The First Vice President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) Bishop Lúcio Muandula has said that the Synod on Synodality is a call for the Church to open the mind and heart to the holy spirit.

In his opening prayer remarks on Thursday, March 2 at the ongoing African Synod on Synodality Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Bishop Muandula reflected on the theme of the continental stage of the synod “enlarging the space of our tents.”

Referring to the reading from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 8, Bishop Muandula said the attitude of Philip who is “enlarging the space of his tent” by opening his mind and heart to hear and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit, is God’s call to Phillip to save the Ethiopian Eunuch of Kandace. By listening to the voice of the “Holy Spirit” he said, “Phillip is not only listening to the voice of the Spirit” but is also “enlarging the tent of his heart to hear the real necessities of the eunuch and helps him.”

The Local Ordinary of Mozambique’s Xai Xai Diocese went on to say that by “enlarging the space of our tents” in the context of our synod on synodality means both to open our hearts to the Spirit of the Lord guiding us and to listen to what the Spirit is telling us, the Church through his intervention on the life of each one of us in order to strengthen our “communion, participation and mission” in Church.”

In his concluding remarks Bishop Muandula invited the participants to call on God by reciting the ‘Our Father’ to understand how to proclaim, “the gospel of the Lord so that all men can become sons and daughters of God.”