Paola Moggi, CMS
From November 22 to 30 2025 60 religious women have convened in Nairobi (Kenya) for a very special event on Religious Life and the Prophetic Call To Synodality: Walking Together as Missionary Disciples.
Organised by UISG, the International Union of Superior Generals, in collaboration with ACWECA, the Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa, the Symposium has gathered sisters from nine Anglophone speaking countries of Eastern Africa: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Sudan could not attend due to the ravaging war.
Far beyond seminars and workshops
The word “Symposium” has the same root of the word “Synodality”: it speaks of “togetherness”. Not a workshop, nor a seminar, but an experience of togetherness woven in prayer, relevant information and prolonged mutual listening through “Conversations in the Spirit”.
It has been a wonderful experience of communion prepared well by the Synodality Planning Team, led by Sr. Maria Cimperman, RSCJ, UISG Synodality Coordinator. The Planning Team included theologians, practitioners in synodality and some participants in the Synod Assembly.
Integrating “on-line” and “on-site”…
The invitation letter was sent on March 14 2025, so that the sisters selected from the nine National Associations of women religious could connect three times “on-line” to become more familiar with the Final Document of the Synod and get ready for the intense “on-site” event.
Sr. Maria Cimperman underlined: «The call to look again at what it means to be a Church on Mission asks us to consider together how the Holy Spirit is inviting religious life to respond in the light of synodality. This is a profound moment in both the Church and in religious life».
… to become “living synods”
The venue at Mary Ward Centre was arranged with small round tables to foster informal sharing and friendship. The presentations were interactive and enriched by lived experiences. Among the topics: the spiritual and theological foundations of synodality, the vows through a synodal lens and synodal leadership for Mission.
The last day was devoted to planning: the sisters of each National Team are becoming “ambassadors of synodality” in the respective Countries, to promote participation, communion and mission as a style of life in religious communities, in the Church and, hopefully, … in the society at large.