Pope Francis has launched the most ambitious Catholic renewal project for 60 years with a listening exercise that aims to give every member of the 1.3 billion Church a stake in its future. Through a “synodal” process, the Pope is asking Catholics to help re-imagine the future of the Church, and grapple with questions such as the role of women, evangelisation, priesthood, serving the marginalised and global governance. It has the potential to reshape the Church forever. This is the first podcast series on synodality and will tell the story of the reform process. The synod process is opening up discussion about the role of female leadership in the Church. In this episode, Christopher Lamb discusses what shape these roles could take, the position of women in early Christianity and why a “synodal” Church is a more inclusive one. To find out more, he speaks to Professor Phyllis Zagano, who served on Pope Francis’ commission looking at female deacons, Nicola Brady, who has been tasked by the Irish bishops to lead their national synod, and Susan Pascoe, an adviser to the Vatican and expert in church governance. The executive producer is Silvia Sacco and the producer is Renardo Schlegelmilch. The series is presented by Christopher Lamb. Christopher is the Rome Correspondent for The Tablet and is a doctoral researcher in synodality at the Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University. The series is sponsored by the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University in partnership with The Tablet.