The Episcopal Conference of Colombia has presented the booklet “Making Memory,” a pastoral guide to prepare and celebrate the Assemblies of the particular Churches during the first semester of 2027. The text, prepared by the Department for the Animation of Communion and Synodality of the episcopate, was released on November 12 and adapts to the country’s context the note of the General Secretariat of the Synod, published under the title “Recollecting” in its English version.
According to the Episcopal Conference, the booklet proposes a journey in four movements—reread, narrate, celebrate, and share—and offers practical guidelines for three specific tasks: preparing the narrative report of each particular Church, celebrating the local Assembly, and drafting the letter addressed to the other Churches. It also includes criteria for achieving broad participation, questions for discernment, methodological resources, and examples that each diocese can adapt to its own reality. The Synod Secretariat, for its part, has indicated that the guide also contains a model form and a glossary.
The document of the Synod Secretariat on which it is based
The General Secretariat of the Synod published on July 27 the document “Making Memory. Accompanying the Preparation of the Evaluation Assembly of the Local Church,” as reported by InfoVaticana. It is addressed primarily to bishops and synodal teams, and does not propose a single model, but rather questions, criteria, and suggestions adaptable to each place. Its two parts deal, on the one hand, with the preparation of a narrative report built from memories and testimonies, and on the other, with the preparation of the Evaluation Assembly convened by the bishop.
From that Assembly must emerge the definitive narrative report and a Letter to the other Churches. Once validated by the bishop, both texts are sent to the national or regional synodal team and to the General Secretariat of the Synod before June 30, 2027.
The synodal calendar until October 2028
The diocesan and eparchial assemblies of the first semester of 2027 are the first step of a broader stage. In the second semester of that year, the assemblies of the episcopal conferences and of the Eastern hierarchical structures will meet, which will prepare a theological-pastoral report and a letter. The continental assemblies will be held in the first four months of 2028, and the process will culminate with an ecclesial Assembly in the Vatican in October 2028, as InfoVaticana reported when announcing the itinerary set by the Secretariat.
The Episcopal Conference of Colombia also maintains a microsite dedicated to the synodal process with resources for the dioceses, and the Department for the Animation of Communion and Synodality handles inquiries by email and WhatsApp. The Synod Secretariat released the news of the Colombian booklet on the same November 12.