All global indicators point to CHANGE. Science tells us about the Big Bang and the ongoing history of the cosmos. A living faith tells us that God’s creation continues to emerge toward a peace and oneness for which we all yearn. We as people of God can contribute to this emergence by coming to the first-ever Peoples Synod in Dallas, October 12-14, 2018, to experience deep listening – a new method of dialogue that brings people together.
This gathering is not only about what happens at the event, but far more about what the participants take home and do with it afterwards.
“Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads … to those who have quit or are indifferent.” [Pope Francis, September 30, 2013, America Magazine]
“Dare to imagine a Church in which Love surpasses law.”
Attendees will work in dialogue circles of ten or twelve, listening to one another and exploring with one another how law is fundamentally needed to maintain the order that all social systems need but we are looking to introduce love, our guiding principle as Christians, as the arbitrator of lived experience. Some decisions require adherence to law, yet others season the situation with mercy and love. It is our hope that, through these circle conversations, questions and wisdom will bubble up from the grassroots, guide the participants to grow in discernment, and arrive at their own perspective for their personal lives.
All are welcome to this ecumenical gathering. It is an enterprise of pilgrims where people from different faith communities, different beliefs, and different walks of life, by listening to one another, can live out Jesus’ message of love in different ways. It is our hope that, in these chaotic times, this experience will
(1) equip the participants with tools for rekindling and drawing strength from the relationships they have cultivated at the synod; and
(2) give witness to the maturation of faithful people who will be Spirit-led into an understanding of precisely how they can apply what they’ve learned to their own lived experiences and bring this wisdom back into their communal living.
