Synodality An Anglican Perspective, Angleterre

Synodality in the Montfortian Family: An Anglican Perspective

I was delighted to accompany Sr Marie Turner DW to St Laurent. I will admit, it was a little daunting to be the only Anglican, and a woman Priest at a conference of three Catholic Montfortian Congregations. The theme of the conference, Synodality, means ‘walking together’ and comes from the Greek sou (together) and hodos (way). The conference was truly an international experience. Sr Marie and I walked together with 35 nations and enjoyed the faithful enthusiasm of our brothers and sisters from the Global South (Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America). 

The theme of Synodality was centred on involving Catholic laity and clergy in a process of collaboration and discernment. In the Anglican and Protestant traditions, ‘Synodality’ also has this meaning, it is also about the way all of the baptised ‘walk together’. How Anglicans, Catholics, Protestants and non-conformists seek together to discern where the Holy Spirit is leading. More recent Anglican synodal conversations have become more controversial, for example, whether the civil partnerships of same-sex couples can be blessed in Anglican Churches.

I felt it was significant that a lay person rather than a Sister, Brother or Priest opened the conference. I was also struck that Louis Marie involved lay people at the outset, including Marie Louise Trichet. As part of our conference activities, we walked in the footsteps of Montfort, visiting his birthplace and places of ministry while hearing about early Montfortian lay collaborators. For me this showed the spirit of synodality was with Montfort from the start. In the UK, the Daughters of Wisdom likewise have a well-developed ministry alongside lay people. In the UK we have also developed another ‘ecumenical’ synodality. The Friends of Wisdom in the UK were formed by Sr Marie Turner DW as an ecumenical group including both Anglicans and Catholics. The Daughters of Wisdom have worked with Anglicans in England since the Sisters first arrived in Romsey in 1891. Being in St Laurent has helped me recognise that ecumenism is a special charism and calling on the sisters in the UK. I think Montfort would have approved. He said himself “the One true God…the God who is love” – a call to live in unity and share with others as Incarnate Wisdom (JLM p331). I hope Montfortians celebrate and encourage ecumenical participation in other provinces.

Sent by my Friends of Wisdom, I came to the conference to learn more about Montfortian Spirituality and the Catholic faith. Most of all, I came to walk together, to share a table and develop our friendship. Although there were difficulties along the way, there was a desire to build a greater understanding and make new friendships.

When I arrived at the conference I was warmly welcomed by a Friend of Wisdom who immediately identified me very enthusiastically as the ‘Pastor’ from England. Although ‘Pastor’ is usually a Protestant term for a lay leader, I was very touched, that despite linguistic challenges, my vocation as an Anglican was recognised by a Catholic.  

Because my own Identity is Anglo-Catholic, a Catholic within the Anglican Church, I felt very at home in St Laurent, I enjoyed taking part in Catholic practices such as ‘adoration’ and the Rosary and the service was familiar.

 Unlike our Protestant brothers and sisters, for Anglo-Catholics, Mary is honoured as theotokos, a Greek term meaning "God-bearer," We also (like Catholics) recognise the ‘true presence of Christ’ in the Eucharistic elements. Probably, the most well-known example of an Anglo-Catholic is Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), originally an Oxford University academic and Anglican Priest. Newman was fascinated by the Mariology of Louis-Marie de Montfort. Although most Anglicans today have never heard of Montfortian Spirituality, Newman famously caused a rift among respected Anglicans over his interest in Montfort’s ‘Jesus living in Mary.’ Although the relationship was controversial, it was Montfortian thinking that contributed to Newman being received into the Catholic Church in 1845. Newman was made Cardinal in 1879. 

Attending the conference was an opportunity to ‘walk in the footsteps of Montfort’ and explore Montfortian spirituality and Mariology more deeply. Newman wrote of Mary in his meditations: “She is the house and the palace of the Great King, of God Himself. Our Lord, the Co-equal Son of God, once dwelt in her….our Lord was actually born in this holy house.” Elsewhere he said, she is “the human throne of Him who reigns in heaven, she is called the Seat of Wisdom.” Montfort himself said: “Mary is the royal throne of Eternal Wisdom…That is why the Fathers of the Church call her the place of rest and contentment of the Blessed Trinity, the throne of God, the city of God, the altar of God, the temple of God…” Only through Mary, then, can we possess divine Wisdom (LEW 208-9)

So, what about my personal walk with Montfort?  My first encounter with Louis-Marie was his statue within the grounds of La Sagesse Convent in Romsey. I initially discovered the writings of Montfort by accident, through reading Newman. Newman, like Montfort, was also well known for his living example of love for the poor. In 1841 concerning Roman Catholics, Newman said: “If they (Catholics) want to convert England, let them go barefooted into our manufacturing towns, let them preach to the people.” This is, of course, is exactly what Montfort had already achieved in Poitiers Hospital, France and elsewhere. Montfort manifested a universal missionary vision, a preferential love for the poorest of the poor, along with his personal ‘radical poverty’ and ‘hope in God,’ which even led him to exchange his coat for the rags of a beggar at the Cesson Bridge, a personal poverty we were invited to reflect on at the conference.

Perhaps the most poignant experience for me was an old oak tree outside the church at St. Lazare which Montfort preached under. Twenty years ago, the Daughters of Wisdom, grafted a branch of this original oak tree and planted the sapling in the grounds of the Daughters of Wisdom Motherhouse in St Laurent. The Tree was to commemorate the founding of the Friends of Wisdom as a branch of the Montfortian family. I hope that a branch of that oak tree can be planted in the grounds of La Sagesse Convent in Romsey to celebrate Anglican and Protestant friends as another flourishing branch of the Montfortian Family, a symbol of Wisdom that unites us as one family in Christ, all gathered around the same table. For me, the sacrament of Holy Communion is Christ's basis of synodality and universal love.

With Wisdoms blessing.

Revd. Fiona Jenvey

Sr Marie Turner DW with Revd. Fiona Jenvey FW under the Oak at Poitiers

Fr. Marco Pasinato SMM with Revd. Fiona Jenvey FW

Sr Marie Turner DW, Revd. Fiona Jenvey FW with Jean and Hélène from the International FW Team.

Ecumenical relationships at Winchester Cathedral, England. Revd. Fiona Jenvey FW with Sr Maureen Seddon DW (Delegation Leader GBI) and Sr Marie Turner DW