The many meanings of ‘Accompaniment’ …

Welcome to another in our occasional series of musings by our diocesan correspondent, ‘View from the Valley’!

Every now and then a familiar word achieves ‘lift off’ and takes on a life of its own. Such a word is ‘accompaniment’.

It’s one of the favourite words of Pope Francis and the recent ‘Synod on Synodality’ – the only problem being that, while at first it seems clear what it means, when you dig down there are several different understandings. At a recent conference on this topic in the Liverpool Archdiocese, one speaker defined at least four possible interpretations of the nature and purpose of accompaniment!

But this should not mask the importance of the calling that we have to ‘walk alongside’ others, and ‘journey with them’ on their personal pilgrimage of faith and hope.

Think of Ananias, in the Acts of the Apostles, called by God to ‘go to number 56 Straight Street’ and journey with a man recently struck blind after a heavenly vision: the future St Paul!

Think too of our Lord himself ‘walking with’ the disciples on the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday.

To this end, View from the Valley would love to share with you some sources of insight on this important topic…:

• Hannah Hayward, Coordinating Lay Chaplain of Leeds Trinity University, has developed a short programme to introduce ‘accompaniment’ to her students. She has also run this in a couple of parishes. Contact Hannah via:

• The Catherine of Siena Institute (which you may know through the ‘Called and Gifted’ process) has a course called ‘Ananias’ which seeks to develop lay accompaniers …
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• The Catholic Christian Outreach group from Canada has developed accompaniment as a powerful evangelistic tool amongst university students, and more recently in parishes. Their book Intentional Accompaniment: an apprenticeship for a new generation of builders is not an easy read, but it is a thorough introduction. (I am led to believe that its author, Michael Hall, is not our diocesan priest of the same name!)

Wouldn’t it be interesting to open up a diocesan discussion on the topic of ‘accompaniment’?

Our special correspondent, ‘View from the Valley’, welcomes your thoughts and feedback – any emails sent via communications@dioceseofleeds.org.uk will be forwarded on!