As I talked with my sister about the proposals, I expressed a desire to gather with women who were not in my close circle to hear their perspectives.

She immediately thought of some of her friends and women in her parish, which is two hours away from where I live.

Without our frequent conversations, she doubted she would have heard much about the synod and suspected the same would be true for them.

They might be interested in learning more and engaging in a "conversation in the Spirit."

Conversing with the spirit

Two weeks later, 12 women, ages 16 to 68, gathered in my sister's living room to learn a bit about the current synod and how women's participation and leadership continues to surface.

After a brief introduction to the synod, we engaged in a "conversation in the Spirit" focused on their experience of church and their desires for the church.

As the sharing unfolded, it was clear that the church is both home and a place in which they long to be more at home.

Several women shared experiences of being treated as an afterthought, noting that over the years, their participation has been invited only when there aren't enough men to fill roles.

Others shared that they feel like women do the bulk of the work in the parish community.

These two experiences are not mutually exclusive. There was joy, laughter, and pain palpable in the room and a deep desire for more.

Language counts

The synthesis report reads:

"There is a need to ensure that liturgical texts and church documents are more attentive to the use of language that takes into equal consideration both men and women, and also includes a range of words, images and narratives that draw more widely on women's experience."

Drawing on this proposal, I asked those gathered about their experiences of the language and images used in the liturgy.

What difference would it make to them if they were more inclusive?

Most were unsure how to answer.

I suggested inclusive language for humanity, which came up organically in our first round of sharing.

I offered the possibility of expanding our images of God, for instance praying with the variety of images offered in scripture and tradition.

I asked about the lectionary and the possibility of incorporating more narratives that include women.

After painting these as possibilities, we listened to one another's perspectives.

One by one, we shared.

I heard pain over the fact that we pray "God came for us men and for our salvation."

I heard curiosity about praying with expanded images of God, images that draw on relationship, like Hagar's name for God in Genesis, the "Living One Who Sees Me."

I heard an understanding that God is neither male nor female and yet a deep familiarity and comfort with God as he.

I heard openness to translations of God language that might use fewer pronouns.

I heard a hunger for more scriptural texts that have women protagonists. I heard a thirst for more women saints to be highlighted.

Underneath it all, I heard a desire to be seen, to be valued, to be invited to participate as women and human beings.

Inclusive liturgy

In this circle, my role was facilitator and listener.

I love the church deeply, as do the women gathered in my sister's living room. And I long to feel more at home in the church.

In my own heart, I feel the pain of knowing that sometimes when our liturgical prayers and church documents say "men," they mean humanity.

But sometimes, they mean what they say—men.

It is exhausting to remind myself that, mostly, "men" means me too. Except when it doesn't.

Last summer, as I eagerly read an official English language document from the synod, I paused in gratitude when I realised that the inclusive language of the text was how it was intended to be written.

I was not reading an inclusive language translation. The church intended my inclusion, and so I was included in pronouns and in the phrase "brothers and sisters." I felt seen.

I also feel seen and nourished by God's Word in scripture and delight in texts that include women.

I long to hear more of these narratives at Sunday Mass.

As a co-convener of the Catholic Women's Preaching Circle, I notice that often women preachers will choose texts that center women.

I encounter women who are in our sacred texts but whose stories are often unfamiliar. They, too, are protagonists, and together we lift them up, and I am lifted up.

As I continue to reflect on this synodal proposal, I am mindful that liturgy, language, and story shape us.

They form us.

How we choose to speak about ourselves and one another and the stories we choose to tell are reflections of what we believe is important and worth keeping alive.

Those choices shape who we will become.

As we expand our language for God and humanity and as we expand the images and scriptural texts we use, not only will women feel more seen and heard by those very texts.

The language, images, and texts will truly shape the people of God to more fully and truly see and hear women. Read more

Kelly Adamson is Director of Residence Life Ministry at the University of Dayton.

But hidden in the synod participants' 40-page synthesis are some surprising gems that could lead to significant reform in the church.

The hidden gems

The first is a new stress on lay involvement.

Compared with other Christian churches, the Catholic Church is very hierarchical. This synod, especially the conversations at roundtables, was structured so that lay voices, including women and young people, were heard and respected.

"Synod path called by the Holy Father is to involve all the baptized," the report notes. "We ardently desire this to happen and want to commit ourselves to making it possible."

Secondly, the synod promotes "Conversation in the Spirit."

The term refers to a practice that "enables authentic listening in order to discern what the Spirit is saying to the Churches," the report explains.

It adds that "‘conversation' expresses more than mere dialogue: it interweaves thought and feeling, creating a shared vital space."

Third, the report acknowledges disagreements and uncertainties.

In the past, the hierarchy tended to cover them up, presenting a united front to the faithful and the world.

But on its first page the synod's report acknowledges "The multiplicity of interventions and the plurality of positions voiced in the Assembly,".

It admits "that it is not easy to listen to different ideas, without immediately giving in to the temptation to counter the views expressed."

In each following chapter, any disagreements and uncertainties are listed under "matters for consideration" that "require deepening our understanding pastorally, theologically, and canonically."

The report also acknowledges its divides.

"The Church too is affected by polarisation and distrust in vital matters such as liturgical life and moral, social and theological reflection," it reads.

"We need to recognise the causes of each through dialogue and undertake courageous processes of revitalising communion and processes of reconciliation to overcome them."

Fourth, the report addresses the concerns of women.

"Women cry out for justice in societies still marked by sexual violence, economic inequality and the tendency to treat them as objects," it says.

"Women are scarred by trafficking, forced migration and war. Pastoral accompaniment and vigorous advocacy for women should go hand in hand."

The church must "avoid repeating the mistake of talking about women as an issue or a problem.

Instead, we desire to promote a Church in which men and women dialogue together, in order to understand more deeply the horizon of God's project, that sees them together as protagonists, without subordination, exclusion and competition."

The synod concluded that in the church "It is urgent to ensure that women can participate in decision-making processes and assume roles of responsibility in pastoral care and ministry."

Fifth, it did not forget the poor, "who do not have the things they need to lead a dignified life."

Instead it insists on their dignity, cautioning the church to avoid "viewing those living in poverty in terms of ‘them' and ‘us,' as ‘objects' of the Church's charity.

Putting those who experience poverty at the center and learning from them is something the Church must do more and more."

Sixth, it charges the church with combating racism and xenophobia, saying it must take action against "a world where the number of migrants and refugees is increasing while the willingness to welcome them is decreasing and where the foreigner is viewed with increasing suspicion."

In addition, "Systems within the Church that create or maintain racial injustice need to be identified and addressed. Processes for healing and reconciliation should be created, with the help of those harmed, to eradicate the sin of racism."

Seventh, abuse in the church must be dealt with.

It suggests that the church explore the possibility of setting up a juridical body separate from the bishop to handle accusations of clerical abuse, saying, "It is necessary to develop further structures dedicated to the prevention of abuse."

Eighth, the synod participants called for reforming priestly formation.

"Formation should not create an artificial environment separate from the ordinary life of the faithful," the report said.

It called for "a thorough review of formation programmes, with particular attention to how we can foster the contribution of women and families to them."

It recommended joint formation programmes for "the entire People of God (laity, consecrated and ordained ministers)."

It also called on episcopal conferences to "create a culture of lifelong formation and learning."

Ninth, the synod called for a regular review of how bishops, priests and deacons carry out their ministry in their diocese.

This would include "regular review of the bishop's performance, with reference to the style of his authority, the economic administration of the diocese's assets, and the functioning of participatory bodies, and safeguarding against all possible kinds of abuse."

Tenth, the report took on liturgical language.

It says the texts used in Catholic rites should be "more accessible to the faithful and more embodied in the diversity of cultures."

It later suggested that liturgy and church documents must be "more attentive to the use of language that takes into equal consideration both men and women, and also includes a range of words, images and narratives that draw more widely on women's experience."

Eleventh, it raised the possibility of offering Communion to non-Catholics, or what it called "Eucharistic hospitality (Communicatio in sacris)."

Saying it was a pastoral issue as much as an ecclesial or theological one, the report noted that such hospitality was "of particular importance to inter-church couples."

Twelfth, the report took aim at what it means to be a deacon in the church.

As it is, the deaconate is largely seen as a steppingstone to priesthood.

The report questions the emphasis on deacons' liturgical ministry rather than "service to those living in poverty and who are needy in the community.

Therefore, we recommend assessing how the diaconal ministry has been implemented since Vatican II."

Thirteenth, the reform of the Roman Curia must continue.

The synod affirmed Pope Francis' statement in the Apostolic Constitution "Praedicate evangelium," released in March of 2022, that "the Roman Curia does not stand between the Pope and the Bishops, rather it places itself at the service of both in ways that are proper to the nature of each."

The synod called for "a more attentive listening to the voices of local churches" by the Curia, especially during periodic visits of bishops to Rome.

These should be occasions for "open and mutual exchange that fosters communion and a true exercise of collegiality and synodality."

The synod also asked for a careful evaluation of "whether it is opportune to ordain the prelates of the Roman Curia as bishops," implicitly suggesting that laypeople might hold top Vatican positions.

Fourteenth, the report said canon law needs updating.

"A wider revision of the Code of Canon Law," it reads, "is called for at this time" to emphasise the synodality of the church at all levels.

For example, it suggests, pastoral councils should be mandatory in parishes and dioceses. It also held up for imitation a recent plenary council of Australia.

Lastly, the synod wants to promote small Christian communities, "who live the closeness of the day-to-day, around the Word of God and the Eucharist" and by their nature foster a synodal style.

"We are called to enhance their potential," the synod's members said.

You will not find these gems written about in the media, but if we let the media tell us what to see in the synod, we might miss important opportunities for church reform.

• First published in Religion News Service
• Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest, is a Senior Analyst at RNS. Previously he was a columnist at the National Catholic Reporter (2015-17) and an associate editor (1978-85) and editor in chief (1998-2005) at America magazine.

And in the Episcopal Church, the language of prayer matters.

The Book of Common Prayer, the text used in every Episcopal congregation, is cherished as a core element of Episcopal identity.

This week, the church is debating whether to overhaul that prayer book — in large part to make clear that God doesn't have a gender.

"As long as ‘men' and ‘God' are in the same category, our work toward equity will not just be incomplete. I honestly think it won't matter in some ways," said the Rev. Wil Gafney, a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Texas who is on the committee recommending a change to the gendered language in the prayer book.

Gafney says that when she preaches, she sometimes changes the words of the Book of Common Prayer, even though Episcopal priests aren't formally allowed to do so.

Sometime she switches a word like "King" to a gender-neutral term like "Ruler" or "Creator."

Sometimes she uses "She" instead of "He." Sometimes, she sticks with the masculine tradition.

"‘Our Father,' I won't fiddle with that," she said, invoking the beginning of the Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to say in the book of Matthew.

Gafney and many other Episcopal priests don't want to skirt the rules when they make changes like that — they want the prayer book to conform to a theology of God as bigger than gender.

The leaders of the Episcopal Church, the American denomination that descended from the Church of England but has long been separate from its British mother church, will consider two dueling resolutions at their triennial convention, which begins Tuesday in Austin and runs through next week.

One resolution calls for a major overhaul of the Book of Common Prayer, which was last revised in 1979.

A wholesale revision would take years, the church says, meaning a new prayer book wouldn't be in use until 2030.

Switching to gender-neutral language is the most commonly mentioned reason to make the change, but many stakeholders in the church want other revisions.

There are advocates for adding language about a Christian's duty to conserve the Earth; for adding a liturgical ceremony to celebrate a transgender person's adoption of a new name; for adding same-sex marriage ceremonies to the liturgy, since the church has been performing such weddings for years; for updating the calendar of saints to include important figures named as saints since 1979. Continue reading

• Image: US Press From