SynodWatch Series on the Working Document
FutureChurch hosts a 3-part online series exploring the Instrumentum Laboris (Working Document) for the October 2023 Assembly of the Synod on Synodality which was released on June 20, 2023.
Jump to:
- Session 1 – A Communion that Radiates
- Session 2 – Co-Responsibility in Mission
- Session 3 – Participation, Governance and Authority
Session 1: A Communion that Radiates
This first session covers the overall structure of the document and discusses the first priority addressed in the document – “A Communion that Radiates.” FutureChurch co-directors, Russ Petrus and Deborah Rose, are joined by:
- Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director of New Ways Ministry, and
- Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director of DignityUSA
who both help us look at the document from the perspective LGBTQ+ Catholics. - Kimberly Lymore, D.Min, Director, of the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program at Catholic Theological Union and Convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium will offer perspectives on what the document means for Catholics of Color.
Session 2: Co-responsibility in Mission
This second session covers the second priority in the document – “Co-responsibility in Mission.” FutureChurch co-directors, Russ Petrus and Deborah Rose, are joined by Kate McElwee and Luke Hansen, who will offer their insights and commentary.
- Kate McElwee is the executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, a grassroots-driven movement that promotes activism, dialogue and prayerful witness to call for women’s ordination and gender equity in the Roman Catholic Church. Kate earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and a Certificate in Buddhist Studies from Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley Massachusetts, USA, and a Masters degree, with distinction from the School of Oriental and African Studies in (SOAS – University of London) in International Human Rights Law.
- Luke Hansen is a campus minister and religious studies teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco. He has a master’s degree in social philosophy from Loyola University Chicago, a Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Luke has worked as a journalist, prison chaplain and advocate for social and ecclesial change. He is a former co-director of the Discerning Deacons project, which engages Catholics in the question of women and diaconate. He also worked as an editor for the Jesuit journals America and La Civiltà Cattolica. He has reported from the Vatican, Honduras, El Salvador and Guantánamo Bay, and he has won several awards from the Catholic Press Association for his writing.
Session 3: Participation, Governance, and Authority
This third session covered the third priority in the working document – “Participation, Governance, and Authority” FutureChurch co-directors, Russ Petrus and Deborah Rose, were joined by Sr. Lynn Jarrell, OSU; Ellie Hidalgo; and Rev. Joseph Healey, MM who offered their own insights and commentary from their experience and expertise.
- Deborah Rose provides an overview of who will be attending and voting at the October Assembly.
- Sr. Lynn Jarrell, OSU, a canon lawyer, addressed how canon law could be used to promote synodality.
- Ellie Hidalgo, co-director of Discerning Deacons, will discussed her recent journey to the Amazon to learn how synodality is taking shape there.
- Rev. Joseph Healey, MM spoke about synodality in the African context from his own decades-long experience as a Maryknoll missioner – mostly in Tanzania and Kenya – in a number of capacities.