Listening space for all views

Publish Date: 09-Oct-2019

Seven clerics, theology teachers, psychologists, staff responsible for student ministry and a police group organized a fellowship, “Listen”, which held a meeting on 21 September. Sixty clerics and parishioners attended the meeting. The aim of the fellowship was to learn to listen to people with different political views in this divided society.

At the start of the fellowship, the organizers stressed that it was not a seminar or a debate, but a chance to learn to listen and exchange views with others because learning to listen is not an easy task. The staff of the fellowship reminded participants at the start of the session that they have to trust that all of them were willing to listen when they shared about their experiences, and not to criticize others, or to start a discussion. Similarly, when listening to others, they must trust that the speaker was sincere; when speaking, they must respect the others’ feelings and content. They should refrain from correcting the speaker’s misunderstandings and to put aside their own concern, instead, they should ask themselves, did they truly understand the speaker, and listened to their own inner thoughts.