This article contains the Presentation of the Meeting with links to the translations of:

- Yayo Herrero's Talk on Ecosocial Notes post Covid19

-  Redes Cristianas's Programmed Activities until 2024

- The final Manifesto of the Meeting

It does not include:

- The Power point by Carlos García de Andoin on Sinodality because of its length: 41 slides

- The prayers and eucharist

- You can see these in Spanish by clicking on VII Meeting of Redes Cristianas

Presentation 23rd October

1. Greetings and welcome:

On behalf of Redes, we extend a cordial greeting and welcome to all of you who have responded to the call for this meeting. There are many of us who are now on the screen, and we belong to more than 50 member groups that I will now mention (a reading of the 42 member groups present today): to all of you, an embrace and a warm welcome.

As you know,

we should have held this meeting last year in La Laguna (Tenerife), but the pandemic prevented us from doing so. RR CC thanks the brothers and sisters of Tenerife for the effort made (we take this opportunity to send our recognition and solidarity to the people of La Palma who are having such a hard time these days). We hope that the "good normality" will allow us to resume the suspended steps and to celebrate the next meeting in Tenerife as planned.

2. Themes:

* From Redes Cristianas we want to recognise today and thank you not only for your presence at this meeting, but, mainly for the courage you are maintaining, against all adverse forces, and your commitment to the transformation of the social and religious reality of our country (Spain). And, more fundamentally, our defence of the earth and its marvellous diversity. This commitment is all the more meritorious and valuable because it is being made by the majority of us on the fringes of the institutions.

We are not people of the centre in equilibrium and neutrality; our option for vulnerable and discarded life places us physically and morally on the edge of the instituted, on the periphery. And from there, from that civil and religious place, we have creatively resisted the great crises of recent years, such as the mortgage crisis of 2008 and the pandemic of 1919; and, above all, we have creatively resisted the "ecclesial winter" created by the popes of the restoration, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, aggravated, if possible, in our parts by the superficiality of Suquía and the canonical zeal of Rouco Varela and his henchmen.

From this creative resistance we have learned several important things:

a) Firstly, that the Church is not enjoying a good image, especially in our country (it is the second to last of the institutions in the public's opinion). And this contrasts with the renewing spirit that Francis is projecting outwards (as is generally recognised) with his criticism of the socio-economic neo-liberalism that causes a brutal division between people and of the capitalist system that kills. But we have also noticed that, inwardly, his discourse always leaves us frustrated, dissatisfied and disenchanted. Mainly in everything that has to do with the beginning and end of life, affectivity and the presence and role of women and other diverse groups in the Church. This leaves us with an image of a devalued and despised Church. Like the image of an old ship, loaded with jewels and objects of great value, but sinking and without a safe harbour to dock.... Those of us who have the opportunity to observe this old ship from close quarters think that the time has come - because it is more important and necessary - to save the jewels, even if we have to drag the old ship to some shipyard where it can be restored. This is the direction of some of the workshops at this meeting, such as the one on "women leaving ecclesiastical confinement" or the one on "the immatriculations of historical and cultural property" by the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

b) On the other hand, and also looking from the edge of the institutions, we see a globally ungoverned society, with world organisations powerless in the face of vetoes, de facto powers and empires; we see societies divided by the greed and usury of the powerful; and what is also very serious, we see all of us living on a beautiful blue planet, but violated and in danger of destruction. But this situation, which worries us, neither frightens nor frightens us. Humanity has always been courageous enough to overcome greater difficulties. And we grassroots Christians have been and will continue to be in the solution of these enormous challenges. As an example, there is another line of workshops that will deal with disaster situations such as the one caused by the pandemic, the experience of fragility that we are going through and its serious consequences in the young and working class world and the imperious need to care for the commons and the practice of solidarity with the most vulnerable.

We are entering a new era, as our analysts and prophets assure us, where the old and the new overlap. We cannot be left behind like Lot's wife, standing still in the face of the old that is coming to an end, when the wind of change, like an unstoppable hurricane, is blowing strongly around every corner of the planet. Let us take heart and make our own that Gospel slogan: "New wine in new wineskins".

3. Organisation of the meeting

We have organised the meeting in two days and three phases or moments: this first phase of today's morning will continue with Yayo Herrero's Talk and the first part of the workshops; the second phase of today's Saturday will begin at 16:00 hours with the second part of the workshops and the intervention of Carlos García Andoin on synodality (too long to translate). Finally, the third and last phase will begin tomorrow, Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. with our zoom Meeting (where we will try to establish the priority lines of activity of Networks until the next meeting), the celebration of the Eucharist and the proclamation of the manifesto of the VII Meeting as a final gesture.

Thank you very much for your good work.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)