Dear Friends,
Recalling our time together over the past year, we know that one of the foundational elements of a synodal Church is the willingness and ability to together discern the unfolding will of God. While these times of such disruption and upheaval may seem inopportune for such process oriented ways of making important decisions, we know that it is in such times that we can be particularly prone to the influence of fears and anxieties, and to making choices that do not necessarily factor in the good of our wider communities of stakeholders. This is due to the fact that stress can undermine our capacity for complex decision making, and can lead us to oversimplify our options.
Through the General Curia Office for Discernment and Apostolic Planning, Fr. John Dardis provides a number of information videos about the topic of discernment that can be helpful for discussion with your teams. We include the link to one of the pages of resources here.
Gratefully,
David and the Discerning Leadership Team