“Synodality starts with hearing from the whole People of God. A Church that teaches must be firstly a Church that listens. Consulting all members of the Church is vital because, as the Second Vatican Council reminded us, the faithful as a whole are anointed by the Holy Spirit...
What characterizes a synodal path is the role of the Holy Spirit. We listen, we discuss in groups, but above all we pay attention to what the Spirit has to say to us. That is why I ask everyone to speak frankly and to listen carefully to others because there, too, the Spirit is speaking. Open to changes and new possibilities, the Synod is for everyone an experience of conversion.”
Pope Francis (Let Us Dream, 2020)
With the conclusion of the continental phase the consultation also ends but not the dialogue with the People of God.
The General Secretariat of the Synod expresses its heartfelt gratitude to all those who have engaged in this process with great seriousness and enthusiasm. The Continental Stage led to a greater awareness of the importance of walking together in the Church as a communion of communities, strengthening the dialogue between Particular Churches and the Universal Church.
The Consultation Phase Concludes
On Friday, 31 March 2023, the Continental Stage, that is, the second stage of the synodal process, officially ended and with it the time of broad-based consultation of the People of God. The inclusion of a time to listen, dialogue and discern among the Churches of the same geographical area after the Local Stage (diocesan and national) represented a new feature that was introduced by this synodal process.
This new stage was not confined to the mere celebration of seven continental assemblies, but was a real process of listening and discernment on a continental level. The question that formed the basis for these assemblies was the same and unique question of the synodal process as a whole, namely: How is our 'walking together' which enables the Church to proclaim the Gospel in accord with the mission entrusted to her, being achieved today at the different levels (from local to universal)?
The Consultation Phase
DIOCESAN PHASE October 2021 - May 2022
The objective of this phase was to consult the People of God so that the synodal process was carried out through listening to all of the baptised. This consultation concluded with a pre-synodal meeting, the culmination of diocesan discernment. In the Auckland, the diocesan phase took place between October 2021 and May 2022 with responses received until 13 May. The synthesis document was then sent to the New Zealand Bishop's Conference.
FIRST PART OF CONTINENTAL PHASE Oct 29 - Dec 8 2022
This phase of the process is a further listening to the responses of the universal Church. The Oceania Church will gather responses to through the five bishops' conference including the NZCBC.
The first stage was the New Zealand Church reflecting at diocesan and national level on the Continental Phase documents. Auckland submitted a reflection that then informed the National response.
LISTENING AND REFLECTING CONTINUES
The Aotearoa response was part of the material used by members of the discernment and writing group tasked with drafting the Oceania response. That group, which met for five days in January, synthesised reports from the four bishops’ conferences and the Eastern Catholic Churches in Oceania responding to the Working Document for the Continental Stage, Enlarge the Space of Your Tent.
The draft report was considered in an atmosphere of prayer and reflection during the FCBCO’s February assembly in Fiji, before final amendments were made. This Oceania response document was submitted in mid April 2023.
The Oceania response and the other continental documents will inform the preparation of the working document, or Instrumentum laboris, for the first of two sessions of the XVI General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October. The second session is scheduled for October 2024.
CONTINENTAL PHASE -Ocenania Reflects and Responds
In January representatives from across Oceania met to prayerful discern on the response our local Church would make to the Continental document. Included in this group was Dr Therese Lautua a member of the Manurewa parish. In this short video she and others who participated in this process reflect on the experience and their hopes for the Synod going forward.
Gathering of Bishops in Fiji
We have concluded the culminating moment of the Continental Stage: the continental synodal assemblies. The Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania assembled in Fiji for this next stage of prayerful reflection and response. A gathering its president hoped would turn “a new page” in how people in this region can be Church "walking together" sharing the mission of Christ. Joining the New Zealand bishops at the Synod were Anne Dickinson a member of the Oceania Synod Writing Group, Pa Gerard Burns advisor to the FCBCO, and Siobhan Dilly the NZCBC Executive Officer.
As the gathering came to an end, the Bishop took time to reflect on the listening they had done and what that means going forward which is presented in this short video.
To find out more about what happen you can find a particular section on the Ocenania assembly at https://synod2023.org.
CONTINENTAL PHASE - The Response of Aotearoa
The Synod on Synodality has reached the continental phase. The continental phase for Oceania involves the countries and territories covered by the Bishops Conferences of New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific.
On 27 October the Holy See released the Document for the Continental Stage, which is the result of the discernment of all the responses received from around the world.
We then carried out a discernment process in Aotearoa New Zealand on this document. The results of this discernment were integrated with similar documents from the other Bishops Conferences of Oceania and a gathering in Melbourne. The resulting draft is then considered by the bishops of the region at the Assembly of the Federation of Bishops Conferences of Oceania in Suva in February. They will finalise a synthesis from Oceania to go to the Synod Office in March.
The discernment process on the Document for the Continental Stage took place between 19 October and 5 December, so that the New Zealand response could be ready by 22 December.
Reading the Diocesan Response
The Synod on Synodality is a process by which the Church listens. To all voices. As a result, the synthesis of all that has been heard in the diocese is complex and at times contradictory.
When reading this document, you are invited to do so with an open and compassionate heart. It may contain ideas that you disagree with. That is OK it is the voice of ‘the other’.
Instructions from Rome regarding the synthesis process note that:
The purpose of the synthesis is not to present a chronology of the stages of the synodal process that were followed, nor to draw up a report that lists indiscriminately all the points that emerged during the work. Rather, as the culmination of a communal spiritual discernment, the synthesis aims to gather and express the fruits of the synodal process in a way that is understandable even to those who did not participate, indicating how the Holy Spirit’s call to the Church has been understood in the local context. Rome March 2022
The Diocesan Process
The Diocesan Consultation phase has concluded with the submission of the diocesan response to the New Zealand Bishop's Conference.
The Church recognises that the timing of this consultation process was not perfect. For the Church of Auckland, we were in lockdown and then limited in our face-to-face meeting capacity. Therefore, we are extremely grateful to all those who gathered either in person or through technology to listen to others and respond. This is not the end of the Synod process. Being a listening Church is our way of being. The practice we have had in participating will assist us going forward to be synodal.
Every session of the Second Vatican Council began with the prayer Adsumus Sancte Spiritus, the first word of the original Latin, meaning, “We stand before You, Holy Spirit”. This prayer has been historically used at Councils, Synods and other Church gatherings for hundreds of years, and is attributed to Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560 - 4 April 636). This version is a contemporary one written in a syntax that makes community reading easier. It has been translated into Te Reo by the diocesan Vicar for Māori.
We stand before You, Holy Spirit, e te Wairua Tapu
as we gather together in Your name.
With You alone to guide us,
make Yourself at home in our hearts, o mātou ngākau
Teach us the way we must go and how we are to pursue it.
We are weak and sinful; do not let us promote disorder.
Do not let ignorance lead us down the wrong path
nor partiality influence our actions.
Let us find in You our unity kōtahitanga
so that we may journey together to eternal life te oranga tonutanga
and not stray from the way of truth te ara o te pono
and what is right te ara o te tika.
All this we ask of You,
who are at work in every place and time,
in the communion of the Father te Matua and the Son te Tamaiti,
forever and ever.
Amen.
E te Wairua Tapu, ka tū mātou ki tōu aroaro,
i a mātou e hui kōtahi i runga i tōu ingoa.
Ko koe anake hei arahi i a mātou,
Noho mai koe ki o mātou ngākau;
Whakaakona mātou ki te huarahi e tika ai te haere,
ā, me pehea e taea e mātou te whai atu.
He ngoikore mātou, he hunga hara anō hoki;
Kaua mātou e kawea i te mate koretake.
Kaua e tukua te kuware e arahi i a mātou ki te huarahi o te hē
Kaua anō hoki te mariu e whakaaweawe ki a mātou mahi.
Kia kite mātou i ta mātou kōtahitanga i roto i a koe
kia haere ngātahi ai mātou ki te oranga tonutanga
ā, kaua hoki mātou e kotiti kē i te ara o te pono
me te ara tika.
Ka īnoi mātou ki a koe,
nāu e ora nei i ngā wahi katoa me ngā wā katoa,
i te kōtahitanga o te Matua me te Tamaiti
mō āke āke. Āmene.