2024 Online Summer School - Seeking, Serving and Sharing Christ in a Synodal Church

Over the past few years, the focus of conversations about the Church has been directed towards the Synod on Synodality and how Rome responds. Yet the challenge for our faith communities and parishes is how does this focus help us locally to find the ways of seeking Christ, serving Him and sharing Him with others.

This summer school will consider each of these aspects through the synodal lens with an opportunity to reflect on how the invitation to co-responsibility in Church is the activated response of people who live in Christ.

Seeking, Serving and Sharing Christ is reflective, informative and interactive. It aims to engage individuals and groups who are in their initial formation, in need for renewal, in discernment of their way forward, in time of transition – or somewhere in between! In many ways, this is where we can discover how to be intentional in seeking, serving and sharing Christ with others so that the Church will be alive with hope and vision.

The course is very flexible and no previous study of theology is required.

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Course Delivery

The course consists of eight recorded presentations and three Zoom meetings and is delivered by Fr Peter O'Kane. There will be an introductory Zoom meeting on  19 August. There are four presentations each week and they will become available each day, so on Tuesday 20th August there will be access to one recording and on Wednesday access to two recordings and so on. Participants can watch the lectures whenever suits them, and revisit lectures they have already viewed. At 7pm on the Monday of the following week there will be a live Zoom discussion with Peter.

Fr Peter O’Kane is a priest of the Diocese of Derry, ordained in 2005. He holds postgraduate degrees in Music (University of Ulster), Canon Law (Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome), Theology (Technological University, Dublin) and Catechetical Sciences (La Faculté Notre-Dame, Paris) as well as an undergraduate degree in Philosophy. Having held a variety of pastoral assignments, including Programme Leader of the BA and MA programmes in the Priory Institute, hospital chaplaincy and parish responsibilities, his present role is Director of Evangelisation and Faith Formation in the Diocese of Derry. Active in liturgical and music fields, locally and nationally, for many years he was involved in the Irish Church Music Association, serving on its central committee. Currently he is an adjunct lecturer at the Priory Institute, Dublin, as well as adjunct lecturer in Liturgy, Worship and Pastoral Studies at Saint Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth and Maynooth University. He is also Judicial Vicar of the National Appeal Tribunal of Ireland and assists in a variety of canon law services in the country.

Format

Week 1: Monday Evening 7pm, introduction on Zoom. Tuesday to Friday, four filmed presentations.

Introduction
Who is Christ … who do you seek?
Who is Christ … what difference does it make?
Who is the Church … what do you seek?

Week 2: Monday evening 7pm, live discussion of presentations from the previous week. Tuesday to Friday, four filmed presentations.

Who is the Church … what service does this call us to?
Who is Christ and the Church in our time … what is the vision?
Who is Christ and the Church … how do we listen?
Who is Christ and the Church … how do we share Him?

Monday Evening 7pm, live discussion of presentations from the previous week and conclusion.

Dates

Monday 19th August - Monday 2nd September 2024

There will be three Monday evening 7pm Zoom sessions.

19th August

26th August

2nd September

Cost

€120, €100 for current students

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