Working Document for the Continental Stage

Enlarge the space of your heart

Enlarge the space of your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly, lengthen your ropes and make firm your pegs.    (Isaiah 54:2)

The Working Document for the Continental Stage (DCS) of the 2021- 2024 Synod on Synodality helps us to discern more deeply the movement of the Holy Spirit in our time.

This document, presented in the Vatican the first of November, 2022 highlights a wide range of issues that emerged during the local sessions and serves to strengthen the unity of the emerging vision, in its global context.

Concerns raised in this Document include:

• Desire for greater inclusion with repeated reference to marginalized people including people who are divorced, disabled, undervalued, LGBTQ people…
• Most submissions also included a call for greater participation by all Catholics in the liturgy to reflect local cultures and less concentration on the celebrant.

Overall, the document gives us an insight into what people from around the universal Church are thinking about their communion, participation and mission in the Church, at the beginning of this third millennium.

To view this document please click here

Extracts From Working Document for the Continental Stage (DCS)

Introduction
Globally, participation exceeded all expectations…

Chapter One: The Experience of the Synodal Journey
The reports sent by Churches across the world give voice to the joys, hopes, sufferings and wounds of Christ’s disciples.

“Largely what emerges from the fruits seeds and weeds of synodality are voices that have great love for the Church, voices that dream of a Church of credible witnesses, a Church that is inclusive, open and welcoming Family of God.” (EC Zimbabwe)

“People of God remarked on the uniqueness of speaking freely and being heard in organized conversations that were open-ended and attentive with guidance of the Holy Spirit.”  (EC Pakistan)

Chapter Two: Listening to the Scriptures
Enlarge the space of your tent…. Listened to today these words of Isaiah invite us to imagine the Church, similarly as a tent, indeed as the tent of meeting, which accompanied the people on their journey through the desert, called to stretch out, therefore, but also to move. At its centre, stands the tabernacle, that is, the presence of the Lord.

Enlarging the tent requires welcoming others into it, making room for their diversity.

Chapter Three: Towards a Missionary Synodal Church
In Chapter Three some of the critical questions and concerns are considered. These include:

• “the meagre presence of the voice of young people…”
• “Listening to Those who feel neglected and excluded”
• “The Church’s mission is to make Christ present..”
• “The People of God express a deep desire to hear the cry of the poor and that of the earth…”
• “A further theme common to many reports is the weakness of deep ecumenical engagement and the desire to learn how to breathe new life into the ecumenical journey…”
• “Walking together with all Christians”
• “Beyond clericalism”
• “Rethinking women’s participation”
• “Structures and institutions”
• “Synodal life and  liturgy”
• “The dream is of a Church that more fully lives a Christological paradox: boldly proclaiming its authentic teaching while at the same time offering a witness of radical inclusion and acceptance through its pastoral and discerning accompaniment.”  (EC England and Wales)
• “Instead of behaving like gatekeepers trying to exclude others from the table, we need to do more to make sure that people know that everyone can find a place and a home here.” (parish group USA)

 Chapter Four : The Next Steps
“Looking to the future of the synodal process requires considering two very different time horizons. The first is the long-term horizon, in which synodality takes the form of a perennial call to personal conversion and reform of the Church. The second, clearly at the service of the first, is one that focuses our attention on the events of the Continental Stage that we are experiencing.

Chapter Four offers insights on:

• A journey of conversion and reform
• Methodology for the Continental Stage

Comment

This Working Document for the Continental Stage of the Synodal process is full of inspiration, life and hope.

It is educational, insightful and a valuable resource.

The Document gathers diverse global voices and serves to kindle the flame of universal communion, participation and mission.

 

Communications