Archdiocese of Liverpool’s Synod 2020 Recommendations Published

Archdiocese of Liverpool Synod Credit: CBCEW

Liverpool Synod recommendations, to be voted on by Synod members in June, are now available along with resources to aid discussion and discernment. Overall there are 19 recommendations across a broad range of topics including evangelisation, spiritual formation, governance and synodality, property, and the place of the Church in today’s world.

To help Synod members in their discernment ahead of the Synod in June the recommendations come with a book that offers prayers, theological reflections and questions to aid either individual reflection, or local discussion groups that can be held online.

Archbishop Malcolm McMahon invited the Archdiocese to focus on the question ‘how do we become the Church that God wants us to be?’

The latest stage of this journey invited written proposals from all over the archdiocese which were compiled and then Synod members indicated which of these they were most drawn to. It is directly from these that the 19 recommendations were developed.

“The richness of the recommendations which have come out of this synod process we are journeying on together is great to see,” Archbishop McMahon notes. “They demonstrate the commitment shown by synod members – and indeed the whole archdiocese – particularly in what has been a very challenging year. I am very grateful for everyone’s continued participation, discernment, and prayer.”

Voting

Around 500 Synod members will vote on these recommendations on 19 June, and through the whole process the Synod members have been running events, holding discernment meetings, and have been reaching out beyond those we usually engage with.

It has been an exciting process of consultation and discernment and has resulted in over 25,000 submissions in the earlier ‘listening’ phase, and over 3,500 practical proposals put forward more recently.

This process of listening that has taken place throughout the archdiocese has helped us all to better understand where the Spirit is leading us.

Father Philip Inch, one of the Synod Moderators, said:

“The Synod journey has unfolded in circumstances that we could not have anticipated, but it has made us more sure than ever of the rightness of this process and of the voice of the Holy Spirit guiding the Church in the Archdiocese of Liverpool.”

Archbishop Malcolm McMahon inaugurated Synod 2020 in February 2019, and while its role is advisory, the Archbishop has convened a pastoral planning group to aid him in developing a pastoral plan that responds to the results of the Synod which will be published in the Autumn.

“The 19 recommendations, which will be voted on, will give the Archbishop a clear steer as he presents his pastoral plan to the Archdiocese,” Father Philip adds. “So many voices have contributed and still continue to contribute. We are confident that ‘together on the road’ we will ‘become the Church God is calling us to be’.”