About us

Avril and Chris have come together from different parts of the Church to work together on School for Synodality.

Chris has a long history of working across the justice and social action network, including being a former trustee of CAFOD. Through his work with young adults, he became involved in supporting the dissemination of the Synod on Youth and Vocation of 2018, founding Synod Fruits to help spread the vision for young people in the Church. He was part of the team for the Liverpool Synod.

Avril also has a history of working with young people, although in a diocesan context. She is now the pastoral ministry advisor and synod co-lead for the Diocese of Northampton. She is also a doctoral student at Durham University, developing the notion of Lived Catholicism and exploring the reality of the lives of Catholic teenagers in the UK.

Chris and Avril are convinced that their beginning in youth ministry has opened them to the transformational possibilities of listening and accompanying others in faith. Synodality offers a vision of the whole Church journeying together, of a pastoral encounter that draws us into an encounter with the living Lord. The School for Synodality is about walking together on that journey: accompanying one another, providing refreshment or support as needed, learning the hard lessons as we go, helping one another to keep our eyes fixed on the Holy Spirit. Whether you are an individual or a whole diocese, we welcome your company on the road.

Our areas of work

Resources for formation and training

Everything from a 5 minute "what is synodality" video to resource packs for starting a parish council; from the basics of spiritual conversation to resources for school councils, synodal leadership, reaching the margins and whatever else you need.
Accompaniment programmes

A fifteen-month accompaniment programme to walk with parish communities responding to synodal listening and innovators in pastoral ministry.
Theological and theoretical

An academic resource group chewing over some of the important questions arising as we walk the synod path.
Communications

Helping the Church explore synodality by developing mix media content and by bringing together the best of the best resources from around the world, and featuring all our formation materials to use for free.
Networking

Helping to bring together those working on similar themes in the area of synodality, and keeping the network of people we work with and engage with in contact.