General
Instrumentum Laboris for the First Session of the 2021-2024 Synod: For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.
The Instrumentum Laboris will form the basis for the discernment and discussion for the participants of the first session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to be held in October 2023 in the Vatican. This document comes after the first two stages of the 2021-2024 Synod, the first consisting of local listening sessions held across the world followed by discernment from local bishops’ conferences; and a second stage where continental groupings of episcopal conferences conducted discussion and reflection that concluded with the production of seven continental reports that were submitted to the Holy See in March of 2023. The Instrumentum Laboris consists of two main sections that will guide the discernment of those present at the first session of the Synod in October 2023: a reflection on the experience of a synodal Church thus far; and the articulation of three main priorities for a synodal Church. Centering on the main themes of the Synod, communion, participation, and mission, these three main priorities are then explored in greater detail through a series of fifteen worksheets aimed at supporting the discernment of possible next steps for the Church.
More resources as well as additional translations of the Instrumentum Laboris can be found at https://www.synod.va/en/synodal-process/the-universal-phase/documents.html