Today’s world is overrun by social media, influencers and algorithms. Technology defines our world and shapes our behaviours; the church is not exempt.

It is becoming clear that the term ‘synodality’ is a vague concept, increasingly used to avoid more challenging elements of the full Synod Report.

Plenty of clerics are happy to journey together with the pilgrim People of God, walking and talking, sometimes formally in structured Conversations in the Spirit – without focus.

They are less inclined to want to engage on the substance of Part III of the Synod Report, which goes to the nitty-gritty of shared leadership, shared decision-making, and shared accountability.

At this point, the determined cleric can become the influencer, or indeed the de facto algorithm.

The cleric as algorithm

Evidence continues to accrue that some bishops, for whom the Synod Report is problematic, ideologically or theologically, seek to skew their flock towards their own preferences and comfort.

Some say there is no destination for Conversations in the Spirit.

But there is no doubt that in the context of the Synod Report, it is a way of moving to a church in which lay and ordained come to an understanding that recognises their shared common baptismal rights.

This builds from that foundation to a theological and ecclesiological framework in which the ordained and laity share leadership, decision-making, and ultimately accountability, with robust evaluation.

A stalled conversation

For many clerics, such a framework is challenging; for others, it’s confounding.

So, the temptation is to never get to that part of the conversation. Progress stalls in a perpetual loop of immature engagement.

But if the lay person is not informed of the full depth of the Report and the ecclesial dynamic it seeks to build, they and the community are likely to never realise that future.

What lay Catholics must do

Lay Catholics need to combat this by being active and assertive in the following ways:

1. Inform themselves of the full Synod vision at the official Synod final document. Doing this collectively is more powerful, though either way works;
2. Engage with their clerics, not asking that the pastor show them the way forward, but proposing that together they go on the journey to the new ecclesial model: that they research together the meaning and challenges of shared leadership, decision making and accountability, and identify and arrange the formation all parties need;
3. Insist Synodality not be spoken about as simply a journey (without an objective) for the People of God, but that the Conversations in the Spirit mechanism be used to plumb the depth and richness of Part III of the Synod Report and the desired vision of church; and
4. Emphasise, and don’t be deterred by opposition from clerics or other resistance, that it is critical the Synod’s vision of a non-clericalist church is realised, as without it the church will forfeit the faith, creativity and passion that only a combination of committed, informed women and men can bring to its mission in the 21st century.

• Terry Fewtrell is Chair of Concerned Catholics Canberra Goulburn