From left: Fr Paul Shie, Fr Robert Leong and Fr Arin Sugit
Nov 8 2021
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM – The Apostolic Vicariate in Brunei Darussalam launched the Synod on Synodality on October 17, 2021, at the Church of Our Lady of Assumption (COLA), Bandar Seri Begawan, a week after Pope Francis officially launched it at St Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
The launch was rather muted as Brunei is still under lockdown and so there is no congregation at Mass. To show a semblance of a vicariate wide participation, video recordings from the other two parishes were inserted into the livestream Mass held at COLA. The Pentecost theme was selected for the Mass to invoke the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help us discover what God would like to see in our local Church.
During the homily, Fr Robert Leong, the Diocesan Administrator said, “Jesus stressed he is ‘The Way, the Truth and the Life’ and the early Christians were originally called ‘followers of the way’. In this sense, synodality enables the entire People of God to walk forward together, listening to the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, and to participate in the mission of the Church in the communion that Christ establishes between us. Ultimately, this path of walking together is the most effective way of manifesting and putting into practice the nature of the Church as the pilgrim and missionary People of God (PD, 1).
He said the Apostolic Vicarate sets its priorities for the parishes of the vicariate. Every July, the three parishes take turns to host the Vicariate Assembly where they decide the direction for the Vicariate in the coming year, mostly in sync with themes suggested by the Holy Father. Some dioceses have five-year, ten-year, or even longer period plans for their diocese. Unfortunately, not everyone participates in these annual assemblies.
To carry out the Holy Father’s plan, Fr Leong said a Synod Working Group, composed of two people from each parish, has been set up. Heading this team is James Chua from COLA. He is the main contact person for this Synod consultation process and will liaise with the regional bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. The working team will come up with proposals for the three churches to consider on their own, after which they will come together to synthesise the feedback.
There are three phases which every diocese/ vicariate is called to go through. First is the consultation phase in which we gather input from everyone. We may need to go through one or more consultation/discussion meetings before we synthesise the feedback and write a report for the regional bishops’ conference CBCMSB by Feb 2022.
The implementation phase comes after the Synod of Bishops assembly in Oct 2023 has ended. The last phase is not the end of the synod; instead, it sets the direction in which the Holy Spirit inspires the entire Church on how to move forward together.
“Often, we are also not good at implementing ideas and suggestions identified at our annual assembly because we are distracted by other themes the universal Church may have come up with for us. From now on, I hope we will have a long-term direction that we will all aim towards,” said Fr Leong.
The hope is that the experience of the Synodal Process will bring about a new springtime for listening, discernment, dialogue, and decision-making, and will lead to conversion the of everyone to this new way of being. We cannot have each diocese in the world going “Sendirian Berhad” from now onward. Jesus, as head of the Church, has appointed apostles/bishops to represent him, with the Holy Father as our chief Shepherd and all of us listening to the will of God through the Holy Spirit and being guided by our local ordinary at the same time.
Come Holy Spirit, teach us the way for our local Church to move forward.
For more, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOXGRstg7p0 – Herald Malaysia
