CTC Seminar: Synodality in a Secular Age

Presented by Dr Paul Sharkey

The seminar will draw from Ad Theologiam Promovendam and the Final Document of the Synodality Synod to consider how parishes and dioceses can embrace the ‘flexibility … openness and missionary creativity’ Francis called for in Evangelii Gaudium.  Sources such as the following will provide a basis for exploring the ecclesial implications of the secularising cultural context in which our parishes operate: Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, Tomáš Halík’s The Afternoon of Christianity, Frank O’Loughlin’s The Time of the Church, Philip Hughes’ What is happening to religion in Australia and Brendan Reed’s Engaging Anew with the Hopes of Parish Communities.

With these sources in mind, synodality is proposed as a means for the Church to open the Gospel in a cultural context that is secularising, pluralising, individualising and detraditionalising.