Join a Synod Small Group at your Parish this Fall!

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Year 3 of the Synod Has Begun

Year 3 (2021-2022): The Church Engages

Fall 2021: Parish Consultation Process with Small Groups

  • Small groups meet in every parish to learn, pray, and discuss the Focus Areas.
  • Parish feedback on the Focus Areas will help determine the Synod Topics.

January/February 2022: Deanery Consultation Process

  • Pastors and parish representatives gather to learn, pray, and discuss the Focus Areas.
  • Deanery feedback informs the Parish Consultation Process.

June 2022: Archdiocesan Synod Assembly (Pentecost Weekend)

  • Approximately 500 appointed delegates (including two from each parish) gather to learn, pray, and discuss the Synod Topics and recommend pastoral priorities to Archbishop Hebda.
  • After considering the Synod recommendations, Archbishop writes a Pastoral Letter (Nov. – Feast of Christ the King), leading to a Pastoral Plan to move our Archdiocese into the future.

If you do one thing this fall… 

Help Archbishop determine priorities under each Synod focus area, with Synod Small Groups!

In his August 13, 2020 article for The Catholic Spirit, Archbishop Hebda announced three focus areas for the Archdiocesan Synod. He then unpacked each of the focus areas with hard-hitting questions, such as:

  1. What can we do to make parishes more welcoming and accessible?
  2. How can we offer meaningful life-long formation for discipleship?
  3. How can we better assist parents in forming children as disciples who know and love Jesus and his Church?

In Synod Small Groups this fall, you help determine the response of our local Church. In one session per week for six weeks, you will:

  • Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
  • Experience the compelling truth of the Catholic faith in today’s culture context.
  • Examine questions under each focus area, sharing perspectives among a small group of sisters and brothers in Christ.
  • Weigh in on how we as a Church might respond to these questions, to help Archbishop determine priorities.

To make sure all Catholics have an opportunity to participate, every pastor in the archdiocese has been asked to host Synod Small Groups this fall. If just 100 gather in small groups at each parish, Archbishop Hebda will hear from nearly 20,000 Catholics!

Be part of this historic moment now, and the future of our local Church. Join in your parish’s Synod Small Groups beginning in September!

Watch for more to come on Synod Small Groups, plus find all video series from Year 2 of the Synod, at archspm.org/synod.