The Synod Secretariat has written a letter to bishops across the world explaining the next stages of the synodal process ahead of next year’s second and final session of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

In the December 12 news release shared with the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC), the Synod Secretariat shares “guidelines with a concrete roadmap in which the deepening of synodality in a missionary perspective and the broadening of experiences of synodality at the local level are the cornerstones on which the local communities are called to reflect.”

In the four-page document titled Towards October 2024 which was sent to Synod members before the news release, the members of the Ordinary Council of the Synod of Bishops underscore the importance of the experience lived by those who took part in the first session of the Synod in October this year, and recall their account saying it “constitutes an inalienable part of the gift we have received, conveying the richness of an experience that no text can condense.”