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We, the People.......of God......for a Synodal Church

Please make a note of the next ACTA Leeds Zoom network which will be at 11.00am on Thursday 21 October 2021

PLEASE NOTE NEW TIME OF 11 AM!

At our ACTA Leeds meetings, we share experiences from our various parishes spread across the diocese. It would be great to know what is happening generally to help develop and embed the processes of synodality and discernment into the life of our local churches. If you can’t attend this zoom meeting, please let us know how your parish is beginning to respond to the challenge, especially the positive effects that you might be witnessing. We believe that our ACTA Leeds meetings form part of that synodal journey where we are all ‘walking together’. As well as walking, we are listening!

To contact us about what is happening in your parish - or about anything else, simply reply to this email

The main purpose of our regular reflections is to identify and share good practice across the diocese. The Zoom meetings replace the network lunches which had been established before the restrictions.

If you haven't experienced Zoom yet, just google it and you'll find out how.

Please reply to this email

to register for the meeting and I will send you the link nearer the time
to contact ACTA Leeds about anything in this enews

I only send the link to those who reply to say they will be attending

**PLEASE NOTE - THERE WILL BE NO REMINDER OF THIS MEETING

ACTA AND THE DIOCESAN SYNODAL PROCESS – some suggestions from David Jackson to inform our discussions

The plans for the Diocesan involvement in Pope Francis’s SYNODAL PROCESS are well in hand.
The Deans and PPs have already identified c 80 lay FACILITATORS. They will attend 2 training sessions conducted by the Jesuits at Hinsley Hall on Saturdays 16^th and 23^rd October, 10.30 – 4.00. A liturgy of commissioning will be held at the Cathedral on Sunday 17^th October. The Facilitators will be organised in teams of 3 to hold meetings in all parishes in November and the first two weeks of December. They will be allocated to two or three parishes - not their own. A questionnaire is being prepared – a diocesan adaptation of the Vatican’s. Secondary school pupils will be led through this by teachers in their year groups. It will be made available to FOCUS GROUPS and on line. Individuals can send their responses in to the diocese or even direct to the Synod office in Rome. The questionnaire ought to be made available to all Catholics, no matter whether they go to Church or not, have real issues or not, feel excluded, are indifferent or engaged in whatever way with parish or school. Non-Catholics, members of other denominations or faiths – anyone who has an interest or involvement or connection with the Church in invited to complete the questionnaire.
All responses will be collated and passed on the Bishop for meetings of the national hierarchy, then the continental hierarchies, culminating in the Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2023.

POINTS TO CONSIDER

This SYNODAL PROCESS is probably the last best chance for the Church to become the Church ACTA has been working and dreaming for. Seize the chance! It is meant to be as significant as Vatican II!
‘SYNODAL means ‘walking together’– as ONE PEOPLE OF GOD as in the early church. No longer a separate, active ‘teaching church’, the MAGISTERIUM – and a passive ‘learning church’ the laity, but THE MAGISTERIUM PLUS THE SENSUS FIDELIUM in joint teaching/ learning together. ‘The peripheries become the centre’, (Pope Francis) the pyramid is inverted.
Despite all misgivings we might share about the process – it is not perfect (a top down initiative, the idea that the findings will be sabotaged or sanitised by the Bishops etc.) – do get involved! Talk up the opportunity, down-play the negatives: the temptations to be cynical, suspicious or indifferent.
FACILITATORS. ‘The more the merrier’ – so approach your priest and volunteer as long as you can make the dates above. Or simply find out the dates of your parish meeting and go along or contribute via a FOCUS GROUP. (J&P, CAFOD, SVP, Growing Old Gracefully etc.). You are encouraged to attend the Cathedral on October 17^th.
KEY WORDS: ‘PARISH (COMMUNION & PARTICIPATION) to MISSION’ – The aim – a Church on permanent mission. ‘Mission’ includes inviting folk into the Church BUT THE PRIME FOCUS OF MISSION IS OUTWARDS - ACTION FOR JUSTICE, PEACE AND CARE FOR CREATION ‘The loving service of all that exists.’
KEY ATTITUDES: PRAYERFUL DISCERNMENT of the HOLY SPIRIT, to LISTEN to all voices, to develop active AFFECTION for all.
THIS PROCESS IS INTENDED TO CONTINUE AND DEVELOP AS THE PERMANENT SHAPE OF PARISH LIFE – not an additional feature or the passion of a small group – starting from the parish results of its submission to the questionnaire.

Notes from our ACTA Leeds zoom meeting 15 July 2021.

We discussed the listening exercise which was being planned for Lent 2022 the diocese. Much of the discussion on that day has been overtaken by events, namely the publication of guidance on the purpose, methodology, structure and timing of the world Synod which is being initiated by Pope Francis this weekend (9^th and 10^th Oct). This world-wide process of listening, sharing and ‘walking together’ will start with us, here in our own parishes in the Leeds Diocese in the next few weeks. We will begin this synodal process through parish gatherings with the aim of becoming a Synodal Church of Communion, Participation and Mission. The fear, expressed by some of those present at our July meeting, was that whatever was expressed by laity would somehow be ‘watered down’ at later stages of the process. Who decides what a constructive comment is? However, as ACTA Leeds, whose very purpose is to facilitate meaningful dialogue and share good practice, we know that this formative moment provides us all, whether we feel we are at the ‘centre’ or the ‘periphery’ of our church, with a wonderful opportunity to develop in our Faith, through communion with each other, participation in the processes of synodality and by our contributions to the venture of mission. We, ‘the baptised’, now have this responsibility.

The Synodal process being initiated by Pope Francis this week is not a ‘one-off’ event – it needs to be embedded. It is the actions, the prayer, the preparation, the inclusion, the listening, the contribution and the discernment which define the nature of synodality itself. The one-to-one conversations, suggestions, genuine listening in small groups, with or without clergy, are all part of it. Different parishes will have their own ways of doing things, with different personalities and histories. There is bound to be some confusion on the journey. Isn’t considering the destination part of it? But journey there must be.

The following documents may be helpful in understanding and engaging in the synod process:-

FROM PARISH TO MISSION - A discussion paper for Deanery Conferences prepared by a working party of the Diocesan
Pastoral Council. The paper is to be considered in the context of the document prepared by
Bishop Marcus: ‘The Discernment of a Pastoral Plan for the Diocese of Leeds’.

THE DISCERNMENT OF A PASTORAL PLAN FOR THE DIOCESE OF LEEDS   - Vision, Mission, and Values

CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF ENGLAND AND WALES - The Synodal Process

PREPARATORY DOCUMENT in booklet form

PASTORAL LETTER    given 8 September 2021

THE HANDBOOK FOR LISTENING AND DISCERNING

Root and Branch Inclusive Synod concluded live in Bristol and online 5th - 12th September, 2021

You can view all the talks here

The Bristol text is still being updated - you can see work in progress here

There have been a number of zoom presentations on Synods and synodal experiences. The Edinburgh Jesuit Centre has recently hosted three, drawing on the expertise from the Amazon Synod, Rome, and the Liverpool Synod 2020. The zoom presentations are all available to view here They give deep insights into the nature of synodal processes and reflect some of the difficulties, as well as the joys, which result. They are well worth a visit.

Prisons Week 2021
Justice & Mercy: your next steps

Saturday 16^th October, 2-4pm
New Wortley Community Centre, 40 Tong Road, Leeds LS12 1LZ
Register interest here

Last year, the Diocese of Leeds launched Justice & Mercy, an ambitious plan of action to raise awareness and promote positive change in the criminal justice system. The report was the result of a 2-year journey listening to the testimonies of prisoners, victims of crime, their families, their communities, those working and volunteering in the criminal justice system.
Prisons Week 2021 (10-16^th Oct) is an important reminder for Catholics of our duty to work for justice and mercy in the criminal justice system. To mark this occasion, Caritas Leeds is holding a special event to help individuals and parishes respond to the needs of all people affected by the criminal justice system through prayer and action in the coming year.
The event will include:

Justice & Mercy themed participative liturgy
The Rt Revd Richard Moth, Liaison Bishop for Prisons
Alison Lowe, West Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing & Crime
Launch of Faith Works training programme with West Yorkshire Police
Stalls and networking opportunities with local charities and services for people and communities affected by the criminal justice system

Register interest here
For more information email

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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.

Prisons Week 2021 Justice & Mercy: your next steps

Prisons Week 2021
Justice & Mercy: your next steps