In this episode, we reflect on the priority The Challenges of Modern Life, drawing on the experiences shared across the Archdiocese during our listening process. This Priority impact all of the previous six priorities and is a common thread and challenge that runs through each.

Many spoke of the pressures facing young people and families today — anxiety, busyness, mental health struggles, loss of trust, and the weight of expectations in a fast-changing world. This episode invites delegates to consider how the Church can respond with compassion, realism, and hope, accompanying people where they truly are and offering faith as a source of resilience and meaning.

Grounded in Scripture and recent Church teaching, the reflection highlights a Church called not to stand apart from these realities but to walk alongside those experiencing them, listening deeply and responding with mercy rather than judgment.

The episode also presents practical proposals emerging from parish and school feedback, including supports for mental health, safe spaces for young people, responses to family pressures, and renewed attention to belonging, trust, and pastoral care.

Listeners are invited to reflect prayerfully on how the Church can walk more closely with people amid the real challenges of contemporary life.

In this episode, we reflect on the priority of Prayer and Spirituality, recognising prayer as the lifeblood of a synodal Church the place where we listen for God’s voice, deepen our relationship with Christ, and find strength for mission.

Listening across the Archdiocese revealed both a deep hunger for prayer and the struggle many experience in finding time and space for reflection in an increasingly busy and distracted culture. This episode invites delegates to consider how prayer and spirituality can be renewed and supported in homes, schools, and parish communities.

Drawing on Scripture and Church teaching, the reflection highlights how prayer sustains our baptismal identity as beloved children of God and keeps faith alive and active in everyday life. It also explores the Church’s call to cultivate spaces of encounter where people, especially young people and families, can experience prayer as life-giving and hope-filled.

The episode presents practical proposals emerging from parish and school feedback, including supporting family prayer, developing retreats and pilgrimages, creating quiet and reflective spaces, and offering accessible opportunities for communal and personal prayer.

Listeners are invited to reflect prayerfully on how prayer and spirituality can be nurtured to sustain faith, belonging, and mission in the life of the Church today.

In this episode, we reflect on the priority of the Ecosystem of Faith — the shared responsibility of family, school, and parish in handing on faith to the next generation.

Listening across the Archdiocese repeatedly affirmed that faith is not formed in one place alone. It grows through relationships in the home, is supported in schools, and is celebrated and sustained in parish communities. This episode invites delegates to consider how stronger collaboration between these settings can better support families and young people, ensuring that schools are not carrying faith formation alone and that parishes become welcoming hubs of connection and shared mission.

Drawing on Scripture and Church teaching, the reflection highlights the family as the first place of faith, the important partnership role of Catholic schools, and the parish as the spiritual home that gathers and supports the wider community. It also recognises the need to support parents, teachers, clergy, and pastoral workers so they can accompany young people with confidence and hope.

The episode presents practical proposals emerging from parish and school feedback, including joint parish–school–family initiatives, stronger sacramental collaboration, family-centred parish activities, youth programmes, and renewed efforts to ensure faith is lived and supported across all areas of community life.

Listeners are invited to reflect prayerfully on how families, schools, and parishes can walk together more intentionally in forming young people and strengthening faith for the future.