In less than 72 hours, the big Synod event of the year will take place at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, when representatives of the 60-odd parishes in the Archdiocese, as well as religious and ecclesial communities and the schools, will present their Pastoral Plans to His Grace, Archbishop Edward Gilbert.

For clarity of the process, we will this week, reiterate the protocol to be observed during the special Mass, which commemorates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the patronal feast of our Cathedral.

Delivery of the Pastoral Plans will take place immediately following the Prayers of the Faithful, when a chosen representative from each parish will walk to the sanctuary and place the parish plan into the appropriate vicariate basket. There will be eight baskets, one each for the five vicariates and three others to accommodate the religious, another for the ecclesial communities, commissions and departments and a third for our schools.

In the days following the presentation, the plans would be passed over to the vicars and their teams for study, and they will be assessed for content, commonalities and weaknesses. Following this, action would be taken to assist wherever necessary in scheduling training and implementation of plans.

**********
The final meeting of the Synod Implementation Team (SIT) took place at Archbishop’s House Tuesday, Dec 1, during which a critical look was taken at what had been done during the past year and initial discussions of what is planned for next year.

The new year will be dominated with events surrounding the first pastoral priority – The New Evangelisation.

******

To resuscitate the Called to be Catholic theme of a few weeks ago and keeping it alive in the New Year, the communications arm of the Archdiocese – Catholic Media Services Ltd. (CAMSEL) – will have available on sale from this weekend polo shirts emblazoned with the Synod logo in colours of gold, red, black, purple, khaki and Kelly green.

There are also incentives for parishes willing to sell the polo shirts, which are priced at $65 each.