We are preparing ourselves for the Synod with a series of meetings this Advent, which will take place in the Upper Room at 7.30 pm on 30 November, 7 December, 14 December and 21 December. These meetings will be chaired by Kate Williamson and will use material prepared by the diocese. There will be additional meetings in the Hall on Wednesdays 1 December, 8 December, 15  December and 22 December after Mass, at 10.30am, for those who prefer a daytime appointment. From an interview with Cardinal Grech on the upcoming Synod. Will most of the Synod’s conclusions be determined by voting? And if so, what do you say to critics who argue that the Church’s doctrine and practice are not matters of personal preference and majorities, but are rather based on immutable truths, and that the Synod of Bishops, which was only ever meant to be an advisory body for the Pope, has exceeded its mandate originally laid out by Pope St. Paul VI? Until today synod assemblies have approved their documents through a final vote. In Apostolica Sollicitudo, the “motu proprio” with which Paul VI created the Synod as an advisory body for the Pope,
the vote of the synod fathers is explicitly provided for. This is not new. The history of the Church, in the first and second millennium, testifies that local synods and ecumenical councils used to vote, even when doctrinal truths are involved. There is a fundamental difference between a vote taken in parliament and a vote taken in a general synod. A vote taken in parliament is a merely
human action and expresses nothing more than a majority. A vote taken at a general synod is a spiritual action by which the synodal fathers seek to give voice to that which the Holy Spirit is saying here and now.

Please note the specific dates and times vary noted above.