This chapter begins with a description of the first gathering of women and men disciples at the Cenacle, which is considered the birth of the Church. This gathering provides us with a paradigm of the synodal process, which is a faith journey with its accompanying “ecclesial spirit.” In this model, no one is excluded. Women have a space among men disciples, like a synodal third space. Here, a strong, silent woman “gathered” all the broken fragments of the disciples’ humanity and helped them listen deeply to their affective memories of Jesus and prepared them for the outpouring of the Spirit and the consequent missionary impetus. The chapter will discuss the Cenacle as both a symbolic place and theological space as well as theological insights based on the Cenacle experience. The chapter will present a vision of synodality where women have a theological space in the Church—one which is vital and can’t be replaced as in the concept of ecosystems. Finally, the chapter will try to describe a “dream” of how the insights of synodality can be applied to one’s setting and its ongoing challenges.
Judette A. Gallares (Wed,) studied this question.