Scottish Catholic Observer

Approved by the Vatican, Bishop John Keenan said it would ‘serve as a guiding light’ for the future of the diocese.

In the introduction the Bishop says the two key words in the document, the fruit of a year of prayer and consultation in the diocese, are ‘evangliesaiton’ and the ‘laity’.

“We have to stop trying to save the Church and instead try to spread the Gospel,” he goes on. “The Church exists to evangelise and so we have to get rid of any structures, language or styles that get in the way of our going out to spread the Good News.”

The document said that in the face of ‘three centuries of steady de-christianisation and secularisation’ Europe has seen the Church lose its cultural influence.

“For today’s generation faith is less about being born into some religious institution and more about personal decisions made one by one,” it satates.  So to win souls we have to rediscover how to reach out and proclaim Jesus and the Gospel again to every soul as a joyful and welcoming message just like the Church did in New Testament times and for most of her history without much help from the State or current trends.”

IT also says ‘up until now we have relied on a small number of pastoral workers, mostly priests, deacons, religious sisters and lay professionals like teachers’. In future every parish will ‘explore ways of handing over leadership to parishioners’ to give the laity a greater role.

Bishop John Keenan said the document was the fruit of a ‘year of prayer, catechesis and consultation around the diocese feedback was gathered and one hundred and sixty delegates, chosen from every parish, school and diocesan group – including clergy, religious and a substantial majority of lay faithful- met in five Synod Sessions to reflect upon what the people had said and use this as the basis of their own discussion and deliberation’.

“In the final session they voted on and approved the core of our Synod Document which we believe to be the combined work of the Holy Spirit and the People of God of the Paisley Diocese,” he said. “This document, approved by the Holy See and shared with our Scottish bishops, will serve as a guiding light for our diocesan life, renewal and development in the generation ahead.

Read the full thing here.

PIC – One of the Synod discussion sessions.