Walking together for the common good

As Catholic Charities’ Synergy Toronto 2026 conference drew to a close, the weight of each session began to stand out, perhaps none more so as the clearest expression of the three-day gathering’s entire purpose than the keynote panel “Synodality in Action.”

For many in attendance, Sr. Gill Goulding, C.J., and educator Linda Staudt's discussion distilled the gathering's core conviction: that Catholic organizations serving the same vulnerable communities are stronger, wiser and more faithful when they learn how to walk together, listen deeply to one another and share responsibility for the common good.

Taking place during a conference already dedicated to breaking down silos across social services, health care, education and beyond, the panel supplied a certain spiritual foundation and practical methods for the collaboration all had come seeking. 

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The panel was moderated by Angela Townend, who holds the Toldo research chair for the Advancement of Human Formation at St. Peter’s Seminary in London, Ont. She first framed the conversation by noting how closely these human-formation priorities align with the Church’s emerging understanding of synodality, not as an abstract concept or additional layer of meetings, but as the Church’s cultural and spiritual shift toward a more relational way of leading and serving. 

Townend’s own experience in both nonprofit agencies and seminary formation brought a personable translation of broader theological language into the daily realities of Catholic organizations, underscoring that every person in the room, regardless of role, exercises leadership and shares responsibility for the mission.

Goulding brought a weight of deep theological engagement with the global synodal process. Appointed by Cardinal Mario Grech to the Theological Commission of the Synod from 2021 to 2024, the Congregation of Jesus Sister helped shape the early documents and read the responses that poured in from dioceses, religious congregations and individuals around the world.

Goulding is also a professor of systematic theology at Regis College, a Bye-Fellow of St. Edmund’s College in Cambridge, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology and serves on the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Responsible Ministry. Her reflections grounded the panel in the Church’s universality, insisting that synodality is best understood as a process rather than a fixed program, as she put it, “a slow conversion of hearts and minds rooted in the conviction that the Holy Spirit is genuinely at work.”  

Staudt supplied the lived experience of a senior Catholic educator who found herself, to her own surprise, at the heart of the 2021 Synod in Rome. After 25 years with the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board and eight years as director of education for the London Catholic board, retirement beckoned. Instead, she was drawn into chairing the diocesan and provincial synod committees, presenting the Ontario synthesis to the bishops and ultimately being named one of only four lay Canadian voting delegates to the 2023 and 2024 assemblies of the Synod of Bishops.

With her contributions relentlessly practical, she described the power of the “roundtable” as the physical symbol of synodality, the careful crafting of questions given in advance and the disciplined structure of conversation in the Spirit that forces participants to listen fully before responding. Her oft-repeated example, “only after listening comes speech,” and her insistence that effective collegiality begins with relationships and trust gave the conference a clear, actionable path from inspiration to daily practice.

For the better part of two hours, the three discussed the growing importance of synodality as a means of collaborating with a focus on the common good. Synodality, as they tried to convey, is a process and a culture, not a program or quick fix. The baseline question, as Goulding prompted the audience, is whether or not we truly believe the Spirit is at work in the Church and among us, and that in such a belief lies the ground for ongoing conversion.

“I like to think of (synodality) as a spiritual discipline. Are we leading and working together? Are we serving others in a way that reflects not just our mission, but also the Gospel values that we are called to live?” Townend said. 

Even though the trio mused that “synodality” or “the synodal process” has been discussed almost to the point of exhaustion in Church circles since the process formally began in 2021, each panellist refused to treat it as a spent idea. They acknowledged the fatigue and skepticism that have grown around the word itself and its perceived vagueness, the fear of it leading to endless meetings and even the suspicion that it was merely one pope’s temporary project. Yet, they insisted that the deeper reality the term points to remains urgently necessary: that is, the Church’s willingness to hear every voice, especially those that are quiet, distant and sometimes inconvenient.

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Goulding shared that while the process is a deliberately slow burn, she reminded the room that genuine conversion of hearts and minds cannot be rushed.

“Policies may change behaviour, but only patient, Spirit-grounded listening changes culture,” she said. 

While the talk would go on to address different areas of synodality and its importance, such as methods like conversation in the spirit, the idea of co-responsibility and listening as a foundational practice, a certain understanding was beginning to take shape among those present, largely due to where the session was taking place. 

The encompassing purpose of Synergy Toronto was designed from the outset as a living exercise in the very practices the three women had described. Organizers, like Catholic Charities' executive director Agnes Thomas, had intentionally gathered leaders and practitioners from a wide breadth of Catholic ministries to meet face-to-face and share experience, beginning Goulding’s “slow work” of working with one another intentionally. From the conference’s opening exploration of Catholic Social Teaching and the Catholic Leadership Panel to the many concurrent sessions, conversation circles, paper presentations, poster displays, even the simple act of sharing meals, reinforced the same habits. 

The conference would close with Holy Mass celebrated by Cardinal Frank Leo and a final Call to Action that featured the creative witness of L’Arche Toronto’s Sol Express, inviting everyone to carry the relationships and commitments from Synergy forward, largely in a synodal way. 

Thomas, admittedly still reeling after years of planning paid off, said Synergy 2026 "was everything I wanted it to be and more."  

“ (It was) absolutely humbling to see the community build around the concept and work to make everything come together. I felt it was very much like the parable of the five loaves and two fish — the community, the presence, the shared mission for our calling to the common good was beautiful to witness,” Thomas said. 

“Across the whole (conference), I felt it was Holy Spirit organized. One of the speakers said it so eloquently, ‘Our call as people to serve in the margins is about love, and that must be organized.’ So many people came up to me during Synergy to say they felt the Spirit moving, and you don’t always get that at a conference.” 

And while those feelings permeated the conference, Thomas and those presenting “Synodality in Action” had given conviction that, going forward, the Church’s work will not be measured by grand new structures alone, but by the daily habits of humility and shared responsibility that the speakers had outlined. 

Goulding perhaps reminded the room of this best through her closing remarks.

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“(Being synodal) can sound like hard work, and to a certain extent it is, but the overwhelming benefits for those we serve and for ourselves are incalculable. Having a sense of that gives the impetus for us to continue along the path,” she said. 

“And don't forget, the Spirit's still working.” 

A version of this article appeared in the November 15, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "Walking together for the common good".