Scottish Laity Network Lenten Journey 2021

Kevin KAL Kallaugher, The Economist, Kaltoons.com

Lenten Journey 2021

To help us imagine the way in which we are being called to prepare a future that gives hope to all the children of our world, and their children's' children, and to Mother Earth Scottish Laity Network invites you to join their Lenten Journey of discernment: Discipleship for Artisans of our own Destiny ~ Preparing the Future.

All sessions are on Thursdays on Zoom 7 - 8.30pm.
All welcome: To register please email: slaitynetwork@gmail.com

Our companions for the journey are:

18th February

Jim Skea - Co-chair of Working Group III of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

25th February

Lorna Gold - Acting Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Catholic Climate Movement and a member of the Vatican's COVID 19 Commission Economics Taskforce.

4th March

Katherine Trebeck - writer and wellbeing economy advocate who is a member of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Team.

11th March

Omar Haramy - a member of Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre in Palestine and also a member of the Kairos Palestine Steering Committee.

18th March

Alison Phipps - UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow and Co-Convener of Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNET) and Hyab Yohannes - an Eritrean refugee and researcher at the University of Glasgow and holder of the UNESCO RILA PhD Scholarship. He works formally for local charities and international organisations in Egypt including UNHCR, IOM, Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) and Saint Andrew's Refugee Services (StARS).

25th March

Tom O'Loughlin - Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham in England and an author of numerous works on the Eucharist.

On Saturday 27th March there will be a retreat 'Holy Week - A Journey to Death and Resurrection' facilitated by Diarmuid O'Murchu

All welcome: For further information please email slaitynetwork@gmail.com

Discipleship for Artisans of our own Destiny ~ Preparing the Future

The core vision of the Scottish Laity Network is that of enabling Scottish laity to come together as disciples of Jesus, and through prayer, dialogue and discernment find 'new ways' of being Church in Scotland in the 21st Century. Rooted in that vision we seek to reflect on the 'signs of the times' as revealed through COVID-19 and the Climate Emergency and, through the promptings of the Spirit, discern how we are called to respond.

Signs of our Times - COVID-19 and Climate Emergency

Last March Pope Francis, standing alone in on the steps of St Peter's, meditated on the calming of the storm from the Gospel of Mark. He identified the thick darkness that COVID-19 had brought to humanity and yet in the midst of that darkness, in the midst of fear and uncertainty he felt there was a seed of hope emerging.

We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying "We are perishing" (v. 38), so we too have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this.

But for this seed to grow and bear fruit Pope Francis stated it is 'a time to choose what matters' a time to embrace 'new forms of hospitality, fraternity and solidarity'. The COVID-19 commission, created by Pope Francis a week earlier, can be seen as a practical contribution to creating the new ways for going forward. Last July, Fr Augusto Zampini spoke at the SLN Assembly and shared of how Pope Francis had summed up the aim of the Commission in just three words 'Prepare the Future'. Fr Augusto stressed that this is radically different from prepare for the future; which implies our future is already set and all we can do is react to it. Prepare the Future focusses on our ability to become, as Paul VI invited us to be, 'artisans of our own destiny'.

Fr Augusto also shared this powerful cartoon from The Economist that captures the reality of our global situation and said that the current systems that have led to the climate emergency are not the systems that will get us out of it. The only response to the Climate Emergency is to find new ways of living together on this planet.

But are we capable of doing this?

COP26 from 1st - 12th November 2021 will provide an opportunity for the world to come together and commit to radical climate action for our planet but will it offer new forms of hospitality, sisterhood and brotherhood, and solidarity'? Will it be bold enough to satisfy the global movement of young people who are demanding radical change and asking what is holding us back? They are calling us to imagine new ways of living together on this planet, ways that are in harmony with creation and ways that address the growing division between rich and poor, nationally and internationally.

Their vision, their dream is not to be dismissed but to be cherished and shared. They, in so many ways, are the prophetic voices of today.

The prophet engages in future fantasy. The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined. The imagination must come before the implementation. Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing.