Six years ago, in October 2019, the Special Synod for the Amazon opened up a new horizon for the universal Church: the call to discover new paths for the Church and for an integral ecology. Today, the CEAMA (Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon) and the REPAM (Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network) continue to navigate in that same canoe, driven by the Spirit that continues to blow among the peoples, rivers, and forests of the region.
In the context of this anniversary, Fr. Fernando López, SJ, member of the CLAR-REPAM Itinerant Network and the Triple Frontier Nucleus (Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela), shared a profound reflection on the theological and vital meaning of the synodal process in the Amazon. His message, imbued with Amazonian spirituality and wisdom, invites us to rediscover synodality as an expression of the principles that sustain life itself: unity, diversity, and relationship.
“Unity, diversity, and relationship are the structuring principles of the universe. They are physical, biological, and divine. The Trinity is unity in diversity with careful and loving relationships; therefore, synodality has its source in the Trinity,” said the Jesuit.
The Amazon, a school of synodality
Fr. López recalled that the Amazon rainforest and its peoples are teachers of synodality. They express life in its maximum diversity, the result of thousands of years of balance, adaptation, and complementarity.
“The Amazonian peoples have learned to live in diversity with a balance of complementarity with the ecosystem. The Church of the Amazon can only live in diversity, with careful and loving relationships to build unity. That is synodality: walking together in diversity,” he said.
The Synod of the Amazon was not a point of arrival, but a point of departure. Since then, CEAMA has been born as a space for communion, articulation, and pastoral discernment, and together with REPAM, it embodies a new ecclesial paradigm that seeks to be the Amazonian and missionary face of the Church.
“CEAMA is the canoe, REPAM is the net. We need both to move into deeper waters and cast our nets to fish. That is the new ecclesial paradigm we are building,” added Fr. Fernando.
A Church that learns from humility
The synodal journey in the Amazon is also a school of humility. “The Amazon is too big for us,” acknowledges the Jesuit missionary. And precisely in this awareness, the Church learns to join forces, to collaborate between congregations, communities, and peoples, to recognize the gifts of the Spirit in everyone.
“The Amazon River is the meeting point of all the drops of water: from the mist, from the melting snow, from the springs. If our waters come together, the river grows and generates life. So it is with the Church: if we unite our waters, the Spirit does the rest.”
Between the cross and hope
The process has not been without challenges. The path of synodality in the Amazon is marked by the cross, martyrdom, and the wounds of a threatened territory. But it is also full of hope, witnessed by so many women and men who continue to believe that life is stronger than death.
“We are still crucified, but we learn from the women at the foot of the cross, who teach us to keep hope alive without giving up. The Spirit walks with us, and even though He sometimes seems asleep, Jesus sails in our canoe.”
Moving into deeper waters
Six years after the Synod, CEAMA and the entire Amazonian Church are preparing for the VI Ordinary General Assembly (Bogotá, March 2026), where the Synodal Apostolic Horizons will be discerned. It is a new moment to move into deeper waters, trusting that the Spirit continues to guide this process of communion and prophecy.
“It is with Jesus that we will be able to move into deeper waters and cast our nets to continue fishing, so that abundant life may flow to all the peoples of the Amazon and the world.”