SYNOD PROGRAMME
Creating the Bristol Text to Reform
5-8 September 2021
The Bristol Text is offered as a contribution to the Bishops’ Synodal Process
and to Catholics around the world as part of our common preparation for Rome in 2023.
It is also intended to give confidence to individual Catholics,
to form our own thinking, learning, decision-making, conscience and practice.
Root & Branch began in January 2020 before the pandemic. We were responding to journalist Joanna Moorhead’s challenge in The Tablet that the Catholic Church needed ‘a synod that starts with women’ rather than tagging them on the end or ignoring them altogether. Very soon, as the name suggests, we understood that we needed to look at all areas of reform in the Church. If we succeeded in attracting support we would make it clear that Root & Branch is not a single-issue movement. Women may have started it, but it would not end there.
The pandemic lockdown and the rise in online forums allowed us to embark, in October 2020, on an on-line Journey of Discernment towards an inclusive, lay-led synod. We have listened to speakers from all over the world. Both on-line, and quietly in correspondence, we have been open to – we have actively sought out – opinion from all sections of the Church. We have been accompanied by prayer and, we trust, the guiding inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Our thinking has matured and deepened. We have become more inclusive at the same time as learning to be more bravely challenging.
For months we have been preparing The Bristol Text to Reform. It is a document that embodies at least some of the discoveries we have made. It exists both in a readily accessible and in more complex, learned forms. It is intended to give ordinary Catholics the reassurance that there are changes we can make in our practice that are in keeping with the best of Catholic tradition and have the endorsement of deep, pastorally sensitive and well-informed thinkers and theologians, including many who are clergy. It also offers practical and often challenging visions for the Church, calling it to be Christ-like in its structures, its thinking and its practice.
This week is the culmination of that year-long journey: the presentation by international panels of thinkers of The Bristol Text, and the wonderful firework display of speakers for the final Friday and Saturday, led by Mary McAleese, Helena Kennedy and James Carroll. We will end on the second Sunday with a Celebration of Word and Communion, followed by lunch in an Agape of Inclusion.
Root & Branchers, as the people who’ve joined us along the way have begun to call themselves, have been asking us ‘what next’? This movement has become too big, too important to many people, to stop here. With the help of all your prayers we know the Holy Spirit will bring inspiration this week – and also fresh volunteers - to carry us forward.
SUNDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER
Online only
18.30-18.45 BST*
Inner Room
Join us as we pray for the Spirit to guide the final week of our inclusive Synod
🌱
19.00-20.30 BST
Redefining and Reclaiming Liturgical Ministry
Introduction by Colm Holmes, R&B
CHAIR
Katharine Salmon, teacher, feminist, theologian
PANELISTS
Martha Heizer, co-founder of We Are Church Austria and We Are Church International
Kate McElwee, activist, Executive Director Women’s Ordination Conference
Revd Diarmuid O’Murchu, social psychologist and author of Doing Theology in an Evolutionary Way, pastoral care for HIV-Aids, homeless and refugees
Patricia Rumsey, abbess of a Poor Clare monastery, associate professor at Nottingham University, and author of Lest She Pollute the Sanctuary
Kathleen Gibbons Schuck, facilitator, executive coach, and member of Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP)
MONDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER
Online only
16:00-16:15 BST*
Inner Room
Join us as we pray for the Spirit to guide the final week of our inclusive Synod
🌱
16.30-18.00 BST
Embracing Diversity
Introduction by Colm Holmes, R&B
CHAIR
Ruby Almeida, co-chair Global Network of Rainbow Catholics
PANELISTS
Dr Kochurani Abraham, feminist theologian, author, and Coordinator of the Indian Christian Women’s Movement for Kerala, India
Dr James Alison, Catholic theologian, priest and author
Dr Nontando Hadebe, specialising in African, Pastoral, Feminist and Liberation Theology, St Augustine College, South Africa
Dr Claire Jenkins, trans woman, Senior Fellow Margaret Beaufort Institute, University of Cambridge, pastoral care to LGBT Catholics and Moslem asylum seekers and refugees
TUESDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER
Online only
18:30-18:45 BST*
Inner Room
Join us as we pray for the Spirit to guide the final few days of our inclusive Synod
🌱
19.00-20.30 BST
Rethinking Moral Theology
Introduction by Colm Holmes, R&B
CHAIR
Joanna Moorhead, journalist and author, arts editor The Tablet
PANELISTS
Tina Beattie, theologian, novelist and former Professor of Catholic Studies at University of Roehampton
Gina Menzies, Irish broadcaster and theologian specializing in Moral Theology and Feminism, currently lecturing on Healthcare Ethics at The Royal College of Surgeons
Thomas O'Loughlin, author and Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology in The University of Nottingham, and the Director of Studia Traditionis Theologiae
Dr John O’Loughlin Kennedy, economist, social entrepreneur, author of The Curia is the Pope
WEDNESDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER
Online only
16:00-16:15 BST*
Inner Room
join us as we pray for the Spirit to guide the final few days of our inclusive Synod
🌱
16.30-18.00 BST
Insisting on Sharing Authority
Introduction by Colm Holmes, R&B
CHAIR
Virginia Saldanha, writer and feminist theologian; former Executive Secretary of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) Women’s Desk, and Office of Laity & Family
PANELISTS
Dr Luca Badini Confalonieri, Executive Director at the Wijngaards Institute with a long-standing interest in the governance of the Roman Catholic Church
Revd Anthony Cassidy, Parochial Administrator at St Matthew, West Norwood
Christina Rees CBE, former member of the General Synod of the Church of England, writer, broadcaster and applied theologian
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers championing civil liberties and promoting human rights
THURSDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER
20.30 – 21.30 BST
Inner Room
Join Rev. Sr. Victoria Chester as we pray for the Spirit to guide the final few days of our inclusive Synod
Casting Out Our Fear – the Way Forward
10-11 September 2021
FRIDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER
St Michael’s Centre, Stoke Gifford, Bristol and on-line
11.30-13.00 BST
Registration followed by lunch for those physically attending
🌱
Live and Online
13.00 BST*
PRAYER AND SETTING THE SYNOD IN CONTEXT
Myra Poole SND, co-founder of Catholic Women’s Ordination
Derek Reeve, co-founder of A Call To Action
Bishop Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton
Ursula King, Professor Emerita, Theology and Religious Studies, University of Bristol
Chair, Mary Ring, R&B
followed by the blessing of the synod
Rev. Richard McKay and parishioners from St Nicholas of Tolentino, Bristol
🌱
14.00-14.45 BST
NO SYNODALITY WITHOUT FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Canon law must acknowledge the human rights of Church members
Keynote speaker Professor Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland
🌱
14.50-15.25 BST
Q&A
Joanna Moorhead, journalist and author
🌱
15.30 BST
WELCOME TO BRISTOL
Bishop Vivienne Faull, Bishop of Bristol
Tea break & online chatcafe
🌱
16.10-16.35 BST*
LITURGICAL MINISTRY
a personal experience
Dr Martha Heizer, We Are Church Austria
🌱
6.35-17.00 BST
KNOCKING ON CLOSED DOORS
The Persistent Witness for Women's Ordination
Kate McElwee, Executive Director Women’s Ordination Conference
🌱
17.05-17.30 BST
BELONGING & BEING CHURCH
What’s Catholicism all about?
Dr James Alison, theologian and priest
🌱
17.35-18.00 BST
INCLUSIVITY
At what price?
Ruby Almeida, former broadcaster and lecturer,
always seeking productive conversations that bring about change
🌱
18.05-18.30 BST
PRAYERFUL CLOSE
Eleanor Flynn, co-founder of Women’s Wisdom in the Church, Australia
and co-convenor of Australasian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform
Soline Humbert Vatinel, spiritual director and advocate for women 's ordination, Ireland
🌱
19.00 BST
Those attending must have left the centre, please.
🌱
Online only
21.00-21.30 BST
NIGHT PRAYER
Dave Lucas gives the background to The Ordinary Office, a praying online weekly community of disabled and dispersed people, and finishes with a Night Prayer
Casting Out Our Fear – the Way Forward
10-11 September 2021
SATURDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER
St Michael’s Centre, Stoke Gifford, Bristol and on-line
08.30-09.00
Coffee
🌱
09.15-09.35 BST*
THE WORD
The Gospel reading and homily
Shanon Sterringer, Director, Hildegard Haus, Ohio
🌱
09.45-10.00 BST
AIMS OF THE DAY
Pamela Perry, R&B and Mary Ring, R&B
🌱
10.00-10.25 BST
VISION & VOICE
Breaking the sound barrier of fear
Christina Rees CBE, campaign for Anglican women’s ordination for over 25 years,
leader of the campaign for women bishops
Christina will then chair the synod today
🌱
10.30-11.00 BST
THE ASIAN BISHOPS’ VISION OF A CO-RESPONSIBLE CHURCH
IS NO MORE. WHY?
Virginia Saldanha, writer and feminist theologian; former Executive Secretary, Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) Women’s Desk, and Office of Laity & Family
🌱
11.00 BST
Coffee Break
🌱
11.30-11.55 BST*
CATALYTIC CONVERSIONS
transforming the Church's gender politics beyond ‘add women and stir’
Tina Beattie, Professor Emerita, Catholic Studies, University of Roehampton
🌱
12.00-12.30 BST
WOMEN & MEN AT THE TABLE, EARLY CHRISTIAN ERA
Dr Ally Kateusz, specialist in women and religion in Early Christian art and text,
research associate Wijngaards Institute of Catholic Research
🌱
12.30-13.00 BST
Q&A
Miriam Duignan, activist for reform in the Catholic church
🌱
13.00-13.45
Lunch Break & online chatcafe
🌱
14.00-14.30 BST
JUSTICE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute
🌱
14.35-14.55 BST
Q&A
Penelope Middelboe, R&B and Sue Williamson, R&B
🌱
14.55-15.05 BST
PERSONAL REFLECTION
Eve Rose-Keenan, Anglican priest, Labour councillor for Rotherham
and survivor of child sexual exploitation
🌱
15.10-15.40 BST*
THE FUTURE CHURCH IS A CHOICE
James Carroll, award-winning American author and journalist.
His latest book is The Truth at the Heart of the Lie: How the Catholic Church Lost its Soul.
🌱
15.40-16.10
Q&A
Pamela Perry, R&B
🌱
16.15
Tea Break & online chatcafe
🌱
16.45-17.35 BST
INTERCONNECTED
Panel of inter-faith networks
Christine Clinch, Lead, Ammerdown Centre, Bristol, enabling people of differing views or religions to engage in dialogue and pursue journeys of prayer, faith or enquiry
Revd Richard McKay, parish priest at St Nicholas of Tolentino, Bristol, influenced by Charismatic Renewal and Liberation Theology
Dr Zainab Mai-Bornu, lecturer at the University of Leicester, a Muslim from Nigeria
Revd Dr Catherine Okoronkwo, Vicar of All Saints and St Barnabas Church, Swindon, Bishop of Bristol's Adviser on Racial Justice, author of Blood and Water/obara na mmiri
Iris Segall, council member of the Bristol & West Progressive Jewish Congregation (BWPJC) with a long-standing experience of interfaith dialogue and activity
Rabbi Alexandra Wright, UK’s first female senior rabbi, and active in the Council of Christians and Jews
Chair, Rhiannon Parry Thompson, R&B
🌱
17.30-18.15 BST
WHERE NOW
with the Bristol Text to Reform?
Thomas O’Loughlin, Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology, University of Nottingham
Penelope Middelboe, R&B
🌱
18:20-18:30 BST
FAREWELL, INVITATION TO LITURGY 10.30 SUNDAY & FINAL BLESSING
Pamela Perry, R&B, Mary Ring, R&B, Sue Williamson, R&B, Katharine Salmon, R&B
🌱
19.00 BST
Those attending must have left the centre please
SUNDAY, 12 SEPTEMBER
Sequoia Room, Holiday Inn, Filton, Bristol
Live & Online
10.30 BST
CLOSING LITURGY
Celebration of the Word and Communion
Shared liturgy that fulfils our Sunday obligation
🌱
Short interval to prepare lunch
🌱
11.30 BST
BREAKING OF BREAD
An Agape of Inclusion
Come to a celebration of our friendship and peace
sharing a light lunch to see us on our way