Did you know that this is a historic moment in the Church? Remember our local synod meetings last year? Well, the Synod is still going on and Church leaders around the world will be convening this October to discuss the future of the Church. The results of the local synods around the world were summarized and collated to form a working document, Instrumentum Laboris. Participants of the upcoming October Vatican Synod will use this document to guide their discussions. For a copy to find out the varied topics to be discussed, click here.
For more information on the Synod, click here.
One of the urgent and top priorities up for discussion will be the role of women in the Church. Every corner of the world has made it clear that they want the People of God to actively pray, discern, listen, and discuss a reevaluation of women’s participation in the Church. Church leaders have specifically mentioned the possibility of restoring women deacons to parallel traditions of the ancient past.
In that spirit, we celebrated the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (9/9-10) through the inspiration of an early Catholic deacon, St. Phoebe and synodality. A deacon in the first century, St. Phoebe was mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Romans 16:1-2. Her feast day is on September 3rd.
After the 10 am Mass we had panel discussing the Synod and the role of women and then followed that with group discussions. We had over 90 permanent and student parishioners attend. It was a grand moment of synodality in practice, as folks listened to the three panelists and their experience being a woman in the Church and then we broke into small groups to share our reactions and observations. Thoughts were shared from various complementary and divergent views and respectfully listened to, as we each expanded our understanding of this complex yet important issue of recognition and participation of women in the Church.
