On February 19, the Bishops’ Conference held a national meeting attended by priests in charge of the synods of each diocese, religious, and lay delegates who discussed how the Korean Church will achieve the synodal church.
The synodal formation of laypeople and the formation of parish priests are the most important steps in building the synodal church. Along with priests, laypeople must experience the synodal spirit through ‘Dialogue in the Holy Spirit’ and acquire it as the foundation of church life. This participation requires a sense of mission responsibility from all the Church.
'Dialogue in the Holy Spirit' invites the Holy Spirit into the conversations, hoping to unite the participants to move from the "I" to "We" bringing us together as brothers and sisters in Christ. The process of being open to what the Holy Spirit reveals, prayerfully meeting one another and building relationships through cooperative dialogue.
Realizing the synodal church requires fundamental changes. It is not an easy goal, so we should not be impatient. However, for such efforts to achieve good results, we must set visible goals with fundamental cultural changes in church and religious life.
We can describe the stages of this 'Dialogue in the Spirit', first with preparation in prayer and meditating on what one will say about the topics discussed when the opportunities are given.
Second, after prayer in silence, each participant speaks and expresses their thoughts on the subject and listens attentively to the others' opinions. This is followed by silent prayer.
Third, each shares what resonates most with them and what aroused the most resistance hearing what was said. Always guided by the Holy Spirit. Each person is called to answer, “When listening, did my heart burn within me?”
Fourth, the last stage of the conversation in the Spirit is a free exchange among participants, dialoguing with one another based on what has emerged to discern and gather together the fruit of the conversation in the Spirit that has just taken place. We recognize points of commonality and differences between us. We hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us as a group so that we can move forward in a common direction. We ask ourselves: “What steps is the Holy Spirit calling us to take together?” Finally, we conclude with a prayer or song of thanksgiving to God.
There is hope in the Church that 'synodalitas' and 'Dialogue in the Holy Spirit' could now become major trends in the Korean church.”Most believers fail to experience the meaning of synodalitas and the value of ‘Dialogue in the Holy Spirit’"
In particular, it was pointed out that it is difficult to feel the effects of the synod because the opinions raised through the synod were collected into the “final document” and then conveyed to the believers over several years. During the long time it took to express opinions and hear the answers, interest and enthusiasm for the synodalitas inevitably cooled.
Participants in the national meeting said that one of the most important elements of forming a synodal church, in addition to establishing and activating ‘Dialogue in the Holy Spirit,’ is the training of its members, and that opening a ‘Synodalitas School’ could be a good idea to continue specific and practical efforts to spread the synodal spirit. They also added that the training of ‘facilitators’ who will lead ‘dialogue in the Holy Spirit’ should be conducted for priests, laypeople, and religious.
