What is…A
Jubilee
year?
December 27, 2024
Jubilee 2025 – a year of grace, forgiveness & hope
December 27, 2024

On the Synodal journey into the Jubilee

By Gary Tagallie
Head of the Office of Pastoral Planning and Development

We, in this Archdiocese of Port of Spain, have been gathering as a synodal church for a long time, listening to the people of God. ASSEMBLY ’77 in my memory was the first of such inclusive gathering.

In January 1977, Archbishop Anthony Pantin officially convoked ASSEMBLY ’77, although committees had been meeting and planning several months before. The theme of the Assembly was Together You are Christ’s Body, clearly reflecting a Vatican II theme of laity, with the hierarchy, as all members of the body of Christ, His Church, who needed to be more fully integrated into the life of the church, WIDENING THE TENT.

Then in 1988, the people of God were convened to “Dream” of and envision a Church that would carry us into the new millennium. Archbishop Edward Gilbert CSsR continued what his predecessor started but this time calling the Archdiocese into Synod in 2002.

Fast forward, during September 2021, during the review of the 2019-2023 Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan for Port of Spain, Pope Francis called the Synod on Synodality.

The discussions around the Pastoral Plan were suspended to make room for the synodal journey that the Church was about to embark on; not to replace the planning but to allow synodality to become integral to Archdiocesan planning, I dare say, at all levels.

The theme for the synod was For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission. It was to be a two-year long synod to culminate in the Year of Jubilee in 2025.

Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon instituted the Archdiocesan Synod team led by Dr Ruby Alleyne, in November 2021. The team began work by studying the official document prepared for the Synod, Vademecum for the Synod on Synodality issued by Rome “as a guide to support each local Church’s efforts, not as a rulebook” for this phase of the synodal journey.

At the same time the Antilles Episcopal Conference (AEC), under Bishop Clyde Harvey, moved swiftly to begin formation around synodality, its meaning and the spirituality.

Over 150 persons from across the region gathered online, as we were becoming accustomed, to study and learn about synod, synodality, and the spirituality of synodality, as well as what was required to become a synodal Church.

Mobilising participation from 61 parishes now coming out of Covid-19 pandemic lockdown was no easy task. Getting clergy and their parishioners on board to be trained in understanding the process and the conversation questions and method was a challenge.

Zoom was a saviour as over 200 faithful from parish synod teams convened in January 2022 to begin training in how to engage participants from their parishes in the conversations.

The aim was to reach a wide cross-section of practising and non-practising Catholics, youth as well as persons from other religions and those on the margins of society (poor, LGBTQUI+). Conversations were held at both the parish and diocesan levels.

The syntheses of parish and diocesan groups’ conversations were collated and discerned by the Synod team to prepare the first Archdiocesan Synod Synthesis which was submitted to the AEC for further synthesis of all the other diocesan documents.

The Port of Spain synthesis identified seven themes:

  1. 
Improving Hospitality
  2. 
Revitalising Governance and Leadership
  3. 
Strengthening Youth Engagement
  4. 
Improving Technology and Communication in Church
  5. 
Faith Formation and Invigoration – Rescuing the Lost Sheep
  6. 
Building Community, Inclusivity and Dialogue
  7. 
How we Celebrate and Worship

The first Synod Gathering on November 19, 2022, at Center Pointe Mall, Chaguanas brought together Church leaders from parishes, commissions, ecclesial groups and religious orders to pray and discern the findings of the synthesis. They chose one theme that the archdiocese should focus on for the next few years: Building Community, Inclusivity and Dialogue. It was felt that the other six themes would be naturally integrated.

Archbishop Gordon wrote his pastoral letter on the theme in December 2022. This was disseminated throughout the Archdiocese, starting with the Vicars in January 2023 and then with all clergy, to guide work in parishes.

In October 2023, the Archbishop journeyed to Rome for the first Synod of Bishops. His participation and the process used there informed the second Synod Gathering in the Archdiocese convened on November 18, 2023, at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya.

The 600-plus participants were led by Fr Peter McIsaac SJ (Director, Synodal Transformation) and team in Conversations in the Spirit on the theme Building Community, Inclusivity and Dialogue. It was also a time for the faithful to celebrate their pastors who were honoured with appreciation plaques.

In the ensuing months, the Archdiocese’s focus on formation in Christian spirituality, listening and discerning the will of God, and Conversation in the Spirit, led to a deeper understanding of synodality and steps to be followed in proceeding on the path of synodality.

It is this understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit as the “protagonist of the Synod”, as Pope Francis reminded the assembly in October 2023, guiding us towards deep listening and unity, which prepared the faithful for the next stage of the journey.

The second phase of diocesan conversations in March 2024, used the conversation in the Spirit method. Sixty facilitators volunteered to be trained by Fr McIsaac in the Conversation in the Spirit method and were asked to assist parishes in engaging their parishioners in the conversations. The second Archdiocesan Synthesis was prepared by a small Synod team, and this was submitted to the AEC in April of this year.

This 2024 Synthesis, after two years of synodality, revealed six broad areas of convergence which emerged from the conversations as priorities in our movement towards a synodal Church.

These are:

  1. Church as Community
  2. 
Prayer and Spirituality
  3. 
Learning and Formation
  4. 
Communication and Collaboration
  5. 
A Listening and Dialoguing Church
  6. 
Revitalising Ministries

At the third Synod Gathering on November 16, 2024, at the Centre of Excellence, over 700 faithful (lay, clergy) were engaged in a culturally and symbolically rich para liturgy on Reconciliation and Hope and listened to Archbishop Gordon report on the outcomes of his participation in the Second Synod of Bishops in Rome (October 2024).

As we journey into the Year of Jubilee, we enter a year of mercy as PILGRIMS of HOPE.

We reflect on, listen and discern the mission in this Archdiocese in a “rapidly changing social and cultural environment” as we journey to becoming a synodal Church.