The UISG opened a new formation journey with the programme “Deeply Rooted Synodal Leadership,” gathering more than 400 women religious who followed it online from multiple continents and time zones. This first three-day online module, entitled “Responding to the Call,” and led by the Discerning Leadership Team, focused on the socio-emotional experience of transition, on taking up the role of leadership and on offering a concrete framework and practical tools to understand congregational life and organisational dynamics.

This formation reaffirms UISG’s ongoing commitment to accompanying congregational leadership teams, particularly newly appointed general councils. UISG continues to offer spaces of formation, support, and spiritual grounding, fostering an intercultural and multilingual learning environment.

The main inputs were presented by Fr. David McCallum, SJ, Director of the Discerning Leadership Program, who invited participants to see leadership not only as a set of tasks or responsibilities, but as a deeply spiritual reality. Drawing on Ignatian wisdom and synodal practice, he emphasised the importance of ongoing formation, moments of pause, silence, and attentiveness within daily life and meetings. These spaces, he noted, allow leaders to move from reactive patterns to a more grounded, creative, and discerning ways of responding to challenges.

Participants were encouraged to see these new challenges as invitations to enter fully into what is new, with openness, humility, and trust. Embracing uncertainty, ambiguity, and even imperfection was presented as a vital spiritual practice that can reveal where the Spirit is already at work.

The reflection was deepened through moving testimonies by sisters who shared their journeys of entering new responsibilities within general international and intercultural leadership teams. They described the personal, emotional, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of this transition. Speaking with honesty, they named experiences of vulnerability, disorientation, and grief, alongside moments of grace, growth, deeper community, and renewed freedom.

Their testimony highlighted the importance of accompaniment, supervision, and mentoring, as well as the courage to say “I don’t know” and “I need help.” These attitudes not only sustain leaders personally but also open new, more authentic spaces of relationship within congregations and foster a leadership style rooted in trust and shared responsibility.

On the final day, Christina Kheng led participants on a journey through a theological framework for organisations, offering invaluable insights into how to understand the different dimensions of congregational life. This input helped participants reflect on structures, roles, and systems, and on how to develop new skills to embrace leadership with growing awareness, competence, and confidence.

Each day included dedicated time for participants to share in small groups. The gratitude expressed in the many messages received after these three days echoes the relevance of this formation and the strong need for general councils to remain connected, to share experiences, and to receive new insights. Undoubtedly, participants were renewed in their desire to respond to this call with humility, courage, discernment, and skill.