The Indigenous community in Bendum in northern Mindanao, Philippines revisited synodality during a two-day workshop that the RAOEN team facilitated to explore ways by which to sustain and strengthen a contextualized basic ecclesial community (BEC) in the upland village.
Through a process that encourages conversations and listening, the Indigenous BEC is referred to as Gagmay ng Kristohanong Katilingban (GKK). Composed of young people and adults, the intergenerational participation in GKK emphasizes the community’s efforts to ensure the inclusion of the perspectives of the youth and elders.
The Indigenous synodality workshop was held on 14 and 15 Septemebr 2024 at Balay Laudato Si’, a center for gathering on culture and ecology and spirituality for action. People visit from other villages or from the cities, and upon arrival, seek to share a welcome so they feel at ease and find the calm of the environment. The community and the place share an ease and openness, so those who come are able and willing to dream and seek what is possible in their lives.
The community knows what has happened over the years with the land and with the economy, and how to speak with the local government. There is also a need to spend time and circumstance to talk with God, to recognize the Creator in the abundance of life and in the daily work on the land, and find the unfailing promise of God’s love in times of duress and suffering, and be able to share this with a community. The community recognizes how the agriculture in the hillsides of the valley changed, with the corn and cogon grass (Imperata cylindrica) continuing to expand up the slopes from an 800-meter elevation to nearly a thousand.
Graduates of the Apu Palamguwan Cultural Education Center (APC) that operates an upland Indigenous K-12 school and youth working in the Bendum community shared with another group of youth, and formed a core group to move youth activities and engagements on strengthening cultural and ecological education.
There were reflections and questions were raised. Conversations also sought to make the youth more deeply aware of the bonds they share with their ancestral land and the significance of intergenerational responsibility that relates to the recognition of Indigenous guardianship.
Further listening and sharing explored the nexus of Indigenous knowledge, systems, and practices (IKSP) and Laudato Si’ – the encyclical from Pope Francis on the social and ecological problems that humanity needs to address and on the recognition of Indigenous Peoples in the guardianship of the world’s forests.
Amid vulnerabilities of climate and faith, RAOEN moves with new activities, envisioning how to draw communities together.