This is a short (ish) story of a personal journey over a few years in our church at Holy Family.

Over that time I have tried to be a useful part of parish life, with an emphasis of bringing people together, both far and near, faith and no faith alike, with the simple message that Jesus gives us. ‘Love God and love your neighbour as yourself’.

So far so good, and the relatively comfortable status quo carried on for many years. You’ll realise I’m skipping through quite a bit, but I want to start with the Archdiocesan(Liverpool) Synod about 10 years ago, and I was asked to be the Holy Family representative. Not because I thought I would be good at being a member of something, but because no-one seemed very interested, and perhaps, John, you might just go along and see what’s happening (Fr Patsy’s words not mine).

Now you have an idea of who I am. Yes, John Moffat, the ordinary (hopefully) guy who likes things technical and who sings a bit.

What happened was that I was thrown in at the deep end, in organising parish meetings and speaking in church to try and tell people about this Synod, which is a word that doesn’t come up in conversation much, certainly not with the people I speak with anyway. I’m not good at meetings, not comfortable speaking in public, but, once I realised how synodality was to be implemented, it changed me, in a fundamental way.

You will have heard (I hope) that it’s all about listening, yes, to each other, but primarily to the Holy Spirit, and then telling each other what the Spirit is saying to us. The usual picture of a meeting around a table, is a group of people talking at each other, with some not saying much at all (that’s me!). I’ve been to many of those, and probably so have you, but a synodal meeting starts with prayer and a reading and asks each person present to say what has come into their mind, what has spoken to them about the topic being discussed, at the same time, the rest of us stay silent.

In this way each and every person has the opportunity to contribute, and each and every person’s contribution is valuable to the process, no-one is excluded. This is ‘Conversation in the Spirit’ in action.

As has been said to me on many occasions, by many people, ‘It’s all a bit airy fairy, and haven’t we been here a few times before, and nothing came of it’. Well, yes, it might be, but is that a good reason not to make this work? Indeed, if the Spirit is guiding us, and we are listening and putting the message into action, it must work, how can it not?

We must trust in the process and be faithful followers, and we will get things wrong from time to time...

Please ask yourself a question, and I hope the answer is a positive one. What can I do to help in parish life generally, and how can I live in our community, in the way Jesus teaches us, and so show others what it means to be Christian. Perhaps we should form a group to talk about it, conversation in the Spirit of course.

If any of this story resonates with you, send a message in to the Parish Office. If the Spirit is moving, it will happen...