Diocesan Synod: The End of the Journey
Tuesday 25th February 2025On Saturday 1 March, our Diocesan Synod journey came to a close as Members gathered to vote on its final recommendations.
Over the past two years, people across the diocese have been prayerfully discerning what God is asking of the Church in Salford and how it is being called to respond to the challenges we face in the modern world.
On Saturday, Clergy and Lay Synod Members gathered for a final stage of discernment and to vote on the 40 recommendations that will form our Pastoral Plan.
Live Updates
Thank you for following our live updates. Please see below for a step-by-step guide to today’s event:
2.50pm – Close
Our voting day drew to a close with a joyful final prayer and hymn. To view all of the recommendations, with the number of votes for each, please click here.
2.40pm – Closing comments from Bishop John
Bishop John shared the following words in his closing comments: “Thank you for being with us for this very remarkable event today. From the comments I’ve heard from speaking to various people, it has been a very great experience for so many of us, and I want to thank you for getting us to this point in our Synod journey,
We have some strong recommendations but of the 40 recommendations we have seen today, all of them have a place in our future planning and all of them should be considered carefully as a sort of hierarchy of structure for making decisions.
The next step is to develop policies for implementation and it is my pleasure to gather together a group of clergy, religious, and lay faithful together to consider how we form policies based on the recommendations which we’ve been voting on today.
It’s a process which is ongoing but that’s the whole business of Synodal thinking, that we are constantly on a journey – which reminds me of those seven word of our diocesan prayer, which seems to be so appropriate so often, “Stay with us, Lord, on our Journey.”
Thank you all very much for your participation right through to today – and for today – and let’s look to the future with hope.
God bless you all.
2.30pm – Here are the results from our final vote on Community and Outreach. All recommendations will feed into our Pastoral Plan.
2pm – Members began discerning on our final group of recommendations: Community and Outreach.
1.50pm – Here are the results from our third vote for Young People and Schools. All recommendations will feed into our Pastoral Plan.
1pm – Young People and Schools
Members gather again to discern of the third group of recommendations: Young People and Schools
12:45pm – Here are the results from our second vote for Spirituality and Formation. All recommendations will feed into our Pastoral Plan.
11.50 – Here are results from our first vote for Leadership and Collaboration. All recommendations will feed into our Pastoral Plan.
11.15am – Listening Exercise
Members prayerfully listened and shared their thoughts on our first group of recommendations, Leadership and Collaboration. They ended with five minutes of silent prayer.
11am – Synodal Listening
Vicar General Canon Michael Cooke shares a reminder with Members about the principles of Synodal listening. He encouraged attendees to listen with their hearts, with compassion and respect, and to remember that all Members have an equal voice.
10.30am – A Moment of Prayer
Bishop John opened our session this morning with a moment of prayer: praying for the intentions of the Holy Father and for peace in our world. We then continued with a moment of reflection on the task ahead of us today and it’s significance for the future of our diocese. We invite you to join us in prayer as we pray: Stay with us, Lord, on our journey.
10.15am – Welcome to our Synod Voting Day.
Today, our synod journey draws to a close with our voting day. Throughout the day, Synod Members will vote on four groups of 10 recommendations to have emerged from our synodal listening exercises. The results of the vote will create a reordered list of recommendations, in order of priority, which will be used to form our Pastoral Plan that will guide our diocese in the years to come.
Our Synod Journey
Our journey began in 2023 when Bishop John announced a Diocesan Synod to discern how we can address the needs of our diocese in a post-pandemic world.
Throughout the process, we have engaged with thousands of people of all ages, including many who feel distanced from the Church.
Our Big Listen exercise, which ended in early 2024, gathered more than 30,000 responses that were explored and presented as four core themes. These themes were explored further towards the end of the year, with each parish group submitting two proposals for each theme.
Clergy and Lay Synod Members then helped to process the proposals and collate them into a list of 40 recommendations divided into four new groups. The groups are:
- Leadership and Collaboration
- Spirituality and Formation
- Young People and Schools
- Community and Outreach
On Saturday, hundreds of Synod Members will gathered for a final stage of discernment before each member voted on what they feel the top three priorities – from the 10 recommendations – should be for each group.
The results of these votes then reordered the 10 recommendations for each group, listed in order of priority, which will be used to form a Pastoral Plan to guide our diocese in the years to come.
Our Synod formally came to a close with a Thanksgiving Service at St Patrick’s Church, Collyhurst, at 3pm.
