At the end of the 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) under the theme Synod on Synodality’, the Local Ordinary of Kokstad called on the members of the diocesan pastoral council to be missionary disciples and co-responsible.

Held in a synodal assembly style, the 2024 Kokstad Diocesan Pastoral Council (KODPAC) AGM was conducted using the conversation in the Spirit methodology in the three official languages (English, Sesotho, and IsiXhosa) of the diocese. During the day-long AGM, participants shared reports from their local deaneries and parishes, sodalities, lay associations/movements, youth and children’s groups, religious sisters, and a report from the newly established marriage and family life ministry.

“I’m really happy, very happy for the fact that we had the opportunity today for the delegates to experience what we ourselves experienced in Rome during the Synod, during the first session last October. And my hope is that they will now go back to their parishes, to their religious communities, to their sodalities and the various groups that we have in the church in our diocese and actually be missionary disciples themselves,” said Bishop Thulani Victor Mbuyisa CMM.

The member of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill commended pastoral council members for coming out in numbers to attend the AGM, “I must say I’m truly pleased with the way our AGM was celebrated.”

“There was great participation from all delegates… I’m also pleased by the feedback that we received as each group made their presentations in the plenary… I had the feeling that everyone was genuinely honest, and they really took the message to heart,” said Bishop Mbuyisa CMM.

Among some of the issues addressed during group sessions using the conversation in the Spirit methodology were issues related to inculturation, the active role of women and youth at the level of the diocesan pastoral council, men’s participation in church activities, the revival of small Christian communities, digital communication, ongoing formation, and the inclusion of the diocese three official languages. Delegates also stressed the involvement of the laity in supporting priestly and religious formation, as well as working towards a self-sufficient church.

Guest speaker at the July 13 KODPAC- AGM gave a presentation on the Synodal journey from 2021 to 2024 with a focus on how to become a Synodal Church and the conversation in the Spirit methodology. During her presentation, the Secretary of the Commission for Information of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops highlighted the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council convened by Pope John XXIII from 1962-1965.

Sheila Pires noted that the Synod on Synodality is a call to implement the recommendation of the Second Vatican Council. Pires also looked at the recommendations from the Kampala document published at the launch of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) in 1969, and the eight focal areas of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) Pastoral Plan launched in 2020.

The 2024 KODPAC – AGM concluded with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Mbuyisa CMM alongside the diocesan priests.