NO ONE has ever said to me that they know Timothy Radcliffe slightly. He has a gift for communicating personal friendship, be it through his books or if you meet him just even briefly. He makes holiness feel possible for ordinary people, and even for bishops.
Radcliffe’s talks at the Synod of Bishops in Rome last October have now been published as Listening Together: Meditations on synodality. That synod was part of a listening process in the Roman Catholic Church which began in October 2021 and will culminate in a second gathering in Rome this October.
Radcliffe calmly states that this was “the greatest exercise of listening in the history of humanity”. That’s a big claim. It implies that this gathering was different from other Councils in the Church’s history, such as Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, or even the two Vatican Councils in more recent times.
This synod invited bishops and laity to be in a different synodal mode: listening to each other first, listening a second time to test what you think you heard, and only then daring to speak again. This was unfamiliar to many participants, and radically different from the Church of England’s General Synod. The participants were sent into retreat, three days of prayer, silence and getting to know each other at meal times, in order to learn how to do this synodal listening.
That retreat was an opportunity to be like the child Samuel in the Temple, close to the mystery of the presence of God. Radcliffe’s addresses encourage a willingness to let God speak, through the holy scriptures, through the Church’s worship, and through each other, and to say in response: “Your servant is listening.”
In the six retreat talks, and three from the synod itself, Radcliffe immerses us in the scriptures, especially the gospels, in order to understand what it might be like to walk with Jesus. This immersion prepares us for difficulty and misunderstanding, reminding us of our limitations, of God’s patience, and of the transforming power of God’s beauty.
An additional document, drawn from Dominican life, gives us a clue to why Radcliffe makes holiness feel possible. It is because he speaks from his experience of Jesus Christ in other people, especially those who suffer at the margins of power. They teach us the delight of faith in God, inviting us to listen together as the Church takes shape in us.
Dr Martin Warner is the Bishop of Chichester.
Listening Together: Meditations on synodality
Timothy Radcliffe
Liturgical Press £11.99
(978-0-8146-8882-3)
Church Times Bookshop £10.79