Catholics ‘can learn a lot’ from Anglican synodality, says archbishop

‘Pope Francis emphasised the strong, inseparable bond between the joy of the Gospel on the one hand and the way we are practising dialogue on the other,’ Archbishop Terlinden said on the opening day of the Church of England General Synod on 10 July.

Archbishop Luc Terlinden of Mechelen-Brussel, Belgium, said that “Roman Catholics can learn a lot” from the “long-standing traditions of synodality” in the Anglican Communion, while attending the General Synod in York as an ecumenical guest.

“It is not a coincidence that within the Roman Catholic Church, synodality is brought to the forefront now under the guidance of Pope Leo.

“Pope Leo said in June to the cardinals, ‘I have to listen if I want to guide the church. I have to learn if I want to teach.’ I am here to listen and to learn. And I feel privileged to be here with you.

“It shows our deep connections, not only at the level of dialogue during celebrations, visits and synods, but first of all at the level of the Gospel, our common ground.”

Archbishop Terlinden said he was standing in the “traditions of dialogue in the footsteps” of Cardinal Mercier and Lord Halifax, who led unofficial discussions aimed at exploring the reunion of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches in the 1920s.

“If we can call each other brothers and sisters, then this means that we all have the same Father, that we all are called by the same Jesus Christ to give testimony of our faith, and that we all are blessed with the grace of the power of the same Holy Spirit,” Archbishop Terlinden continued.

“May God bless us all as brothers and sisters of each other at the service of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

In his presidential address, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell said the vision of the Synod starting in 2020 was about “putting Jesus at the centre”.

“To remember that this is God’s Church, not ours, and it was therefore, first and foremost a call for a spiritual and theological renewal of our life in Christ. 

“A spiritual renewal, whereby we commit ourselves afresh to being a people of prayer (and therefore a prayerful Synod), but also a theological and ecclesiological renewal where we pay attention to knowing and learning from Jesus and to re-vision and shape his Church as his body, where every part is precious, vital and has a contribution to make. 

“This focus on Jesus and gathering around Jesus and learning from him has been well received and led directly to two other objectives that have also gone down rather well and are in clear, but uneven, ways starting to bear fruit, namely: to be a church of missionary disciples; and to be a church which is younger and more diverse.” 

On the first day of the Synod members approved a motion affirming neurodivergent people as a “blessing to the Church” and calling for measures to remove barriers to their “flourishing in ministry and church life”.

These included neurodivergent-led training, encouraging every diocese to appoint neurodiversity champions, and urging churches to listen and respond to the experiences of neurodivergent people.

Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally spoke of her experiences growing up with dyslexia at a time when there was “very little support”.

“I have learnt that I am made in the image of God, and that I am called as somebody who is dyslexic, not despite dyslexia, and sometimes because of dyslexia,” she said.

The Synod also heard a presentation on promoting unity in the nation, in which the Bishop of Southampton Rhiannon King spoke on the unrest in Southampton following the murder of Henry Nowak and the Bishop of Bradford spoke on responding to riots outside asylum hotels in Leeds last year. 

The Synod voted on 13 July to “hear” and “engage with” the voices of Palestinian Christians expressed in the “Kairos II” document, with Archbishop Mullally calling for a “new and active solidarity” for all the peoples of the Holy Land.

Church of England ‘hears’ Palestinian plea and condemns antisemitism and anti-Muslim hostility

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