Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
“I feel that Synodality is a call for
more serious work. A lot is required of us so that the
synodality processes take root in our day-to-day lives individually and
communally, locally, and globally,” Dr. David Kaulemu a professor and Dean of
the School of Education at Arrupe Jesuits University (AJU) in Harare, Zimbabwe
shared with online participants.
Even
though the synodal journey started in October 2021 and will end in October
2024, Dr. Kaulemu who was one of the panelists during the Thursday, August 29,
webinar, disclosed that the Church cannot be fully synodal in three years but
“needs to develop a culture that will go beyond three years.”
Addressing
how to be a more relational Church Mr. Kaulemu highlighted that as much as some
people think that the Church in Africa is already Synodal in her operations,
"It is not yet the time for self-congratulations.”
He
warns, “We are congratulating ourselves too early when not enough work has been
done on the ground and I feel that we are not being authentic and honest enough
about the process.”
Mr.
Kaulemu was speaking ahead
of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to take place
next month October in Rome, during a webinar organized by the Association of
Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) in partnership with the
Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa (ACWECA) the
Pan-African Committee for Communication (CEPACS), and in collaboration with the
African Synodality Initiative (ASI).
The Dean of the
School of Education at AJU stressed the aspect of listening as one of the
virtues synodality has exalted so much. He notes that listening has been a challenge for the Catholic
Church given the relation to European imperial history.
“The Synod challenges us to pay attention to the Holy
Spirit in a way that challenges our sense of the Divine.Many Catholics are less comfortable with the tradition
of the Holy Spirit than with emphasis on Christ and God the Father. This has been seen in problems of acceptance of the
Charismatic tradition,” the panelists underscored and posed a concern, “How shall we understand and embrace the tradition of
listening to the Holy Spirit as a source of communion, participation, and
mission?
He
suggests that as the webinar’s theme focused on: ‘How to be a synodal Church, responsive to the call
to conversion: A reflection on the Second Instrumentum Laboris,’“We should learn by practicing especially the Spiritual
Conversations in all their different forms.”
Therefore,
according to Mr. Kaulemu, “Continued,
repeated Spiritual Conversations in the Culture of Encounter should help us to
negotiate through the challenges and synodality must become our way of life
since solutions are in the conversations led by the Spirit.”