Kenyan Jesuit Reflects on Characteristics of “New Instrumentum Laboris” for October Synod on Synodality Session

This “common dignity” makes all, who receive the Sacrament of Baptism “sons and daughters of God; members of the family of God, and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ, inhabited by the one spirit and sent to fulfill a common mission,” he explained.

The Nairobi-based Executive Director of the Proposed Hekima University of the Jesuits said that the document fosters a people of God, who engage in interpersonal, intercultural, and interreligious encounters, including dialogue and ecumenism.

“There are parts of the world where real ecumenism is at the core; we have places or countries where Christians or Catholics are the minorities and therefore there is martyrdom there, and ecumenism becomes very important,” he said. 

A Synodal Church, the Jesuit Brother said, “is called to practice the culture of encounter and dialogue with the believers of other religions and with the cultures and societies in which it is embedded, but above all among the many differences that run through the church itself.”

He also highlighted the need to practice listening. “The Church needs to listen more deeply and attentively; this is a very strong call across the continents,” he said.

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“The question of a synodal Church as a listening Church finds a lot of prominence in this document,” Br. Mokua emphasized during his July 24 virtual presentation, which LCMC organized “to present the document to generate wider interest in the reflections leading to, during, and emerging from Rome as fruits of the synodal process.”

He said that listening to the spirit through the word of God and listening to each other through interpersonal encounters as well as among ecclesial communities are marks of a synodal church.

“This style of listening is necessary to mark and transform all the relationships that the Christian community establishes among its members as well as with other faith communities and with society as a whole, especially towards those whose voice is most often ignored,” the Kenyan Jesuit Brother said.

This year’s “working tool” for the Synod of Synodality also emphasizes the spirit of Synodality in the Church’s “institutions, structures, and procedures, to constitute a space in which common baptismal dignity and co-responsibility for the mission are not only affirmed but exercised and practiced,” he said.

In the constituted space, Br. Mokua went on to say, “the exercise of authority in the Church is appreciated as a gift, with the desire that it be increasingly configured.”