After a successful beginning to season one, Sydney-based evangelisation video series The Hot Seat project, welcomed a live audience for the first time at Canterbury Leagues Club on 6 July.
The event, hosted by founder Helena Roumanus with Parousia Media brought together more than 300 people for an evening of honest conversation about the Catholic church, faith and doubt.
A panel of priests and a religious sister from the Schoenstatt Sisters in Mulgoa, responded to questions submitted by the audience.
Opening the night, Roumanus shared the story behind The Hot Seat and the inspiration that led to its creation. The project began after Christopher West challenged her to sit on the “hot seat” at a five-day immersion course on Theology of the Body held in Sydney.
“He [Christopher West] said the hot seat is this place where we face difficulty and discomfort and typically humans don’t want to sit on the hot seat,” she said.
“Why? Because it’s hot it burns. Then he said something that changed my life, he said ‘I want you to stay in the hot seat this week, not alone, never alone, but I want you to stay in the hot seat with Jesus.’
“He said ‘We think that that burn we feel in the hot seat is the fire of judgement and condemnation but if you remain in the ache you’ll come to see it’s the fire of his eternal mercy’.”
Roumanus said the project was not only for those already deeply involved in their faith but for anyone who is searching and needed accompaniment.
“It’s a safe space for people to ask the questions they may feel are too silly, uncomfortable or even strange to bring up elsewhere,” she said.
Questions were sourced from the audience and the panel then responded to questions about suffering and doubt; Heaven and Hell; marriage, cohabitation and divorce; and forgiveness and reconciliation.
