RNS Weekly Digest: In Vatican summit’s closing document, agreement that synodality is church’s future

Weekly Digest

In Vatican summit's closing document, agreement that synodality is church's future What many will take away about the Synod on Synodality, the monthlong summit on the future of the church, is that the 450 Catholic clergy and lay faithful called to the meeting skirted the key agenda items of women’s ordination, marriage for priests and acceptance of LGBTQ Catholics.   But for the synod’s organizers, the event was never about providing definitive answers on these topics, but about promoting dialogue and overcoming division. “Many ask for results. But synodality is a listening exercise: prolonged, respectful and humble,” said Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the synod, on Saturday evening.   In the final 42-page document, titled Synthesis Document for a Synodal Church in Mission and approved by 364 voting participants in the meeting, the summit is portrayed as a success, with most of the 20 separate points passing by overwhelming majorities, even if no single paragraph obtained full consensus.  Religion & Politics Mike Johnson, pedigreed evangelical, suggests his election as House speaker ordained by God Protesters occupy New York's Grand Central to demand cease-fire in Gaza Haredi Jews, exempt from Israel's military service mandate, sign up to fight Hamas In Opinion Synod on Synodality report is disappointing but not surprising Siding with peace in the Middle East Suffering is a feature, not a bug, of Latter-day Saint life, says author Melissa Inouye And finally, 250 years later, 'Amazing Grace'  has filled churches, concerts, and even commercials James Walvin, a former Church of England choirboy and professor of history at the University of York, doesn’t remember encountering “Amazing Grace,” in song or in his hymnal. It wasn’t until he traveled to the United States to research the history of slavery that he came upon the hymn introduced by John Newton, a former slave trader, in 1773. Since then, Walvin, the author of the new book “Amazing Grace: A Cultural History of the Beloved Hymn,” has submerged himself in the hymn, which turns 250 this year and has become a staple of Sunday services that has been adapted and adopted by preachers, performers and presidents. “I wasn’t too keen on Elvis’ version,” Walvin said after a recent visit to the Library of Congress’ “Amazing Grace” collection, which includes more than 3,000 recordings of the song — the only one of Newton’s hundreds of hymns that gained such international stature. Find more Religion News Service content on social media and at religionnews.com.