IN a blaze of colour and ceremony, about 550 people gathered as Bishop John Gerry launched the consultation phase of the 2003 Brisbane archdiocesan synod on Sunday, June 3.
The ritual in St Stephen’s Cathedral marked the ceremonial start of the most wide-ranging consultation process to be ever undertaken in the archdiocese.
The event coincided with Pentecost Sunday, a point noted during the ceremony by Bishop Gerry, who is also the Synod Preparatory Commission chairperson.
“When in the 16th century, Ignatius Loyola sent Francis Xavier to make a perilous journey to India in order to preach the Good News of Jesus, he told them: ‘Go set all afire’.
“On this Pentecost Sunday, Christ sends his Holy Spirit to empower us to undertake the same commission. We are to set the people around us on fire with the love of God. That is the Church’s purpose,” Bishop Gerry said.
