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Mid-Term Synod Assembly
Four hundred and seventy-eight delegates, representing all sectors of the Archdiocese of Bombay, gathered at St. Pius College, Goregaon, on 25th and 26th January 2006 to review the implementation of the 2001 Bombay Archdiocesan Synod. While much had been achieved since the 2001 Synod, the delegates felt that the Church has to move forward more determinedly towards realizing the vision of the Synod.
An earnest need was felt for a holistic spirituality. By this is meant catering to the material, human and spiritual needs of the human person. “This categorization should to be viewed as an aid for focusing our efforts. Ultimately the growth of every Parishioner needs to be a holistic growth”.
A holistic spirituality is rooted in prayer, silence and contemplation. “Different methods of prayer need to be learnt and encouraged”. “Silence is appealing but we need to emphasize silence as a means of interiorization.”
A holistic spirituality flows into service. It is thus an “incarnational” spirituality: it takes flesh; it is visible, in service. “We need to consider the social teachings of the Church.” “Liturgy and Life should be closely linked.” “We need to go beyond the physical Church Walls”.
As a community, we do not seem to have a sufficient knowledge of our faith. “And therefore we need to establish a Parish Bible Cell”. A Parish Liturgical Team needs to be established in every Parish. “More attention has to be paid to all language groups in our liturgical celebrations”
Anchored in our faith, we dialogue with people of other faiths in various areas and at different levels. This entails joining hands with people of other faiths to address the problems of civic and political life. We need to understand and appreciate the cultures and languages of people of other faiths. It is thus a challenge to go beyond ourselves. The “SCCs need to become SHC”. Mindsets need to change in order to bring a sense of community into the SCCs”.
The various Archdiocesan bodies engaged in fostering spirituality – the Biblical, Liturgical and Dialogue Commissions as well as the Committee for Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration (PEACE) – have to keep in mind this goal of a holistic spirituality.
To achieve this
goal, these bodies have planned certain strategies:
Establishment of Biblical, Liturgical and Inter-Religious Dialogue cells in
every parish, and organizing orientation and training programmes of various
types to equip people to run these cells. In particular:
a) The Bible Commission will encourage each parish to depute people to attend
the Ministry of the Word and the Catholic Bible Institute. It will set up an
office for the Archdiocesan Biblical Committee to undertake various initiatives.
b) The Liturgy Commission will focus on connecting Liturgy with Life.
c) The Dialogue Commission will encourage each parish, on the occasion of national
feast days, to establish cultural celebrations with people of other faiths.
d) The Diocesan Catechetical Centre will aim at getting trained people operating
in the parish itself, and in order to overcome the problem of time, it will
explore the possibility of ‘crash courses’ for our catechists.
e) PEACE will utilize the Eucharistic Chapels to foster silent contemplative
prayer and, at the same time, make the faithful aware of the deeper implications
of what it mans to be Christian.
f) SCCs will increase the stress on clustering of families so that a greater
sense of community and bonding is achieved.
Compiled from the concluding statement of the Mid term synod assembly.
We further like
to inform the readers that our LOGO, has everything built up together in it
- Pray, Live & Serve - therefore we call on every Christian to make his/her
own effort to be an integrated person and to move ahead in making Archdiocese
of Bombay truly “A Home and School of Communion”.