INTRODUCTION

There are many questions regarding the nature and the participants in the Maronite Patriarchal Synod.

There are also questions regarding the preparation, the process, the participation and the stages through which the Synod passes in order to achieve its goals.

This guide provides the answers for all these questions and for many others and spares the effort of searching for them elsewhere. It also displays the practical and organizational matters needed by the participants to avoid losing time and disturbance when nobody can offer them the right answers.

At this point, appears the major significance of this guide since it sets the different elements of the Synod and leads to a successful work of the Synod.

Nevertheless, this guide does not eliminate the importance of personal relations and cannot, in any case, create the Synod spirit that stimulates the Synod from within.

We hope that this guide is thoroughly read and that it would be a useful means for an efficient participation in the Synod works. Furthermore, we would like to thank the authors for the precision and the details put at the disposal of the Synod members even though repetition was sometimes unavoidable.

Assistant Secretary General of the Synod

 Father Khalil Alwan, Superior General