All are welcome to join this gathering of the Global Ecclesial Synod Council on Friday, January 26, or Saturday, January 27. Sister Filo Hirota, member of the Synod Organizing Committee, will share her experience of the 2023 Synod, her anticipation for the 2024 Synod, and her insights into how to have the issues of deepest concern to us included in the working document for the 2024 Synod in Rome.
To find the times for you in your locale, click on our universal calendar now. To join, go to
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The First Ever Virtual Conversation in the Spirit
Join with fellow Christian Life Community members on January 30 for the first ever virtual Conversation in the Spirit, the same process used in CLC groups and at the recent Synod Assembly in Rome. Participants will gather in small, facilitated groups to listen, discern, and respond to the consultation questions posed by the 2023 Synod General Assembly.
During this interim year, we are encouraged to practice Conversations in the Spirit and share the experience with others. Join us to learn how this works and carry it back into your own communities. For more information about the event, visit www.ignatianencounterministry.org . To find the times for you in your locale, click on our universal calendar now. This first session is geared to the US but more are to come for all parts of the world. To register, use the QR code or click here. Once you’re registered, materials will be sent out to you with questions that will be raised and discussed during the session. If this process interests you, training sessions will be offered for anyone wishing to become a facilitator.
Join a Synodal Gathering
We have received guidelines from the Synod office in Rome that will help lead members of local dioceses, parishes, and Small Christian Communities (SCCs) through the process of setting up synodal gatherings. There, we asked to call on the Spirit to open our minds and hearts as we share the important issues that we believe will help transform the Church into the kind of community that Jesus would want in today’s world. Click here to read these guidelines. As the People of God co-responsible for our Church communities, speak up to let your bishop or pastor to let him know that you want to have such a synodal gathering and that you want to be part of it.
Start a synod of your own or join us to participate in one
It is incumbent on all of us to ensure that the issues that deeply concern us will be included in the working document for the 2024 Synod. We can no longer just talk about needed change in our Church.
We now have the opportunity to do something about it. To prepare for this, we encourage you to call a few people together and begin small synodal gatherings of your own. There are many things you can accomplish by bringing people together.
Speaking of the 2023 Synod report, undersecretary Sister Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ said: “The synthesis report creates a roadmap for discussion to take place around the world over the next eleven months. That report also has many concrete proposals and some of them can already be implemented. “You don’t have to wait for change to come from Rome.” This statement coming directly from the Synod office is most encouraging. If we need not wait for Rome but can begin some aspects of the synod in our own communities, let’s not wait. It is as simple as calling a few people you know who’d be interested in seeing the Catholic Church brought into the modern world. Call on all kinds of people – active members of your parish, people who have long since given up on the Church and dropped out, members of other religious denominations, call on everyone.
Use your time gathered with others to discern (1) what you can implement in your own community and begin making plans; (2) what are the issues that you feel deeply about that you want to have included in the working document and be discussed at the 2024 Synod.
Click here for a few guiding steps to help you begin your own small synodal gathering . To prepare, here is the English translation of The 41-page synthesis report . Following the guidelines offered from the Synod office, you may want to focus on key parts of this report or do so in more than one session. Or if you prefer , here is a summary of the document that came from the 2023 Synod. Spread the word that you are bringing a small group together. Many are unaware that a consequential synod has even taken place. Refer often to our CCRI website www.CatholicChurchReformIntl.org to stay up on Synod news and events.
If you’re unable to find or begin your own synodal gathering, join CCRI to participate
Beginning the first of the year, CCRI has been facilitating monthly gatherings for all who have no other way to participate. These will be held at the following times in February:
- The 1st Saturday of every month next on February 3, 2024
- The 1st Monday of every month next on February5, 2024 for women
- the 2nd Friday of every month next on February 9, 2024
- the second Saturday of every month next on February 10, 2024
- the third Wednesday of every month next on February 21, 2024
To find the times for you in your locale, click on our universal calendar now. Save this in a special place so you can access it anytime and learn what is happening worldwide and how and when to join. This calendar will show you the time of the meeting in your own time zone.
Your donations are most appreciated
YOUR GIFT – IN ANY AMOUNT – IS PRICELESS
When you make a donation to support our cause, you join with others who are investing in restoring our Church to what Jesus intended. If you are part of the movement to stop contributing to your local parish and/or diocese, you may want to take advantage of the end-of-year tax deductions by contributing to CCRI in its stead. The dollars we receive are used to run our programs and to reach a broad spectrum of the People of God. We are focused on reaching out to the Faithful, reform activists, young adults as well as those who feel abandoned by the Church, to mention just a few. Your personal contributions in offering your suggestions and your donations are most appreciated.
To remain silent is to be complicit with our Church as it is now. Let’s all do our part to step out of the pews, to come together and speak. But none of us can do this alone. We need to join our voices together and be a synodal Church to stay open of what is happening with each stage of the Synod from now through 2024. Becoming a synodal Church will only happen if we, the People of God, stay involved in the process.
On behalf of the CCRI steering committee,
Rene Reid CCRI director