As a member of Sydney’s Synod working party, it has been a privilege to witness something quietly significant unfold over the course of the Synod (30 April–3 May). What left the deepest impression was not only the quality of the discussions, but the prayerful spirit in which they were held.
Gathered from across a church rich in cultures, backgrounds, and experiences, the assembly reflected something of the universality of Sydney itself. In that diversity, there emerged a profound sense of learning, challenge, and renewed appreciation for both the breadth and the fidelity of the church in this local context.
Quite simply, I found myself encouraged, even moved, by the depth of faith and the genuine desire for renewal among Sydney Catholics gathered from across parishes, sectors, and expressions of the Church’s life. It was deeply refreshing to hear how many people in our pews have a real thirst to learn, to grow, and to find new ways to share the Gospel.
If the Church’s mission is to reshape the landscape of our world, it rests upon three great “tectonic plates”, as I came to think of them during the proceedings: the worship of God in the liturgy, communities truly centred on Jesus Christ, and the urgent call to evangelisation.
These themes surfaced consistently in the consultations of years past, and the synod discussions frequently drew me back to the sure foundations of Archbishop’s vision articulated in Go Make Disciples. Alongside them, leadership and formation also emerged as essential priorities, less often named explicitly, yet clearly present as underlying conditions for renewal.
Liturgy, community, and evangelisation are not surface-level concerns or optional emphases, but deep foundations beneath everything the Church is and does. Leadership and formation ensure these foundations are lived, sustained, and fruitful in practice.
We see already in some of our parishes across Sydney that when these aspects of ecclesial life are strong, there is movement, energy, and genuine renewal. When they are weakened or neglected, the ground beneath us becomes unstable and mission loses its power. What I sensed throughout the Synod was a shared, hope-filled desire to strengthen these foundations in a practical and lasting way across parish and Archdiocesan life.
As His Grace reminded us, this discernment did not arise in a vacuum. Affirmed by the Church’s magisterium, what we now call “synodality” has marked the Christian community from its beginning. The apostles did not act in isolation, but together sought the mind of Christ under the guidance of the Holy Spirit – as evidenced at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) and the discernment of Matthias (Acts 1:15–26).
As I briefly shared on the first full day of the Synod, in prayer, attentive to one another and open to the Spirit, the first followers of Jesus reached a unity that was not merely human but divinely inspired: “it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28). At times during the Synod, something of that same dynamic was at work.
This was not a forum for competing ideas or advancing personal preferences but a space of deep listening to what the Spirit is calling the whole Church toward, more like the Upper Room at Pentecost where the disciples were all together in one place, humbly receptive and attentive to God and to one another. In that shared posture, a quiet but real communion emerged, grounded not simply in consensus but in openness to the Spirit’s leading.
Our Synod was the first in the Archdiocese in some seventy-five years, since Cardinal Gilroy convoked the last in 1951. Much has changed in that time, from a largely Anglo-Celtic Church to a richly multicultural one, from stable parish patterns to greater mobility and more varied participation, and from inherited practice to the pressing need for intentional evangelisation. There are now more people to be reached than have been reached, which underscores both the scale of the task before us and the urgency of renewing the Church’s missionary focus.
Importantly, this Synod was shaped not by abstract priorities imposed from above, but by themes arising from the lived experience, concerns, and hopes of our people. What I experienced was not simply discussion, but genuine discernment, an attentiveness to where the Holy Spirit is already stirring within the Church in Sydney.
It was fitting, then, that we began with the Church’s worship. The Synod recognised that renewal will not come primarily through new structures or strategies, but through a deeper encounter with Christ.
As one of the expert speakers, Fr Bijoy Joseph expressed with clarity and conviction, this calls us to take the liturgy seriously as a true encounter with God. There was a strong sense that we need to recover confidence in the liturgy itself, not by adding more, but by celebrating it well and helping people to enter more deeply into its meaning.
This led to a clear emphasis on liturgical formation, helping people connect the symbols and actions of the liturgy with the mystery of salvation they reveal. Beauty, in this context, is not simply adherence to rubrics, but the capacity of the liturgy to disclose God’s presence and draw hearts into communion with him.
At the same time, there was an honest acknowledgement that, in seeking accessibility, we have sometimes lowered expectations. It was striking to hear participants note that while we encourage excellence in many areas of life, we have not always done so in our worship. The call was not to make liturgy less accessible, but to draw people more deeply into its richness.
Sacred music revealed this tension clearly. Participants recognised its many forms, from classical to contemporary, while also identifying the need for deeper formation in what makes music truly sacred. When the liturgy is celebrated well, it forms souls capable of mission and makes present the transcendence people are seeking.
Similarly, the importance of silence within the liturgy emerged as a powerful theme. Silence was understood not as absence, but as presence, a stillness of heart and an openness to God that must be cultivated. It recalled Thomas Merton’s insight that silence is “God’s first language”, while all else is a “faint translation”.
There was also a clear desire to make the sacraments and our churches themselves more accessible. Greater availability of Eucharistic Adoration, more convenient times for Confession, ideally coordinated across deaneries, and longer opening hours were all seen as important steps.
Such measures would contribute meaningfully to the spiritual vitality of our communities. Christian community is not merely sociological but sacramental, a visible sign of invisible communion with God and with one another. Many people, both “churched” and “unchurched”, carry a deep desire for prayer, and the Synod offered practical ways this hunger can be more intentionally nurtured.
Flowing from worship, the Synod turned to the life of our communities. On the question of belonging, Kevin and Helen Wagner spoke powerfully from their experience within an evangelising community on mission. They named a reality many recognise, that parishes can sometimes feel like collections of individuals rather than true communities.
Too often, there is an unspoken expectation that people must first behave or believe before they belong. Their witness pointed back to the heart of the Gospel, the unconditional love of God that invites relationship first and allows transformation to follow. Belonging is not a sentimental concept but theological, rooted in the truth that God loved us first. The Church must embody that same prevenient grace, welcoming before demanding.
This emphasis on belonging naturally opened onto evangelisation. As Fr Chris Ryan highlighted in the third and final expert address of the synod, when personal discipleship is prioritised, everything else flows from it. Without evangelisation, even the liturgy can remain less fruitful, not because of any deficiency in the rite, but because hearts have yet to be awakened to receive what is offered.
As he put it, “we will not see a world transformed by Christ unless people first come to faith in him” and so “our parishes must prioritise the process of evangelisation,” actively investing in training and support. At the same time, he was clear that “primacy does not mean exclusivity”. By placing evangelisation first, “all the other expressions of mission and parish life begin to flourish”.
The Synod affirmed this Christ-centred vision for Sydney, that the Church exists to lead people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ, from which authentic worship and communion arise. There is a growing sense that the Holy Spirit is drawing the Church outward, toward Christ, toward mission, and toward the many in our city who have yet to encounter him.
In this vein, there was a strong emphasis on practical steps: parish prayer groups to build community, service and outreach opportunities to give people a sense of purpose, and a willingness to learn from what is already bearing fruit.
There was a call for intentional pathways, helping people move from welcome to belonging, and from curiosity to commitment. This was especially evident in discussions about the newly baptised, who often move from the warmth of RCIA into a more isolated parish experience. Initiatives such as Alpha and Called and Gifted were affirmed, often by those who had once been sceptical but had come to recognise their value.
What also became clear through these discussions is that such renewal will not occur by aspiration alone. The desire for deeper worship, stronger communities, and more intentional evangelisation must be matched by the capacity to support it in practice. In other words, the very pathways and initiatives being proposed will require intentional investment to become sustainable realities. Formation, accompaniment, and the development of structured pathways of conversion depend on dedicated people, effective coordination, and ongoing resourcing.
If the fruits of this Synod are to take root across the Archdiocese, there will need to be a deliberate commitment to sustaining and strengthening these initiatives. Experience suggests that when parishes and the Archdiocese invest intentionally in evangelisation, people encounter Christ, become more deeply engaged in the life of the Church, and contribute their time, gifts, and resources more generously.
As a priest at our synod table observed, over time, this deeper participation not only enriches parish life but also tends to strengthen its overall sustainability, with the initial investment bearing fruit in ways that are both spiritual and practical.
Flowing from this, digital evangelisation also featured prominently, with recognition that many first encounters now take place online. There was a growing awareness that the Church must be present in this space, not as a substitute for real community, but as a doorway into it.
Underlying all of this was a simple but demanding insight: evangelisation begins with the capacity to listen, as recent popes have consistently underscored. Before programs or structures, there are people – their questions, their wounds, and their hopes.
In this sense, the Synod itself became an exercise in evangelisation, deepening our attentiveness to one another so that we might more faithfully accompany others to Christ. The challenge now is to carry this posture beyond the Synod, shaping parishes that are outward-looking, intentional, and ready to meet people where they are. This calls for a renewed commitment, not only in vision but in practice, so that the invitation to encounter Christ is extended with clarity, confidence and generosity.
As the Sydney Synod drew to a close, I was encouraged not only by the range of practical ideas offered by its members but also by a deepened conviction that what has often been described as a “second spring” may indeed give way to real flowering. There is a readiness among the people of God in Sydney to deepen worship, strengthen community, and share faith with new confidence.
Our prayer is that every aspect of our life – our liturgy, our formation, and our common life – serves its true purpose: leading people into an encounter with Jesus Christ and equipping them to share that encounter with others. The ground has shifted, not by disruption but by grace. If we build with care and courage on what has been revealed, what lies ahead is not simply renewal, but a Church more fully alive in Christ – sent with clarity, conviction, and joy to proclaim the Gospel in our time.
