The Synod journey at St Paul’s Church in Couva began in earnest shortly after Synod ended in January and has not really slowed down.

Right now the Parish Implementation Team (PIT) is gearing up to launch a series of exciting activities in September.

Denise Scott of the PIT tells us the activities are designed to reach out to the entire parish and engage everyone in the mission of creating a civilisation of love. These include:
• Creative productions which share what it means to be Catholic with parishioners in the pews. The content of each piece should find reference in at least three of the following sources – Bible, Catechism, Creed, Mass, Prayers of the Church, Sacramentary. These are carded for October/November.
• Four-day retreat during the week of Advent on the following themes – The Eucharist as a Source and Summit of our Faith; We Redeemed as a Community, rather than as Individuals and A Call to Radical Discipleship.
• It will culminate with a reconciliation service on the theme “Vocation to be Catholic”.

To ensure a successful implementation programme, the parish made it a point to prepare its parishioners for the mission of implementation. PIT’s first project was deep discussions on the presentations made by Monsignors Allan Ventour and Jason Gordon and Fr Joe Harris during synod on the three pastoral priorities. This was done on three consecutive weekends.

These sessions generated vibrant discussions among the parishioners across all age groups and because of the drama talents of St Paul’s parishioners, the sessions, while being enjoyable, were nonetheless meaningful.

St Paul’s has also established its own Synod Corner at the church which provides regular updates on the Synod journey.

Last month a survey on the theme “Vocation to be Catholic” was conducted which will serve to better appreciate parishioners’ perspectives while at the same time guiding our implementation programme.

Also in July, all members of groups within the parish were invited to a two-hour interactive session on – that theme again – “Vocation to be Catholic”. Ms Scott described the session as “electrifying”. It included a videotaped talk by Monsignor Robert Llanos. The session was facilitated by Sr Theresa Vialva, HF and Corinne Mohammed, both members of St Paul’s implementation team.

At the end of the session two commitments were made:
• Participants were to share the transformational learning on what it means to Catholic with their own families and other group members;
• Two repeat sessions were to be held, one in August and the other on September 13.

Material for Synod Corner can be sent to ]]> ]]>This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ]]>