Synodal Reality Through Small Christian Communities

Synodal Reality Through Small Christian Communities Linus Dabre

Abstract

The Second Vatican Council threw open the doors of the Church by inviting the People of God to realize and actualise their baptismal vocation as priests, prophets and kings. The Church began a subtle transition from a hierarchical to a participative Church. Notwithstanding the vision of Vatican II, a Participatory Church was not actualised in subsequent years. Fifty years thereafter, Pope Francis now invites the Church to move beyond opening its doors by walking towards the populace to discover the Church’s true purpose and identity. He exhorts the Church to pay attention to the peripheries; he envisions a Synodal Church that strives for participation, communion, and mission. Small Christian Communities are instrumental in actualizing this vision by involving the peripheries. It brings to mind bygone days when the Church originated in people’s homes, thus emphasizing the necessity to be a New Church that journeys together.