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The next ACTA Leeds meeting will be via Zoom at 2.00pm on Thursday 28 September 2023. 

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At our last meeting we decided to write to Bishop Marcus asking to meet him to discuss the Synod in Rome in October. He arranged to meet us a week later.

Our letter to him and a report from the meeting is below

The Synodal Process

Dear Bishop Marcus

At a recent meeting of ACTA LEEDS (July 13th) we welcomed the idea that a meeting of a small group of ACTA parishioners with you and those navigating the synodal process would be extremely opportune and useful at this stage in the synodal process both in the diocese and as it moves towards the first plenary in October in Rome.

What would be the purpose of such a meeting?

ACTA Leeds has been made up of lay people and priests working in the pursuit of greater dialogue and formation - ‘synodality’ in all but name – since 2012. Yet we have never formally met you. Now that synodality is the path the Church has embarked on so hopefully such a meeting seemed overdue. We would hope that the meeting would be synodal in character involving ‘mutual listening’.

1) To give you the opportunity to listen to an account of our work in the diocese and how we now support the synodal process.

2) By listening to you about how you imagine what roles supporters of ACTA could take in supporting you in taking the synodal process forward in the parishes and schools of the diocese.

Some background

We number over a hundred and fifty supporters in parishes. A sizeable proportion of these acted as volunteers in facilitating Phases 1 and 2. We wrote to you last year confirming our ardent support for the synodal process. ACTA nationally and here in the diocese exists to further dialogue in the Church. It welcomes the call for a synodal church with its stress on the need for mutual listening as we discern together the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the Church.

ACTA National Conference last month took as its theme “The Synodal Journey: Travelling with Great Expectations”. It was addressed by Sarah Adams (Director for Education in diocese of Clifton), Bishop Nicholas Hudson and Fr Jan Nowotnik (CBCEW Ecumenical Officer) - both of whom as you know have been invited by Pope Francis to attend the Synod in October.

We are delighted you are one of the two members of the hierarchy representing the CBCEW at that meeting. Whilst we fully understand that your brief is a national one, a fully rounded view of the ‘sensus fidelium’ and the ‘sensus fidei’ of the people and clergy of your own diocese might not go amiss and would also support the next steps of the synodal process here.

Our desire for a meeting arises from a love of the Church and a desire to translate that into practical support for both clergy and laity in the diocese. Bishop Hudson said that what impressed him most about his experience of the synodal meeting in Prague was “the transformative power of listening”.  We hope a meeting with you would be similarly transformative for us all.

We look forward to your reply.

Every best wish,

David Jackson, Brian Hamill, Denise Mason, Dennis Loughran, Pat Brown, Pippa Bonner, Sheelagh Pickles, Tony Pickles, Vincent Borg.

Supporters of ACTA Leeds

actaleeds.org.uk

ACTA LEEDS SUPPORTERS MEET BISHOP MARCUS TO EXCHANGE IMPRESSIONS OF THE SYNODAL PROCESS.              8TH AUGUST 2023

ACTA LEEDS sent a request in early August to Bishop Marcus for a meeting to share experiences of the Synodal Process in the diocese.  An instant reply came from him suggesting 8th August – Tuesday of the following week.  A group of six ACTA LEEDS supporters – Pippa Bonner, Pat Brown, Brian Hamill, David Jackson, Dennis Loughran and Denise Mason – were able to attend. The meeting lasted almost two hours.  

The letter to Bishop Marcus had mentioned the ‘transformative power of listening’, which had so impressed Bishop Nicholas Hudson at the Continental stage of the Synodal Process in Prague. The meeting with Bishop Marcus was certainly marked by much mutual listening. If there had been lingering doubts about the nature of the relationship between ACTA LEEDS and the Bishop, it was dispelled at once by the tone and atmosphere of this meeting.  That was a ‘transformation’ at least in our minds. Signs are that the Spirit is weaving on-going ‘transformations,’ hopefully powerfully, for the future of the Synodal Process in the diocese.   

EXPERIENCES OF THE SYNODAL PROCESS (SP).   We started by reading the Synodal prayer together. Bishop Marcus apologised for the short notice but willingly agreed to  listen to our individual experiences so far. We shared our different hopes of the Church nurturing people of all ages: younger, families and older people in terms of encouragement, formation and sacramental community. We listened as he described how the Pope’s announcement of the SP had been ‘sprung’ on the diocese and how that had  subsumed the listening exercise he had already initiated; he spoke of the impact of Covid and the subsequent Phases. 

THE FUTURE.  Bishop Marcus was honest in describing his feelings of some trepidation in facing his attendance at the first Episcopal meeting of the Synod in October in Rome. We offered ideas for parishes and deaneries to provide support by way of  prayers to coincide with the pre-meeting retreat near Rome in October. He would be away for almost a month.  He mentioned the possibility of linking such support in with the annual procession in Batley. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE MEETING       We felt that the time together was constructive, amicable and marked by that mutual listening which is one of the  synodal pivotal attitudes.  We did have ample time to listen to each other on an even ‘playing field’. We were able to give examples of the challenges and joys of parish life.  How, for all of us, travelling synodally together is a challenge and a massive opportunity.  We shared our hopes and the challenges of keeping the synodal momentum going in ways that are meaningful in parishes. Above all we were able, in our various authentic  ways, to share our commitment to try and make synodal thinking and action work. This was true for the Bishop equally. At the close he said how very useful he had found the meeting. It was not the occasion to discuss any of the practical issues as outlined in the questions set out in the Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris (Working Document). We too found the meeting useful – it gave us an insight into the mind of the Bishop, his commitment to the process and hopes for its impact on the diocese.  We  hope ACTA will be invited again.

Overall, we were very pleased and encouraged by his invitation to meet. A letter has gone thanking him for the opportunity. 

(David Jackson for the Group: 16th August 2023) 

We Are a Dumb Church

A retired priest of my acquaintance, who has had much experience in both parish life and church administration (including a spell in the English College in Rome), told me, when Pope Francis announced his plans for the Synod in 2021, that there was a real issue among the laity which would prove quite an obstacle to the success of the venture. He said that trying to get the laity at large involved would be rather like pushing a large rock up a hill. The reason he gave was ‘We are a dumb Church’. ‘Dumb’ in this context does not mean ‘stupid’ but unable, owing to lack of teaching and

practice, to speak and articulate their thoughts and feelings within the Church context with the same facility as they are able to offer them in their daily lives. The corollary of this situation is that, when they feel impelled to speak, they tend to blurt out their thoughts and feelings rather wildly. This can be very hurtful to the recipient clergy, who, in their turn, has had precious little training, either at seminary or in life, to be able to truly listen to what is really being said beneath the muddled thought and aggressive manner.

Brian Hamill

The school for Synodality is a project to help support the synodal conversion of the Church in England and Wales in our day to day practice. Through conversations, the development of resources and our progarmmes, they hope to enable an openness to the Holy Spirit in our Church through listening, sharing and discernment. Visit their website

XVI ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS

INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS

For the First Session(October 2023)

The working document for the October Synod is now available You can read it here

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ACTA Leeds prayer - Seeking is Seeing
 
Seeking God is as good as seeing God.
Who, but a saint,
Would know so clearly
That the journey is the reality,
The steps are sight,
The effort is reward,
The seeing is the searching,
The dream is the reality?
Seeking God is seeing God.