[sinod] Homework for the sinoditalgutiim

[Luc Saffre]

Dear sinoditalgulised,

I was two days in bed with a fever, which meant among others that the 
first real-life meeting of the sinoditalgutiim 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/sc/talgud/about/#term-sinoditalgutiim> had 
to be postponed once more. Next possible date is only on February 16th 
(because on February 9th I am still in quarantine). Please let me know 
your availability on this date.

Two days in bed gave me time to think about the project. I realized that 
my draft <https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/sc/draft/> is too long and too 
poorly structured. Here is my attempt of an “executive summary”. I 
invite you to comment this. No need to respond to all items at once. 
Feel free to speak boldly (Some of my statements may be foolish or 
unclear, and I won’t throw you out of the team just because we disagree 
about some point).


    An executive summary

(1) We need an independent institution to unite all Christians because 
the referee cannot participate in the game. We have an architecture 
problem: The Pope exercises two different roles: “research” (“What does 
the Gospel mean today?”, “Where to go?”) and “deployment” (“How to get 
there?”, “How to explain this to the faithful?”).

(2) I meanwhile imagine this institution as a small community of 
individuals who live and pray together with the Pope. They will come 
from very different backgrounds, similar to the disciples of Jesus. The 
Pope will be their direct apostolic leader. They will be economically 
independent and make their own living. They will run a guesthouse, and 
their main service will be to listen to their guests.

(3) I claim that Synodality means to be /together/ (we can’t refuse 
anybody who wants to join or to stay) and /on our way/ (i.e. we know 
that we don’t know the truth). We have only the Scriptures as our guide 
and the Holy Spirit to interpret it. And we see that our interpretations 
can conflict with each other.

(4) The Church has always been apostolic. This concept needs better 
documentation. The basic idea behind apostolic governance 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/sc/draft/#term-apostolic-governance> is 
that an individual person gets /appointed/ to do a given job. Any 
appointed person can herself appoint other persons to help her with her 
job. The Pope is the top-level appointer and gets appointed by the 
procedure of papal succession. Apostolic governance embraces democracy 
and monarchy and as such can be an answer to issues of these government 
forms. It has the potential to lead to a new social and economic system 
called synodalism, as an alternative to capitalism, communism and socialism.

(5) The SC will also accept donations and decide how to share them. This 
is only possible because they will use public accounting 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/pmpa/#term-public-accounting>. Yesterday I 
asked a professional sworn auditor whether my idea that the world needs 
public accounting (see Public money, public agreements 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/pmpa/>) can “have a future”. He was unable 
to answer. He did not even seem to understand it.

(6) I currently define at least two “naive” definitions: A *faithful* is 
“anybody who cares about their faith 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/faith/#term-faith> and believes in the 
Gospel <https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/sc/draft/#term-Gospel>”. And a *sin* 
is “a choice that causes harm to somebody”. See also About the YOUCAT 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/blog/2022/0203_0829/#about-the-youcat> 
below. As a software developer I claim that a definition should be a 
short sentence that every end user manages to remember. The “end users” 
of the church teachings range from youngsters preparing for confirmation 
over farm workers to doctors in theology.

(7) I currently claim that the main job of the SC community will be to 
publish and maintain a small but authoritative website with “master 
teachings” that “explain” the Gospel in our time. The apostles of the 
Pope won’t have much time to teach themselves directly, they will 
delegate this job to others. How would that website look like? See The 
approval system 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/blog/2022/0203_0829/#the-approval-system> 
below.

(8) “Announcing the Gospel to everybody” is the major job of the Church. 
This job is poorly done today. Two observations:

(9) Church representatives happen to teach things that are in 
contradiction with plain common sense. “Estonians are a sceptical and 
unforgiving people. When you tell them something that is in 
contradiction with plain common sense, they simply turn away and will 
distrust you for the rest of their life.”

(10) My simple question “What is this Gospel, this message that you 
teach in your church?” received unsatisfying, confusing and 
contradicting answers. How are we supposed to announce something that 
cannot be summarized “in 60 seconds”? You cannot announce something 
without having clear knowledge about it.

(11) The Gospel is more than any teaching, it is a divine message. It is 
revealed to us in nature, in the thankful smile of a poor, in a personal 
experience of success or failure. But also in rites, sacraments, and 
other non-verbal signs that deserve regulation and formal approval.

(12) The Examples of some teachings 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/sc/draft/#sc-draft-examples> are only my 
personal opinion (unless we would all agree on these formulations, which 
is unlikely). We should either present them together with a completely 
different example, or remove them. My original idea was to show how 
different interpretations of the Gospel can be.

(13) I say that Christians dare to speak about sins because we believe 
that God forgives them even before we realize or repent them. Your sins 
may cause you trouble in the visible world 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/meaning/#term-visible-world>, but they 
cannot separate your from God’s love nor from communion in the Church. 
This is one of the central messages of the Gospel 
<https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/sc/draft/#term-Gospel>. It is especially 
visible in in Luke 15:11–32 (the Parable of the Prodigal Son 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Prodigal_Son>) where the 
father had been waiting for the return of his son already /before/ the 
son had shown repentance.

(14) I currently claim that there are organizations who do not actively 
use the Bible as a tool of inspiration and hence their language is not 
biblical, but their mission is in harmony with the Gospel. We can 
consider them as “indirectly inspired”.

At your service,
Luc
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