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Speaking with frankness and listening with humility: Nugent and Synod 2020 by Marie Reynolds, Caritas Manager Over three years ago, Archbishop Malcolm shared the vision behind Synod. He reflected on the importance of listening in his role as Archbishop and how his decision to call a Synod was inspired by the need to hear the hopes, fears, and challenges faced by the members of our diocesan community. The word ‘synod’ is a combination of two Greek words — sun (meaning ‘with’) and odos (meaning ‘path’). A Synod is a gathering of people who reflect, discern and listen to the Holy Spirit. In some ways, it’s a bit like a review, a chance to stop and listen to others and hear their thoughts in order to decide on what’s important and what our priorities should be. Four members of the Nugent Caritas Team (Jonathan Hurley, Denise Armstrong, Mary Beatham and Marie Reynolds) became Synod members and attended various events through the three-year journey and represented the views of the people, we, as Nugent serve. We were asked to listen to what people thought and all parishes and groups were asked the following four questions: 1. Where in your everyday life do you experience love, truth, goodness, hope, and joy? 2. When you reflect on your life now, and as you look to the future, what causes you concern or worry? 3. What is the purpose of the Catholic Church in the world today? 4. Having reflected on these things, what are the topics you would like to see on the agenda of Synod 2020? We changed these questions into a more accessible format and visited Nugent projects. We met with beneficiaries to ensure that the views of those we serve were heard. The views of our beneficiaries were joined with everyone else’s and in total there were over 27,000 responses to the questions. The responses were later collated under four themes which resulted in 19 recommendations, and
Normandie Wragg Chief Executive Nugent
these were what Synod members would later vote on. Over 400 Synod members met online at the Synod Voting Day. It was a long but great day with contributions from the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, and Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. After much deliberation, reflection and thought, Synod members voted to focus our collective attention on: young people, evangelisation, inclusivity, the role of women, lay ministry and love of neighbour. These priorities express a desire to reach out to others and not to be an inward-looking and closed community; instead to be an outward-looking and inclusive Church, very much like Nugent, looking out, being inclusive and all playing our part. A pastoral plan on how we move forward and bring life and action to our words will be presented by the Archdiocese in the first week of Advent at the end of November. When my colleagues and I started on the Synod journey one of our main concerns was that as a faith community we needed to be more inclusive. So we were ‘chuffed’ when this came out as a priority for so many others too! We are most thankful to the Archbishop and to the Archdiocese of Liverpool for allowing us, our beneficiaries and the broader Nugent family to be part of this important reflective journey. It would be easy to think of this as the end of the Synod, but at Nugent we are more inclined to think of it as the beginning. We have some way to go to become the community that God is calling us to be. We look forward to working together - as one united community - to achieve our common goals and actions for the coming years.
After a troubling 18+ months and much uncertainty, I am pleased to share with you that we see a bright future ahead of us at Nugent. All off our CQC registered homes are rated as ‘good’ and all our children's homes are also rated as ‘good’. We continue to make strong progress with our financial sustainability and our growth plan. As a charity, our first priority has and always will be the welfare and wellbeing of children and families who are marginalised, vulnerable and atrisk. Having these quality marks and regulatory ratings is a reassurance to our beneficiaries and to our wonderful supporters that we are moving in the right direction in terms of the quality, scope and effectiveness of our services. As a testament to the impact of our work and the importance of your ongoing support, I’m delighted to share with you that pupils at Nugent House School have achieved some fantastic examination results and learning outcomes this year. • This year, we celebrated our first Year 10 GCSE candidate for Design Technology. This remarkable young person achieved a grade 6; our highest achievement this year and the highest grade for 5 years at Nugent House School. • Our first BTEC distinction grade was achieved by one of our Sixth Form pupils in only 12 weeks. They will now progress on to the Level 2 programme which continues their journey to becoming a social worker. • Another pupil has successfully achieved six GCSEs at grade 4 and above and will now begin an apprenticeship with our Property Services Team. This pupil started at Nugent in our Primary provision – his achievements are exceptional and we are delighted with his progress. • In addition to the above, we have now tripled the size of our Sixth Form provision, with a record number of pupils achieving the required grades to continue in their studies. Nugent House School is a place where pupils are loved fiercely and helped to overcome very significant barriers to learning. What counts as progress and achievement at our School is very individual. Many of our young people are dealing with complex educational and emotional needs. We recognise and celebrate the smallest steps as well as the large jumps in all our pupil’s learning. We are incredibly proud of our 2020-21 cohort, who have managed to achieve such fantastic results despite the added challenges that Covid19 has foisted upon them. Such achievements and positive outcomes are only possible due to the ongoing generosity of our donors. Thank you for your continued faith and investment in our work.
Catholic Pictorial
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