The archdiocesan Listening with the Heart sessions, to be held April 12-26, 2026, throughout the archdiocese, are to encourage grassroots participation in the mission of the church, by inviting people to reflect on their experience of Church and how they understand the Holy Spirit is moving in the Church. Learn more at archkck.org/renewal-heartland.
The insights shared during the listening sessions will contribute to pastoral planning at both the parish and archdiocesan levels.
Each session will need minimally a lead facilitator. The number of facilitators required for a session will depend on how many people sign up, ensuring that everyone has a chance to speak. The format envisions a facilitator for each group of 10, allowing each participant to share for two-three minutes.
A facilitator’s job is to foster a space where everyone feels motivated to contribute and engage in both speaking and listening. Effective facilitators typically demonstrate these qualities:
- An unbiased perspective
- Ability to listen
- Sensitivity to the feelings of others and the group
- Effective communication skills
- Keen observation skills
- Authentic
- Tactful
- A sense of humor
- Leads a group without dominating
- Has the ability to draw out others
- Keeps people on the topic
- Possesses a genuine concern to build community among the members
Facilitators will be required to attend a one-hour training, online.
The archdiocesan team will match facilitators to the requested sessions. The archdiocesan team will monitor registrations to ensure we have enough facilitators (with the appropriate language capacity) to match the expected attendance.
Sessions are approximately 90 minutes and facilitators may be asked to travel 30-45 minutes to a site. Session times will be determined by the deaneries; however, all evening sessions will conclude before 8:30 p.m.
We will be in contact after site locations, dates and times have been finalized to confirm your commitments.