By Agnes Chai @ LJCCC
Feb 22 2022
KOTA KINABALU – Sacred Heart Cathedral Parish saw its largest group last Sunday (Feb 20) embarking on the Synodal conversations that have begun across the universal Church since October 2021.
Originally set as a hybrid process, the Synod Consultation turned completely virtual in view of the soaring of the COVID infections in the city.
The process was conducted in two parts over two Sundays. A briefing on the Synodal Process was given by presiding elder Anthony Lim to the members on the first Sunday virtual meeting.
Lim gave a detailed introduction to the Synod on Synodality, explaining on the path taken by Pope Francis to declare that the new way of being Church is Synodality.
To encourage the widest participation for the synodal process, the community helped members to understand the purpose and the uniqueness of the extraordinary synod called by the Pope, the consultation process by way of listening to each other, and listening to the Holy Spirit in journeying together through a prepared set of questionnaire, and ultimately listening to what God is saying to the Church through the process.
For the second Sunday virtual meeting, 160 members were assigned into 28 breakout rooms according to their cell groupings to walk through the prepared questionnaire, and to gather the sharing of individuals into reports for submission to the parish.
Parish priest Fr Paul Lo sent the community off to a fruitful and spirit-filled synodal journey with God’s Word from Scriptures, words of encouragement and the Prayer for the Synod “Adsumus Sancte Spiritus”, which he recited with the community members.
He reminded the community that the consultation is not a decision process, but an exercise to gradually become a Synodal Church by walking together and listening to one another and listening to the Holy Spirit.
The community members found that, unlike other conversations, they are a people on a journey together, learning to listen to one another on the concerns of the future of the Catholic Church, rather than attempting to solve the problems and concerns by offering advice or giving comments.
The listening requires a conscious slowing down and a pause to listen to the thoughts, experiences, challenges and hopes of the other, without forming an opinion, or being afraid to voice up without the fear of being assessed.
Overall, the members went through the process prayerfully and thoughtfully, relying on the Holy Spirit to guide the community in the final submission of its findings gathered from the enriching conversations encouraged by the community leaders.
