Maryknoll - into the future (Committee of 12)

The words that follow – potent, inspiring, forceful, challenging, hopeful – speak to what Maryknoll (all expressions) is encouraged to do if we are to move into the future as a vital community that allows the love we have known in all corners of the world, to nourish and build a One Earth Community.

This is the synthesis of the 2022 spring events that the Committee of 12 sponsored for all Maryknollers. Please take the time to read it and feel free to comment in the section provided below.

HOW MIGHT WE, AS MARYKNOLL, LIVE INTO A NEW WAY OF BEING CHURCH?

As a mission movement, Maryknoll has experienced different modes of growth since its start more than 100 years ago. Today, like the church that is organically becoming, Maryknoll’s growth means allowing the love we have known in all corners of the world, to nourish and build a One Earth Community in which all of us are essential and equal parts. Listening deeply to one another, it becomes clear to the members of our four separate Maryknoll expressions that we are on a challenging new leg of our journey together. The mutuality and inclusiveness of the horizontal synodal process shows how walking together calls for self-assessment, a willingness to listen to and be moved by others' stories, needs, and strengths. Interacting horizontally requires modifying our behavior with integrity, mutual respect, and honest acknowledgement of equality in our relationships and in mission together. This places us in a collaborative and cooperative mode without denying that this new way of being will have hurdles to confront, including clericalism, patriarchy, privilege, and the economic disparity among us.

We are called to focus, not on ourselves, but on our common concerns and vision for the world. The bond that holds us together is a gospel faith that today demands an integral ecological and spiritual vision embracing care for all of creation. New structures will emerge from right relationships, not only among ourselves, but with the earth, with other species, with and among all peoples. These structures will call for letting go of accustomed ways while new inclusive and horizontal ways take form. In the gospel Jesus showed a preferential option for those on the margins. This option emphasizes full participation of all, especially of women, people of color, young people, and people who are economically poor. It raises up what the Holy Spirit is saying in the lives of people throughout the world.

As Maryknollers, we are increasingly animated by the Synod to find ways to be more structurally unified to carry out this overall vision. Continuing to build synodality, we are able to affirm the Maryknoll mission experiences that have enriched us with gifts of encounter, of languages, of working with, living among, and listening to voices at the margins, and of incorporating diversity and complexity into our ranks. Synodally, we discern and share these gifts.

Recognizing the value of process, a concrete step forward would be to form and experience small intentional mission communities, in person or virtual, of Maryknollers, similar to the Committee of Twelve hosting this synodal process. In these small groups the charisms of all four expressions, and the voices of all members will be respected and honored as equal. These small communities will provide occasions for collective discernment, deepening both our relationships and mutual caring, as well as our common contemplative prayer, listening and communal action. Keenly aware of our own limitations and vulnerability, we will continue to be open and seeking to network with others beyond Maryknoll.

HOW MIGHT THIS INVITE US TO LIVE INTO A COMMON VISION FOR MARYKNOLL?

While our conversation and discernments began with two questions, many found them difficult to separate. Seeds of a common vision were already being detected at a deep level. These include common concerns about the urgency of the joint needs of the earth and the poor, especially migrants and other displaced persons, racism and critical modes of violence.

There was an expressed excitement and energy among those gathered that by journeying together more intentionally, with a global ecological context as a starting point, this animation will continue. We will be transformed and supportive in our mutual understandings and practical efforts to live gospel reconciliation, peace-building, nonviolence, interconnectedness and solidarity.

The emergent Maryknoll vision is connected to the vision of the entire church, followers of the way of Jesus through baptism. The teachings of “Laudato si,” “Fratelli tutti,” and “Joy of the Gospel” greatly encourage the living of that way, engaging all to come together and live into one earth community, our common home. We are urged to seek new structures that are open and inclusive systems, fostering the building of a global Maryknoll as a mode of service for a world in need of realizing its interdependent reality and potential. Imagination is encouraged to envision a global Maryknoll community, forged from the ministry of previous generations but responding to the needs of today's more interconnected world. Such a global community would walk and talk together; gain perspective, insight, and strength from one another; confront social issues of the day; and explore together new understandings of a loving God, embedded in a still-evolving universe and in intimate human history, nourishing hope and faith. Such a community can help lead the way out of the culture wars and help all find their place in society.  

Maryknoll bonding is both phenomenon and gift. This bonding goes beyond the four expressions to include employees who came seeking work and found a life engagement in mission; and persons who entered one or other of the four expressions of Maryknoll and later withdrew from active membership, while taking with them the Maryknoll vision and a desire for continued connection in the bonding that is Maryknoll. We have begun to live interculturally, being open to the other, engaging in the complexity and staying in the dialogue. Maryknoll has greatly broadened but seeks to breathe as one. We will be further enhanced by developing interfaith relationships and by increasing opportunities for building intergenerational relationships, sharing common concerns and experiences, including our struggles and vulnerabilities. Horizontal processes radiate out to the world. They generate courage, which will lead us into new ways to name and engage the challenges that arise for many in relationship to the institutional church.  

Maryknollers of the four expressions will live into a common vision by getting to know one another in equality and friendship, learning one another’s strengths and vulnerabilities. Choosing to walk together in a new way is best served by time spent in reflection and discernment, holding one another in deep prayer now and into a future that needs to be envisioned with greater clarity. It takes time and grace to change mindsets. In our sessions, oft-repeated values deemed important were contemplation, silence, relationships, process, and trust in the Holy Spirit. The Committee of 12 was cited as an example of an intentional, purposeful and ongoing interaction engaging members of all four expressions of Maryknoll. Our talking together gave rise to a variety of suggestions in which members of these expressions can share and discern an evolving sense of mission. Spontaneous groups can take the initiative and use the model of gathering as friends and equals, to come together in our variety of cultures and languages, around such themes as climate change, one earth community and/or nonviolence. Occasions can be scheduled in which members can share and discern other topics together as well. Institutes of several days duration can engage Maryknollers to explore a common spirituality stemming from our founding roots.

Maryknoll needs to be intentionally synodal, always humble and open to learning. No one of us has the whole Maryknoll charism; together we all have the Maryknoll charism.