The importance of listening deeply, prayer and silence have been underlined as the Hobart Archdiocese prepares for the Synod Gathering in May next year.
About 40 lay and clergy attended a facilitator training session at St Finn Barr’s Catholic School Hall in the Launceston suburb of Invermay on Saturday.
This session, and another to be held on September 26 in Hobart, will prepare participants for their roles in Regional Listening Sessions later this year.
Trudy Dantis, director of the National Centre for Pastoral Research, led the training.
Dr Dantis was the national coordinator for the Synod in 2021-24; adjunct secretary of Australia’s Plenary Council; and one of 10 Oceania representatives at the global Synod in Rome in 2023 and 2024.
“We are here primarily because of Pope Francis’s call for us to become a synodal Church,” she said.
“Synodality involves discerning and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and it recognises that in communal discernment, each of us has a part to play.
“We don’t have the whole picture. We have part of the picture and that is why there is the need for this Conversation in the Spirit process – to hear more clearly what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to us, through all of us, at this table.
“In the process of synodality we walk together, first of all, recognising all of us are responsible for the Church’s mission; we listen to each other by making space for each person’s voice; and we discern together and we move from ‘what do I think about this question’ to ‘what do we think’ to what the Holy Spirit is telling us through this conversation.
“The prayerfulness of the process is really important.”
Dr Dantis urged attendees to approach the session with curiosity, generosity and a willingness of heart as they learned how to facilitate a good Conversation in the Spirit process.
Hobart Archbishop Tony Ireland, Synod Project Officer Jane McKeown and members of the Synod Steering Committee were also present at the Invermay session.
Archbishop Ireland said that in the process of the Synod, “each one of us might come with an agenda, but … to receive what the Lord is saying to us, we have to put down our pre-agendas and be open to what He is saying to us”.
“Just as a rest is important on a music score, silence is important in times of prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit,” he added.
The Archdiocesan Synod Gathering will take place in Hobart on May 14-16, 2027.
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Synodality: ‘Discerning and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit’ (Hobart Archdiocese)
