162 participants at the Zoom pre-Synod Assembly May 21
By Agnes Chai
June 30 2022
THE archdiocesan consultation process has come to a conclusion with the pre-Synod Assembly May 21.
The lively assembly was held online through Zoom, which garnered an attendance of 162 people comprising of the Archbishop himself, the clergy, religious, and laity representing various commissions, lay movements, pastoral councils besides the KK Archdiocesan Synod team.
The assembly was called to produce a final Synthesis of all the responses gathered from the feedback of the consultation process across the archdiocese.
The meeting was moderated by Deacon Sylvester Wong, with Br Thomas Paul SG presenting the findings arising from the responses to the Synod questionnaire. Both are serving in the KK Synod Team.
Br Thomas informed that over 12,000 responses had been collected, covering 15 parishes (out of the total of 19 in the archdiocese) and 1 sub-parish, four religious congregations, three lay movements and one commission. About a hundred individual responses were also submitted through Google form.
He reminded the audience that the questionnaire was not a survey per se, but rather to gauge the responses to the given questions and to see any differences between any particular sectors or unique responses.
Sacred Heart Cathedral parish priest, Fr Paul Lo, who is also a member of the KK Synod Team, reiterated that the whole purpose of the Synod was the process of journeying together, and that the end results were not as important as the listening process, the learning from each other and the addressing of each other’s concerns.
“If every group that participated in the Synod Process understood the process, true synodality would be achieved within the church, and this would be an ongoing process of journeying together,” added Fr Paul.
Chair of the KK Synod Team, Anthony Lim echoed similar insights on the process journey “It is important to note that the purpose is the process, that is, to experience synodality and not to collect statistics. This process must not stop here but be ongoing. Each parish should continue to look into their own need and try to respond to it.”
Feedback from the Synthesis
Also from the KK Synod Team, Dominic Lim suggested “After listening to the Synthesis, we should discern what the Holy Spirit is saying to us as a diocesan family.”
He reminded “We might need to go back further in our journey to have a global picture of what the issues we face so that we can have better responses.”
Giving the three key concerns highlighted in the 2015 PAX assembly as an example, he reiterated that the church must view the whole thing from the universal Church’s perspective.
To which Anthony agreed that the previous PAX assemblies have not been addressed enough, and have been looked on as a project that was cast aside after a while with no follow-up.
“Therefore, it is important that in this Synod, every group should not regard it as a project but an ongoing process of journeying together,” he cautioned.
Meanwhile, Denis Patrick from the Youth Commission insisted that the demographic statistics derived from the Synodal process are vital for ascertaining the breakdown of the respondents in order to make the data more effective.
Some shared experiences of the Synodal Process
Rosalind Sulit from the Catholic Nurses Guild disclosed their realisation of the need to reach out and to listen to one another. The process has cemented the need to continue this way of journeying together, which they believed was an insight given them by the Holy Spirit.
Parish priest of St Simon’s Catholic Church Likas, Fr Cosmas Lee underscored that “the Synod is not meant just to talk about problems, instead it is meant to be an experience of journeying together as church”.
“What is the Holy Spirit saying to us in terms of synodality?” he drove home the point of the process.
Going through the Synod process with the Youth Commission has opened up the commission to wonder whether they have listened enough to the Youth and being present to them, revealed Sr Terry Loukang, head of the Archdiocesan Youth Commission.
She believed that the process has been valuable and should be ongoing.
Another frank opinion was voiced up from Family Commission. Head of the commission, Sr Susan Guntabid revealed that many of the programs organised by the commission were not based on listening to the needs of those they were serving.
Humbled by the personal experience of the synodal process, she shared that perhaps a self-check is timely: “Am I a synodal person or leader? Do I listen to the needs of the people?”
Conclusion
As the pre-Synod Assembly drew to an end, Archbishop Wong shared some final thoughts with those assembled.
He called to mind the three dimensions emphasized by Pope Francis in his theme for the Synod of Synodality: Communion, Participation and Mission.
In sum, he said “We must be in communion with each other, and we are all entrusted with the mission of the church. If we can grasp this, we will naturally participate in the life of the church; not by working alone, but by participating together”.
Before parting from the assembly, he gave his assurance that “the Holy Spirit will help us discern about our church and the various groups in it,” but insisted that “we must allow him to go where he leads us, not our will”.
On a further note, the Archbishop revealed that the results of each parish and group within the archdiocese would be further used for the ongoing PMPC (Pan Malaysia Pastoral Convention 2026), and that the clusters from the parish would eventually be grouped according to rural or urban parish.
