Awayday 2024
It was held in Cambridge at Wesley Church on 20 January during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the theme was Sinodality . We had speakers from different Churches : Rev . Dr Tim Macquiban , former Director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office in Rome , Rev . Canon Dr Jeremy Morris , National Ecumenical Adviser for the Church of England , Father Ian Nowotnik , National Ecumenical Officer for the Roman Catholic Bishop Conference in England and Wales , Rev . Dr Robert Pope , Convener of the URC Worship , Faith and Order Committee , Deacon Dr Alessandra Trotta , Moderator of the Tavola valdese and The Lord the Rev . Dr Leslie Griffith , our Patron and member of the Council of Europe focusing on human rights , migration and refugees . Music and worship were led by Rev . Steven Cooper and friends from Wesley Chapel , London .
From Tim Macquiban : It ’ s a great pleasure and privilege to be here sharing this Waldensian Awayday in the company of distinguished church leaders from other ecclesial traditions , especially in this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity . Ut unum sint – that they may be one – was the key text which birthed the then Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in the wake of the Second Vatican Council . In my previous work in Rome for five years as Director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office , this octave of prayer for Christian Unity was always the busiest and happiest time of year , culminating in the Papal Vespers at the basilica of St Paul on the feast of the Conversion of St Paul on 25 January .
Several of us were at the Ecumenical Symposium convened and hosted by the Centre for Catholic Studies at the University of Durham , in response to the call from Pope Francis for the Catholic Church to focus on what it means to be a synodal church . Out of that conference on Learning on the Way : Receptive Ecumenism and the Catholic Synodal pathway , we as representatives of other churches were invited to come and share our insights into Synodality to help reflect together on the themes emerging for the Synod of Bishops held in Rome this past October .
So when it came to thinking about this Waldensian Awayday , the theme of Synodality was thought to be a good way for us to learn more about our own traditions and how the different ways we might consider this as part of our ecclesiology and very essence , might help the Catholics as they continue in the synodal process , as well as to help sharpen our own sense of what it means to be Church and how we relate to other Christians . All this seeking that unity which Christ desired for his disciples .
Here is a short contribution from a Methodist . While we have our district synods for conferring at a more local level , it is the words conference and connexion that from the very beginnings of Methodism have expressed this notion of synodality in the Methodist way of life . At its heart is the desire for
6