God our loving Father, who sent your Son to show us the way to live fully in the Spirit, be with us while we walk together as a diocesan family, preparing for the Paisley Synod.

Help us to be people who will take on the mission of passing on your word, sowing seeds of your love in the world.

Send the Holy Spirit to guide us, to keep us united in purpose and to give us courage for this journey of faith.

Help us in our deliberations and discussions to be aware of your presence, to listen to your voice and to discern your will for our diocese in the months and years to come.

Our Lady of Paisley
pray for us.


------------------------------------------------------------------

Preparation for the Synod
Given that the importance of the Synod, the Church insists that we prepare well for it.
There are three areas of preparation: (i) catechetical (ii) spiritual (ii) consultation.

"At every second of the day and night, everywhere in the world, someone is praying; in monasteries, kitchens, fields, churches, on buses and trains, at sea, on mountains, in troubled war torn countries, in hospitals, in prisons, at times of birth and death. People pray in fear, in agony, in sorrow, in joy, in thanksgiving, praise, hope and celebration. They pray to God for themselves and those they love and for those far away that they will never know."

"As we look forward to our Diocesan Synod we have been invited to prepare through Catechesis, a process of consultation and, importantly, through prayer. This booklet, inspired by this forthcoming Synod, offers a number of different ways of praying all of which may be familiar to you as an aid to our prayerful preparation. In these forthcoming
months we join our prayers with this world of suffering and rejoicing, knowing that God is listening and gazes on us with love and compassion."

Copies of this guide are available in St Peter's; please feel free to take one home.

------------------------------------------------------------------------








"Our Synod - Draft Interim Report"
January 2016
https://issuu.com/dioceseofpaisley/docs/draft_interim_report_1.docx


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Main Delegate Training Day:
Sunday 6 March 2016
2.30pm - 4.30pm
St. Mirin's Cathedral Hall

(Catch-up Training Night for those who cannot attend main date: Thursday, 10 March)

(General Sessions):Main venue

Notre Dame High School, Greenock

Solemn Opening Mass : St. Mirin's Cathedral
Tuesday 19 April 2016 (7pm - 9pm)

General Sessions:
Saturday 23 April (11am – 3.30pm)
Saturday 7 May (11am – 3.30pm)
Saturday 21 May (11am – 3.30pm)
Saturday 4 June (11am – 3.30pm)
Saturday 18 June (11am – 3.30pm)

Solemn Closing Mass: St. Mirin's Cathedral
Thursday 23 June 2016 (7pm – 9pm)

----------------------------------------------------------------------






OUR PAISLEY SYNOD: Please click on the link below to complete this Survey Monkey for Our Paisley Synod to help get your priorities and concerns onto the floor of our synod sessions.
Family life is at the heart of the wellbeing of our diocese
and we want your views to be the heart of our synod.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/L75CZDX

It only takes a couple of minutes! Thank you for your support.


_____________________________________________

Parish Catechetical Assemblies led by the Bishop
As many parishioners as possible were encouraged to attend one of the five local assemblies.

Wednesday 2nd September (7pm-9pm) St Aidan’s, Johnstone
Monday 7th September (7.30pm-9.30pm) St Charles, Paisley
Wednesday 9th September (7pm-9pm) St John’s, Port Glasgow
Thursday 10th September (7pm-9pm) St Mary’s, Greenock
Thursday 17th September (7pm-9pm) St John’s, Barrhead

Catechetical Assembly for Families:

Saturday 5 September 11am-1pm St Columba’s, Renfrew.

This included an experience similar to the Children’s Liturgy where youngsters explored
the relevant themes at their own level while the Bishop spoke with the parents.

------------------------------------------------------

Monday, November 30, 2015 7:00 PM St Aidan's Church, Johnstone

--------------------------------------------------------------------

SYNOD Family Day - St Columba's Church, Renfrew Saturday, November 28, 2015

It was important that family members of all ages were given the opportunity to engage with the preparation process for the upcoming Diocesan Synod as the thoughts and opinions of all members of our Diocesan Family are greatly valued. As well as time spent with Bishop John as a family, there was a music workshop/children's liturgy for our children and young people. The morning concluded with a short family prayer service.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Synod Logo Competition Winner 3 February, 2016

Note from Bishop John:

"Thank you for your wonderful entries to our Synod Logo competition! As always these things are very difficult to judge, there were so many fantastic entries but there can only be one winner. I would therefore like to congratulate Josephine Young of St Mary’s in Greenock as our winner! Josephine’s entry will be used as the ‘official’ logo for our synod. Well done also to Ross Crighton of St Ninian’s in Gourock who was our runner up."

A little explanation of the Logo:

The basic shape of a tree, in the form of a person with arm pointing, tells of our strong roots as a diocese, that allows us to reach out to a new future in hope, The shape of the tree is a path leading to a horizon to represent the word synod which comes from the Greek “journeying together”. The branches look like the side of a parent’s hand reaching out to a child’s hand, to show union of the different generations of the Church. The blue leaf at the tope represents Our Lady of Paisley pointing us towards Her Son, represented by the red leaf. The other leaves are flames, each with their own personality to show we are a variety of gifts but always the same ardent Spirit of evangelisation.