Thursday, January 27, 2022 (14:33)

I received a very interesting response from a friend who also had spoken with two other friends. He writes:

Unfortunately I disagree both with the form and the foundation of your report.

First you say that you have also asked other persons for their feedback. But I don’t know to whom you sent it and their reactions, and whether they agree or not. And hence I don’t know whether you have really taken into account their opinions and reactions when you wrote your report.

I also note that you just say your own personal opinions, most of which have never been discussed in any of our meetings. Also you don’t mention anywhere the opinions, reflections and anecdotes of the other participants of our sessions.

Finally it is an extremely political presentation, which I don’t share.

When reading your document, I no longer wished to participate in the synodal meetings because, as you indicate, this is the report you plan to submit in the name of the meetings I organized. I refuse being associated with this text because it reflects in no way what I feel (and probably what the other participants felt), what has happened and what has been said and what we have discussed. Furthermore, I understood that the document we planned to write will not be transferred. It makes no sense to loose one’s time to participate in meetings that lead to nothing.

My reactions

I am so relieved that you finally answered! I was starting to fear that you and the two others would stop our dialogue! Your message makes me hope that we will remain friends who communicate also when their opinions differ. Thank you for having done the work of formulating your reaction to my text, which is indeed very provocative.

There is one misunderstanding: my draft is not my summary of the meetings that you organized, it is my summary of all those to whom I managed to listen. And also: my report won’t have any priority over the other reports submitted to the sinoditiim until March 31st. It will be the sinoditiim, not me alone, who will have a big job of triaging and synthesizing all those reports.

I encourage you to continue your meetings and to introduce your own report. Keep in mind that my report will only be one of the many reports that will be discussed in April by the sinoditiim. I hope that your report will be among them.

Should I abstain from coming to your next meetings in order to not disturb you by my presence. What do you think? If you prefer me to stay away, I will stay away.