Synodal mission:  theology, spirituality, culture

By Sharon Syriac

The marriage of theology and theatre stunned an audience on Saturday, November 16 during the Archdiocesan Synod Gathering 3 at Macoya, when 750 Church leaders gathered with Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon, to listen to what God has been saying through the people of this Archdiocese.

This marriage dramatised reconciliation as a pathway through which the Church can meet its Synod’s objective “towards deeper communion, fuller participation and more fruitful mission”, in the upcoming Jubilee Year (2025), a Year of Hope.

The opening remarks and report of the Synod in Rome included a lot of “ole talk” in rather dry academic language but this verbosity was beautifully counterbalanced by the dialect in the powerfully creative para liturgy—littered with theology, spirituality, energy, and our own rich cultural experience of Carnival.

During that para liturgy, a flag woman led the procession! A Pontius Pilate led us to taint our hands! A Washerwoman poised on stilts of Grace, Mercy and Truth, swayed and swirled, dispensing healing, inviting inclusion, and persuading change! And an innocent Child reciting Spoken Word, scattered hope in that hall!

This culturally appropriate, visually appealing spectacle, captivated and invited the audience to participate in and witness love in motion, the theme of our Conversations in the Spirit.

Para liturgy—A cleansing ritual

Ten strangers, members of the Body of Christ, crouched at a round table, draped in white. We avoided eye contact as we clasped our bags or Bibles, notebooks, or workbooks. A golden plate elevated in the middle of the table crowned a white fan centrepiece, which glistened with the words “Jubilee 2025 – Time of Reconciliation, Time of Hope.”

But I was intrigued by the round, transparent bowl below it, containing three liquid-filled plastic bottles.

A drum spoke. Its sound spilled into that hall. On stage, a young man beat a rhythm and the amplified music of five voices split through my inner chaos, matching the rhythm of the drum. A call to assemble.

An arrogant Pontius Pilate, strode centrestage. Robed in a white vestment, he stood cloaked in silent indifference. He washed his hands before us and cleared himself of all responsibility!

I looked at my own hands—strong, clean, beautiful hands. Hands, which at 55, had been scorched by life. Life has already burnt blisters into my fingertips and palms. Surely, these hands were as innocent as the child who next took the stage with his Spoken Word rendition on neglect, exclusion, and indifference.

But hearing that—I steups. Like Pilate, I cannot be blamed for any of those charges! But am I truly innocent?

When instructed to remove a small plastic bottle from the bowl, we no longer avoided the eyes of our seat-mates. Someone opened the bowl. Another opened the bottle, and we served one another, pouring red dye into each other’s hand. Tainted hands!

Red is such a pregnant colour. It is the colour of blood that Pilate claimed, he did not spill. It is the colour of pain, worn by the poor, the lost and the weary. It is the colour of my now tainted hands, which thrusts guilt towards my chest, my heart, my throat.

Our eyes embrace at that round table. We have tainted hands. Yet we walk amidst the brokenness, knowing that we cannot be absolved for the sins of indifference which pepper our lives when we ignore the migrants, turn a deaf ear to the hungry, or scurry past the homeless. We are stained by the sins we commit, just by doing nothing!

We are stained by the sins of greed, corruption, clericalism, crime, gossip, division, unforgiveness, racism, violence, the abuse of power, resistance to change, neglect of the environment, cowardice in speaking the truth, and disruption of communion and mission.

Our hands are stained by the sins we do and those we fail to do! We need cleansing! Washing!

Music punctures the air. A stunning Moko Jumbie Washerwoman dances forward. She glided on those stilts and hovered above us, costumed in a river of white! Elegant. Graceful. She is the Church in its own healing journey to accomplish Christ’s mission of unity and compassion. She invites us to wash our tainted hands.

We washed our hands over the empty bowl, together. We have conversations as we help each other with this communal task. We wash to serve. We wash to embrace. We are no longer strangers. Our wounded hands drip water into that bowl. We gaze at the red water, and I reflect on our short journey from seat-mates to wound-mates. Ah! Red is such a pregnant colour.

When a pool of red sits in the bowl before us, we are invited to pour a “magic portion” into it. I grab the last small bottle, eager to experience the magic! I pour. We stare. The red water turns clear! I laugh with joy!

Renewed, I lift my head and unified with each other and with Christ, we walk towards our mission.

Mission accomplished?

The formal sessions of the Synodal journey have ended in Rome but the collaborative synodal process continues, in a Church which wants to be seen as relating, listening, discerning and emptying itself as it tries to accomplish its mission.

In its journey towards deeper communion, fuller participation and more fruitful mission, did the Church identify any pathways that God is inviting it to follow? YES! The Church learnt that:

1. Creative expressions like our Carnival culture can be used in integrating the message for a more fruitful mission because it can take us deep within ourselves—where talks, academic theses and presentations cannot go.
2. Intentional communication is integral at all levels since the Holy Spirit can and does move through and within the Body of Christ, to make tangible connections to accomplish our individual and collective mission. Tell that to everyone within and outside the Church—to those in the rum-shops, ravines, ghettos, and gated communities!
3. To reduce disconnect, the hierarchical institutional Church needs to re-start, recharge and truly reconcile itself to women and others, backing up its ‘listening’ with action and not just lip service, in an institution that calls for inclusivity but continues to erect barriers against women, who simultaneously belong to its periphery and to its centre.

In this rapidly changing social and cultural environment, the Church must clearly redefine its mission and align its approach, language, and techniques to suit its purpose and its audience, if it hopes to forge ahead as one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.