AIF Spring Lecture 2024 on A Vision for a Synodal Church given by Fr Jan Nowotnik

We are pleased to confirm that the online AIF Spring Lecture will be delivered his year by Rev Jan Nowotnik STL (who many members will have met at Swanwick) on Wednesday 13 March at 7.30pm.

Fr Jan was a voting participant at the Synod of Bishops held in Rome last October to discuss “Synodality”– the new way of “being church” that Pope Francis has made the centrepiece of his pontificacy. 

Jan will talk about his experience of being part of this process – how the listening and discernment worked in reality, what topics were addressed (having been identified as matters of concern by the world-wide church) and how the summary document was arrived at. Alongside his personal insights into what happened in Rome, he will share his thoughts about what we can expect to see in the next 9 months before the second session of the Synod convenes, both at the level of the universal church and also, more locally, here in England & Wales.  Of particular interest to interchurch families he will talk about the discussions, convergences and suggestions concerning Eucharistic Sharing for couples in interchurch marriages.

Fr Jan Nowotnik - Biography

 The Revd Dr Jan Nowotnik is the Director of Mission and National Ecumenical Officer at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. He studied for the priesthood at the Royal English College in Valladolid (Spain) and was ordained for the Archdiocese of Birmingham in November 1998. He was an assistant priest in two parishes and parish priest in a further two before going to Rome to study for a Licence in Theology, specialising in Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas. This then led to him completing, in 2022, a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) focusing on the relationship between the local and universal church with regards to the synodal pathway

This lecture is open to Members of the Association and those outside of membership.

If you would like to join us, please register for the event, by clicking the link below and following instructions:  https://www.interchurchfamilies.org.uk/events