
130 |
0 |
0 |
Family |
128 |
1 |
1 |
Implementation |
129 |
1 |
0 |
Lay formation: Its purpose is so that the mission of the
church can continue – sharing the Good News as Jesus did with ‘the crowd’. This
will require lay people who are trained for pastoral leadership and integrated
into the workings of the parish. This training needs to be relational as well
as theological, flexible, and accessible to people who already have busy lives.
These trained people in turn can avail of pastoral resources to take the lead
in outreach initiatives. In view of the pending rapid decline in the number of
priests we need to accelerate this formation so that each parish has a viable
pastoral team. To have a training programme that is fit for purpose we need to
flesh out in a concrete manner the following:
• A common approach in the diocese that
identifies how parishes will work together into the future, how all parishes
can move together on this and how this will be communicated to the people.
• A clear outline of the roles for lay people
in this new situation; how they will be recruited; the skill sets required; the
gifts required – and here faith and teamwork are crucial.
Youth: The
task is to share the Good News of Jesus with the new generations. We recognise
on the one hand the distance of many young people from church. But on the other
hand, we recognise so much good in their lives. There are many challenges but
we remain hopeful and confident that God’s Spirit is fashioning a future we
cannot yet see. We can build an outreach to youth working through key avenues
and utilising a variety of already available resources. These resources
emphasise the importance of listening to and engaging with what is most
important to them in life. The avenues to youth include their schools, their
families, committed young people, social media, and their concerns for justice
and the environment. There are many youth ministry resources in this diocese
and others that can be utilised on these avenues, including John Paul 11
Awards, pilgrimages, youth liturgies, social and environmental actions etc.
These can be connected to provide an on-going outreach to youth. We have seen
how involvement in youth programmes has sparked a desire among some young to
engage in peer ministry. Diocesan and parish programmes for youth can deepen
and equip this desire, creating pathways to peer ministry.
Families: We have opportunities at popular seasonal and sacramental moments to reach out to a great
many families. We need to utilise these opportunities to listen to their
experience of life and church and share the Good News in a language they can
understand. There are already existing resources including liturgical and
sacramental that can be provided for parishes for this outreach. These can offer a basis for follow-up. We can
also work to support families in need, cooperating with agencies already in the
field.
Implementation: We need to put in place now a mechanism for
following through on this assembly. The
original desire expressed by Bishop Duffy was that this process would produce
some pastoral priorities and an implementation plan. While we are awaiting the
appointment of a new bishop we can begin the process with some initial actions,
and then engage with the incoming bishop for longer term developments.
1. Prepare a report on assembly process for the
end of this month to be circulated.
2. Establish this Summer, a diocesan pastoral
development committee with three sections – youth, family, lay formation,
seeking the participation of delegates nominated by parishes. A proposal on how
this can be done will be circulated by the steering group.
3. Prepare feasible action plans for 2022-2023
under the three headings, drawing on assembly report and available programmes
and resources.
4. Engage with the incoming bishop on the
assembly report, and longer-term strategic questions arising from that report.
4. Assembly committee and delegates – our sense of the journey
A short questionnaire was distributed to delegates and
committee members following the May meeting. Some 35 responses were received at
the time of writing. The main points were as follows:
• The
synodal process was itself a very positive experience – people coming together
from all parts of the diocese to explore together a future for church and
faith. The organisation of that process was also well received – the variety in
the sessions, the prayer, the accounts of good practice, the respectful
listening, and the use of Zoom.
• The
disruption caused by Covid and the resultant drawn-out process was a strong
negative. Another low point highlighted was the loss of our bishop mid-process.
While the final assembly vote was a vote for change there is concern about
resistance on the ground to such change.
• The
strongest point emerging regarding the future was the translation of the plans
into realistic actions in a synodal spirit.
The steering group met in the week after the assembly and
reviewed its experience. The feedback here reflected much of the above.
• A
strong positive was the engagement of the delegates in an inductive process.
They shaped the agenda arising from their own listening on the ground. There
was a great satisfaction at the capacity of the local church to organise such a
complex inductive process, both in terms of logistics and facilitation. Our
contact with the delegates showed a sense of gratitude for the synodal spirit,
especially among women.
• With
the Covid experience and the loss of the bishop there was real anxiety in the
steering group that the process would stall. The final (Zoom) session in April
and (in-person) assembly in May were a source of relief.
• Our
sense is that the follow-through is going to be challenging. But failure to
follow-through would fatally undermine confidence in any synodal process for
the future. We see the need for a much stronger engagement with modern
technology – the contrast between what is the technological norm in schools
compared to parishes is obvious. We noted a tension throughout the process that
will need to be engaged with going forward. In seeking a way of church engaging
with wider society some look first for the church to pay attention to people,
while others look first for people to pay attention to the church. We also
noted the challenges for clergy in the emerging situation
end