ASIA/LEBANON - The Maronite Church kicks off the "Synod of women"

Bkerké (Agenzia Fides) - The appointment is for Saturday, March 5 in Bkerké, at the headquarters of the Maronite Patriarchate. In that framework, and in the presence of the Maronite Patriarch Béchara Boutros Raï, the contents, events and dynamics of the "Special Synod of Women" will be exhibited, a singular ecclesial process initiated in the Maronite community as an opportunity for shared discernment regarding the presence and mission of women in Church and in society.
The meeting, to which the Bishops of the Maronite Synod are also invited, will be attended, among others, by the sociologist, Mirna Abboud Mzawak, Coordinator of the Office for the Pastoral Care of Women at the Patriarchal Curia and author of the book “Les familles maronites face à leur Maronité”, and Professor Souraya Bechealany, former Secretary General of the Ecumenical Council of Churches of the Middle East.
The project to launch a special Synod dedicated to the presence and mission of women was approved on June 19, 2021 by the Synod of Maronite Bishops, which had entrusted its preparation to the Office for the Pastoral Care of Women of the Patriarchate. The synodal process will be divided over the coming time into meetings and shared reflections that will be held in parishes, dioceses, religious communities and ecclesiastical, civil and academic institutions, both in Lebanon and in countries where the Maronite diaspora is present. The intent is to recognize and support in a creative and innovative way the vocation of women within the ecclesial community and civil society. Synod means "walking together": Theologians who have prepared useful materials to launch the initiative underline that it has its roots in the synodal dynamics of the Eastern Churches. This synodal dynamic does not involve only the bishops, but all the baptized people, men and women. The initiative of the "Synod of Women" launched within the Maronite Church does not want to be an adaptation to feminist demands and cultural models imported from the West, but represents a rediscovery of the synodal features of one's own ecclesial tradition, which remove every baptized at the risk of becoming a passive executor of provisions and strategies imposed by the ecclesiastical leaders.
Theologians of the ecumenical team Nakhtar al Hayat ("We choose life") had also addressed the "female issue" in the dense contribution on the present and future condition of Middle Eastern Christian communities released at the end of last September, entitled "Christians in the Middle East : for a renewal of theological, social and political choices "(see Fides, 28/9/2021). "Most of the historical Churches of the Middle East" the authors of the text noted "are patriarchal or synodal. Both systems are inspired by the idea of synodality, which, in its original meaning, refers to communion and walking together". These traditional features of the ecclesial life of the communities of the East need to be recovered today, while "unfortunately today in our Churches we often see the people of God - especially women and young people - marginalized in important decisions. We often see the growth of an authoritarian spirit, which cancels shared responsibility, balanced government and the spirit of responsibility between people and their pastors".
According to the authors of that document, the ecclesial life of Middle Eastern communities must free itself "from practices that reduce women to second-class beings, practices contrary to the spirit of the Gospel". (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 2/3/2022)

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