The Diocese of Motherwell’s synod report calls for a Church where ‘everyone has an equal place irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, or age.’
Motherwell, the largest diocese in Scotland by Sunday Mass attendance, is the first diocese here to publish a report on the ongoing Synod. It summarises the discussions that have happened in parishes and schools across the diocese about the future of the Church.
The report’s conclusion states that ‘a certain unity of mind and vision for the Church’ was evident from the responses.
“It is of a welcoming and inclusive Church where everyone has an equal place irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, or age,” it states. “It is a church where membership is rooted in Baptism and in the equal share all the faithful have in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly role of Christ.”
The report goes on to say the vision expressed in the synodal process in Motherwell is of a Church where ‘clericalism will gradually wither as authority and decision-making are seen to belong to the whole People of God’.
“There is hope for a confident but humble Church, aware of her own weaknesses and mistakes, but ready to take her place in the public square with a well-formed clergy and laity,” it goes on. “There is a clear understanding of how the Church can serve the world through a sense of belonging, clear identity, and a strong moral voice which takes seriously contemporary issues such as the environment and integral human ecology. This is an outward-facing Church which reaches out to the most marginal in our society and world.”
Bishop Joseph Toal of Motherwell said the report ‘highlights the Love for the Lord and his Church expressed and witnessed to by the people of the Diocese of Motherwell through participating with such faith and enthusiasm in the synodal process.