The people who worship at St Joseph's church (physically and virtually) have been kept regularly informed of the various stages of the Synod process:

(a) Fr John has been very encouraging to the people's involvement through his Sunday homilies and his letters/comments in the parish newsletter;

(b) Our parish newsletter has carried a weekly update column highlighting all available Synod processes and developments (in the parish, deanery, diocese - as well as the national and global Church). The newsletter has also included initiatives from the various lay organisations that have been offering to facilitate discussions and feedback;

(c) There has been a dedicated page on the parish website, regularly kept up-to-date with all the information that has come to us - from various official sources, along with information we have obtained through our own research. We have also uploaded some of the comments/letter received from our people (see further down the Synod page);

(d) Being in the city of Leicester has limited our parish social interactions (longest locked-down city in the UK) - so official Synod parish meetings have not been physically possible and virtual ones unfortunately inaccessible to all who would want to be part of the discussions. Contributions have had to be by phone, social media, zoom, email, snail mail, etc. - with feedback from some individual and group conversations when it has been possible to meet. There has been a genuine, if limited, response and interest.

As part of the Nottingham diocese all our Leicester parish responses had to be collated by the dean of the Leicester parishes and consolidated by him into a deanery Synod report, which was then sent to the two men appointment to prepare the diocesan report, Fr David Cain and Joe Hopkins (diocesan director of adult formation). In February 2022 the dean, Fr Raphael, asked us to submit him only 2 points that the parish considered a priority for the Synod.

The two points that had kept re-occurring in our parish feedback are given below and these are what were submitted to the dean as our parish contribution:

(1) Inclusivity with no exceptions - the Church needs to welcome all, even if personal circumstances mean persons cannot always live the expected ideals of Church teaching.

(2) The Church needs to give a public "genuine" apology, supported by publicised action, to those it has damaged/abused - this is seen as the first step needed to regain the trust, hence longed-for return of those involved in the exodus of past decades.

April 2022