Eternal love
Intimate treasure.
God’s love for us
Impossible to measure.
But our hearts dared
To build this house for him.
And celebrate together
What we already have within.
Love is bigger than buildings.
It’s more powerful than pain.
Love that we build patiently together
Again and again.
Love. Eternal love.
The poem was written for the wedding ceremony of my beloved relatives Gabriel and Corina Ganarin
In March 2020, we had to change how we used to work. So, adaptation, strength, and flexibility have been the three keywords of the last two years.
As staff of a global Christian organisation, we discovered that the online environment provides an incredible range of opportunities to reach members of our fellowship. We also learned that not being physically present in conflict situations can make vulnerable communities even more vulnerable. Yet, working physically, online, and now hybrid, we are still a church organisation where accompaniment and closeness are parts of our identity.
Going slowly towards the new “normal”, we can now plan hybrid events where it’s possible to have human encounters again. The main risk is to ignore the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic and forget that we have two layers of participation when deciding to organise a hybrid event.
Before planning a hybrid event, it’s also important to know what hybrid events are not. The biggest misconception of hybrid events is that they are simply events that are streamed live to an online audience. “A true hybrid event utilises technology to bring online audiences into an event experience – so online audiences and live participants experience the same event similarly.”
So, what are the three primary steps to remember:
Hybrid events present a new space to navigate. As we have learnt on moving from physical to only online events, every change needs time, patience, and flexibility. We should also accept that we will make lots of mistakes. But without forgetting the importance of keeping the pastoral approach, where the technical solutions are tools to express accompaniment, closeness, and the inclusiveness of everything we do.
I have already shared in a previous text that I joined the World Council of Churches’ communications department almost two years ago. It marked the beginning of an incredible journey of reflection on what it means being a Roman Catholic Christian.
Finding a book about ecumenism from the perspective of the Charisma of Unity was a natural move for me. The Focolare Movement has a substantial influence on how I experience faith and celebrate the diversity of God’s Creation.
The book “My Ecumenical journey” gathers all the crucial elements addressed by Chiara Lubich in her journey towards understanding ecumenism.
Following the path of Chiara, I captured the importance of three pillars:
With these three elements, the global Christian community can walk together and make space for God to heal the past wounds and reveal a future towards a reconciled world.
God’s grace of unity within the different Churches is never a simple process. It demands openness and a personal commitment to an ecumenism of life, where we invest energy and time on finding elements that bring us together in the name of Jesus Christ.
The book “My Ecumenical Journey” allowed me to discover what inspired Chiara to emphasise the path towards Cristian unity as a crucial step, and perhaps a precondition, to a united world.
Accepting the limits and the slow pace of this process can enable us to continue to walk together and strengthen our connection in a world too affected by physical and spiritual walls.
When we hear “innovation”, it’s uncommon to associate the word with the religious environment. Yet, after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, every organisation was forced to look at new ways to function. Those who didn’t move fast enough struggle to survive in this unprecedented time.
The challenge of giving visibility to the work of a global organisation that has the mandate to go and physically meet people and communities around the world seemed gigantic for our communication department at the World Council of Churches (WCC).
One question resonated all the time in my heart: How do we continue to offer a platform for encounters in times of pandemic, when we can’t physically meet?
Since early April, I’ve been dealing with dozens of online events that we started producing to give visibility to the work of WCC. As soon as my colleagues began to voice their needs concerning these online events, I realised that we needed to find technical solutions that would match the requirements. But where to start?
A lot of time spent on research and I started to look at videos of those who are the biggest users of live stream services: gamers. I’ve watched hundreds of videos to understand which tools they use, how is the setup, the technical needs and step by step I’ve developed a concept that could potentially work for WCC.
After two months of test sessions and adjustments, I’ve finally managed to create a workflow that allowed our productions team to offer a range of solutions to the broad needs we have.
What a joy when we provided all the technical support for a webinar with sign language interpretation, focusing on people with disabilities! As I shared with my colleagues, that was “the best example of the type of connection webinars can create”. It became a “space for encounter”.
The challenge we now have is to stay true to our identity, even with the growing demands for online events. However, the journey we went through this year has shown that this unprecedented time is an invitation to innovate, also for faith-based organisations.
In 2020 the Focolare community all around the world celebrates hundred years of Chiara Lubich’s life.
If there is a simple reason why the Focolare movement should still exist, even without the presence of its charismatic founder, it is the fact that its members have a profound hope in love and, with that, they aim to be bridge builders in a divided world.
In a particular period of history when Chiara’s message about unity seems even more crucial for the success of humanity, the members of the Focolare are called to continue to believe in love. A hope that starts with testifying, with a very humble and committed attitude, the grace of God’s love. This love is what gives us the strength to resist, to seek justice, to heal and to make this world a better place for the next generations.
Chiara Lubich was an ordinary woman with an extraordinary calling that brought together hundreds of thousands of people from different cultures, countries, races and religions. Her heritage is renewed every time the Focolare community reminds itself to be, first of all, ambassadors of love.
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