“What is the Lord Calling Us to Be and Do?
St Joseph's Engaging with the Synodal Vision”
In 2021, Pope Francis launched the “Synod on Synodality,” offering the global Church an opportunity to engage collectively in a dialogue about its life and mission. The process commenced with group meetings at local parishes and progressed to two Synods (October 2023 and 2024) held in Rome.
A "Final Document" was produced by the Second Synod in October 2024 and subsequently incorporated into the Church’s teachings by Pope Francis.
What is “synodality”?
“In simple and concise terms, synodality is a path of spiritual renewal and structural reform that enables the Church to be more participatory and missionary so that it can walk with every man and woman, radiating the light of Christ”. Final Document, Section 28
St Joseph’s embarked on its synodal journey with a listening exercise in January 2022, gaining additional momentum following Bishop David’s Northampton Diocesan Assembly, “Pilgrims of Hope”, in July 2023.
After our Parish Listening Exercise, the following initiatives were implemented:
- Providing support and maintaining connection with vulnerable parishioners who are ill, housebound, or residing in care homes through home visits and monthly “home packs” to keep them informed about parish life.
- Engaging young adults and teenagers through initiatives such as the Youth Choir and monthly Youth Mass.
- Extending our approach to family-based catechesis in preparation for sacraments to include Communion and Confirmation.
- Offering opportunities for spiritual formation, such as monthly Emmaus Scripture Talks with distinguished speakers (recorded and available on YouTube), Advent and Lent Retreats, occasional Holy Hours, and celebrations of Carmelite Feast Days.
- Organising parish pilgrimages, including Walsingham (June 2024, led by Fr Jerome) and Lisieux and Northern France (September 2024, led by Fr John).
- Participating in Bishop David’s Northampton Diocesan Assembly “Pilgrims of Hope” on 15 July 2023, ahead of which our parish hosted the Diocesan Prayer Vigil.
- Restoration of pre-pandemic practice with two readers at Sunday Mass, recruitment of new readers, and revision of the Readers Handbook.
- Reinstatement of receiving the Precious Blood from the chalice, identification and training of new Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (EMHC), updating the EMHC Handbook and training sessions.
- “Participation Sunday” in September 2024 featured a comprehensive review and update of the parish website to reflect current ministries, groups, and organisations, resulting in over 45 parishioners volunteering for a variety of roles and activities.
- Reintroduction of regular Eucharistic Adoration after Thursday morning Mass and on Monday evenings.
- Formation of a new Pastoral Leadership Team.
A new Pastoral Leadership Team (PLT) was formed in September 2025. These are our parish representatives:
Fr Bob - Co-Chairman
Paul - Co-Chairman
Fr John - Carmelite Representative
Bronwyn - Secretary
Maureen - Prayer Lead
Liam
David
Thabo
Gary
Shailesh
Bola
Kathy
Pastoral Leadership Team Core Values
- Rooted in prayer
- Guided by mission
- Reading signs of the times
- Transparent and accountable
The new shared responsibility in pastoral leadership requires developing new skills and practices, particularly attentive listening to both the Holy Spirit and to one another.
The PLT collaborates with the Parish Priest and Carmelite community to make decisions concerning parish pastoral care and outreach. Meetings are held monthly, adopting a structure characterised by silence, prayer, listening and discernment.
Each session begins with an Opening Prayer – Lectio Divina – and utilises the “Conversation in the Spirit” method for key agenda items.
“Conversation in the Spirit” is an ancient ecclesiastical practice, revitalised through the synod process, facilitating deep listening among participants and to the Holy Spirit.
Meetings conclude with a brief Examen, reflecting on God’s movement during the meeting and identifying key learning points.
St Joseph's has signed up to the Northampton Diocese Pastoral Council Accompaniment Programme, which offers support during the first year to the newly formed PLT. This programme is designed to assist new groups form a prayerful and purpose filled community that unites around a vision and can move listening into action.
- September – December 2025 is focused on getting to know one another and developing the skills to become a living faith community. The Pastoral Leadership Team (PLT) started with a retreat which focused on developing as a prayerful community, reflecting on what is the purpose of a “pastoral council”, exploring questions using the Conversation in the Spirit structure and learning more about each other.
- January – April 2026 is focused on creating a vision for the future for St Joseph’s. Within this phase, the vision process will be used to open the conversation within the parish community to consider where God is currently and where God might be calling us to be.
- May – July 2026 is focused on putting the created vision into practice by identifying actions/strategies in our parish community. Parishioners will be invited to help and participate to implement change for the community.
The Parish Leadership Team maintains accountability and transparency to the parish.