In Preparation for Synod

As of the writing of this post we are about a month and a half away from the commencement of the XXIV General Synod of the Polish National Catholic Church in Erie, Pennsylvania within the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese.  As it is for each of our parishes, I am sure that this is a time both of excitement, as well as some hectic preparation.  Within the Office of the Prime Bishop some reports are still coming in, mandates are beginning to come in, we are getting ready to put all of these reports on CDs for distribution to the delegates and many other things as well.  But throughout all of this hectic preparation, I have made it a point to spend some time in prayer, each and every day for our holy synod.  This is something that I encourage both for those who will be attending the Synod as delegates and even those members of the Church who are not attending, as the delegates will be supported through their prayers.

During this upcoming Synod we are going to have a special opportunity to be able to discuss and decide upon matters, programs and directions for the future of the Polish National Catholic Church.  During the middle of the week at the Synod, we are going to take some time to examine exactly where the Polish National Catholic Church is, as a church and as a people, and try to work together to spread, share and strengthen this wonderful gift that we have been given in God’s Holy Church.  But as all good things do, this is going to take preparation.

First and foremost, this preparation must be in prayer.  Each of our congregations should be praying that the Holy Spirit will be with us as we gather for the XXIV General Synod in Erie, Pennsylvania and that He will guide and inspire all of the work that we place before the Church.  We should each remind ourselves of the words of Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the Lord guards the city, the guards keep watch in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)  Our prayer for the Holy Synod must be that the Lord’s way and His Will will be the vision that we place before ourselves during the week in which we will put forward programs and ideas to spread and strengthen our faith and our Church.

But of course this prayer life is just a beginning.  I also encourage the delegates to give some time to a real examination of the state of the Church today and what we should be doing in the future.  We certainly have many areas where we need to grow and change, but we also have much richness in our Catholic heritage.  We must seek to strengthen and spread these rich traditions we have received and also look for new and exciting ways in which others can be reinvigorated or brought to a knowledge of the Catholic faith as expressed within our Polish National Catholic Church.

This Synod, as every synod of the P.N.C.C., is a chance to live out our representative governance.  Delegates are selected from among the laity, to gather with the pastors and bishops, in order that the Church as a whole can gather and make decisions as the whole body of Christ.  Scripture tells us in the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” (1 Cor. 12:12-13)  As the Church today we have been baptized and gathered together within the Polish National Catholic Church.  We have been called, bishops, priests and laity, to serve Christ as members of that one body the Church.  This is what the delegates to the Holy Synod are being called to do during the week of the XXIV General Synod, to realize their place within the greater body of Christ that is the Church, and prepare ourselves to work for the health and growth of this body of Christ.

And of course Saint Paul tells us the way.  Just following this discussion of the members of the body and the various gifts each of us can bring to the benefit of the body of Christ, the Church, the letter immediately goes on to describe the “more excellent” way to accomplish all of it — and this way is “love.”  Paul reminds us “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.” (1 Cor. 13:4-8a)

So my brothers and sisters, as we approach the time of the Synod, let it be one of prayer and preparation.  Let us listen to the Spirit’s voice in our hearts and in our congregations as we prepare; and let us come to the synod filled with love for each other and God’s Holy Church, that this love will be spread in our time together at Synod, but most importantly in our decisions as we chart a program of life and work that we will place before ourselves and God’s people during these next four years.