The Mission: The One Heart, Many Voices conference provided participants with a platform for discernment and deep listening. Source: Catholic Mission.
Held in Sydney last month, the conference brought together people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, allowing them to share their wisdom, listen to one another, and discuss mission.
The concept of deep listening is highlighted in the Church’s 2024 Synod on Synodality documents as an essential element to moving forward, according to Estela Padilla, who delivered the conference’s keynote address.
“The second chapter of the Synod document is about the conversion of relationships. It is encounter-based and is very central to what it means to be Church, all the relationships being converted towards becoming a more merciful Church, a more listening Church, and one more in solidarity,” Dr Padilla said.
“Looking at the Synod final document, the most important thing is the conversion of the heart. The whole document, even the chapter titles, speaks about conversion, and that is an experience of the heart that cannot be dictated by documents or structures.
“It can only be an experience you personally engage in.”
Dr Padilla experienced something similar following her participation in the Synod as one of the lay participants.
“The first thing that struck me and has stayed with me, even after the Synod, was how different we are, and yet how we can open up to one another, even in our differences, and how we can discern together,” she said.
“There’s another level to it: the listening, the opening up, and the ability to make decisions together.
“This whole process of communal discernment and decision-making was, I would say, the most important experience for me at the Synod, and one that I hope to carry forward at the local level.”
Reflecting on the conference, Broome Bishop Tim Norton SVD said: “I think gatherings like this are really important just for us to reimagine ourselves again, to renew our relationships, then to be able to go out on mission in this world”.
FULL STORY
Where the Spirit speaks (Catholic Mission)
