It does not take long for the natural and supernatural surge of hope that comes with the beginning of a New Year to be challenged by the realities of life.

While no one can predict the precise nature of the future, the Archdiocese must be ready to face whatever unanticipated challenges may confront it in 2007.

As a living body, the Archdiocese must also be prepared to process an agenda that deals with the ongoing issue of building Church. 

The concluding section of this column will list the specific points on the Archdiocesan agenda for 2007.  However, at the outset, I want to state that, in general, this year will be a year of preparation for the 2008 Synod.

A bit of history

After a year of preparation, the Archdiocese had a Synod in 2003. Similar to the Second Vatican Council it looked at every aspect of Church life. Similar to the process that followed Vatican Council II which led to a significant restructuring of the Church Universal, after the Synod of 2003 the Archdiocese of Port of Spain was also restructured.

More and more people were involved in the government and ministries of the Archdiocese. There was an obvious effort to bring about a gender balance to the departments of the archdiocese. The departments of the archdiocese were given two years to develop their own agendas.

Personnel, both clerical and lay, began to be sent for studies to acquire the skills and the certification to administer their departments. A policy of succession planning was introduced so there would be a natural and ongoing turnover of leadership in the archdiocese.

As expected, the second session of the Synod in 2005 was much more specific than the first Synod session in 2003. The delegates were much more familiar with the methodology of process and they had two years of experience participating in Church governance and ministry on the archdiocesan, vicariate and parish levels.

A new instrument of collaboration was instituted:  the annual parish and the annual vicariate assemblies. These assemblies considered matters pertaining to the internal life of the parishes and vicariates.  They also monitored how well the Synod resolutions were being implemented in their parishes and vicariates. 

Post Synod implementation

Some background: Once a month, I meet individually with each department head of the archdiocese and every six weeks I chair a meeting of all the department heads of the archdiocese.

In the large group meeting, each department head becomes familiar with the pastoral service of the other departments and through dialogue departments freely decide to collaborate on specific projects.
Periodically, the departments report to the people of the archdiocese either through newsletters or contributions to the Catholic News.

At other times, I personally inform the archdiocese about the implementation of resolutions that had been recommended by the Synod, e.g. the beginning of the Adult Education/Formation Programme, the implementation of the Permanent Deacon Programme and the steps being taken to establish the Retreat Centre in Tobago.

Not only is the list of implemented resolutions impressive, but what is equally significant is that the method of implementation has been dialogic and collaborative. This method - Dialogue and Collaboration - will continue to be the context for moving forward with the process of building Church in the Archdiocese.

Agenda for 2007

The following issues are a high priority for the Archdiocese in 2007:
1) To build a culture of listening, dialogue, collaboration and solidarity in the Archdiocese;

2) To continue the methodology of three levels of consultation to build consensus for all significant issues in the life of the Archdiocese i.e.:
2.1 - The Presbyterate and Parish Administrators;
2.2 - Religious, Chairpersons of the Councils, Commissions and Secretariats of the Archdiocese, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council; the Leadership of the Public Associations of Christ’s Faithful and the Leadership of the Ecclesial Communities;
2.3 - The Vicariate Councils and the Parish Councils.

3) To apply the method of consultation described in number 2 above to the issues of consensus from the first consultation and using the criteria of the Code of Canon Law as a context the Archdiocese must:
3.1-Develop a Ministry Template for a Catholic Parish;
3.2-Develop consensus around Vision and Mission for the Archdiocese;
3.3-Determine the role/mission of priests at the Parish and Archdiocesan Level;
3.4-Survey the quality of life of priests, religious and laypersons in the Archdiocese;
3.5-Create an Archdiocesan accreditation programme for all learning and training in the Archdiocese;
3.6-Strengthen the governance of the Archdiocese at every level.

4) To emphasise vocation recruitment especially to the religious life, permanent diaconate and priesthood

5) To evaluate the first cycle of the Adult Education/Formation Programme before beginning the second cycle;

6) To prepare for the Archdiocesan Synod in 2008. Fr Allan Ventour will chair the Synod Committee.

Conclusion

Obviously, 2007 will be a busy year. Time will tell whether we will be able to process the agenda that has been established. In the meantime, I want to thank in this public forum all those who have collaborated in the process of building Church so far.

 In this same public forum, I invite the very talented pool of Catholic people who have yet to join the process due to the demanding pace of their professional and family lives.

I invite them to consider taking a risk in order to participate in a prudent way in shaping the future of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain.