Listening 2004: My Family My Church
On January 26th 2004, at the offices of the Bishops Conference in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor launched Listening 2004: My Family My Church, the initiative of the Bishops to celebrate the anniversary of the 1994 International Year of the Family. The focus of this innovative pastoral listening project was a conversation within each diocese designed to establish:
1: Who was doing what on behalf of the family, in order to thank, affirm and encourage them; clarify the provision for family encouragement and support that already exists; highlight this activity within the faith community and among pastoral ministers; identify both gaps in provision and duplication of effort; share expertise, information and resources that really work;strengthen intra-diocesan relationships and facilitate networking.
2: The particular provision for marriage preparation and support in the local church.
3: Greater clarity within the community regarding the reality of family life, the needs of families, the means by which families may effectively be supported by the church
4: A deeper appreciation of the importance of the family in the life of the church
One million copies of the Listening 2004 leaflet, containing twelve conversation starters, were distributed to dioceses to help foster local conversations prior to a diocesan family listening day. The questions were divided into three areas reflecting the three arenas of Christian family life: the home, the world and the Church. Within each area families were invited to consider the difficulties they faced and how they coped with them, the joys or positive support that they experienced and the hopes they had for their family in the future. There was also opportunity to make additional comment if desired.
The impetus for Listening 2004 arose from a deepening concern for marriage and family life among the Bishops of England and Wales. To some extent the process had no particular anticipated outcomes. There was no desire to prejudice the listening. As Bishop John Hine said at the press launch, “There is no point in starting a discussion if you know what the conclusion is going to be, so we cannot tell where we will end up!” And yet a number of outcomes were anticipated among them the expectation that the Catholic community in England and Wales would be better able to concretely identify the primary difficulties facing families, the primary sources of strength sustaining family survival and development, and the areas where families welcomed church intervention on their behalf. Around 15,000 families took part in Listening 2004 and the findings, published in 2005 as Not Easy But Full of Meaning, led to the approval by the Bishops of a three phase plan of action in support of marriage and family life across England and Wales: Celebrating Family: Blessed, Broken, Living Love.
Those who participated in the diocesan family listening days generally speaking welcomed the initiative:
“This is the first time in my lifetime that we've had this conversation and with two Bishops present! We are the Church and it’s about time that that was really recognised.” (Middlesbrough)
“We were pleased that we have a church prepared to listen and that there was understanding and knowledge of where people are.” (Portsmouth)
“The fact that the leadership of the Church in this country has promoted this Listening exercise has, I feel, been welcomed and appreciated by those taking part in it. It has given an opportunity for people to focus on a most important part of their lives, namely, family life itself. The bottom up approach in looking at important issues concerning family life is significant. We can only hope that it will guide the thinking of the leadership when it comes to making its response. That said, there is a feeling that the exercise itself has been of value, judging by the comments received. That I know was stated at the outset as one of the aims of Listening 2004.” (Shrewsbury)
Overall we sensed that Listening 2004 was extremely beneficial for those who took the opportunity to get involved.
“Prior to completing this questionnaire I had not considered the world nor the church’s involvement in the development of family/community life. This questionnaire has facilitated self reflection about the ‘here and now’ and the past. This has been a healing process. Many thanks.” (Cardiff)
Read the reports of each diocesan family listening day during 2004
"Not Easy But Full of Meaning": Catholic Family Life in 2004 is the full report on the Listening 2004 findings. You can buy a copy for £3.99 from the Project Office or from Redemptorist Publications or download a .pdf copy of the text here
A brief A5 summary of the findings was published in 2005. You can download a copy here (also contains ordering information from Redemptorist Publications).
If you'd like to view the English language version of the leaflet that was distributed you can download a pdf copy here. This leaflet was also published in Welsh and translated into a number of other languages.