Inter-community mentoring

White Book provision

Inter-community mentoring (at leadership level). It is a system of mutual support and sharing of experience between different communities and movements. It allows not only for exchanging good practices and building relationships, but also for communities to get to know one another better, to serve one another and to strengthen unity in the Church. “Inter-community mentoring” fosters networks of solidarity and growth in responsibility for the Church as a whole.

What it is

Most forms of mentoring operate within one organisation. Inter-community mentoring connects leaders from different communities, movements and works. The leader of one community may mentor the leader of another, and leadership teams meet in peer-exchange groups.

Such a relationship has advantages internal mentoring lacks:

• a fresh perspective - the mentor is not entangled in the community's relationships and history;
• freedom to speak - it is easier to talk about difficulties with someone outside one's own structure;
• learning from other charisms - solutions proven in one movement can inspire others;
• unity - communities stop being competitors and become allies.

Communion and diversity

Saint Paul compares the Church to a body whose different members need one another: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor 12:21). In Christifideles laici (no. 30) John Paul II listed among the criteria of ecclesiality of lay associations a readiness to cooperate with other forms of apostolate. The White Book preamble assumes that communities keep their own charism (the “temple”) while together strengthening the “walls” - a healthy culture of leadership.

How it works in the White Book project

The project provides for regional meetings - once a month for a whole region or diocese - so that teams from different organisations can share results, develop common principles and form a community of leaders who support one another in crises.

Good practices

• mentoring pairs of leaders from different communities, with a clear contract and duration;
• peer-exchange groups (e.g. 5-8 leaders meeting monthly);
• the principles of a code of ethics, especially confidentiality;
• joint formation and training for leaders of different movements.

See also coaching and mentoring.