Fwd: [wac-council] Meeting with Sr. Nathalie
Didier Vanhoutte
De : Virginia Saldanha <womy...@gmail.com>
Date: mer. 3 sept. 2025 à 08:59
Subject: Re: [wac-council] Meeting with Sr. Nathalie
To: <wac-c...@googlegroups.com>
--Small Christian Communities are the basis of Church Reform!!!
But to install them on a private or a parish level is quite complicated. Our people are used to a big community – even if that disappears now…
Love
Martha
Von: wac-c...@googlegroups.com <wac-c...@googlegroups.com> Im Auftrag von Valerie Stroud
Gesendet: Dienstag, 2. September 2025 13:09
An: wac-c...@googlegroups.com
Betreff: Re: [wac-council] Meeting with Sr. Nathalie
I agree about Small Christian Communities and my own experience proves the value. However there needs to be the right leadership that will involve and encourage all the members. Even parishes where the small group system exists acknowledge the difficulty in setting them up. My own PP said this was one of his concerns too, and I agree with him. However there are resources available if there is a group willing to 'put out into the deep'.
We are also rightly concerned that leadership is not available to all in the Church. A parish that encourages SCCs gives an opportunity for folk to demonstrate their leadership potential, especially in the spiritual sphere. They would become a source of leadership in the wider Church, at parish and diocesan level - or even the seat of Peter itself.
best wishes
Valerie
On Mon, 1 Sept 2025 at 17:36, Colm Holmes <colmhol...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Virginia,
Many thanks for your update on the meeting with Sr Nathalie in Pule.
Most church documents are written by men and exclude women. But leading and preaching are allowed in certain circumstances.
Your suggestion of using Small Christian Communities as the instrument of a Synodal church at the local level is the way forward!
Looking forward to your statement when it is released.
Best wishes,
Colm
On Mon, Sep 1, 2025 at 5:05 PM Virginia Saldanha <womy...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear All,
The meeting with Sr. Nathalie was interesting. She gave us an overview of the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality. She pointed to two important aspects of living as a Synodal Church Listening and Silence. Her response to equality for women by allowing the ordination of women was the suggestion to read Church documents and find all those positions allowed for women and advocate for those positions.
One religious brother suggested that power should be delinked from ordination.
However she accepted my suggestion that the Small Christian Community be promoted as the instrument of a synodal Church at the local level.
We are preparing a statement which I will share with you when it is released.
Warm regards,
Virginia
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Didier Vanhoutte
De : marina.elena via We Are Church Council <wac-c...@googlegroups.com>
Date: mer. 3 sept. 2025 à 11:31
Subject: Re: [wac-council] Meeting with Sr. Nathalie
Dera Virginia, Martha & Valerie, dear all,
I agree on the importance of SCCs as a “new model of Church,” capable of combining pastoral accompaniment aimed at the individual with the indispensable community dimension of faith. On paper, moreover, even the official documents of the Church recognize this, for example when they speak of “the parish as a community of communities,” but there is much resistance both among the clergy, who fear losing power, and among the laity, who are accustomed to delegating. And SCCs lack canonical recognition: in the 1980s, when the new Code was being discussed, Latin Americans insisted strongly on this, but they lost, and today SCCs practically do not exist in the Code. I believe we must insist that this idea of SCCs be fully incorporated into the Code.
As for the idea of Monsignor Fritz Lobinger (who, incidentally, died just a month ago) to ordain teams of ordained ministers in every community (Teams of elders), I believe it would be worth studying and promoting, not least because it is a proposal that is also circulating in institutional circles. Among other things, Emilia Robles, who for years was responsible for We Are Church in Spain and is still very active, has explored the idea in depth, also overseeing the translation of Lobinger's books in Spain.
Mauro