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Today we come to the final lap of the just concluded RECOWA­­-CERAO WEBINAR On Synod of Synodality. The next and indeed the final question goes to Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya.

Synodality is today seen as a new face in the life of the Church.  Having played an outstanding role in the previous Synod, which we all heard here in Africa, how would you explain the willingness of the African Church to imbibe or assimilate Synodality as a method of Church leadership today?  Archbishop Nkea took up by saying, I think in understanding sodality we must remember that it is not just a new way of governing the Church rather it is a new way of being Church. This implies that the Church Itself, by its very nature is Synodai. Therefore, if we look at the past, we will picture Synodality in some of the synods we have held at a continental level. A shining example is the gathering we held in Adis Ababa in March 2023 which allowed us to be able to reflect as an African Church if we look at the way many African Bishops, the lay faithful, the religious, and the priests were committed one feels content. Here synodality was made manifest to the point that we had to move from the idea of the Church as the tent the Church to embrace the Church as family.

 The church is the family of God and this is what Africa brought to the Synod I think that by the time we left the first face of the gathering very few people if at all were still talking about the Church as a tent.  The church is a family of God and as the family of God, it embraces and opens up to everyone who is a member of that family. Secondly, we also discovered that besides the Continental phase of the discussion, the participants who went for the synod used the forum to discuss the positions we were going to take as Africa to Rome and that was a very great help because when we went to that synod Africa was speaking as Africa.  Again, we discover that the second time we still met in Adis Ababa in April 2024 to prepare ourselves for the next session which is the second phase of the Synod, one realized that Africa was very committed, Africa is very prepared to embrace this Synod.  We made it an African Affair and tackled it from the point of view of Africa with The Universal Church.  Again, we discover that it is not by coincidence but rather by God’s Providence that we are having this second phase of the synod and at the same time preparing to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Ecclesia in Africa. When one looks at the points of Ecclesia in Africa whose 30th Anniversary we are preparing to celebrate, one discovers that the African Church on the 30th anniversary of Ecclesia in Africa is ready to embrace synodality as a new way of being Church.

 Already the way we are doing things in our Church in Africa or running our Parish pastoral councils in practically every Parish, the way our lay people get on board in the running of the parishes, the way we operate our small Christian communities etc., one discovers that Africa is ever ready to embrace synodality as the new way of being Church.  It is not just a matter of embracing synodality rather it is formalizing synodality because you discover that from the way we had already been acting within our local Churches, we had already moved a step forward in synodality as a new way of being Church. Let us go back to the problem of small Christian communities.   One this certain is that small Christian communities really bring out the aspect of synodality in a strong way and give us an identity as a Church in Africa. Following our own culture, we work always in groups, we have what we call Country meetings and we have various meetings like tribal meetings and all those things that give us the chance to be able to sit down together and look at certain things together.  We also have this aspect of our culture that gives us the chance to do things in common bringing us to the point that the problem of one person becomes a problem of all and the joy of one person becomes the joy of all. This is what synodality is all about, that we hold our hands and we walk together.

 Examining these facts, one can affirm without fear of contradictions that the African Church in Africa is ready billed for synodality. Our present goal is to improve its values based on synodality that has come as a concept of the synod for The Universal Church.  Archbishop Nkea concluded by saying that this is just what he can say in summary and to say that we are very set for the second phase of the synod of synodality.  

The moderator, Fr. George NWACHUKWU thanked the participants sincerely in the name of the Presidential Council of RECOWA-CERAO and the organizing body of the current Webinar. The Rector of CCPM Fr. Celestin SAGNA gave a detailed summary of the Webinars discussion. He outlined the major points of the panelists starting with Bishop Emmanuel BADEJO who likened to a Church in Africa to a family.  He projected the African Church as having values to contribute to the Universal Church. He then underlined a strong point made by this bishop when he talked about the need for the formation of young people in the field of Communication.  From here he went over to Sr. Solange’s presentation which emphasized that the role of women in the Church is complimentary and that they need to be formed to participate well.

 He took up the central point in Dr. Nora’s presentation where she pictured everyone as being members of the same Church which is the family of God.  As members of the same family, we are all children of the same God and therefore we need to be caring for each other and everybody should be carried along. He finally ended with Bishop Edward’s contribution which pointed out that the bishop is the center of unity for the diocese and he needs to use his office and the confidence reposed in him in building the Church family of God which is depicted in a diocese.

At this point, the Secretary-General thanked all the participants including those who were unavoidably absent for their goodwill and the final prayer was taken by Archbishop Tamba Edward Charles who gave an elaborate vote of thanks to the organizers of this Webinar for their devotion and sacrifice and blessed everyone present on the Web.

Rev. Fr. George Nwachukwu
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