Cynthia Bailey Manns, one of the original members of the Lay Advisory Board that advises Archbishop Bernard Hebda and adult learning director at St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis, is one of 10 non-bishop voting delegates chosen by Pope Francis to represent the North American region at the first general assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality in October. The delegates were announced July 7 at a Vatican news conference.

Bishops appointed to attend include Bishop Robert Barron of the Winona-Rochester diocese.

The theme of the Oct. 4-29 synod in Rome is For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission. Synod members are being asked to continue a “process of spiritual discernment” that was begun in 2021 and will continue with a second synod assembly in October 2024.

Bailey Manns, 65, said she is humbled and excited about the prospect of experiencing the Holy Spirit “as we do this sacred work of vulnerable sharing, deep listening and discernment regarding important issues impacting us individually and collectively.”

For Bailey Manns, the work has included being one of six archdiocesan representatives in the continental phase of the pre-synod preparations. That stage spanned the globe and produced seven continental reports submitted to the Holy See in March. For its part, the United States and Canada held 12 virtual assemblies — seven in English, three in Spanish and two in French — between December 2022 and January 2023. Those assemblies included 931 appointed delegates and 146 bishops.

“It was wonderful experiencing this with a large group of people,” Bailey Manns said of the continental stage’s Zoom sessions, which included discussions and discernment conducted in small groups. Anticipating something similar, but held in person in Rome, Bailey Manns said she found the structure “really geared to have a chance for people to utilize their voice and to be heard and to be seen.”

Concerns Bailey Manns said she will bring to Rome include creating space in the Church for the marginalized to feel invited, welcomed and have a sense of belonging. The marginalized often includes members of the Black and LGBTQ+ communities, the economically oppressed, women in the Church and those concerned about caring for the Earth, she said.

“I hope we are willing to look in those spaces and ask, ‘What does it really mean to love each other in the way Christ wants us to? In a way that is the embodiment of Christ?’” said Bailey Manns, who has a Doctor of Ministry degree in spiritual direction. “The challenge for us is to get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit do what it does so well. I expect there will be a lot of lives changed at the end of the process. I hope I will come out different, too.”

In a statement July 7, Archbishop Hebda said, “Pope Francis has honored our Archdiocese with the appointment of Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns as one of the voting participants at the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality, beginning this October. … I have come to know and respect her for her significant contribution as one of the original members of the Archdiocesan Lay Advisory Board constituted in 2018. Not surprising for someone with years of experience in parish ministry and spiritual direction, Dr. Bailey Manns is a superb listener and articulate dialogue partner, skills that will serve her well at the Synod.”

The archbishop said Bailey Manns also represented the archdiocese at his request on the Twin Cities-based team that worked with the World Council of Churches and the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity to draft international materials for the 2023 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

“I am grateful that her voice, grounded in the lived experience of our local Church, will be heard at the Synod,” the archbishop said.

CYNTHIA BAILEY MANNS

• Adult learning director, St. Joan of Arc, Minneapolis, since 2016
• Member of Archdiocesan Lay Advisory Board
• Board member of Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota since 2022
• Adjunct professor in spiritual direction certificate program at ecumenical United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities
• Past coordinator and lead faculty in the spiritual director certificate program and co-director of the Lilly Endowment Initiative for Contemplative Discipleship at St. Catherine University in St. Paul
• First lay spiritual director in campus ministry at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, which included spiritual direction for men’s and women’s basketball teams as well as university faculty and staff, 2007-2010
• Contributing writer in the anthology “Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color”
• Articles in bimonthly journal Ecumenical Trends and in peer-reviewed journal Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction + Companionship