Listening the Continents: Gifts, Challenges and New Missionary Pathways

Working groups from Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Latin America met during the second day of the first international conference of The Church of the Sheaves to discuss new missionary pathways. Participants focused on shifting away from a model that divides the Church into permanent givers and permanent receivers.

Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu opened the meeting by stating that every local Church possesses both gifts to give and gifts to receive. Sr. Agnès Sory of the Africa group noted that no local Church acts solely as a giver or a beneficiary, describing the actions of giving, receiving, and sending as inseparable dimensions of missionary communion rather than successive stages.

The conference highlighted that missionary work now circulates between the North and South in all directions, as well as within individual local Churches. The Africa group noted that while the continent has long held monastic traditions, the scale and visibility of its contributions are increasing. This shift aims to move beyond fixed roles to treat different regions as partners. The group referenced a statement by Pope Leo XIV in Paris on 26 September, which noted that no one is so poor that they have nothing to give and no one is so rich that they have nothing to receive.