Small Christian Communities: Fresh Stimulus For A Forward-Looking Church

SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES
Fresh Stimulus for a Forward-looking Church

SMALLFreshCHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES
Stimulus for a Forward-looking Church
Edited by
Klaus Krämer and Klaus Vellguth
Claretian Publications
Quezon City, Philippines
SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES (One World Theology, Volume 2)
Fresh Stimulus for a Forward-looking Church
Copyright © 2013 by Verlag Herder GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau
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Contents
Preface ............................................................................................... ix
Biblical References and Foundation

The Biblical Approach of Basic Ecclesial Communities –
Aspects of their Fundamental Principles....................................... 3
André Kabasele Mukenge
Why Basic Ecclesial Communities?.......................................... 15

Felix Wilfred
Letting the Bible Inspire Pastoral Activity –

Small Christian Communities as universal Church
learning opportunities for Bible-based pastoral activity................ 27
Ludwig Schick
Ecclesial Base Communities: A Look Back and a

Look Forward.............................................................................. 37
Pablo Richard Guzmán
Small Christian Communities and Spirituality

Small Christian Communities / Basic Ecclesial
Communities............................................................................... 53
Nicodème Kalonji Ngoyi
The Spirituality of the Ecclesial Base Communities.............. 67

Victor Hernández
Towards a Transformative Spirituality in

Basic Ecclesial Communities..................................................... 87
John Mansford Prior
v
vi Small Christian Communities
Exploring Closeness –
Small Christian Communities as hubs of pastoral care................. 99
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst
Ecclesiological Understanding of Small Christian Communities

Small Christian Communities as a New Way of
Becoming Church: Practice, Progress and Prospects.............. 113
Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator
An Ecclesiological Approach to Small Christian

Communities –
An ecclesiology that promotes and supports them........................ 127
Barbara Sweet-Hansen
Ecclesial Dimension of Small Christian Communities......... 153

Michael Amaladoss
A New Way of being Church –

Ecclesiological reflections on Small Christian Communities........ 163
Klaus Krämer
Historical Development of Small Christian Communities

Historical Development of the Small Christian
Communities / Basic Ecclesial Communities in
Africa............................................................................................ 185
Joseph G. Healey
A Spark Ignites a Flame –

Small Christian Communities in Germany................................... 199
Klaus Vellguth
A ‘Revitalisation’ of Basic Ecclesial Communities.................. 237

José Ferrari Marins
Basic Ecclesial Communities in ASIA...................................... 249

Estela P. Padilla

Contents vii
The Visions of Ministry of the Small Christian Communities

The Pastoral Vision of Basic Christian Communities /
Ecclesial Communities............................................................... 271
Pius Rutechura
The Vision of Ministry of the Ecclesial Base

Communities in Latin America and the Caribbean............... 279
Socorro Martínez Maqueo
Theological-Pastoral Foundations of DIIPA-Vision for

Small Christian Communities.................................................. 293
Thomas Vijay
Small is Big – The pastoral vision

behind Small Christian Communities .................................... 329
Christian Hennecke and Dieter Tewes
Appendix
Index of authors.................................................................................. 349
Index of translators............................................................................ 353
Preface
Over a period of several decades Basic Ecclesial Communities /

Small Christian Communities have succeeded in changing the
countenance of the Church, giving it a human, personal, spiritual and
good-neighbourly face. It is to the development of these communities
that the second volume of the One World Theology edition is devoted.
This edition, the product of an initiative by missio in Aachen, is a
universal Church forum in which theologians from different local
churches set forth their views on theological questions and topical
issues.
The present volume has five chapters comprising reflections on
Basic Ecclesial Communities / Small Christian Communities. In the
first chapter the authors consult the biblical sources and examine the
extent to which life in Small Christian Communities takes up the biblical
vision. Addressing this issue from an African perspective, André
Kabasele Mukenge goes back to the Pentecost, the Emmaus pericope
and the records in the Acts of the Apostles about the life of the early
Christian community in Jerusalem and maps out prospects for life as
it is lived in Small Christian Communities. Felix Wilfred, a theologian
from India, looks for possible clues in the Bible and points out that it
was not the synagogue but the ‘house church’ that served as a model
for the early Christians. Proceeding from the universal Church as a
pastoral learning community, Ludwig Schick draws on the experience
of Small Christian Communities that he gained in his capacity as
Chairman of the Commission for International Church Affairs of the
German Bishops’ Conference, especially during a fact-finding tour to
South Korea. Pablo Richard Guzmán, meanwhile, looks at the history
of the Ecclesial Base Communities in the documents of the General
Conferences of the Latin American Bishops, establishes references to
the New Testament and reviews the current debates about the present
state and possible future of the Ecclesial Base Communities.
ix
x Small Christian Communities
The articles in the second chapter examine the spirituality of Small

Christian Communities. Drawing on the records documenting the life
and spirit of the early Christian communities, Nicodème Kalonji Ngoyi
considers the consequences they have for the spirituality of the Small
Christian Communities, which is characterised by openness, the power
of faith and a missionary and prophetic attitude. Victor Hernández
begins by venturing a definition, describing spirituality as a source of
motivation. Concerning the spirituality of Ecclesial Base Communities,
he says that they become a privileged location wherever they afford
opportunities for the individual members to develop and demonstrate
their qualities. John Mansford Prior, who has been a close observer
of Small Christian Communities in Indonesia for very many years,
regards Small Christian Communities as a different form of church
structure from those that are founded on participation and dialogue.
He sees in them “the best place to birth and mature a biblical spirituality,
the small trusting community where the members themselves learn to
live and act joyfully in solidarity with the victims of local and global
injustice, where they both spontaneously and consciously fuse the best
of their cultural values with those of the Gospel.” In his contribution
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst outlines a spirituality which is marked by
“interaction between the Word and the Sacrament, between gathering
and sending out, between the Christian creed and agape”.
In the third chapter the authors investigate the ecclesiological
understanding of the Small Christian Communities. Agbonk-
hianmeghe E. Orobator examines the ecclesiological character of the
Small Christian Communities from an African standpoint. He recalls
the statements made in both the post-synodal apostolic exhortations
Ecclesia in Africa and Africae munus and elaborates on the extent to
which Small Christian Communities form the nucleus of a Christian
community and mission. Barbara Sweet-Hansen presents the ecclesio-
logical models of Latin American theologians, amongst others, and
advocates an ecclesiology interpreted as being “a plural dynamic,
which is cultural to the extent that it blends in with the culture of
other nations, and political to the extent that it stands in the service
of the intellectual progress of the ecclesiastical community itself and
reshapes everything”. Michael Amaladoss classifies the Small Christian
Communities as an ecclesiological reality, of which it can be said that
the holy, Catholic and apostolic Church is truly present and active in

Preface xi
it. Addressing the ecclesiological foundation of the Small Christian

Communities, the contribution on “A New Way of Being Church”
points out that these communities form the local church; they practise
an ecclesiology of communion and are committed to the mission of
the Church. The spiritual encounter with the biblical texts is classified
in pneumatalogical terms and placed in the context of communication
and the debate within the universal Church.
In the fourth chapter the authors trace the historical development

of the Small Christian Communities in Africa, Latin America, Asia
and Europe (exemplified for Europe by their growth in Germany).
First, Joseph G. Healey describes the progress made by Small Christian
Communities in Africa and shows that their emergence there was
independent of the processes leading to the formation of Ecclesial
Base Communities in Latin America. The European perspective is
reflected in the contribution entitled “A Spark Ignites a Flame”. This
discusses the two processes leading initially to the development of
Basic Ecclesial Communities (primarily in the 1980s) and then of
Small Christian Communities (since the year 2000) in Germany. It
examines the extent to which these processes can be seen as a successful
example of comparative pastoral ministry in the universal Church as a
learning community. José Ferrari Marins subsequently deals with the
emergence of Ecclesial Base Communities in Latin America, especially
after Medellín (1968), and draws attention to strategic lessons that
can be learned from the experience of the past so that (new) life can
be breathed into the Ecclesial Base Communities. Estela P. Padilla
makes reference in her contribution to a study coordinated by the
East Asian Pastoral Institute on Small Christian Communities in Asia
and highlights the consequences for the understanding of Church and
mission, for the creation of a new image (and understanding) of the
Church and for the transformation of the passing on of faith.
The final chapter is devoted to the visions of ministry of the Small

Christian Communities. Pius Rutechura considers Small Christian
Communities to be a fertile ground for the inculturation of the Gospel
and the healing of wounds. He recalls the encyclical Redemptoris
Missio, in which Small Christian Communities are described as a
“sign of vitality within the Church, an instrument of formation and
evangelization, and a solid starting point for a new society based on
xii Small Christian Communities
a “civilization of love.” Writing from a Latin American perspective,

Socorro Martínez Maqueo says that the Ecclesial Base Communities
are a process and a way of being Church in permanent development.
She highlights the challenges facing the Ecclesial Base Communities,
which undertake missionary work and live their “commitment to
the transformation of society”. Thomas Vijay draws attention to the
inculturation of the Developing Indian Integral Pastoral Approach
(DIIPA), stressing in particular the significance of an authentic,
Asian spirituality for the pastoral implementation of this approach.
Finally, Christian Hennecke and Dieter Tewes examine the vision of
ministry of the Small Christian Communities, which provides the
ecclesial framework for the practice of a new way of being Church.
They describe the way in which a pastoral approach inspired by basic
communities can help to achieve results in Germany, as it has done
elsewhere.
Numerous terms (sometimes synonymous, sometimes with
a specific connotation) are used by the authors to describe the
vibrant, spiritually imbued basic ecclesial groups. They range from
Small Christian Communities (SCCs), Basic Ecclesial Communities
(BECs) and Basic Christian Communities (BCCs) to Ecclesial Base
Communities (CEBs), a term frequently used in the Latin American
context. The descriptions used by the authors have not been changed.
While this means accepting a linguistic heterogeneity, it helps to
safeguard the semantic nuances associated with the individual terms.
The different contributions in this volume reflect the lively
dialogue within the universal Church, for which we owe a debt of
gratitude to the authors but also to many others. Our special thanks
go to the staff at missio, who have helped us in devising this volume:
Dr. Hadwig Müller, Dr. Marco Moerschbacher, Dr. Otmar Oehring
and Prof. DDr. h.c. Raul Fornet-Betancourt. We should also like to
thank Michael Meyer for the careful compilation of the manuscripts.
We sincerely hope that this volume will help to stimulate interest in
the pastoral model of Small Christian Communities / Basic Ecclesial
Communities.
Klaus Krämer
Klaus Vellguth
Biblical References and Foundation
The Biblical Approach of Basic Ecclesial
Communities –
Aspects of their Fundamental Principles
André Kabasele Mukenge
Introduction
At the sixth Plenary Assembly of the Bishops’ Conference of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was attended predomi-
nantly by European bishops, a firm decision was made to realign
pastoral care by setting up vibrant Christian communities.1 The
declared objectives associated with this decision included:
– strengthening belief in God and in the Gospel of Christ in the
daily lives of the Congolese population;
– consolidating the significance of the Church as a community
of the faithful, integrating national culture more extensively
and thus encouraging participation by the population in
community development;
– training responsible men and women to make an active contri-
bution to the Christian communities, thereby strengthening
the laity;
– leading the people of God, in the light of the Gospel, towards
the gradual acceptance of responsibility for social problems.
To make it clear from the outset, this decision resulted from the
bitter acknowledgement that, after over 50 years of evangelisation,
the establishment of many institutions geared towards evangelisation
1 Actes de la VIe Assemblée Plénière de l’Episcopat du Congo (20 novembre - 2 décembre

1961), Léopoldville 1961, 35; 181. See also Saint Moulin, L. de /N’ganzi, R. (ed.), Eglise et
société. Le discours socio-politique de l’Eglise catholique du Congo 1956-1998, Textes de
la Conférence Episcopale Kinshasa 1998, 74f.
3
4 Biblical References and Foundation
including schools, churches, hospitals and orphanages, and a growing

number of baptisms and other sacramental acts, the Gospel had not
become sufficiently entrenched in the country’s daily life and culture.
This paradoxical situation is summed up aptly by two enduringly
popular sayings: “Baptised, but not evangelised”;“Church in the morning,
fetish priest in the evening”. The new religion’s inability to provide
people with security in the face of their daily trials and innumerable
fears finds expression in the latter phrase,2 this despite the fact that,
through their new-found faith, the converted should find a new
identity which guides them to a personal and collective reassessment.
Ideally, it should help them take responsibility and perform duties.
Ultimately, it should motivate them to bear witness.3
The biblical foundations of the Basic Ecclesial Community’s
approach to pastoral care are usually located in the Acts of the
Apostles.4 Indeed, “the new way of life”, which would, in future, prove
significant for adherents of the “new way”, is described therein in
several synopses (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35; 5:12-16). I beg to differ and
take the liberty of suggesting an alternative point of departure: the
community of disciples after the Passion of Christ.
Initially, it is important to state that the pastoral ministry offered
by the Basic Ecclesial Communities (CEB = communautés ecclésiales
de base) aims to meet the challenge of establishing caring communities
in which faith is lived out in daily life by paying closer attention to
believers’ lifestyles and tangible desires; communities which not
only exist formally and institutionally, but which offer scope for
spontaneity and in which diverse charismatic manifestations are given
space to emerge; smaller communities than the conventional parish
communities, in which the practices of agape, sharing and solidarity
2 For more detailed information see: Kabasele Mukenge, A., Les manifestations de
l’identité chrétienne au Congo-Kinshasa, De l’affirmation aux dérives, in: Forum Mission 3
(2007), 72-89.
3 Current studies on the subject of Christian obligation include: Bakadisula Madila,
C., Le rôle socio-politique des laïcs chrétiens au Congo (R.D.C.), Pour un laïcat chrétien
dynamique, Saarbrücken 2011.
4 See in this context: Mesters, C., La lecture du livre des Actes des Apôtres dans les
communautés ecclésiales de base du Brésil, in: Berdier, M. (ed.), Les Actes des Apôtres.
Histoire, récit, théologie, Paris 2005, 231-242.
Biblical Approach of Basic Ecclesial Communities
The 5
are encouraged via human intimacy. In short, communities tailored

to human needs in which the humanity of faith is experienced, as
Cardinal Malula wished: “We must urge the current parishes to divide
themselves into small communities tailored to human needs.”5
These are the various aspects referred to when alluding to “Basic
Ecclesial Communities”, “Small Christian Communities” or “Vibrant
Basic Ecclesial Communities” (CEVB = Communauté Ecclésiale
Vivante de Base).6
The Paschal Community or the necessity to live in ecclesial communion

The gospels allow us to share in the invigoration of a religious
community which emerged from the Easter experience. The
achievement of either one or several goals and the realisation of an ideal
or common values, which are lived out as examples and passed on, are
always at the heart of the establishment of any human community. It is
interesting to note the change which takes place within the community
of Jesus’ disciples after his Passion.
We must bear in mind that this is, in the first instance, a community
which learns of the continued presence of the resurrected Christ and
becomes aware of this truth, albeit gradually, but all the more strongly
in consequence. The reports of the appearances serve to confirm
this presence to the immediate witnesses and the remainder of the
community. Let us note that a role allocation among these witnesses
can be observed from the very beginning. It follows that John reached
the tomb first, but did not go in, while Peter, who did not run as fast,
entered the tomb before him (John 20:3-8). It is striking that the
women in this community are not marginalised; as the first witnesses
of the Resurrection, they are responsible for telling the apostles the
glad tidings (John 20:17-18). As a result, everyone in the community
is assigned a specific role. Hence it is possible to contend even at this
point that a Christian community is fundamentally determined by the
5 Malula, J.A., L’Eglise à l’heure de l’africanité, Kinshasa 1973, 5.

6 In Africa, these communities have different designations depending on the respective
churches: “Vibrant Christian Communities”, “Basic Christian Communities”, “Basic Family
Communities”, “Basic Ecclesial Communities”, “Vibrant Ecclesial Communities”, etc. See
Ramazani Bishwende, A., Eglise-famille-de-Dieu. Esquisse d’une ecclésiologie africaine,
Paris 2001, 45.
experience of the presence of Jesus Christ. Is this not reminiscent of the

words attributed to Jesus himself: “For where two or three meet in my
name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20)? Viewed in this light,
a Basic Ecclesial Community differs from any other neighbourhood
organisation, a club of friends or an association insofar as it is founded
on the presence of Jesus Christ in its midst. It is aware of this presence
and endeavours to make it tangible. In other words, a Basic Ecclesial
Community convenes in the name of Christ.7
And, like the Paschal Community, it receives the message of peace
in order to advocate the cause of peace itself: “Peace be with you”
(John 20:19). Here, peace should be understood in the sense of the
Hebrew shalom: not merely signifying the absence of war and conflict
but, beyond this, fullness of life, well-being and happiness.
In order to underscore the significance of the experience of Jesus
Christ’s presence I suggest, as a paradigm, the account of the disciples
on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24:12-35), which, to my mind, outlines
the path of faith, emphasising both its demands and the necessity to
join a religious community in order to bear witness.
The two disciples who set out from Jerusalem on the way to
their village of Emmaus are very disappointed and despondent. “Our
own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. […]”
(verse 21), they tell the stranger they meet along the way. Note the
centrifugal shift they complete: they leave the community of disciples
and return to the natural community of their village. At this point in
time they had not yet experienced the presence of Jesus Christ: “But
their eyes were prevented from recognising him” (verse 16). However,
at the end of their journey, their disappointment turns to hope and
instead of withdrawing they open themselves to the community of
faith.
Their return to Emmaus can be compared to a retreat into
seclusion, because expectations were not met and yearnings left
unsatisfied. African Christians confronted with existential problems
employ a similar tactic, returning to traditional “solutions”: “Church
in the morning, fetish priest in the evening”, similar to any other believer
7 Cf. 1 Corinthians 3:11: “For nobody can lay down any other foundation than the one
which is there already, namely Jesus Christ.”
The 7
who, overwhelmed by events, fails to see salvation in the Gospel of

Christ, which is a gospel of the cross, of service and of love.
So what helps the disciples from Emmaus to break the chains
of their isolation so that they can rejoin the community they have
abandoned?
One thing which successfully galvanises them is the contemplation
of the Word of God. As they walk, the stranger explains all the Scripture
passages concerning Jesus Christ to the two disciples (verses 27 and
32). This Christological interpretation of the Holy Scripture permits
an understanding of the central role played by Jesus Christ and the
significance of His life as an example to the believer and his community.
Christ is ever present in the Holy Scriptures. We can say that Christ,
who joins the two disciples on the road, teaches them where believers
can first learn the meaning of community: in reading the Word of God
together and in its contemplation. The Word should not be read and
contemplated arbitrarily but judiciously in order to comprehend the
unique mystery of Christ. Today, close attentiveness to the interpre-
tation of the Word of God and its collective contemplation is of
crucial importance. Indeed, we observe an unequivocal shift towards
fundamentalism in many groups, which fails to produce true ecclesial
communities, but rather self-isolating sects.8 As we will learn below,
an ecclesial community is never self-contained – it is always there to
welcome the other, the stranger.A second recognition of this presence
is achieved during the communal meal, the place of communion and
sharing. The account’s catechetical function is highlighted by the
fact that the stranger assumes the role of family patriarch: he takes
the bread, blesses it, breaks it and hands it to them (verse 30). Here
we have four profound, instructive words. They prevent the act of
eating from falling into the possible trap of violence and egotism. The
blessing expresses the acknowledgement of God as the one who gives.
The breaking of the bread forms the prelude to the joyful act of sharing
and solidarity. It comes as no surprise to learn that the eyes of the
disciples from Emmaus are opened in the wake of this “Eucharistic”
gesture. They have understood life’s meaning and the Passion of
Christ and, above all, the imperative nature of his superlative gesture
8 Kabasele Mukenge, A., Lire la Bible dans une société en crise. Études d’herméneutique
interculturelle, Kinshasa 2007, 11f.
of self-sacrifice, symbolised in the Eucharist. This prompts them to

return to Jerusalem to rejoin their religious community that very
same night: “[…] There they found the Eleven assembled together
with their companions” (verse 33). The significance of the return to
their community becomes even more explicit in the light of the fact
that the disciples from Emmaus had urged their guest to stay with
them, as “it is nearly evening” (verse 29). The lateness of the hour does
not deter them from returning to the community they had left that
same morning.9 And there they find a community in the process of
acknowledging Jesus’ resurrection: “The Lord has indeed risen […]”
(verse 34a). A community in which sharing and bearing witness with
others who have also experienced Christ’s presence is utterly natural:
“[…] and has appeared to Simon” (verse 34b). A community in which
members encourage one another by accepting even the weakest, as in
the case of Thomas: “We have seen the Lord” (John 20:25).
It is possible to extrapolate several characteristics of a Basic
Ecclesial Community from this account: it unites believers who have
experienced Christ’s presence and share this experience with one
another; believers who allow themselves to be guided by Christ’s life
in their understanding of Holy Scripture, a life which not only serves
them as a key to interpret Jewish Old Testament scripture, but also the
history of mankind; believers who allow their eyes to be opened via the
Eucharistic gesture, whose significance lies in openness towards those
who are different, in solidarity and in sharing. It is a community which
advances, which is capable of negotiating taxing times of hopelessness,
discouragement and unhappiness, and which welds together in order
to witness the power of the resurrected Christ.
The Post-Paschal Community in the power of the Spirit

As discussed above, the Acts of the Apostles features brief,
idyllically imbued descriptions of the first Christian community.
Today, experts are debating whether the author actually reproduces
the reality of his era in these accounts, or whether we encounter a
9 This importance of community for the faithful who shared in the Easter experience is
one of the foundation stones of African culture, in which, as Monseigneur Monsengwo
discerns: “Life means being part of a community.” Cf. Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, L’esprit
communautaire africain, Kinshasa 1982, 5.
The 9
depiction of an aspired-to ideal. At all events, the flock of disciples

undergoes a transformation in the light of the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit. Just as, after Jesus’ death, the awareness of the presence of the
resurrected Christ allowed the disciples to embark on the creation of a
religious community, the awareness of the presence of an exceptional
power helps this young community to define and develop itself, as its
members become Christ’s witnesses10 in vibrant ecclesial communities.
From now on, the Basic Ecclesial Communities are equipped with
a tangible organisational model which aids them in their search for the
unique aspects which constitute their defining features.
The first Pentecost, described in great detail in the Acts of the
Apostles, teaches us that it is possible to overcome our fears and pluck
up the courage required to bear witness to our faith in a community
enlivened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The disciples relinquish
their fear of the Jews and bear witness to the resurrection. Once
more we encounter the call to strike forth on one’s path and not to
allow oneself to become discouraged and weakened. An authentic
ecclesial community appeals to its members to go through life as
“upright” individuals who are willing to bear witness to their faith.
This is not limited to evangelising or persuading sectarians, but is
also determined by efforts to remain open to others. The community
envisages integration of this nature from the outset, something
which can be inferred from the fact that everyone hears the disciples’
testimony in his own native language (Acts 2:8). Respect for others is
at issue, for their otherness, their convictions and their cultural and
historical journeys.
Is there anything else to be said? To my mind, this aspect is one of
the chief challenges faced by pastoral ministry in the Basic Ecclesial
Communities, which seek to integrate members in all their diversity,
uniting the same fundamental convictions of the Gospel as they do so.
Let us consider one of the key passages in the Acts of the Apostles:
“These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the
brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
10 In this respect, no one refers to the Acts of the Apostles as the “Gospel of the Holy
Spirit”. See: Sarah, R., Conférence inaugurale, in: Les Actes des Apôtres et les jeunes Eglises.
Actes du Deuxième Congrès des Biblistes Africains, Kinshasa 1990, 5.
And everyone was filled with awe; the apostles worked many
signs and miracles. And all who shared the faith owned everything in
common; they sold their goods and possessions and distributed the
proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed. Each
day, with one heart, they regularly went to the Temple but met in their
houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and
generously; they praised God and were looked up to by everyone. Day
by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be saved.”
(Acts 2:42-47).
This excerpt can be used to accentuate the following points:
– A Basic Ecclesial Community unites on the basis of doctrine:
the Word of God is at its core and constitutes the community’s
guiding principles. By referring to the apostles, the text
implies the entitlement to orthodoxy. As a result, the Basic
Ecclesial Community is not a sect or an esoteric group; it
preserves the communion with each and every believer, i.e.
with the entire Church.
– A Basic Ecclesial Community reiterates the gestures of Jesus
within its inner sanctum; those gestures by which he was
recognised, such as the breaking of the bread.
– A Basic Ecclesial Community is a place of sharing and
solidarity, where human hardships are taken seriously. As
far as this aspect is concerned, other excerpts of the Acts
of the Apostles demonstrate that this ideal was not always
put into practice, as illustrated by the protest by widows of
Greek origin who were overlooked in the daily distribution
(Acts 6:1). The account of this episode serves both as a lesson
and as a warning to future generations of readers. Christian
witness calls for acts of selfless sharing and solidarity which
knows no bounds. In this regard, the Acts of the Apostles
shows us that the community is an instrument of God in the
world: it assumes the role of bearing witness.
– A Basic Ecclesial Community is a place of common prayer
which retains a link with the official houses of prayer. In
the Acts of the Apostles, members of the community break
bread and praise God in their various places of residence, yet
The 11
continue to visit the temple. The secession from the temple

occurs only later, when the Jews’ religious leaders turn the
Christians away, ultimately viewing them as a dangerous sect.
Be that as it may, prayer as such is, by definition, the expression
of a “Communion-Vivante-Avec”11, a communion of vibrant
interaction.
– A Basic Ecclesial Community is a place of inclusion. It is
important to note this, as it demonstrates that withdrawal
from the Church is not the intention: the biblical passage
cited above mentions the admission of new members and
their potential integration within the community. Likewise,
the Basic Ecclesial Community should accept all those who
turn to it and strengthen equality among its members, an
equality which does not detract, however, from the diversity
of roles and responsibilities within it.
In my view, it is important to call attention to one final aspect:
the Acts of the Apostles not only describes communities in which all
is well; it also recounts difficulties, ordeals and conflicts which mar
life in the early Christian community. It teaches us how to overcome
conflicts within the Church.12 The most interesting example of this
doubtless occurs in Acts 15:1-35, an episode which is commonly
referred to as “The Council of Jerusalem”. This passage shows us that
the conflict is resolved via communication; the various viewpoints
are heard and contrasted (verses 7, 12, 13 and 22); the role of the
elders is emphasised (verses 6, 22 and 23); the special status of the
“apostles” is acknowledged; and the subordination to the Holy Spirit
is clearly underscored (verse 28). The need to reach a consensus and
the desire to find a mutual solution which is nonetheless based on the
Word of God (verses 22 and 25) can be clearly felt in Acts 15. Here,
too, we encounter loyally tenacious adherence to received doctrine
in the form of a pledge of receptiveness for the ministry of the Holy
11 This expression was coined by Agossou, M.J, Foi chrétienne et spiritualité africaine,
Notre réponse et notre responsabilité, in: L’Afrique et ses formes de vie spirituelle, Actes du
deuxième Colloque International, Kinshasa 21–27/II/1983, 17 (1983) 33-34, 308.
12 The dispute between the Hellenists and the Hebrews in support of the widows has
already been mentioned (Acts 6:1). Other examples include the arguments between Paul
and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-40) and between Peter and Paul.
Spirit. However, new responsibilities are also created by dispatching

emissaries to Antioch (verse 22).
We realise that the ecclesial community is not a complete whole;
it evolves in the power of the Spirit and through reading the signs of
the times. It is on its way.
We also learn that an ecclesial community requires an organi-
sation and structures and the establishment of corresponding
administrative bodies in order to ensure that its various members
assume responsibility and are able to place themselves at the service
of the Gospel. Administrative offices of this nature arise as a result
of requirements within the community, as in the case of the Seven
(deacons) in Acts 6:1-7 or the men sent to Antioch in Acts 15:22.
Conclusion
“How good, how delightful it is to live as brothers all together!”
(Psalm 133:1). This verse from a pilgrims’ song contains an early echo of
the community ideal felt by Israel’s pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.
One can imagine them, striving for the same goal, confronted with the
same ordeals on their journey and guided by the same hope, the same
faith. The wandering pilgrims experienced solidarity and sharing in
this manner, trusting in God’s immutable presence (Psalm 121). They
knew but one urgency: to arrive in the House of the Lord, where they
would find peace and share in the community of all the people of
Israel (Psalms 122 and 125).
“Behold, how they love one another […]”, cried the heathens in
the face of the fraternal harmony exuded by the first communities,
the Basic Communities. The harmony and solidarity which charac-
terised these communities thus became a hallmark of Christianity.
This corresponds to Jesus’ own wishes as expressed during his parting
from the disciples according to the Gospel of John: “It is by your love
for one another, that everyone will recognise you as my disciples.”
(John 13:35). And he asks God for unity (“that they all may be one”,
John 17:21) and for the Holy Spirit (John 14:16 and 26). It is essential
to experience full communion in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The paradigm of the disciples from Emmaus, who travel as
pilgrims, reminds us that the creation of ecclesial communities
The 13
constitutes an ongoing task, and that the Spirit abiding within their
members leads the latter on new and unforeseen paths in order to
open their eyes to the challenges denoted by brotherhood, solidarity
and sharing.
Why Basic Ecclesial Communities?
Felix Wilfred
A Church that radiates light

Nothing could better illustrate the enormous attractiveness of
Basic Ecclesial Communities13 in Latin America than the words of
an ordinary woman stating what she experienced on Christmas Eve:
“At Christmas the three Protestant churches were brightly lit and
full of people. We could hear people singing. […] But our Catholic
church remained dark and locked! We had been unable to find a
priest anywhere.”14 What we need now is a Church that radiates light
and testifies that Jesus lives in the community of His followers. Basic
Ecclesial Communities, led by committed Christians, keep the flame of
faith alive so that it shines forth brightly. One of the tragedies afflicting
the Catholic Church is that it has become so closely associated with the
priesthood and its own hierarchical structures. Hence, any renewal of
the Church is seen merely as a reform of its clergy.
Paradigm shift
Basic Ecclesial Communities were a paradigm shift in ecclesiology.
A Church which had long centred around bishops and priests finally
turned towards people and the community. This revolution was
triggered by the Second Vatican Council. The mere fact that God’s
people were given greater prominence at the Council than the Church
hierarchy is a clear sign that this revolution actually happened, even
though it has not yet been completed in all its aspects. The new
theological vision had to be put into practice. From the Second Vatican
13 They have a variety of names: Small Christian Communities, Basic Christian
Communities, Basic Ecclesial Communities, etc. In this article the different terms are used
synonymously.
14 Quoted in Boff, L., Die Neuentdeckung der Kirche, Basisgemeinschaften in Latein-
amerika, Mainz 1985, 13.
15
Council onwards there was a move to rely on certain new structures,

such as the pastoral council, the parish council or the church council
and similar committees where God’s people were represented by lay
members, clergy and members of religious orders. These structural
innovations were far from adequate, however.
New tools were required to give life to the vision of the Church
as God’s people. Basic Ecclesial Communities are, to some extent, a
realisation of this vision in which the Church is seen as a community.
The shift of emphasis onto God’s people and the community is a
paradigm shift towards a participatory Church. To understand what
this means we might repeat the frequently asked question as to whether
structures such as a pastoral council or church council are consultative
or advisory in character. Bishop Francis Claver of the Philippines,
one of the leading proponents of Basic Ecclesial Communities in his
country, says, however, that such questions ignore the paradigm shift
that has taken place.15 They would only make sense within a model
centred upon the Church hierarchy, where these structures are merely
seen as tools to involve the laity, yet without fundamentally changing
the exercise of authority as such. This explains the concerns that the
authority of the priests and bishops should not be questioned and that
the various committees should be purely consultative in character.
Under the new paradigm of participatory Church such questions have
no place and make no sense.
The emergence of a local church

Small Christian Communities can be seen as specific embodiments
of the ecclesiological vision of the Second Vatican Council, as described,
in particular, in Lumen Gentium and Gaudium et Spes. To counter
the strongly centralised concept of the universal Church, the Second
Vatican Council talked about “particular churches”, meaning diocesan
and local churches. The diocesan laity and clergy who are gathered
around their bishop and the Eucharist are a symbol of that particular
church. Basic Ecclesial Communities constitute a further step towards
fleshing out the mystery of the Church. The Second Vatican Council
rarely used the term “local church”. Instead, it preferred to talk about
15 Claver, F., Basic Christian Communities in a Wider Context, in: East Asian Pastoral
Review 23 (1986) 3, 362-368.

Basic Ecclesial Communities?
Why 17
“particular churches”. Basic Ecclesial Communities add a new shape

and a new profile to our understanding of the local church. A local
church focuses more closely on its socio-cultural environment. It cares
for the people and the culture of the society in which it finds itself.16
As an embodiment of the local church, a Basic Ecclesial Community
endeavours to get alongside ordinary people in their everyday lives
and to live out its faith under specific circumstances.
Living in community
The second major element to stimulate a new Church model,
as expressed through Basic Ecclesial Communities, came from an
understanding of Church as communio. According to this view, the
Church is not a collection of institutions, structures and centres
of authority, but rather an intersubjective reality. In other words,
the Church is about relationships, as expressed largely by the term
communio or fellowship. In fact, the mystery of the Church has been
inspired in its emergence by the relationship between the three Persons
of the Trinity. Our modern life and experience show very clearly that
systems can become impersonal and develop an existence of their
own, detached from people. If a concept of Church is too heavily
centred upon authority and based on structures, it will suffer the same
fate as any system and will tend to function in the same impersonal
way. The Second Vatican Council led us to a new level by making us
realise that Church is a community in which people share their lives
in love and fellowship. To understand this we must remind ourselves
of the famous distinction made by the German sociologist, Ferdinand
Tönnies, between society and community. While the former focuses
on the system, the latter is a realisation of communio. The theological
aspect of Church as a community – i.e. the foundational element of
Basic Ecclesial Communities – can also be illustrated by numerous
insights into communication theory.
16 I would like to add a personal note at this point: When I was Secretary of the Theological
Advisory Commission of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), we wrote
a document for the conference entitled “Theses on the Local Church”, in which we defined
the nature of the local church with an emphasis on its socio-cultural context. In the
document it says that it “approaches the reality of the local church because it results from
an encounter between the Gospel and the culture of a nation (Theses 5-9)”. On the text of
the document See Tirimanna, V. (ed.), Sprouts of Theology from the Asian Soil, Collection
of TAC and OTC Documents (1987-2007), Bangalore 2007, 19-68.
A Basic Ecclesial Community is an attempt to live out the

elementary reality of faith, which is by nature communal, in all its
aspects. This reality is not about the faith of an individual and his
God, but about a faith that is essentially shared by the community.
Faith, therefore, requires a living fellowship of individuals interacting
with one another. This ensures that their faith grows through mutual
support. The second fundamental reality, which is love, is by its very
nature always mutual within a community. Hope, too, is something
which we share in a community, because our destinies are ultimately
connected. In a nutshell, Basic Ecclesial Communities are essentially
founded on faith, love and hope as elements which are entirely of a
communal nature. This explains why Basic Ecclesial Communities
form an environment that is conducive to living out Christian
experiences. This important truth prompted John Paul II to describe
these communities as signs of hope for the Church: “A rapidly growing
phenomenon in the young churches – one sometimes fostered by
the bishops and their Conferences as a pastoral priority – is that of
‘ecclesial basic communities’ … which are proving to be good centres
for Christian formation and missionary outreach. These are groups
of Christians who, at the level of the family or in a similarly restricted
setting, come together for prayer, Scripture reading, catechesis, and
discussion on human and ecclesial problems with a view to a common
commitment. These communities are a sign of vitality within the
Church, an instrument of formation and evangelisation, and a solid
starting point for a new society based on a ‘civilisation of love’.”17
In the footsteps of Jesus

Basic Ecclesial Communities help us to walk closely and directly
in the footsteps of Jesus. When Jesus gave his declaration in Nazareth,
he made it clear that the good news is aimed at the poor (Luke
4:18-19). In our modern world we can often see a calculated attempt
to turn a blind eye to the poor and to the harsh reality of poverty.
Although each day repeatedly demonstrates the failure of capitalism,
particularly because it is an ongoing source of suffering for the poor,
there are attempts to prove that it is a healthy system and has helped
17 RM 51. The importance of Basic Ecclesial Communities for the life of the Church and
for its evangelistic mission was also highlighted by Paul VI. See EN.
Why 19
to remove poverty. Such window-dressing is an attempt to show that

there is less poverty today.18 The truth, however, is quite different. Like
all other systems, the Church hierarchy can easily function on its own
by turning the poor into objects of charity and of good deeds. Jesus,
however, paints a vision in which the poor are the main protagonists
and the recipients of the good news of the Kingdom of God (Luke
6:20-23). The Basic Ecclesial Communities which we find in most
developing countries (i.e. in Latin America, Africa and Asia) are
communities of the poor. Christianity in those regions traditionally
used to be dominated by the powerful, the elites, the landowners and
members of the higher castes. Basic Ecclesial Communities provide a
model in which there is no room for such a distinction or for discri-
mination. They are communities where all members are equal. They
are open spaces with a listening ear for the voices of the poor and for
their experiences, struggles and hopes.
Another dimension that reflects the Spirit of Jesus Christ is that
these communities are quite small in size. Throughout the Gospel we
can see Jesus working with contrasts. Take, for instance, his contrasting
parables. The reason why he had to work with contrasts was that
the good news to the poor required a model that was different from
the dominating model. The main thrust of Jesus’ teachings was his
emphasis on the small, marginalised and neglected, which is hidden
from the eyes of the world. While his disciples were overwhelmed by
the size and grandeur of the Temple in Jerusalem – an architectural
gem of its time – Jesus was totally unimpressed (Luke 21:5). Instead,
he refers them to the poor widow who gave her last two pennies
and praises her for her generosity (Luke 21:1-4 and Mark 12:41-44).
He speaks of the mustard seed that grows into a big tree (Matthew
13:31–32, Matthew 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-19), salt (Matthew 5:13, Mark
9:50, Luke 14:34-35) and leaven (Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:20-21)
which causes fermentation yet remains hidden. We also read that
Jesus praises the wisdom of those the world regards as fools. And he
highlights the fact that God hides things from the wise but reveals
them to babes (Matthew 11:25-27). So when we describe Christian
18 The Planning Commission of India attempted to do so, for instance, in a spirit of
liberalism and globalisation. However, the way in which the poor were excluded from the
statistics was criticised both by Parliament and civil society.
communities as ‘small’, this somehow encapsulates for us the entire

Gospel and the teachings of Jesus. These Basic Ecclesial Communities
are in themselves a message about the Kingdom of God, directing
our attention away from the world of power and splendour. As Small
Christian Communities they are active followers of Jesus Christ in
continuing to proclaim the Gospel (Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-35).
The model of the synagogue

We can gain a better understanding of Basic Ecclesial Communities
when we compare them with the Jewish institution of the synagogue.
Whereas the Temple was in Jerusalem and a symbol of the system
and of priestly authority, the synagogues were, in a way, a work of the
laity. Each synagogue was a living community of a group of people.
Their common bond was not so much territorial, but one of keeping
together as a group that convened in order to pray, to read Scripture,
to meet neighbours, to resolve community issues and to act as a kind
of local ‘parliament’. When the early Christians decided to follow in
the footsteps of Jesus, it was not so much the Temple as the synagogue
that served as a model and provided inspiration. The house churches
(Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15, Philippians 1:2)
in early Christianity can be seen as transformed synagogues. In the
Acts of the Apostles we read about followers of Jesus having fellowship
with one another. It was a communal life and one that was marked
by mutual support and sharing. “They devoted themselves to the
apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to
prayer.” (Acts 2:42) During the first three centuries of Christianity
Christians would meet in each other’s homes. Lydia, for instance,
offered her house as a meeting venue for her brothers and sisters in
Christ (Acts 16:15 and 40). Priscilla and Aquila not only turned their
house into a house church (Romans 16:4-5); they were also actively
involved in Kingdom work and encouraged Paul and Apollo in their
ministries (Acts 18:2-5 and 26). Others who hosted local churches in
their homes were Gaius (Romans 16:23), Nymphas (Colossians 4:15)
and Titus Justus (Acts 18:7).
Whenever we read about ‘houses’ as meeting places in records
of early Christianity, this does not primarily mean buildings but
families. In his letters Paul mentions these families several times
as meeting places of local churches (Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians
Why 21
16:19, Colossians 4:15, Philippians 1:2). These experiences of Jesus’

followers manifested themselves in the form of house churches. They
were small fellowships which represented a new set of values. While
society in antiquity praised courage, bravery, heroic deeds, etc., these
fellowships were led by a different vision, in which there was a much
greater emphasis on values such as tolerance, patience, forgiveness,
kindness, honesty and perseverance. However, there is no mention
of any endeavours to set up bigger structures. Everything was seen as
provisional and perishable. The only thing that mattered was that God
should be present in all things (1 Corinthians 10:31).
It is worth highlighting in this context that women played
important roles in the house churches. Paul permitted them to
preach and to prophesy at church meetings (1 Corinthians 11:5). In
contrast to the custom at the time and what they experienced in their
environment, women were not discriminated against, but appointed
to leading positions. This was one of the reasons which attracted them
to Christianity (Philippians 4:2 and Phoebe in Romans 16:1). The
same thing can be observed today. Women play an active role in Basic
Ecclesial Communities and their leadership roles often take some very
unexpected forms. Another difference was the universal character
of the house churches. Although these early Christian communities
followed the model of the synagogue, they differed from it in an
important aspect. One of the distinctive features of these communities
was their openness. They reflected the universal spirit of Jesus – a
spirit that transcends any ethnic exclusiveness or ghetto mentality.
Between the turning point of Christianity under Constantine and
the present day there have been many different movements despite
the massive institutionalisation of the Church – e.g. various mediaeval
movements which gave rise to Mendicant Orders and demanded that
the Church should conduct reforms and show solidarity with the poor.
Today’s Basic Ecclesial Communities may of course be quite different
from those historical movements. Yet they do remind us of early
Christianity when Jesus’ followers – still rather insecure in their own
identity – would gather together to remember Jesus Christ, to pray
together, to break bread and to pool and share their resources (Acts
2:42-47, 4:32-35, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34). They created a new identity
of their own by doing this in the name of Jesus and in accordance with
his teachings.
Dialogue, participation and growth

We have established that Basic Ecclesial Communities are
fellowships of equals based on continuous dialogue. They are
founded on hearing God’s Word, listening to one another, sharing
together, praying together, etc. All of God’s people were seen as a royal
priesthood (see 1 Peter 2:9), and this was clearly expressed among those
communities which, unlike today’s parish churches, were not priest-
centred. Their specific realisation could be observed in the active
participation of members in the liturgical mass. Ordained priests and
the church hierarchy existed to minister to the people. The climate
of freedom, dialogue and participation that was evident in those
communities opened a path towards new forms of Church ministry.
In the Early Church ministries were created in response to specific
needs. They differed from one fellowship to another. The warmth
and support that people experience in Basic Ecclesial Communities
enables them to find their identities, to grow in faith and to develop
into mature personhood. The communities with their adaptability and
direct access to one another provide an ideal environment in which all
members can develop in their Christian faith. Each person has his
unique history and small communities are places where this history
can simply be shared with others to build each other up and to grow
in faith and spirituality. This is far removed from the big traditional
structures in which people just go to Church services and where
there is hardly any interaction or opportunity for people to share
their innermost experiences of their faith. These spiritual biographies
encourage other members of a small community to embark on their
own spiritual journeys. All this helps to strengthen bonds within the
group and to make the life of faith a joyful experience.
Basic Ecclesial Communities and public life

If these fellowships were to be regarded simply as groups within
the Church to help administer and manage the traditional structures
of parishes and dioceses, we would be ignoring their true spirit
and their true nature. Rather, the life of faith that pervades these
fellowships also influences society at large. Christians who are aware
of their mission and their leading role are called upon to act. Yet
the situation differs substantially from one global region to another.
In Latin America the most outstanding feature of Basic Ecclesial
Why 23
Communities was their engagement in politics. History shows that

these communities functioned as a critical force under authoritarian
regimes and military dictatorships. They were seen as suspect by
the state, and active members were locked up, tortured and brutally
murdered. This should not come as a surprise. When Medellin and,
later, Puebla spoke out on behalf of Basic Ecclesial Communities,
they were regarded as protagonists of resistance against the structural
injustice and poverty which caused so much suffering on the Latin
American continent. These communities succeeded in changing the
situation for smallholders and marginalised groups. Moreover, such
groups have enormous potential in the propagation of knowledge to
ordinary people.19 Critics of religion were sceptical about its potential
to bring about any change in society, and sociologists were doubtful
that Catholicism could lead to any radical change in socio-political
conditions. However, this seems to have been disproved by Basic
Ecclesial Communities with their radical attitude and potential for
transformation.20 In other parts of the world the situation may well
be different. Nevertheless, these communities are facing the major
challenge of living out their Christian faith within complex socio-
political environments. In the Philippines the first Basic Ecclesial
Communities emerged in the late 1960s in the conflict-torn region
of Mindanao and, later, gradually also in other parts of the country.
Because of their political awareness and their resistance to the rule of
the Marcos dictatorship, they were seen by the regime as a potential
threat. Like in Latin America, these communities sought to help
smallholders and spoke out against deforestation, expropriations, etc.
This earned them trouble and persecution. At the Second General
Assembly of the Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in 1991 it
was decided that Basic Ecclesial Communities should be adopted
as a national programme of the Church. An increasing number
of bishops gave their support, as a result of which they began to
spread quite rapidly. However, this was probably also the reason why
Basic Ecclesial Communities began to lose their original prophetic
momentum.
19 Vugt, J. Van, Democratic Organization for Social Change, Latin American Christian
Base Communities and Literacy Campaigns, New York 1991.

20 Cousineau Adriance, M., Promised Land, Base Christian Communities and the
Struggle for the Amazon, New York 1995.

When we talk about Basic Ecclesial Communities in connection

with public life, we must also be aware of their potential for
democratisation. Many developing countries have military regimes
or dictatorships, and even countries with democratic forms of
government are often only democratic on paper. Yet true democracy
requires people’s active participation at the grassroots level. Because of
their spirit of dialogue and cooperation Basic Ecclesial Communities
have proved to be real schools of democracy. Their internal organi-
sation and practices have offered a model for the democratisation of
society at large.
Inter-faith harmony
In multi-faith societies, which are to be found in most countries
in Asia, a community can only be strengthened if its members
befriend those of other faiths. History and experience have shown
that big Church structures are perceived by our neighbours as
power structures and thus as a threat to their own faith. With this in
mind, Basic Ecclesial Communities have great potential for sharing
the message of the Gospel. In Asia these communities are also well
known for their openness towards the religious and spiritual lives of
people with other faiths and for their willingness to work with them.
Dialogue does not revolve around doctrinal issues, but daily life. Basic
Ecclesial Communities clearly help us realise the teachings of the
Second Vatican Council about the role of other religions in God’s plan
of salvation. Moreover, wherever religious conflicts are smouldering
in south-east Asia, these communities promote human values which
are shared by people from other religious traditions. This has led to an
experiment called ‘Basic Human Communities’. Due to their adapta-
bility, Christian and human communities can help to promote peace
and harmony in society.
Concluding remarks
Basic Ecclesial Communities are like cells injecting life into the
organism of the Church. Their phenomenal proliferation over the years
– especially in Latin America, Africa and Asia – clearly shows how
urgently we need new forms of community and a new personalised
faith that involves living and sharing with others. The forms they take
and the spirit in which they are realised make these communities
Why 25
similar to the house churches of the early Christians. They provide

Christians with an environment in which they can grow in faith, as
followers of Christ, while jointly entering into a deeper experience of
love, fellowship and hope. Moreover, Basic Ecclesial Communities act
as specific embodiments of the local church by living and practising
their faith within a given cultural and socio-political framework.
Moreover, they enable lay people to take leadership responsibi-
lities. Being small and flexible, Basic Ecclesial Communities interact
effectively with their environment and bear witness to the Gospel. In
many cases they play prophetic roles by questioning existing structures
and by fighting injustice, exploitation and violations of human rights.
These communities demonstrate a new way of being Church. It may
well have been the lives and activities of Basic Ecclesial Communities
– far more than any other factors – that helped to put into practice the
spirit and the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
Letting the Bible Inspire Pastoral Activity* –
Small Christian Communities as universal Church
learning opportunities for Bible-based pastoral activity
Ludwig Schick
Mission is of the essence of the Church

“The pilgrim Church is by her very nature ‘missionary’ (i.e. sent
out as an envoy), since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission
of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the
decree of God the Father.” These are the words used by the Second
Vatican Council in the decree Ad Gentes to sum up the fundamental
task of Church missionary activity. The message is spelled out clearly:
Mission is not one task of the Church among others, but is of its very
essence. A Church which does not see itself as missionary is a contra-
diction in terms and is not the Church of Jesus Christ.21
It has taken quite some time for the reappraisal of mission
initiated by the Council to bear fruit in the awareness of communities
and believers in Germany. Even though considerable changes have
occurred in recent years, it is still not sufficiently taken for granted
in Germany that the whole of Church life bears unconstrained and
conscious witness to faith in Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, the awareness
of the need for missionary pastoral activity and missionary awakening
has increased considerably among Christians everywhere. Two
publications by the German bishops have certainly contributed to this
development. One is Time to Sow the Seed. The Missionary Function
of the Church, the other is His Salvation for All Nations – the Mission
of the Universal Church.22 They deal in detail with the challenges of
21 AG 2.
22 Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (ed.), Allen Völkern Sein Heil, Die
Mission der Weltkirche, Die deutschen Bischöfe, no. 76, Bonn 2004; Sekretariat der
27
mission in our time and have stirred many priests and lay people into
action.
In contrast to Time to Sow the Seed, which deals principally with
the situation in Germany, His Salvation for All Nations widens the
horizon to incorporate the universal Church. “Missionary activities
in our own country and in the community of nations can only
blossom together; they will prove mutually enriching and benefit
from exchanging experiences with local churches, particularly in
the southern hemisphere.”23 A little later on the document states the
following with regard to Pentecost as the birth of the Church: “From
the very first moment of its existence, the Church speaks all languages
and yet is one in the same spirit. It did not become universal by
spreading over time from town to town and country to country. It
has been universal from the outset, by virtue of the Holy Spirit. It is
‘catholic’ or it is not itself.”24 The main purpose of His Salvation for All
Nations is to make clear what a missionary Church and the universal
Church have in common and to remind us of the fact.
Mission requires two-way dialogue with local churches

Since the setting up of the young churches as they are called,
particularly those in Africa and Asia, missionary work can only be
construed as an activity within the universal Church, one which poses
a challenge to local churches all over the world while simultaneously
enriching them. For a long time we spread the Christian message
from Europe all over the world. Today, however, we know that all
local churches, which are rooted in their respective cultures, have a
missionary task to perform and that they carry it out. This is readily
apparent in Germany. More and more members of religious orders
and diocesan priests from Eastern Europe and overseas are doing
pastoral work in German dioceses. Many presbyteries would no longer
be occupied if it were not for a chaplain or priest from Africa or Asia,
and many convents would have closed long ago if it were not for nuns
Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (ed.), Zeit zur Aussaat, Missionarisch Kirche sein, Die
deutschen Bischöfe, no. 68, Bonn 2000 .
Mission der Weltkirche, 9.
24 Ibid. 10.

Letting the Bible Inspire Pastoral Activity 29
from other parts of the world. The change from a Western Church
to a world Church has taken place in Germany too. This shows that
missionary work in our own country and missionary responsibility in
the world at large can only flourish together. We benefit jointly from
an exchange of experiences with different local churches.
What is true of local churches applies to all Christians. “The
more we open our eyes, hearts and hands on behalf of the universal
Church among the nations, the more richly will we be bestowed
and strengthened with faith as individuals and as communities”, the
German bishops say in His Salvation for All Nations 25. This refers
explicitly to a renewal of the awareness of all believers concerning
the mission of the universal Church. Missionary work must once
again be recognised as a duty for all Christians. It is not just a task
for Church officials, a field of work for specialists and a matter of
individual spiritual gifts. It is the task and purpose of all Christians
without distinction. ‘Universal’ and ‘missionary’ are thus two essential
purposes of the Church as a whole. 26 It thrives on both and draws its
strength from them. We are not talking here about a one-way street,
one that used to run from Europe to Africa, Asia and South America
and now leads in the opposite direction, from South to North. Mission
is networking, bridge building and agora work. It brings together
and connects the spiritual gifts, personal and material resources,
missionary and pastoral experiences of all local churches. They are
thus mutually enriched and become more and more ‘a Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic Church’ of Jesus Christ.
The universal Church as a pastoral learning community

This is the reason why His Salvation for All Nations describes
the universal Church as a community of learning, prayer and
solidarity27. The Church’s mission concerns the mutual exchange of
material, spiritual and intellectual gifts between the local churches
within the universal Church. A learning community means, first
and foremost, knowing about each other and it is a two-way process.
25 Ibid. 9.
26 AG 1.
27 Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (ed.), Allen Völkern Sein Heil. Die
Mission der Weltkirche, 55-60.
This is expressed in the form of numerous partnerships and meetings

between communities and dioceses, orders and associations. It
also covers the extensive educational work being done by aid and
missionary organisations in Germany. If I found out more about the
situation of the Church in Brazil through the Adveniat programme
conducted during Advent, for example, or if the boys and girls who go
out carol-singing know more about work with children in Nicaragua
as a result of their involvement, then a learning process is taking place
which raises our awareness and changes our experience as Christians
in Germany.
For pastoral workers in Germany, living in a universal Church

learning community basically means developing the conviction and
awareness that we can learn from missionary and pastoral developments
in other local churches. This does not mean transferring the pastoral
concepts of one local church to another on a 1:1 basis. Each church
will have to respond in its own specific way to the specific challenges
and social contexts it faces. A universal Church learning community
does not advocate an erroneous form of universalism which would
lead to a levelling process that pays no heed to any kind of diversity
in the pastoral activities of local churches. It is far more important to
recognise the impulses and insights of the various local churches and
to tap their benefits for one’s own situation. This is initially a question
of the attitude taken by our pastoral workers. The Church in Latin
America, for example, has been familiar for many centuries with the
challenge of having to care for large areas with only a few priests.
The shortage of priests, which has become increasingly painful in
Germany in recent years, has been the norm in many regions in Latin
America for a long time. Many local churches have never known
what it feels like to have enough pastoral workers available. That
also applies to many churches in Africa and Asia. Our current ‘crisis’
would almost be a dream come true over there. This is something
we should not forget. It may give us peace and quiet amidst all the
change. Nevertheless, we would be missing an opportunity if we were
not to ask how the Church manages to live and grow there despite all
the adversity it faces.
For many years, universal Church ties used to mean that the
European churches provided personnel and financial resources,

experience and knowledge for pastoral work in Africa, Asia and

Latin America. Today, the universal Church missionary perspective
is changing in many places. However, it is important to adopt a
realistic approach when comparing the various initial pastoral
situations in order to avoid any form of romanticism. After all,
the churches of the South are not a fountain of youth from which
some panacea can be drawn to cure all the problems of the Church
in Europe. Conversely, the European churches’ experiences and
structures, which have evolved over centuries, should not simply
be dismissed as outdated. A Church learning community means
encouraging a process of give and take. All churches will always be
able to learn from each other.
Small Christian Communities: the outcome of the universal Church

learning community
If one looks at the universal Church and is willing to learn, one
cannot help noticing in particular the emergence of so-called Small
Christian Communities or ‘Basic Ecclesial Communities’ (BECs)
in many churches in Africa and Asia as well as in Latin America,
albeit in a different form. These are not peripheral phenomena but
outstanding features of pastoral activity in their local churches. In
some dioceses in Asia they have even been elevated by the bishops
to the status of a basic structure of pastoral activity. Looking more
closely at the Small Christian Communities it should be borne
in mind that they are themselves the result of a universal Church
learning process. They are an expression of what Catholicism
means. The concept of ‘Basic Ecclesial Communities’ was developed
in the 1980s in the Lumko Pastoral Institute in South Africa by
two German missionaries, who later became bishops, Dr. Oswald
Hirmer (Umtata) and Dr Fritz Lobinger (Aliwal). It emerged in
the context of an acute shortage of priests and in light of the fact
that the Christian faith was only a minor part of the culture in
southern Africa. The central idea in this approach was to persuade
the communities to give up their passive attitude and stop expecting
to be served by priests and bishops. Instead, they should be enabled
to take an active part in the Church’s mission. A central structural
feature of the BECs was that they had neighbourhood groups in
the parish context, which met regularly for bible sharing to deepen
their spiritual life. This concept, first developed for the rural parts
of South Africa, was later taken up with interest by the churches in
south-east Asia and given special encouragement by the Federation
of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) which developed the Asian
Integral Pastoral Approach (AsIPA). This represented an adaptation
of BECs to the Asiatic region. If we in the Church in Germany now
consider the significance that Small Christian Communities might
have for pastoral activity in our country, this is in certain respects
the universal Church learning process coming full circle, since it
was launched by two German theologians. Such processes ought
to be the rule in a universal Church, not the exception. What this
development also makes clear is that there is not just one model
of Small Christian Communities or Basic Ecclesial Communities –
only the names differ from region to region – but that the Small
Christian Communities had to blend into the culture of their
respective contexts, thereby generating new forms in each case. If the
grassroots communities in Latin America are included as well, the
universal Church dimension of the Small Christian Communities
becomes even clearer.
Sharing the Bible – an essential feature of universal Church

missionary action
A key feature of Small Christian Communities is the method of
Bible sharing developed by Bishops Hirmer and Lobinger, which has
also become widespread in Germany. Reading Holy Scripture together
and discussing God’s Word has assumed a prominent role. Even more
important than the method, however, is the fact that the Bible is
available to the nations and cultures of this world in their respective
languages. This is the pre-requisite for everything that follows.
Sharing the Bible in a universal Church solidarity community initially
means helping to ensure that the Holy Scripture is available to all the
nations of the Earth. “Proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of
God” (Luke 4:43) to all the world is the task of the Church. It can do
no greater service to the world.” These are the words with which His
Salvation for All Nations begins. The fact that the good news of the
kingdom of God can find its way to people is due not least to German
missionary organisations, which provide funding for translations of
the Bible and support its publication all over the world. Often enough

it is indigenous exegetes receiving grants from aid organisations who

are enabled to translate the biblical texts into the various languages
and dialects of their home countries. Through these types of aid, and
also through the expertise in exegesis which many foreign theologians
acquire at German theological colleges, we are also contributing to
Bible sharing within the Church.
“The Bible at the heart of pastoral activity”

What is it that distinguishes the Small Christian Communities
(SCCs)? “For in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets
His children with great love and speaks with them.”28 Hence there is
no doubt that the regular Bible readings and discussions of the Holy
Scripture, which are supported in the SCCs in Africa and Asia, enable
the communities to become more alive and more effective in mission.
After all, God Himself is approaching them in His word.
During my visit to South Korea in 2009 I was particularly struck by
the extent to which active Christian believers grow as a result of reading
and reflecting on Holy Scripture and then move on to get involved
in their parish and exert a Christian influence on society. The Small
Christian Communities there have helped to enliven the parishes and
dioceses. They also enable Christian believers to talk about their faith.
All too often the Church in Germany, which is in the throes of change,
argues about structural reforms, whereas our brothers and sisters in
the so-called mission countries show us that, without personal access
to Scripture and Christ’s claim on me and my life that grows out of
it, there can never be a process of renewal in our local churches. Our
brothers and sisters in the universal Church appear to have a more
direct access to God’s Word. They expect encouragement from what
they read and hear and to find out what God’s task is for themselves and
their families. My visits to Small Christian Communities in Korea and
South Africa showed me that this access to God’s word could greatly
enrich Christians and the Church in Germany. Reading and reflecting
on Holy Scripture produces believers who actively contribute to their
parish and talk freely and openly to others about their faith. Is this not
precisely what we need in Germany?
28 DV 21.
The example of South Korea: a source of inspiration for Germany?

During my visit to the dioceses of Suwon and Jeju in South
Korea I met a lively local church which is impressive for the vigour
of its spiritual life and the strength of its organisation. The enormous
industrialisation since the 1950s and the associated prosperity of wide
swathes of Korean society have not led to a decline in religious life.
On the contrary, more than half the South Korean population actively
practise their faith. The Catholic Church, in particular, enjoys great
interest among the majority Buddhist population. Over 500 adult
baptisms per year and parish are not exceptional. Today about 10 per
cent of the South Korean population profess Catholicism and just
under 30 per cent are Christian.
Pastoral care was handed over from foreign missionaries to
indigenous diocesan clergy in all the dioceses within the space of a few
decades. At present there are 4,116 priests available for pastoral care in
a total of 1,511 parishes; there are 1,403 students at seminaries training
for the priesthood. The communities are distinguished by lively activity
and a high level of social engagement expressed in hospice and visiting
services. According to statistics from the Korean Bishops’ Conference,
more than 25 per cent of registered Catholics are active in parish life –
an impression that was confirmed to me during Sunday Mass.
The Church in Korea witnessed an enormous surge in membership
between 1980 and 1990 along with a tremendous economic boom in
society. Yet despite the growth in members, the number of Catholics
taking an active part in community life declined constantly (‘cold
believers’). Eventually only eight percent of Catholics were taking part in
community life. At that point the then President of the Korean Bishops’
Conference and the Archbishop of Seoul, Cardinal Stephen Kim, looked
for ways to revitalise Church life. As part of a new pastoral plan he
introduced Small Christian Communities into the Archdiocese of Seoul
in 1992. Today there are some 20 000 Small Christian Communities in
the Archdiocese of Seoul alone, which has 1.3 million Catholics. The
regular meetings, particularly in new housing areas, bring Catholics
together who did not know each other before. The parish priests I
visited told me unanimously that they regard the SCCs as a pillar of the
community, even though about two thirds of the community members
do not join these organisations. Theoretically, however, every Catholic

in a parish is assigned to an SCC, since this is linked to the civil and

ecclesiastical organisation of the ‘ban’ (neighbourhood, district), which
existed in Korea before the SCCs were introduced. The Korean bishops
told me that the communities had become livelier since the SCCs were
introduced. SCCs have contributed to a deepening of spiritual life
for Catholics in Korea, above and beyond their actual structure and
method. An obvious consequence of Bible sharing, according to the
Korean bishops, is that individual Christians become ‘more articulate’
about their own faith and are thereby enabled to lead a more strongly
missionary existence. The SCCs support and insist on the Church’s
social caring commitment to society. The Korean situation shows that
Small Christian Communities contribute to the renewal of community
life where they are part of community pastoral activity and are
integrated into it. Discussion about faith and reading the Bible together
in the predetermined context of the parish and diocese strengthens the
Christians in their faith. It is certainly also appropriate in Germany to
look for ways of guiding community members to more experience of
faith and facilitating more encounters with Christ. This is the essential
task of all Church activity. How can we – even without the cultural
weight of the neighbourhood ‘ban’ – guide people to more community
in Christ?
“Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”

Those who share the Bible together in the right sense also share
faith in Jesus Christ, indeed share Christ Himself. St. Hieronymus is
quoted as saying “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”.
According to the Catholic understanding, God’s Word is written in the
Bible. The Bible is the written form of the Word of God, which became
flesh in Jesus. Scripture read in association with the Church opens the
way to Christ. In this sense, Benedict XVI speaks in the Post-synodal
Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini about making biblical pastoral
activity the very heart of all pastoral activity. This means highlighting
the central position of the Word of God as the gate to Christ in
Church life. Through the Bible we gain a greater awareness of the
person of Christ, “who reveals the Father and is the fullness of divine
revelation.”29 Small Christian Communities can help to deepen and
29 VD 73.
support our relationship with Jesus. Where they do this, they are an
important prop in building the community and the Church. Benedict
XVI rightly points out that Small Christian Communities cannot
mean that additional groups emerge in communities and dioceses and
that Bible pastoral activity moves in alongside proper pastoral activity,
as it were. Rather the whole Church must be concerned to seek and
deepen the encounter with Christ at all levels, the path to which is
opened up by the Gospel.
Hans Jorissen, the Bonn dogmatist who died last year, formulated
his pastoral understanding at the end of his life in three simple steps.
What does a Christian need to survive as a Christian? Personal
prayer, shared celebration of Sunday Mass and regular conversation
about faith with believers. In this sense Small Christian Communities
can contribute significantly to creating the kind of space in which
believers can talk to each other about their faith and do so with
immediate reference to Holy Scripture and Christ Himself. This will
automatically lead to a commitment to “God’s Kingdom of justice,
peace and joy” for all people.30 The major concern of Small Christian
Communities is to facilitate the personal discipleship of Christ in
the context of Church and community, which must increasingly find
space in ecclesiastical performance if missionary renewal is to happen.
What we need to do is re-discover the authentic discipleship of Christ
made possible through the Gospel as a modern ecclesiastical ‘cross-
cutting task’. The universal Church impetus which derives from the
encounter with Small Christian Communities in Asia or Africa can be
a valuable motivation for us to do likewise in Germany.
30 Cf. Romans 14,17.

Ecclesial Base Communities:
A Look Back and a Look Forward
Pablo Richard Guzmán
Foundational texts in the tradition of the ecclesial base community

in the Church of Latin America and the Caribbean
This article considers only the key passages, those dealing specif-
ically with ecclesial base communities (Comunidades Eclesiales de Base
or CEBs), that are to be found in the concluding documents of the
General Conferences of Latin American Bishops at Medellín (1968),
Puebla (1979), Santo Domingo (1992) and, most recently, Aparecida
(2007). In this tradition we encounter the historical memory of the
ecclesial base communities on our continent.
Medellín Conference (1968):

“The Christian base community is the first and fundamental
nucleus of the Church. At its own level it is responsible for the
spread of the faith and of the worship that is its expression. It is
the initial cell of the ecclesial structure and the centre of evange-
lization, and it is at present a fundamental factor of human
advancement and development.”31
Puebla Conference (1979):

“The ecclesial base communities that in 1968 were hardly more
than a fledgling experiment have since multiplied and matured,
especially in certain countries, and are reason for joy and hope for
the Church. In communion with the bishops, and as called for by
31 Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM), The Church in the Present Day
Transformation of Latin America in the Light of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference

(Washington DC: National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1970), 226 (translation
modified).
37
Medellín, they have become centres of evangelization and motors

of liberation and development.”32
“The vitality of these ecclesial base communities is beginning to
bear fruit. They have been one of the sources for the increase in
lay ministers, who are now acting as leaders and organizers of
these communities, as catechists, and as missionaries”.33
“The ecclesial base communities create better interpersonal
relationships, acceptance of God’s Word, reflection about life and
reality in light of the Bible: in the communities, the commitment
to family, work, the neighbourhood and the local community are
strengthened. This form of ecclesial life is found more commonly
in the countryside and on the periphery of the great cities. These
represent an environment particularly favourable to the emergence
of new forms of lay service and they have seen the wide dissemi-
nation of forms of family catechesis and faith education for adults
more appropriate to simple people”.34
“As a community, the Ecclesial Base Community brings together
families, adults and young people in an intimate interpersonal
relationship in the faith. As ecclesial, it is a community of
faith, hope, and charity; it celebrates the Word of God in life
through solidarity and through commitment to the Lord’s new
commandment; and through the service of approved coordinators
it makes present and effective the mission of the Church and its
own unambiguous communion with the Church’s rightful pastors.
It is a base community, because it is constituted of a few members,
in permanent form, as one cell of the greater community. “When
they are worthy of their qualification as ecclesial, then they are
able to lead a distinctive spiritual and human life of their own, in
fraternal solidarity (EN 58)”.35
32 CELAM, Puebla: La Evangelización en el presente y en el futuro de América Latina /
Tercera Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano [1979], San Salvador 1985,
No. 96; translated into English as Third General Conference of Latin American Bishiops,
Puebla: Evangelization at Present and in the Future of Latin America, Conclusions, St Paul
Publications 1980. [translation of relevant passage modified].
33 Ibid. No. 97.
34 Ibid. No. 629 [translation modified].
35 Ibid. No. 641 [translation modified]. The emphasis here and elsewhere is the author’s.

Ecclesial Base Communities: A Look Back and a Look Forward 39
“The Ecclesial Base Communities are the expression of the

Church’s preferential love for the simple people; in them, their
religiosity is expressed, valued and purified, and there they are
given the chance to participate in the work of the Church and in
the commitment to transform the world”.36
Santo Domingo Conference (1992):

“The parish, a community of communities and movements.”
“The parish, an organic and missionary communion, is a network
of communities.”
“The base communities are the living cells of the parish.”
“We think it necessary to reaffirm the validity of the Ecclesial Base
Communities…”37
Aparecida Conference (2007):

“In the ecclesial experience of some churches of Latin America
and the Caribbean, basic (base) ecclesial communities have been
schools that have helped form Christians committed to their
faith, disciples and missionaries of the Lord, as is attested by the
generous commitment of so many of their members, even to the
point of shedding their blood. They return to the experience of
the early communities as described in the Acts of the Apostles
(cf. Acts 2:42-47). Medellin recognized in them an initial cell
for building the Church and a focal point of faith and evange-
lization. Puebla noted that small communities, especially basic
ecclesial communities, enable the people to have access to greater
knowledge of the Word of God, social commitment in the name
of the Gospel, the emergence of new lay services, and education
of the faith of adults”.38
36 Ibid. No. 643.

37 These are extracts from CELAM, Nueva evangelización, promoción humana, cultura
cristiana, Santafé de Bogotá, 1992, Nos 58-64; available in English as: New Evangelization,
Human Development, Christian Cultures, trans. Phillip Berryman, Washington DC 1993.
38 CELAM, Documento conclusivo de la V Conferencia General del Episcopado Latino-
americano y del Caribe, Bogota, Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano, 2007; published

in English as Concluding Document, Aparecida, Bogota, Consejo Episcopal Latinoame-
ricano, 2008.
“In following Jesus as missionaries, ecclesial base communities have

the Word of God as the fount of their spirituality and the guidance
of their Pastors to ensure communion with the Church. They
deploy their evangelizing and missionary commitment among the
humblest and most marginalized and are a visible expression of
the preferential option for the poor. […] Maintaining communion
with their bishops and participating in the overall thrust of diocesan
pastoral activity, ecclesial base communities have become a sign of
vitality in the particular churches. By acting in conjunction with
parish groups, associations, and ecclesial movements, they can help
revitalize parishes, making them a community of communities.
In their effort to meet the challenges of the contemporary age,
ecclesial base communities will take care not to alter the precious
treasure that is the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church”.39
“As a response to the demands of evangelization, there are in
addition to the ecclesial base communities other valid forms of
small community, among them networks of communities, of
movements, of groups living, praying and reflecting together on
the Word of God. All ecclesial communities and groups will yield
fruit insofar as the Eucharist stands at the centre of their lives, and
the Word of God serves as a beacon for their journey and their
activity in the one Church of Christ”.40
Elsewhere in the Aparecida Document (Nos. 308-310), other small
ecclesial communities are discussed: “They are a favourable setting for
hearing the Word of God […] a solid spirituality, based on the Word
of God, to keep them in full communion of life and ideals with the
local church, and with the parish in particular; […] the processes for
forming small communities must be reinvigorated in our continent,
for in them we have a sure source of vocations to the priesthood, the
religious life, and the lay apostolate”.41
In the Aparecida Document, these “small ecclesial communities”
are distinguished from ecclesial base communities and represented as
an alternative to them.
39 Ibid. No. 179.

40 Ibid. No. 180.
41 Ibid. Nos. 308-310.

A thematic synopsis of the texts

At Medellín in 1968, a first definition of the base community is
offered:
“first and fundamental nucleus of the church”
“initial cell of the ecclesiastical structures”
“focus of evangelization”
“currently the most important source of human advancement and
development”
Puebla, 1979:
“centres of evangelization and moving forces for liberation and
development”
“source of lay ministries”
“Word of God”
“on the periphery of the great cities and in the countryside ”
“new forms of lay service”
“the Word of God in life”
“cell of the greater community”
“qualification as ecclesial”
“the Church’s preferential love for the simple people”
Santo Domingo, 1992:
“the parish as community of communities and movements”
“the parish as network of communities”
“living cells of the parish”
Aparecida, 2007:
“schools helping to form Christian disciples and missionaries of
the Lord”
“generous commitment of so many of their members, even to the
point of shedding their blood”
“early communities as described in the Acts of the Apostles
(cf. Acts 2:42-47)”
“initial cell for building the Church”
“focal point of faith and evangelization”
“greater knowledge of the Word of God”
“the Word of God as the fount of their spirituality”
“visible expression of the preferential option for the poor”
“a sign of vitality in the particular churches”
“community of communities”
Negative aspects: anxieties, suspicions and criticisms regarding ecclesial

base communities
Severe criticisms are to be found in some texts about the base
communities. The prevailing mood is one of anxiety and suspicion.
Not everything is positive.
Puebla, 1979:
“It is regrettable that, in some areas, clearly political interests try
to manipulate them [base communities] and sever them from
authentic communion with their bishops”.42
“[…] insofar as the Church is a historical, institutional People,
it represents the broader, more universal, and better defined
structure in which the life of the CEBs must be inscribed if they
are not to fall prey to the danger of organizational anarchy or
narrow-minded sectarian elitism (cf. EN 58)”.43
“Some aspects of the whole problem of the ‘people’s Church’
(Iglesia popular) or of ‘parallel magisteria’ fit in here. A sect always
tends towards self-sufficiency on both the juridical and doctrinal
levels. Integrated into the whole People of God, the CEBs will
undoubtedly avoid such dangers and will measure up to the hopes
that the Latin American Church has placed in them”.44
“The problem of the ‘people’s Church,’ the Church born of the People,
has various aspects. The first obstacle is readily surmounted if it
is interpreted as a Church that is trying to incarnate itself in the
ranks of the common people on this continent, and that therefore
arises out of their response in faith to the Lord. This rules out the
seeming denial of a basic truth: i.e., that the Church always arises
from a first initiative ‘from above,’ from the Spirit who raises it up
and from the Lord who convokes it. Nevertheless, the appellation
seems to be quite unfortunate. The ‘people’s Church’ seems to be
something distinct from some ‘other’ Church – the latter being
identified with the ‘official’ or ‘institutional’ Church and accused of
42 Third General Conference of Latin American Bishiops, Puebla, Evangelization at

Present and in the Future of Latin America, Conclusions, Slough 1980, No. 96.
43 Ibid. No. 261.
44 Ibid. Nos. 192 and 262.

being ‘alienating’. This suggests a division within the bosom of the

Church and seems to imply an unacceptable denial of the hierarchy’s
function. As John Paul II indicated, such views could well be inspired
by ‘familiar ideological forms of conditioning’ (Opening Address:
I.8)”.45
“[…] Perhaps that is why not a few members of certain
communities, and even entire communities, have been drawn to
purely lay institutions or have been turned into ideological radicals
and are now in the process of losing any authentic feel for the
Church”.46
Santo Domingo, 1992:
“[…] communities cease being ecclesial and may fall victim to
ideological or political manipulation”.47
Aparecida, 2007:
“Puebla noted that…not a few members of certain communities,
and even entire communities, had been drawn to purely lay
institutions or had been turned into ideological radicals, and were
in the process of losing any authentic feel for the Church’.”48
The reasons for these suspicions and criticisms,

and some of their consequences
The Medellín Document was much criticised. The fiercest
criticisms came from within CELAM itself, dominated since 1973 by
Don Alfonso López Trujillo, its General Secretary and organiser of the
Puebla Conference. The great argument, endlessly repeated, was that
Medellín had been misinterpreted and that the Puebla Conference had
to correct these false interpretations. Yet Puebla did not bring about
the desired rectification. In many respects, Puebla made more explicit
45 Ibid. Nos 192-193, 263.

46 Ibid. No. 630.
47 CELAM, Nueva evangelización, No. 62, cited in: Hennely, A., Santo Domingo
Documents and Commentaries from the Fourth General Conference of Latin American
Bishops, New York 1993.
48 CELAM, Documento conclusivo de la V Conferencia General, No. 178, cited from the
English version.
what had been said in Medellín. Nevertheless, the argument regarding

the misinterpretation of Medellín had a long life in conservative
circles. CELAM waged a continent-wide campaign of denunciation
against the base communities and liberation theology, accusing them
of politicizing the Church and of deploying Marxism in theological
reflection.49 This anxiety was particularly notable in the 1980s,
which saw the publication of two Instructions by the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith: Libertatis Nuntius in 1984, followed
by Libertatis Consciencia in 1986. There arose the suspicion that the
theology of liberation was influenced by Marxist theory. All these
anxieties, suspicions and denunciations had very negative effects, for
they contributed to a significant extent to the death of thousands of
Christians, above all in Central America.
Theological reflection on ecclesial base communities

The ecclesiological ground of the ecclesial base communities
The ecclesial base community is the root and basis of the institu-
tional Church itself, and more directly of the local church, organised
as diocese and parishes. And within this structure of diocese and
parishes, the base community has its own “proper ecclesiality.” The
local church in all its instances is confronted by an inescapable
theological-pastoral duty to reconstruct its basic structure, its roots
as an institution. Without the base communities, the whole body of
the Church (trunk, branches, flowers and fruits) is threatened. The
Church has both “charismatic” and “sacramental” dimensions, the
first of which may be more transient, the second more permanent.
It is among the charisms that we may situate the “small Christian
communities,” while the base communities occupy a more sacramental
position, for they contain in nuce all that which will be the Church:
Word, worship, service, community and mission. When a “small
community” disappears, there goes with it a “charism” or a “ministry,”
but the disappearance of an ecclesial base community represents the
loss of the root, of the structural basis of the Church itself. This is why
the exclusion of the ecclesial base communities has meant a disinte-
gration of the very ecclesiality of the Church. That is the significance
49 See for example: Comblin, J., As grandes incertezas na Igreja atual, in: Revista
Eclesiástica Brasileira 265, 2007, 36-58.

of the definitions of the base community as “first and fundamental

nucleus of the church”, “initial cell of the ecclesiastical structures,” “living
cell of the parish,” “sign of vitality in the particular churches,” and of the
parish as “community of communities”.50
The implied Christology of the ecclesial base communities

In the ecclesial base communities the emphasis falls on the
historical Jesus, the humanity of Jesus, his plan for a Reign of God,
discipleship, and other Christological themes central to the four
Gospels. As the Aparecida Document notes, “The preferential option
for the poor is one of the distinguishing features of our Latin American
and Caribbean church (No. 391) … If this option is implicit in Christo-
logical faith, we Christians as disciples and missionaries are called to
contemplate, in the suffering faces of our brothers and sisters, the face
of Christ who calls us to serve Him in them: ‘The suffering faces of the
poor are suffering faces of Christ.’ They question the core of the Church’s
action, its ministry, and our Christian attitudes. Everything having to
do with Christ has to do with the poor, and everything connected to the
poor cries out to Jesus Christ (No. 393).”
The Church defined as the People of God

We have now considered the most important ecclesiological
aspects of the ecclesial base communities. Important, too, is their
commitment to the model of the Church defined at the Second Vatican
Council and at Medellín: the Church as the People of God. At the
Extraordinary Synod of 1985, Cardinal Ratzinger proposed replacing
the notion of the “Church as People of God” with that of “Church as
communion.” The definition of the Church as the People of God was
said to be rather sociological, the proposed “Church as communion”
more theological. The basic intention was to recover the “divine”
dimension of the Church as “communion with God” while rejecting
its historical dimension as “People of God.” This was to propose a
“divine” image of the Church, in which there could be no contra-
diction or conflict. In a Church thus spiritualized the real history of
the Church and its sins against others and itself are all forgotten and
critical analysis is rendered impossible.
50 On this, see the extracts from key documents cited above.

The preferential option for the poor and the ecclesial base communities
The ecclesial base community as the fundamental element and
root of the parish made it possible for the poor to participate in the
Church together with other socially excluded groups. Analogously,
the CEB has been a privileged site for the participation of lay men and
women. The CEBs were an important presence in poor and marginal
neighbourhoods and thus reached much further into the world of
the poor. This is why, at Aparecida, they were said to be a “visible
expression of the preferential option for the poor.”
The base communities: an ecclesial space of greater autonomy

within the Church
The base community creates a space of greater autonomy,
freedom and creativity within the institutional Church. One within
which liberation theology finds itself renewed and further developed.
The base communities have no church, no chapel, meeting generally
in private houses and other “unsacred” places. They continue to
attend church and their leaders, in particular, faithfully maintain
their religious practice within the parish, though without giving up
their space of autonomy within the Church. It is difficult to identify
members of the base communities involved in the customary
practices of the parish. The base communities hold in great respect
the local magisterium of their pastors, but particular value is attached
to the sensus fidelium, the sense of the faith that is given as a gift from
God to the faithful. Among the baptized the base communities are
concerned more with the formation of missionaries than with the
ordinary ministers of parish administration. Their mysticism and
operative capacity are rooted in the community-mission couple. The
Church in the base communities is not clerical, but fiercely committed
to the development of lay men and women so that they may be
capable of taking on the mission of the Church. The activists of the
base communities cannot be the official leaders of the parish. The
latter are mainly engaged in maintaining existing structures and
services and do not have the vision, time or availability to construct
a new ecclesial model in the marginal and excluded sectors of their
parish areas.

The spirituality of the base communities

The base communities are chiefly concerned not with the problems
of the Church as an institution, but rather with an on-going spiritual
quest. Where is the People? Where is God? Where are we? Where should
we be as a Church? The spirituality of those participating in the base
communities is found in the experience of God in human and social
life, in the quest for God in human history and in the natural world,
rather than in the cultic and sacramental life of the more established
parishes. It may be best summed up in the well-known saying of St.
Irenaeus: “The glory of God is the living human being, the glory of being
human is the vision of God” (Gloria Dei vivens homo, gloria autem
hominis visio Dei).The spirituality lived by the base communities is
developed through “prayerful reading of the Bible” or “Lectio Divina.”
This confronts us with five questions. What does the biblical text say?
What does it say to us? How does the biblical text become the Word of
God? What is our response to the Word? And what does it mean, in
my life, to hear the Word of God? Another common approach within
the base communities is the old method of See, Judge, Act, Evaluate
and Celebrate.
Biblical texts that have inspired the emergence of the ecclesial

base communities
A number of Old Testament texts, in particular the Book of Exodus,
the Prophets and the Psalms, generally read from the prophetic
perspective of the poor and the excluded.
In the New Testament

A foundational text is Acts 2, 42-45: “These remained faithful
to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking
of bread and to the prayers. And everyone was filled with awe; the
apostles worked many signs and miracles. And all who shared the faith
owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions
and distributed the proceeds among themselves according to what
each one needed.”
“The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no
one claimed private ownership of any possessions, as everything they
owned was held in common.” (Acts 4, 32)
“None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned
land or houses would sell them, and bring the money from the sale of
them, to present it to the apostles; it was then distributed to any who
might be in need.” (Acts 4, 34-35)
A form of life that could be summed up as: Each gave according
to his or her abilities, each received according to his or her needs, and
there were no poor among them.
The base communities also used to value the particular form of
the “house church,” as is described, for example, in the First Epistle to
the Corinthians: “Aquila and Prisca send their best wishes in the Lord,
together with the church that meets in their house.”
Current arguments within the Church over the actual or possible future of the
base communities
The world has changed radically since the 1990s. It is no longer
the world that gave us the Second Vatican Council and the Medellín
Conference. Even in the 1980s, after Puebla (1979) and the beginning
of the pontificate of John Paul II, the Church was beginning to move
backwards. The Church turned in on itself, the parish was again the
centre of worship and sacrament, and the memory of the past was lost.
The appointment of bishops and the training of priests took a more
conservative turn. The power of the hierarchy was reinforced and
with it the exclusion of laymen and women. In the new ecclesiastical
context the base communities were marginalized and forgotten. The
most tragic result is that the Church has lost the poor, handing them
over to the Pentecostal and Evangelical churches. In marginal urban
neighbourhoods and the countryside there are today more than ten
non-Catholic churches to each Catholic church. In this context, the
question again arises: Is there a future for the base communities?
The period since the Aparecida Conference in 2007 has seen a
revival of the base communities. This has essentially been driven by
the movement “Lectura Popular de la Biblia” (Popular Bible Reading)
and programmes of lay formation. There is a major involvement in
the social movements of women, youth, indigenous peoples, blacks,
landless peasants, those of different sexualities, and in defence of the
environment. This whole process of renewal has been accompanied
by a diversification of the theology of liberation, with the emergence

of indigenous, black, environmental and gender theologies. This is

a theology that begins a dialogue with modernity, with the secular
and post-modern world, which finds sustenance in dialogue with the
social sciences, and in particular with economics. A new world has
been born with the decolonization of Christianity and dialogue with
other religions, for instance at the World Social Forum, which declared
that “another world is possible.” A new model of communication and
expression has emerged with real and virtual networks at the local
and continental level. It is not an age of “elephants” but of “ants.” It is
not an age of major institutional, social or ecclesiastical ruptures, but
one for the creation of new spaces, with a new legitimacy, authority,
autonomy, freedom and creativity. Unnecessary confrontations should
be avoided within the Church, which must grow from its strengths.
The future of the Church lies not in the hands of clerics but in those
of the laity. While Pope Pius XI in his day declared that the great
scandal of the 20th century was the Church’s loss of the working class,
we now can say that the great scandal of the early third millennium
is the Church’s exclusion of women and its massive abandonment of
the poor and the excluded. At the ideological level, the problem is not
Marxism but neo-liberalism, which is much more dangerous than all
earlier ideologies. The Church has not confronted neo-liberalism as it
did Marxism.
Conclusion
A successful future for the base communities lies not in their
being numerous but in their being different (the problem is not
quantitative but qualitative). The base communities have the capacity
to create an institutional space of autonomy, legitimacy and freedom
inside the Church. This space presupposes a reconstruction of its
basis as an institution. The ecclesial base community is the “first
and fundamental nucleus of the church” and the “initial cell of the
ecclesiastical structures” (Medellín 1968). The crisis currently faced
by the Church does not call for the strengthening of the power of
the hierarchy but the reconstruction of its basis as an institution. Its
problem is not “up above” but “down below.” The crisis of the Church
could prove to be irreversible if it is not capable of reconstructing its
base, its foundation, its institutional root. Reliable statistics indicate
that the Catholic Church has lost 30 million faithful over the past ten
years. But the problem is not only quantitative but qualitative. Those
who have left the Church are more particularly the poor, the excluded,
the women, the lay people, the better intellectuals and the youth, to
whom the Church “says almost nothing at all.” In many of the secular
universities of Latin America eighty per cent are no longer members
of the Catholic Church. The hierarchical Church can offer massive
demonstrations of power in stadiums and streets and in controlling
popular religion, but this does not signify any solution to its institu-
tional crisis. There is a model of the Church that seeks to survive on
the money and authority of the powerful. But we cannot forget those
millions of the poor and excluded who need the Church if they are to
survive. When the poor suffer, prophets are a necessity. The future of
the ecclesial base communities will lie in their ability to meet these
challenges.
Small Christian Communities
and Spirituality
Small Christian Communities /
Basic Ecclesial Communities
Nicodème Kalonji Ngoyi
Definition, duties and attributes of the Communautés Ecclésiales

Vivantes de Base (CEVB; Vibrant Basic Ecclesial Communities)51
Definition
The Bishops’ Conference of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
defined the Communautés Ecclésiales Vivantes de Base (CEVB), or
Vibrant Basic Ecclesial Communities, hereinafter referred to as Basic
Ecclesial Communities, as follows: “A group of Christians consisting of
believers from the same location or milieu. This is organised in order
to permit sharing and to practise solidarity; it is achieved by listening
to the Word of God, through prayer, breaking of bread together,
apostolate and the acceptance of responsibility for the immediate
environment.”52
It follows that the Basic Ecclesial Community is:
a) an effective means to integrate the ‘Church as Family of God’
within daily life, to safeguard continuous reciprocal evangeli-
sation, strengthen the missionary spirit and facilitate incultu-
ration and commitment in one’s immediate surroundings;
b) a framework permitting each individual to put the gifts of
the Holy Spirit, received during baptism and confirmation,
to good use in order to deepen one’s own faith and perform
51 Directoire de la pastorale des Communautés Ecclésiales Vivantes de Base, Kinshasa
2005, 17-28.
52 Nouvelle évangélisation et catéchèse dans la perspective d’une Eglise Famille de Dieu
en Afrique, Instruction à l’usage des agents de l’évangélisation et de la catéchèse en RDC,

Kinshasa 2000, 41-42.
53
54 Small Christian Communities and Spirituality
tasks and services according to one’s abilities which satisfy the

needs of the community inhabiting a specific residential area;
c) a place in which the message of the Gospel is inculturated and
reaches people deep in their hearts;
d) a framework which facilitates a new way in which to exercise
power and authority;
e) a framework in which Christians endeavour to live the
concept of spiritual and material sharing established by the
early Christians in order to collectively solve the various
interpersonal problems with which they are confronted.
Duties of the Basic Ecclesial Community
a) The establishment of a fraternal community in which

each individual feels supported in his or her own faith and
everyone helps one another and sets examples of Christian
hope and charity through their good witness;
b) The continuation of the mission of Jesus Christ, which
comprises the proclamation of the Good News (Luke 4:18f.),
in order to transform the world into the Kingdom of God;
c) The exaltation of baptism as the foundation of the Christian
faith and gateway to the Church, which bestows upon all
individuals equal value as children of God, lends them all the
same holiness and invests each one with the same mission,
namely the evangelisation of the world;
d) The performance of the prophetic, priestly and kingly offices
incumbent upon the people of God as a whole in their relati-
onship with the world;
e) The facilitation and enablement of the participation and
co-responsibility of the laity in the life and mission of the
Church;
f) The Basic Ecclesial Communities are required to assist their
members in order to help them:
– participate, in accordance with their abilities, so that they
can analyse the circumstances and events in their spheres

Small Christian Communities / Basic Ecclesial Communities 55
of life and ask themselves the great questions of contem-

porary life in the light of the Word of God;
– gain awareness of the fact that they share a common
destiny and involve themselves in community campaigns
geared towards an improvement in living conditions,
community transformation and the coming of the
Kingdom of God;
– perform a prophetic role in society by preaching the
Word of God, denounce injustice (or contribute to its
denunciation), serve the needy and advocate the creation
of a society whose values equate more closely to those of
the Kingdom of God.
Attributes of the Basic Ecclesial Community
a) At a sociological level it is a community of fraternal charity.
b) At a theological level it is a community which
– listens to the Word of God,
– lives its faith,
– reads the signs of the times,
– is committed to professing its faith.
The Basic Ecclesial Communities are a way to a ‘Communion with God’53

God is One and Triune: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Community
members simultaneously discover that this God did not create man
as a solitary being: “male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).
This union of man and woman is the primal expression of fellowship
between two individuals, as human beings share a deep social nature,
making them unable to live or develop their unique gifts without
interpersonal relationships. This two-fold realisation which is, in
essence, the awareness of two sides of the same coin, makes the Basic
Ecclesial Community a theological stronghold.
The symbolism of the ‘way’ evokes the image of an obstacle course.
For God’s will may, indeed, encounter obstacles and resistance. It is not
53 The term Dieu–communion (Communion with God) was coined by Abbot José Moko
at the “Conference on the Spirituality of Communion in CEVB Communities” at the

Diocesan Congress of Basic Ecclesial Communities in Kinshasa 2005.
surprising that some people evade community life and relationships

with others. Community life is by no means a sure-fire success.54 The
community is a place where our limits and egotism emerge for all to
see. As a result, it is entirely understandable that some inhabitants
of a residential area, including committed Catholics, reject the idea
of joining the community. Placing clear emphasis on these forms of
resistance helps bring to the fore the concept of the progressive path
with its ‘procession of patience’. Although highly recommended, the
Basic Ecclesial Community is unable to unite all individuals, i.e. the
entire residential area.
A fleeting reference to the difficulties and crises which the Early
Church had to face suffices to demonstrate that ‘the Community’
is by no means an ideal which is easy to realise, should this indeed
be necessary. There is nothing finer than a community in which
people truly start loving one another. In this respect it is important
to consider practical details in order to ensure that the leaders of the
Basic Ecclesial Communities, known as ‘Bayangeli’, their deputies and
the core team (‘Noyau’) are able to fulfil the tasks assigned to them. It
follows that the community must be the place where people feel that
their limitations and abilities are accepted. Only then will it become a
sanctuary of life and growth.
That said, the Basic Ecclesial Communities are just one of many
ways to reach God. The Basic Ecclesial Community, which is required
to coexist with people of other faiths and religious persuasions within
the neighbourhood, must bond with other spiritual paths, spreading
the seed of love, which promotes openness as opposed to reticence.
The Community’s accessible nature constitutes the very essence of
its presence in the neighbourhood. As an alternative to violence and
intolerance, the Basic Ecclesial Community aims to bear witness to the
living God, who is the father of us all.
54 One source of inspiration was Jean Vanier who transferred the community ideal of the
Early Church to his L’Arche communities. See: Vanier, J., La Communauté, Lieu du pardon
et de la fête, Paris 1979; English translation Community and Growth, Paul & Co, revised
edition, 1999.

The Basic Ecclesial Communities are real ‘families’ with strong

Christian leanings55
When Cardinal Malula urged the parishes to create communities
tailored to the individual, he had in mind the joy of those who feel part
of a family community. After being encouraged to strengthen the spirit
of openness in previous years, it was now time for the Basic Ecclesial
Communities to focus on the equally accessible ‘family’ dimension. As
stated earlier, this openness extends beyond the circle of members of
the Basic Ecclesial Community, whose open-heartedness is indicative
of the universal nature of God’s love. In addition to this continued
openness, which pertains to all inhabitants of a residential area, the
specific need for brotherhood between members simultaneously
remains. The incitement by the Early Church to share possessions
equally so that no one need suffer if they lack the basic necessities
should give the Basic Ecclesial Communities food for thought.
The pertinent question at this juncture is how to create a sense of
belonging which allows members of the Basic Ecclesial Communities
to nourish themselves from the bond of brotherhood uniting them
and to internalise this unity to an extent which prompts them to meet
other members’ needs.
A community achieves a high level of internalisation when the
majority of members makes the transition from ‘the community
for me’ to ‘me for the community’; i.e. when each member opens
his or her heart to the other members without excluding anyone.
This constitutes the shift from egotism to love, and from death to
resurrection. A community is not a shared flat or a work team, still
less a vipers’ nest! The love lived here is neither a feeling nor a fleeting
emotion. Love is mindfulness of others, which gradually develops into
firm commitment; an accepted bond, an affinity.
The foundation text of the Basic Ecclesial Communities: Acts 2:42-47 –

sharing and solidarity
This excerpt from Acts has formed the subject of countless studies.
The results of three such studies are described below.56
55 Abbé José Moko, ibid.

56 Dupont, J., Nouvelles études sur les Actes des Apôtres, Paris 1984; Bossuyt. P. /
Let us first address the study by Jacques Dupont. He suggests

reading the three excerpts regarding the Early Church together,
namely Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35 and 5:12-16, in order to gain an overall
impression of the community life led by the early Christians. He
reaches the following conclusions:
1. Luke transfers the Greek ideal of friendship to the community
which has formed in Jerusalem, yet is careful not to present
the Christians as mere friends. They fulfil the friendship
ideal as “believers” (Acts 2:44; 4:32; 5:14). The foundation
of their conviction to share everything is not formed by
friendship but by their mutual faith. Incidentally, this faith is
linked inextricably with their common hope (2:47). Mutual
faith and common hope constitute the very foundation of
their unity. They understand that they form a community of
faith.
2. This unity must be lived. It finds initial expression in
their unanimous convictions: “The whole group of
believers was united, heart and soul” (4:32). This phrase
is close to the adverb ομοθυμαδον, which is used to
express the unanimity of sentiment shared by believers
as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles 2:46 and 5:12.
The expression epi to auto, which usually means ‘together’,
appears to have been used in an extremely emphatic
manner in verses 2:44 and 2:47. Unanimity makes its most
compelling appearance when the believers meet before
God in the temple (2:46; 5:12) or pray together (1:14; 4:24).
In this context, it is useful to recall that, in the extremely
dense verse 2:42, adherence to the koinonia (κοινωνία –
community, sharing) is linked closely with the consistent
adherence to the teachings of the apostles, on the one hand,
and with the breaking of bread and prayer, on the other. A
division of the koinonia, which is more tangible than the
other manifestations of communal Christian life, would not
be possible without distortion.
Radermakers, J., Témoins de la parole de la grâce, Actes des Apôtres, Brussels 1995;
Marguerat D., Introduction au Nouveau Testament, Geneva 2001, 105-128.

3. The primary spiritual koinonia demands ‘embodiment’ or

concrete realisation at the level of worldly goods (2:44: “And
all who shared the faith owned everything in common”; 4:32:
“no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, as
everything they owned was held in common”). The koinonia
would not be authentic if it failed to achieve a parallel
development, simultaneously becoming a community of
shared property. The position adopted in these excerpts
from the Acts of the Apostles does not necessarily result in
indifference to worldly goods or an ideal of poverty.
The motivation for sharing one’s possessions with others is not to
be poor but to ensure that poverty does not spread to other members
of the community. This explanation can be found in the book of
Deuteronomy, chapter 15, verses 4-5: “There must, then, be no poor
among you. For Yahweh will grant you his blessing […], only if you
pay careful attention to the voice of Yahweh your God.”
It follows that a community worthy of the name cannot exist if
some of its members live in abundance while others lack life’s basic
necessities. Here the koinonia becomes a concrete embodiment of
sharing in order to ensure that all its members have what they require
to live.
In the second study the authors, Philippe Bossuyt and Jean
Radermakers, suggestively advocate forbearance as far as fixation on
the practices of ‘communitarisation’ and the divestiture/division of
goods is concerned. Indeed, there are other ways in which to make
grace manifest. Later on, Paul talks of his hands earning enough to
meet his needs, those of his companions and those of the weak (Acts
20:34-35). A woman from Joppe called Tabitha “never tired of doing
good or giving to those in need” (Acts 9:36-39), while Lydia, who was
in the purple-dye trade, was more than eager to extend hospitality to
Paul and his attendants, urging them to “come and stay with us” (Acts
16:15).
The Holy Spirit suggests countless ways to allow oneself to be
pervaded by God’s altruism. According to the authors, Luke recounts
the experiences of the community in Jerusalem using the examples
of communitarisation and divestiture/division of goods. One should
bear in mind that these two ways of sharing described in the Acts of
the Apostles are rooted in a community which has emerged thanks to

the intercession of the Holy Spirit.57
Finally, Daniel Marguerat argues that the archetypal Early Church
community is immune neither to internal crises (5:1-11; 6:1-6) nor
to external attacks (4:1-21; 5:17-40; 6:11-15). The practice of sharing
goods described in verse 4:34 was not as widespread as the author
of the Acts of the Apostles suggests. Some call it idealisation, others
utopia.
The strategy equates to Baudelaire’s so-called “pedagogical
utopia”. Human brotherhood, so difficult to achieve, receives prophetic
impetus in the form of the People of the New Covenant, assembled
around the apostles, which cannot be checked by the hard realities of
life. Luke takes an active role in the endeavours of the third generation
of Christians, who overcome conflicts and heresies. However, instead
of dwelling on the actual difficulties, he makes a conscious decision
in favour of ‘optimisation’ in his second gospel in order to bolster the
communities. He knows that a community without an ideal flounders,
loses courage and despairs. As a result, it is useful to bear in mind two
phrases used by Luke; firstly the expression used in verse 42, “they
continued steadfastly […]” (or “they devoted themselves eagerly”) –
ησαν δε προσκαρτερουντεσ – and the time designation “day by day” –
καθ ημεραν – in verse 46. This is nothing other than an appropriation
of the “resurrection” by contemporary community life.
Luke did not know Jesus personally. The Jesus he discovered was
the glorified Saviour whom his master, Paul, had encountered on the
road to Damascus, the one in whose countenance he glimpsed the
concept of Christian communities, in which the power of his love
unfolded, so strong that rich and poor, men and women, sophisticated
ladies and lepers alike lived in the same communion. The communion
is the glory of the Easter festival, which suffuses the worldly life of the
faithful. Luke’s Jesus makes the Father, who loves us all, particularly
manifest. This love, which moves the father with pity (Luke 15:20), is
shared by Jesus (Luke 7:13) and the disciple himself must also show
it (Luke 10:33). Like Jesus, the community of the faithful also testifies
to the coming of the Kingdom of God through its deeds. The signs
57 Bossuyt / Radermakers, ibid. 194.

heralding and precipitating this kingdom are mindfulness of the poor,

the humble and the despised. This is not meant solely as a form of
caritas towards them, but as a prophetic testimony to communion in
an attempt to eradicate the insufferable scourge of poverty. The plea
resounds from the courtyards of Israel, which is freed from all forms
of servitude: “No poor in your midst.” The prophetic communion
of those first Christian communities embodies this mobilisation of
powers and means in contemplation of the Kingdom of God.
The author of the Acts of the Apostles is keenly aware of the crises
within the community: the deceit of Ananias and Sapphira (5:1-11)
or the Choosing of the Seven after the Hellenists revolted against the
Hebrews “because their widows were being overlooked in the daily
distribution” (6:1-6). Luke is also aware of the problematic nature of
Paul’s classification within the Twelve Apostles. Although he is friends
with Paul, he refuses to refer to him as an apostle, a title he reserves
solely for the twelve. Cohabitation between Jews and Christians and
Gentiles and Christians is discussed at the Council of Jerusalem. In the
light of this, one may ask which type of unanimity is referred to in the
reports concerning the Early Church. The observation is fitting, quite
correct in fact; one could even dismiss Luke’s description of the early
days of the Church as pure idealisation. It is, moreover, essential to
accept this biblical truth, as the Bible takes reality very seriously. This
acknowledgement is the prelude to a communion which is imbued
with the defiant power of the resurrection.
Did the first Christians really form a unit, as the expressions

‘together’, ‘one heart and mind’ and ‘in unison’ imply? The fraternal
communion or koinonia as the fruit of the apostles’ teachings is
pursued as an ideal to be achieved. Although this succeeds for a time
in places, it is by no means ubiquitous and, above all, inconstant. This
observation is advantageous as it encourages rather than discourages.
Luke does not intend to promise the earth to readers of the Acts of the
Apostles, but rather to motivate them to act on the basis of an ideal.
As a result, the ideal is divested of its impossibility and elusiveness
thanks to the extraordinary deeds related. In this respect, Barnabas
really is the “son of encouragement” (4:36-37), a morale booster for
the apostles, whose teachings were designed to lead the community
towards koinonia.
The spirit of communion in the Basic Ecclesial Community58

What is the spirit of communion? On the one hand, it is the
ability, in unity with the mystical Body of Christ, to be mindful of one’s
neighbour in faith, who is thus deemed one of our people, allowing us
to share his joys and sorrows, divine his wishes, meet his needs and
offer him deep and true friendship.
On the other, it also constitutes the ability to see the positive in
one’s neighbour, receiving him as he is and appreciating him as a gift
from God: a gift for myself and not only for my neighbour, its direct
recipient.
Finally, the spirit of communion lies in the ability to accord one’s
neighbour a place in the community via the mutual bearing of each
other’s burdens and the rejection of egotistic temptations, which
set continual traps in our path and kindle competitive thoughts,
careerism, mistrust and envy within us.
This spiritual path should largely protect the communion from
external influences, which dwindle, becoming soulless façades, masks
of communion as opposed to means of expression and growth in the
sense of John Paul II. In sum, it would be like a house built on sand.
The challenges faced by the Basic Ecclesial Communities59

The Basic Ecclesial Community as an open community: in a
society inclined to self-interest, each community threatens to become
a closed circle, clique or consortium: “How wonderful life is here!”
– “It was so difficult to become integrated.” These communities risk
becoming selective, self-sufficient ‘retreats for the masses’.
The Church’s first challenge at this level is to be a ‘refuge’ where
the lives and hopes of the people unite, which is accessible for all God’s
sons and daughters and admits all brothers and sisters who knock at
its door, particularly if they are suffering or pariahs.
The Basic Ecclesial Community as a religious community: in an
ailing and religiously predisposed society the message and structure of
58
Cappellaro, J.B., Un peuple s’évangélise, Cheminement de foi d’un peuple de baptisés,
Rome 1996.
59 Mission de l’Eglise (Communautés chrétiennes) no. 123, April 1999.

faith can quickly veer into a type of ‘opium for the masses’, becoming a
remote, ahistorical cult. This may be accompanied by fatalism, passive
resignation or magical practices – a type of bargain with God in order
to make a profit or gain an advantage.
The second challenge will lie in the release of religious convictions
and gospel practices via the Word of God, liberating everything intuitive
in the contemplation of God, the God of Life, Christ, who suffers with
the suffering in order to make them susceptible to concrete hope,
and the Holy Spirit, which emancipates and emboldens, advocating
tangibly lived love.
All this occurs in the certainty that, if the God we discover in
the sanctuary of the community really is the true and living God, this
community must live out its faith tangibly, embedded in real history.
The religious community must also be a compassionate
community; it has a prophetic role to play. For the God of the Bible,
the one and only God (“I am He who is”), is neither indifferent to
suffering nor impervious to injustice. On the contrary, he is a passively
committed God, on the side of the suffering and the victims of injustice,
in favour of fraternal reconciliation in all equality; a God who shatters
the prejudices and breaks down the barriers of individuals and entire
groups.
The Basic Ecclesial Community as a missionary community:
viewed in the light of the multitudes and of population-related
problems, the community is usually very small. The major risk
unquestionably lies in the fact that people lose heart and (more or
less implicitly) capitulate, abandoning the objective of reaching the
majority of the population. On the other hand, parish tradition has
a strong tendency to bureaucratise contacts by confining itself to
passing on religious instructions and sacramental norms.
Nonetheless, it is also unwise to invite prospective members
to participate in community activities immediately. This could
be interpreted as proselytising, aimed at expanding the Catholic
community as a whole, rather than an attempt to perform services to
one’s neighbours and nation on the path leading to the kingdom of life.
The third challenge will, therefore, consist in taking the time
required to listen to individuals and families, developing a genuine
interest in their problems and discovering their values and religious

convictions, this in order to be evangelised and evangelise others from
a stance of solidarity and benevolence – with an appropriate word
about the Lord’s tenderness and the proximity of Jesus Christ.
The Basic Ecclesial Community as a prophetic community: the all
too blatant social injustices and prevalence of the lie also constitute a
threat. The community risks turning into a loudly fulminating bevy
of individuals or a group of militant advocates of social change. It is
possible to lapse into an ideology of faith which reduces the latter to a
system of values for social change.
Additionally, the nature of the relationships with people’s organi-
sations and political parties is not always clear-cut. Here the challenge
lies in being a prophetic Church in an unconditional manner,
freely proclaiming the Gospel in all its heterogeneity and with all
its demands; acknowledging the injustices, social falsehoods and
collective idolatries; furthermore, levelling prophetic criticism against
these same people’s organisations and against the Church itself – with
benevolence and from within.
Conclusion
The Basic Ecclesial Communities transmute the parish into a
covenant of communities.60
The shift of various aspects of Christian life towards the Basic
Ecclesial Communities does not divest the parish of its right to exist
– quite the reverse: it gains a new vitality and simultaneously acquires
several new functions. The parish becomes a covenant of communities.
a) It becomes a place of encounter, communion, exchange and
reconciliation.
b) It becomes a place of education and ‘animation’. Supported by
the deanery and the diocese, the parish places various basic
and advanced training modules and meetings (particularly
the meeting entitled “Service pour un Monde meilleur”
[Service for a Better World]) at the disposal of the leaders and
members of the Basic Ecclesial Communities, also providing
60 Directoire de la pastorale des Communautés Ecclésiales Vivantes de Base, ibid. 45-46.

them with additional documents and other assistance with

their work.
c) Finally, the parish becomes a place of mission. Integrated
within the deanery and the diocese, the parish constitutes a
‘relay station’ for the Basic Ecclesial Communities in terms
of major pastoral campaigns and guidelines, which are
implemented at this broader, more comprehensive level.
Illuminated by the Word of God and catechetical tuition and
encouraged by the fraternal exchange and celebration of the
sacraments, the Basic Ecclesial Communities anchor their
work even more effectively within the larger context of the
evangelising mission of the Church as a whole.
The Spirituality of the Ecclesial Base Communities
Victor Hernández
I think, I feel, that the Kingdom is a relation of EQUALS in which

there is no limit to the expression of tenderness… God is tenderness.
The Kingdom belongs to the simple… with no controlling norm,
with no spiritless legislation… God is freedom.
The Kingdom is the spontaneity of laughing looks and bountiful
dialogue… God is the laughter of the poor.
The Kingdom is the sharing of silence so that ALL may look, speak,
feel, cry, laugh, LIVE!! … God is inclusion.
It is the complicity of stories told through no more than a
telling look… God is relation.
The Kingdom of God is BEING with people with whom we have
come into “conflict,” but in the Life that finds expression in the logic
of RECONCILIATION. God is patience.
Spirituality is what motivates us

I understand spirituality firstly as a mysticism, that is, as the
MODE of a person’s or group’s relation to themselves and others, to
Nature and the Other. What motivates, what supports, what charac-
terizes those who share the experience of the small base community?
Here I hope to elucidate, through a number of key features, the
experience of God enjoyed by men and women, young people and
adults through the life of the ecclesial base communities.
By spirituality I understand a distinctive way of bringing Christian
and/or human values into a living unity under the perspective of the
Kingdom of God. This is a lived synthesis, not necessarily doctrinal or
speculative in character, whatever attempts may be made to elaborate
theoretically upon spirituality in a properly theological manner.
67
Spirituality as experience provides the basis for the development of a

theology that reflects the spiritual dimension of humanity.61
Experience tells us that spirituality is not a branch of theology,
nor even a field, such as those of doctrine or action. Just as little is it
any sort of religion, no matter which. Spirituality is rather a matter of
drive [Aliento],62 of what inspires us, gives us strength, urges us on,
gives meaning to our lives, and gives us the ability to offer this life as
a gift. For me, spirituality is a living synthesis of thought, attitudes
and processes in the form of a path or way, a way that always has its
beginning where God in the inscrutability of his own ways – full of
astonishment and surprise – brings new things into being.
The spirituality to which I refer is that which finds itself in accord
with the radical experience of the Incarnation of Him who thought it
good to make himself sarx, to take on flesh and “sin”:
“We cannot come to know God by way of the metaphysics of
being, but only through the history of events. The metaphysics of
being strives falsely after transcendental knowledge. The history
of events situates us in the reality of the immanent, the only thing
of which we can speak of our own knowledge. That is why, to make
himself known to us, God became human in Jesus of Nazareth.
That is why Jesus is both the Revealer and the Revelation of God.
We thus come to know God through the events in the story of
Jesus, in his life and acts and words. And so we are able, parado-
xically, to know the divine on the basis of the human and so speak
of it”.63
The hallmark of a spirituality of Christian and ecclesial stamp is
that it has as its catalytic core the Church as the mystery of communion
61 Particularly interesting are accounts of Christian spirituality that emphasize the need
to go beyond a spirituality of “distance from the world” or any philosophy or theoretical

treatment. I am absolutely convinced that Christian spirituality has to be treated as
experience. See: Cunningham, L.S. / Egan, K.J., Christian Spirituality, Themes from the
Tradition, New York 1996, 21-26.
62 See: Garibay, I.J, La espiritualidad de las comunidades eclesiales de base at http://
elchorote.blogspot.com/2008/03/la-espiritualidad-de-las-comunidades.html (last retrieved

on 27 March 2012).
63 Castillo, J.M, La humanización de Dios, Ensayo de cristología, Madrid 2009, 85.
Spirituality of the Ecclesial Base Communities
The 69
– koinonia.64 Around this core is organised the whole complex

of Christian values as they are to be lived. There thus emerges a
particular way of seeing, being and acting as the Church and daring to
propose it to the world as the sacrament of the Kingdom. This unique
spirituality takes its reference to the Trinity as the non-negotiable
emblem of Christian identity (it is the dogma that “suffices” to effect
liberation, for the Trinity is a relation between equals in three distinct
persons and one single, thriving dialogue). The event of the Trinity is
of foundational importance to the Christian identity; in other words,
it is the definitive revelation of God, who in Jesus reveals to us the
mystery of the Spirit. The Spirit is God’s life, revealed through history
as the life and hope of men and women. This Trinitarian experience
is proclaimed as the core of the faith and that which gives meaning
to Christian life. This kerygmatic proclamation is the foundational
symbol in which is condensed the life of the faithful who, confidently
abandoning themselves to Jesus’ beloved Father, receive the grace of
the Spirit. This is not a spirituality found within the Church, as might
be a liturgical, biblical or Franciscan spirituality, for example, but one
that comprehends all members of the Church (and even those who
are not?) in so far as they are part of a whole, of a community called
to holiness.65
64 “The ecclesiology of communion is a central and fundamental concept in the conciliar
documents. Koinonia-communion, finding its source in Sacred Scriptures, was a concept

held in great honour in the early Church and in the Eastern Churches, and this teaching
endures to the present day. Much was done by the Second Vatican Council to bring about
a clearer understanding of the Church as communion and its concrete application to life.
What, then, does this complex word communion mean? Its fundamental meaning speaks
of the union with God brought about by Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. The opportunity
for such communion is present in the Word of God and in the Sacraments. Baptism is
the door and the foundation of communion in the Church. The Eucharist is the fount
and apex of the whole Christian life (cf. LG 11). The Body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist
sacramentalizes this communion, that is, it is a sign and actually brings about the intimate
bonds of communion among all the faithful in the Body of Christ which is the Church (1
Corinthians 10:16).” The Second Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops
(1985), Ecclesia sub Verbo Dei Mysteria Christi Celebrans pro Salute Mundi, Relatio
Finalis, II.C.1.
65 “What we propose is the following: that we commit ourselves fundamentally to a
spirituality of relationship or communion as a spirituality ‘of ’ the Church, with all its
consequences; that is to say that all our being and all our pastoral activity should be directed
to ensuring that the Church is ‘sign and instrument of communion’ (LG 1). That means that
if we are not a community, the Body of Christ, if we do not make visible today the Spirit
Ecclesial base communities (CEBs): tradition and novelty

It is difficult to define the communities that interest us in terms of
the process operative in them. I will venture the following, nonetheless:
“What is meant by an Ecclesial Base Community is a small group of
people whose members know each other, share each others’ lives,
celebrate their faith and help each other to live their commitment to
the construction of the Kingdom”.66
As an historical experience in permanent transformation,
the Church is aware of its nature as “pilgrim,” its greatness and its
fundamental support, being the Jesus who took on contingency and
historicity, becoming shockingly “common.” The Church making its
way on foot – without the masonry to support its false securities –
is the People of God, which at each historical moment will discover
and implement new forms of organisation that help it to embody the
values of the Gospel in response to the signs of the times.
Tradition: the Ecclesial Base Communities reproduce, in a way,
the pastoral art of the early Church as well as certain features of the
first evangelization of Latin America. They seek to be an updated,
faithful version of the early Christian communities described in the
Acts of the Apostles:
“These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the
brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. […]
And all who shared the faith owned everything in common; they
sold their goods and possessions and distributed the proceeds
among themselves according to what each one needed” (Acts
2:42, 44-45).
“The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one
of Jesus, which makes us not only One but different, yet open, appreciative and respectful
[…], then everything else that we do, however authentic, generous and just it might appear,
may prove in practice be ‘insignificant’ and as such not make visible the union desired
by Christ as ‘the sign’ of credibility and fruitfulness (“La Espiritualidad de comunión es
la espirtualidad ‘de’ Iglesia,” at http://blogs.21rs.es/mundomejor/2008/12/11/4-la-espiritu-
alidad-de-comunion-es-la-espirtualidad-de-iglesia (last retrieved on 27 March 2012).
66 This attempt at a definition – if, indeed, limits can be imposed on the rich, polyphonic
reality represented by the CEBs – is indebted to an article by Fr. Marins at http://padrepe-

dropierrecebs.blogspot.com/2011/12/vocacion-y-mision-de-las-cebs-equipo.html (last
retrieved on 27 March 2012).
The 71
claimed private ownership of any possessions, as everything they

owned was held in common. The apostles continued to testify
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and they
were all accorded great respect. None of their members was ever
in want, as all those who owned land or houses would sell them,
and bring the money from the sale of them, to present it to the
apostles; it was then distributed to any who might be in need.”
(Acts 4:32-35)
Novelty: The CEBs are the heirs of the Second Vatican Council,
of the Medellín and Puebla Conferences, and of the suppressions of
Aparecida67.
The Latin American experience of the Ecclesial Base Communities
springs from the renewed ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council:
“The Church, at once ‘a visible association and a spiritual
community’, goes forward together with humanity and experiences
the same earthly lot which the world does. She serves as a leaven
and as a kind of soul for human society”.68
And Paul VI would write, ten years later, that the base
communities “appear and develop, almost without exception, within
the Church, having solidarity with her life, being nourished by her
teaching and united with her pastors. …they spring from the need to
live the Church’s life more intensely, or from the desire and quest for a
more human dimension such as larger ecclesial communities can only
offer with difficulty, especially in the big modern cities which lend
themselves both to life in the mass and to anonymity. […] Or again
their aim may be to bring together, for the purpose of listening to and
meditating on the Word, for the sacraments and the bond of the agape
[…] people who already happen to be united in the struggle for justice,
brotherly aid to the poor, human advancement”.69
67 See Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM), The Church in the Present
Day Transformation of Latin America in the Light of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference,
Washington DC 1970. Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops Puebla,
Evangelization at Present and in the Future of Latin America, Conclusions 1980;
Concluding Document, Aparecida, Bogota 2008.
68 GS 40.
69 EN 58.
Puebla’s teaching on CEBs is detailed and extensive. Some of the

more important elements are:
– The CEBs are “starting points for the building of a new
society.”
– They are “centres of evangelization and moving forces of
liberation and development.”
– They are “the expression of the Church’s preferential love for
the simple people.”
– They offer “the chance to participate in the work of the
Church and in the commitment to transform the world.”
– In them the people’s “religiosity is expressed, valued and
purified.”
– These small communities are a hope for the Church and are
“favourable to the emergence of new forms of lay service.”
– They promote greater commitment to justice in the social
reality of the surrounding environment.
– The CEB is “a community of faith, hope, and charity; it
celebrates the Word of God in life, through solidarity and
through commitment to the Lord’s new commandment;
and […] it makes present and effective the mission of the
church”.70
All these features are noted in the Aparecida Document, appearing
in sections 178-179 and 180. The text also introduces a new element
of positive evaluation, this being that the CEBs “are source and seed
of varied services and ministries on behalf of life in society and the
Church” (No. 179). Their theological place is identified in the title
of Chapter V: “The Communion of the Missionary Disciples in the
Church” and of its second section “Ecclesial Places for Communion”
– following the diocese and the parish. The CEBs are discussed in Nos.
178 and 179 of the Document.71
70 See Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops, Puebla, Nos. 629-643.
71 In the ecclesial experience of some churches of Latin America and the Caribbean,
basic (base) ecclesial communities have been schools that have helped form Christians
committed to their faith, disciples and missionaries of the Lord, as is attested by the
The 73
In conclusion, we may refine our definition by reaffirming the

distinction the Aparecida Document makes between what the CEBs
are and what they do.
After describing what the CEBs ARE, we must say what they ARE
FOR, which is what defines their MISSION, their IDENTITY.
– Their BEING is one aspect of their identity, essential and
static, necessary;
– Their BEING FOR is another, dynamic, existential,
fundamental.72
The basis in revelation of a communitarian spirituality

I believe that the starting point has to be those passages in the
Gospel where Jesus is astonished and moved by simple people and by
simplicity, thus revealing the nature of the intimacy with the father
that is made possible by the koinonia that underlies the spirituality of
the CEBs.
Lasting joy in the simple: a biblical marginal note73

The key texts for Jesus’ wonder at the simple are to be found in
Luke and Matthew. “Just at this time, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit,
he said, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding
these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to
generous commitment of so many of their members, even to the point of shedding

their blood. They return to the experience of the early communities as described in the
Acts of the Apostles (cf. Acts 2:42-47). Medellin recognized in them an initial cell for
building the Church and a focal point of faith and evangelization. Puebla noted that small
communities, especially basic ecclesial communities, enable the people to have access to
greater knowledge of the Word of God, social commitment in the name of the Gospel, the
emergence of new lay services, and education of the faith of adults. However, it also noted
that “not a few members of certain communities, and even entire communities, have been
drawn to purely lay institutions or have even been turned into ideological radicals, and
are now in the process of losing any authentic feel for the Church.” CELAM, Concluding
Document, Aparecida, No. 178.
72 See: http://www.redescristianas.net/2006/-de-las-comunidades-eclesiales-de-base (last

73 Pagola, J.A., El camino abierto por Jesús. Mateo 1, Madrid 2010, 126-132. In the
analysis of the passages from Matthew I rely on the work of Pagola, a Biblical scholar who
in my opinion rightly brings out the radicality of Jesus’ humanity.
little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it has pleased you to do”
(Luke 10:21), while Matthew 11:25 has “Jesus exclaimed” (ἀποκριθεὶς).
The verb used here in the Greek New Testament might suggest that
Jesus was answering a question: but it is simply the translation of the
Hebrew verb anah, which means not only “answer” but also “speak” or
“begin to speak.” Luke here indicates Jesus’ state of mind as he speaks:
“filled with joy by the Holy Spirit.” Speaking colloquially, we might
say that Jesus was touched or moved. This is a unique incident among
what we know of Jesus through the Gospels. The Biblia de América
has “El Espíritu lleno de alegría a Jesús,” “The spirit filled Jesus with
joy”.74 The wise of whom the text speaks (σοφών) are those who have
wisdom (hakan), while the clever (συνετών = ‘arum) are those who
are successful in their everyday dealings, those who are skilful in this
world. Neither of these qualities is necessary to the worth of human
life (Isaiah 29:14-19). Here Jesus is referring to the wise Pharisees and
to the prudent, sensible leaders of the Jews. From them the Father
has hidden the secret of the Kingdom of God that he has revealed
to infants or minors (νηπίοις), to those who culturally speaking can
count for no more than children; to those comparable to children in
their simplicity and in being considered in antiquity as without worth.
Significant, too, are the verses that follow, found in both Luke and
Matthew (Matthew 11:27 and Luke 10:22). What is revealed is surely
that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God – not simply that that is what
he is, but that is what he must be as he reveals his true, divine nature
through words and deeds. Joachim Jeremias believes that the phrase
originated in a parable and was later adapted by Jesus when he wanted
to speak of the knowledge that Father and Son have of each other.75 Yet
it is not true that merely by virtue of their relationship a father and son
will know each other perfectly or even well. In reality, the degree of
such mutual familiarity varies greatly. What is more, there may well be
people who know another father much better than his own son does.
This closeness comes, then, when he reveals himself to his son: the
only way he can be known, in these circumstances (Matthew 11:27d).
All this is very hypothetical and irrelevant here, as all is completely
explained, even without regard to his adoption of Christ as Son – who
74 Biblia de América, Madrid 1994, 1567.
75 Jeremias, J., Studien zur neutestamentlichen Theologie und Zeitgeschichte, Göttingen,
1966, 15-67.
The 75
receives everything, including the exceptional knowledge, “from my

father” (υπό του πατρός μου) (v. 27) who is the “heavenly father” of
v. 25. Abba is the Aramaic substrate of the word “father.” If Matthew
11:27bc does not use the form “my father” but does so in v. 27a, this
is out of respect for the original words of Jesus, who calls the Father
(God) “my Father”.76
This exceptional knowledge that Jesus has of his father may very
well be the knowledge – a knowledge not only supernatural, but
absolutely unique – that Jesus’ human soul has through his beatific
vision. Thus it is that he sees his divine sonship and with it the divine
fatherhood of God. The surprise and the joy he has in simple people
and their ways of knowing God is closely connected to Jesus’ own
inner closeness to his beloved father, his dearest dad, and his joy at
this intimacy.
The three verses that follow in Matthew help us identify the
primordial joy that Jesus has in the simple and unsophisticated: “Come
to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you
rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble
of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and
my burden light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
The historical context of this passage is debatable. Jesus offers
an invitation to all who labour and are overburdened. These are two
synonyms, especially given the binary structure of these sentences.
There is an echo here of the Wisdom tradition. The labour need not
necessarily be physical work and effort, though it could of course very
well be.
“To bear the yoke” means to follow the prescriptions of the Torah;
this is a common phrase in the rabbinical literature that also appears
in the New Testament, signifying that humanity is bound to these
prescriptions as a slave is to his or her labour (see Jeremiah 28; Isaiah
58:6 and elsewhere).
76 Jeremias, J., Jerusalem zur Zeit Jesu: eine kulturgeschichtliche Untersuchung zur
neutestamentlichen Zeitgeschichte, Göttingen 1962. See also the entry on Jeremias at www.
wibilex.de. There are those who argue that not all Jeremias’s claims can be sustained. One
such critic is Antonio Pinero at http:// www.antoniopinero.com (last retrieved on 28 March
2012).
By his teaching Jesus wishes to lift this yoke (Matthew 11:30),

that is to provide emancipation from the burden of Pharisaic law and
practice. For Luke, the teaching of the Pharisees was formalistic and
insupportable (Luke 11:46). The religious Jew was hedged about by
the 613 prescriptions of Mosaic Law and by the countless demands
of tradition; the life of the Pharisee was an unbearable servitude to an
enslaving law.77
Jesus’ new yoke is his word of liberation. In a different way from
Jewish tradition Jesus says something to mankind that is generally
translated as “learn from me,” μάθετε απ’ εμού. But this should not
be taken as implying passive imitation. In the Talmud one often finds
the words “enter into my school,” meaning “be taught by me.” Faced
with rabbinical education, Jesus proclaims himself Teacher and, faced
with intolerable rabbinical prescriptions, he proposes an original
and liberating attitude: “for I am gentle and humble of heart.” For
the Semites the heart was the seat of emotion and behaviour. We are
invited to enter a school of cordiality, to learn by the rhythm of the
heart. To gentleness is opposed anger, harshness, rigidity; to humility,
pride. The educational theory of the Pharisees and doctors of the law
was characterised by arrogance, being aimed at winning praise from
each other (John 5:44). Hence their harsh, cruel and angry attitude
towards all those who would not submit to their approach.
When Jesus invites his hearers to take on his yoke, he promises
them: “you will find rest for your souls.” For not only is his yoke easy
and the burden light, but he also offers “life…to the full” (John 10:10)
and with this grace, life renewed, in its plenitude; life thus becomes
supernaturally joyous; life is a celebration.
The Koinonia of the New Testament as the motivating spirit of the CEBs78
In the New Testament koinonia has two fundamental aspects:
77 Biblia de América, 1468. The note to Luke 11:46 reads: “To receive this gift (of the
Kingdom of God), one has to become simple; this means no longer following the law for
duty’s sake but following Jesus spontaneously and in total trust.”
78 Fr. Marins’ take on biblical orthodoxy is novel in the way he uses it to ground the CEBs.
I allow myself to be guided by the textual interpretations he offers at http://padrepedropi-

errecebs.blogspot.com/2011/12/vocacion-y-mision-de-las-cebs-equipo.html, 7-9 (last
The 77
a) Koinonia is fundamentally a divine initiative, arising not

from among the brothers and sisters themselves but from the
Lord Jesus, who stands at their head and leads them; and:
b) Koinonia is originally community of life; see Colossians 3:17,
1:20; 1 Corinthians 1:9, 8:6; 1 Corinthians 12:12; Galatians
3:26-28; Philippians 2:1.
Communion is the gift of Jesus Christ, the Lord

In the process of incarnation and redemption Jesus Christ lives
incarnate, crucified, resurrected and ascended to the throne of God. In the
mystery of Easter, he – God with us – expresses his love for his brothers
and sisters. In many modest, unassuming places there are liturgies that
celebrate the “elder brother” who practices an unfeigned and unfailing
solidarity with the community that celebrates him. To follow Jesus means
experiencing laughter and anguish, life and death, hope and labour as a
gift received and appreciated anew every day: in Jesus, God wears himself
out with me in fellowship, tears, consolation, laughter…
Through the living and risen Christ and his unconditional love
and tenderness, communion with the Father comes to us, his body,
to make us a brother-and-sisterhood. Through Christ and thanks
to Christ there comes to us the Holy Spirit, who is communion, and
makes us brothers and sisters: 2 Corinthians 13:13. Communion is not
a merely horizontal relationship, but firstly vertical. Strictly speaking,
the cross is an image for the beautiful, englobing experience of the
mystics and sages of the world: simultaneously horizontal and vertical,
in a vital all-comprehending access of compassionate love. The whole
life of brother-and-sisterhood becomes configured by the dynamic of
“through Christ”: Colossians 3:17, 1:20. This is the true sense of the
words we hear at the close of the Eucharistic Prayer: “Through Christ,
and with Christ, and in Christ…”
Koinonia does not simply emerge from brother-and-sisterhood, but
is rather an extension of the Father’s unconditional love as expressed in
the person of Jesus. Relying upon ourselves, this profound communion
of being and living would be impossible to bring about. Our efforts
at fellowship, at communion with others and with our surroundings,
are awkward and clumsy. True, profound communion is only attained
when we receive the gift of Love, the gift of the Spirit, from the hands
of Jesus, so that we live together in his hands: “You can rely on God,
who has called you to be partners with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
(1 Corinthians 1:9). The foundational event of this koinonia is a
trusting, filial relation with his Son, converted into fraternity: “For you
are all children of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. […] you are all
one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28b). Here the original radicality of
the communion between brothers and sisters is made evident. The one
cannot be without the other: the man becomes man only in hearing his
name on the lips of a woman. I am not me without a you who speaks
my name. The image of the body, in the familiar conjunction and
coordination of its parts, is crucial. It is in us as members of one body,
a conjoined and coordinated family, that communion finds expression.
We all depend on each other. This communion is given to us in the
sacramental signs of Baptism and the Eucharist (though not only in
them). Eucharistic koinonia (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16) in the blood
and body of Christ renews the baptismal koinonia and makes us truly
sons and daughters, sharing in the same obedience to the Father as the
Son. It also enables us to be true brothers and sisters, sharing in the
same commitment as Jesus, our brother, to the service of our brothers
and sisters. The source of all communion is koinonia of life, which is
koinonia through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ.
A second aspect is the understanding of communion as shared life

Life in Christ, which is the communion of the Spirit, finds itself
realized in brother-and-sisterhood wherever all are of one mind, in
the same love, the same spirit, the same feeling; where there is no place
for pride, rivalry or quarrelling. It is a space of Grace: action comes
from a heart filled to satisfaction with the love of God, with none of
the begging for alms of the injured heart. There is humble generosity:
Philippians 2:1. Being and doing spring from the vision of the Crucified:
Philippians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 1:17ff; 2 Corinthians 13:4. Koinonia
must thus always have its focus on the crucified, and the crucified
of history. The irrefutable proof of faith: to ask the question “Where
is God in the millions excluded from life?”, and to answer “There in
every victim”,79 for in them koinonia becomes sacramentally and really
79 We are encouraged to read theology “at the limits” by Jürgen Moltmann, in the sixth
chapter of a book whose title, “The Crucified God,” also serves as that of the whole work:
The 79
possible, in communion with the suffering of Christ (Philippians 3:19).

And there the Eucharist, known for good reason as the “breaking of
bread,” involves the vital and celebratory dimension of sharing: the
celebration of the miracle of the abundance of the Kingdom of God,
which starts from the bread that Jesus broke for the whole company
at the Last Supper, which he and his disciples share out among the
community so as to strengthen the ongoing koinonia and the spirit of
prayer - though the rite as such did not exist. The communion table
is the table of the plurality of gifts, not of uniformity, much less of
mere ritual, monotonous and meaningless. It is the table of diverse
charisms and ministries – it is concrete reality that creates ministries
in their multiplicity, for the sake of building the community and its
engagement with the world in order to bring about the advent of the
Kingdom. The CEBs are an expression of the apostolic, missionary
koinonia, the living presence of a prophetic community, a framework
for the propagation of the Gospel in the service of the Kingdom in this
world.
The unorthodox sources of the CEBs’ communitarian spirituality

Deep currents
Fr. Nieto of the Diocese of Matamoros in the north of the country was
Professor of Sapiential Books at the Pontifical University of Mexico
between 1992 and 1994. He encouraged us to read the wisdom books
of the Bible in comparative conjunction with Mexican sayings and
proverbs. The correlations we found between the scriptural books
and the wisdom literature of our own Mexican people astonished us.
My fellow-students and I discovered more than a hundred Mexican
sayings or proverbs that closely coincided: it was as if we had
encountered the deep currents that connect all humanity. Immersing
ourselves in them, we discovered that such connections established
themselves at the least provocation, yet only on a few occasions,
unfortunately, did they manifest themselves on the surface. Only in
their accidents do cultures disagree and diverge. To leave the surface
behind and to discover the mystery of the hidden connections was
astonishing. I deeply believe that among our poor and simple people
Moltmann, J., The Crucified God, The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of
Christian Theology, trans. Wilson R.A. and Bowden, J., London 1974.
there are hidden sources that support a communitarian spirituality

and sustain the motivation of the CEBs. These are tales far removed
from orthodoxy which, without the official standing of a Church
inattentive to the signs of the times, are being lost or forgotten. Yet
this deprives us of the true sources of inspiration that motivate and
sustain the knowledge and feeling of a fully communal life. Here we
find ourselves, of course, in a mode of the Kingdom of God, which
supposes an abdication of control – not, though, an anarchy – where
the wind blows when and where it will. A spirituality that claims to
control the winds of the Spirit is a self-undermining spirituality. I wish
to argue, then, that the tales, symbols, metaphors and poetry of our
peoples are a source of spirituality, of this drive or inspiration that
sustains the life of our CEBs.
Everyday stories, creation tales, the stories of men and women
living ordinary lives, folk tales, legends, stories of resistance to the
dominant cultures are in my view authentic sources of community
life,80 of the driving spirit of life in small communities.
On the other hand, and confirming what has already been said,
spiritual traditions have always made use of the folk tale to communicate
their teachings; stories are able to explain, in their apparent simplicity,
the most profound mysteries and the most elevated of truths. This
is why all the great spiritual masters have always spoken in parables.
It is clear that Christian and non-Christian stories are little known,
leading believers themselves to think that they don’t exist, except
for the limited example of the Gospel parables. Without attempting
to assess the fundamental contribution of the tales of the oriental
traditions, we can point to the Zen Buddhist tradition, the Hasidic
school of Judaism, the Sufi tradition in Islam, and the Taoist tales of
China.
Simple and wise, our people live on these tales, parables, proverbs,
sayings and poems. They are at the same time the creator of these
simple stories, tales and anonymous proverbs spontaneously born to
a deathless existence; narratives that come from afar, like the streams
of water that bring life to the dry valleys it fills with hope, as they feel
80 A highly original work that deserves a respectful reading is Kurdi, O. / Palao Pons, P.,
Cuentos amerindios, Desde las praderas, desiertos y montañas, Madrid 2010.

The 81
enlivened and accompanied by the Spirit that reaches them before the
missionary or the liturgical or ritual hierarchy. Wisdom has made its
abode among the people and has made itself flesh in the meaningful
word. This meaning, however, escapes closed, settled, domesticated
modes of interpretation. It is a narrative that escapes every day, like
the wind, from the grasp of cynical or controlling hermeneutics.81 It
is a jácara open to interpretation, capable of casting light on different
areas, on new realities, by entering into a free relation of mutual
influence without ever being exhausted.
Two dimensions of a single spirituality, discreet and oriented to service

One dimension of the spirit of the CEBs: the preferential option for the poor
The central core of Christ’s preaching was the Kingdom of God.82
And at the centre of the Kingdom stands the God of the Beatitudes.
He is the crucified God; the crucifixion is certain, carried out in
view of all, an irrefutable historical fact. And a God resurrected in
intimacy: discreet, his power is not the power that compels. It is like
poetry, which tells all, but which needs a profoundly human sensibility
to understand it. He is the God who in the most radical fashion has
abandoned all power, all domination. He is the God who does not
81 Dr. Raúl Fornet makes the important point that the renewal of Christianity depends
on moving from the inculturation of the Gospel to interculturality: “In the light of the new
horizon outlined here we come to understand that the intercultural perspective enables
Christianity to face the plurality of cultures and religions, enables it to recover its own
plural memory, enables it to be reborn, on the basis of the abandonment of any controlling
centre, drawing its strength from all the sites of plurality. A Christianity in the process of
intercultural transformation would thus be a religion that builds the Kingdom, and a factor
for peace in the world.” Fornet Betancourt, R., Interculturalidad y religión, Para una lectura
intercultural de la crisis actual del cristianismo, Quito 2007, 50. The emphasis is the present
author’s.
82 “No-one doubts the information the sources provide: Jesus ‘made his way through
towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God’
(Luke 8:1). We may safely say that what Jesus chiefly devoted his time, his energy and his
entire life to is what he called “the Kingdom of God”. It is, without a doubt, the central
nucleus of his preaching, his deepest conviction, the passion that animates all his activity.
Everything he says and does is in the service of the Kingdom of God. Everything acquires
its unity, its true significance and its power to stir from this reality. The Kingdom of God
is the key to grasping the meaning that Jesus gave to his own life and to understanding his
project”: Pagola, J.A., Jesús, aproximación histórica, Madrid 2008, 88. Available in English
as: Pagola, Jesus, An Historical Approximation, trans. Margaret Wilde Miamia 2009.
command, but who calls, lovingly, looking into our eyes. He is the God
of life, who grants dignity to all,83 especially to those who have been
denied it. He is the disconcerting God, who “manifests himself in his
opposites.” A God without victims, he does not kill, does not destroy,
but creates freedom and is therefore essentially poor. He was born
poor and died poor. He had no bed at his birth, and at the time of his
death he was excluded from the city, as if accursed: shockingly poor.
And this God acts as the Holy Spirit. This Spirit, whose motherly care
is a stranger to force, is the God of control given up; who exerts rather a
personalizing force as great as that of a mother who suckles the baby at
her breast. He is a God who fell victim to those who dominate and kill.
The God who confronts without arms, or any violence whatsoever, the
powers of this world.
Faced with this account, José Comblin84 asks the radical question:
“Who can experience this God?”, and we may wonder, “Who can have
a spiritual experience of this bewildering deity? In other words: Who
shares the spirituality of Jesus of Nazareth? Yes, those men and women
who have undergone a similar experience in their own lives, the
crucified who have experienced in their own lives the Spirit’s power to
resurrect. These men and women – and these alone – feel in their own
lives the power of the Crucified.
A spirituality founded in a discreet reserve

Men and women experience the presence of God in their lives
and they have this authentic experience of God. Often the experience
seems to them so natural that they do not know it to be a very special
experience. They feel the strength of God in their weakness. They are
83 “God’s concern is to free human beings from all that dehumanizes them and makes
them suffer. The message of Jesus impressed from the very beginning. His way of speaking
about God provoked enthusiasm in the most ordinary and ignorant of Galileans. It was
what they needed to hear: God was concerned for them. The Kingdom of God that Jesus
proclaimed answered their greatest desire: to live with dignity. All the sources refer to one
fact, hardly to be doubted: that Jesus felt himself to be the bearer of good news, and indeed
his message brought great joy to the poor and humiliated peasants, people without status
or material security, who were offered no hope by the Temple either.” Pagola, Jesus 96;
emphasis by the present author.
84 Comblin, J., La Iglesia de los pobres y la experiencia de Dios at: http://www.cristia-
nismeimondavui.org/vincles/ponencia%20J%20Comblin.pdf (last retrieved on 28 March

2012).
The 83
people completely free, without personal ambition, without personal/

individual desire. Always open, always patient – with beaming face and
cheerful manner. It is very difficult to find such simplicity85 in more
cultivated people – though no doubt it can exist – as it can in “pagan”
contexts infused by the Kingdom of God. They have the experience of
God because they feel him in their lives, their actions and their words.
They do not seek it, nor do they know that they have it, because they
are so fully immersed in it that it seems natural to them. This is a
fundamental discretion. Such people are poles apart from the empty
propaganda and shrill media triumphs of the economic power of the
controllers of the “image.” It is a spirituality of resistance that has no
need of hurry or spectacular measures. The sacred is discreet.86 To the
CEBs it seems entirely natural to know so much and to understand
the rhythm and meaning of life. As in many areas of human existence,
sometimes less organised than the CEBs, there are many things that
are hard to explain. But although life is hard, it is charged with meaning
and unfolds in such a way that it gradually comes to be understood.
This life is lived “on the skin”, it enchants; it – the life of the CEBs –
captivates people and wins them over with the force of an invincible
85 A passage from Pagola’s commentary on Matthew 11:25-30 reads as follows: “Every
time I have felt myself to be in the presence of someone close to God it has been someone
simple of heart. Sometimes it has been a person of no great knowledge, at others a person of
great culture, but it has always been a man or woman pure and humble in soul. More than
once I have come to realize that it is not enough to speak of God to kindle faith. For many
people certain kinds of religious knowledge are worn out and even when one endeavours to
draw out all the force and poignancy they originally possessed, God remains ‘fossilized’ for
them. I have, however, met simple people who have no need of grand ideas or arguments.
They sense immediately that God is a “hidden God” and their hearts spontaneously cry out:
“Lord, show me your face!”. Pagola, J.A., El camino abierto por Jesús, Matéo, Madrid 2010,
129.
86 An anecdote – Those of us who are children of Mexican peasants will be vividly aware
of the gradual exhaustion of the Mexican soil. As grandchildren we saw how our elders
experienced the “good storms” that brought abundant rain with them. Today, with climate
change, we witness the relentless droughts that assail the Mexican peasantry and with them
the sowing of the fields, deliberately abandoned by the governments, past and present,
of our lovely, sacred land of Mexico. We have likewise witnessed the unexpected floods
that are hastening the erosion of lands without trees or brush. Sometimes, however, our
grandparents would say, when they saw a soft and inaudible drizzle: “That’s the right rain
for the millet, this drizzle that gradually seeps into the ground, without any thunder and
lightning. The water that just falls and makes the maize fields grow – slowly, slowly, like the
tenderness of God our father, is barely perceptible…”.
simplicity. It is an experience available to those who approach them

with reverential respect, for it does not belong exclusively to the base
communities, for they are the privileged witnesses to what they kindly
offer as a gift to all of us who are not “poor” and who seek to follow
the crucified and risen Christ.
For the CEBs spirituality is solidarity: serving the poor

As communities of believers, of followers of Christ, the CEBs
have been steadfastly committed, sometimes in strong opposition
to the ecclesiastical authorities, to the preferential option for the
poor. Despite the fact that the Church in Latin America has officially
adopted this as an evangelical priority and a condition of salvation
(Matthew 25:41), it continues to encounter much resistance in certain
ecclesiastical circles.87 Gustavo Gutiérrez says: “If I am hungry, that
is a physical problem; but if my brother is hungry, that is a spiritual
problem.” For him, it is in service to the poor, in service to each other,
and in prophetic service to the non-poor world, in which its members
are sent by God as leading actors of its emancipation, that the Church
finds eternal life and a spiritual identity. However, the notion of poverty
is not to be understood only in an economic sense, but includes those
who suffer, those who are oppressed, those who suffer on account of
their colour, sex, age, social status, health or exclusion. They are those
who exert no power of attraction, who are not productive. Even the
hierarchs are poor, in their regression – inevitably, if that is what they
want. This service to and alongside the poor is one of the aspects of
koinonia, as witnessed by the practice of the Pauline communities.
Koinonia of goods has its basis in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “Jesus Christ…
although he was rich, he became poor for your sake.” The Fifth General
Conference of Latin American and Caribbean Bishops confirmed and
reinforced the “preferential option for the poor” supported at earlier
87 What Raúl Fornet-Betancourt says of this scandalous Vatican-inspired regression
is telling: “This restoration, this regression to pre-conciliar relations is no fairy-tale

peddled by ‘progressive’ or ‘dialogue-inclined’ Christians. It is today the sad truth. It is the
present-day face of dominant Christianity. […] We Christians ought to start asking for
the permission and the indulgence of others, those others we have so humiliated with our
modern, Western arrogance, and whom we have so wounded with our militant methods
[…], before addressing them, formulating our message and entering into an open dialogue
without asymmetries [of power].” Fornet-Betancourt, R., Interculturalidad y religión, 36.
The 85
conferences. As Benedict XVI declared in his inaugural address: “The

preferential option for the poor is implicit in the Christological faith
in the God who became poor for us, so as to enrich us with his poverty
(cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9).”
To find instruction in service

It is, therefore, necessary to share goods with people near and
far, sharing the silences and allowing each word to illuminate life.
Koinonia is not charity, nor is it alms for the poor. Koinonia of goods
is a permanent, freely-consented endeavour called for by Jesus’
self-surrender, present in the bread – the bread that is abundance for
all – and in the cup, sign of the triumph of a people that overcomes
all poverty. The Eucharistic bread and cup oblige us to look at our
brothers and sisters, and more particularly at the poorest. Koinonia
demands a close relation between the immolated body of the Lord
and the incorporated body of his smaller brothers and sisters. In
this koinonia our eyes must always be on the least amongst us,88
who represent the most endearing and necessary part of the body (1
Corinthians 12:22-25). Commitment to the cause of the poor springs
from koinonia and leads in the practice of the CEBs to responses in the
way of assistance, development and emancipatory practice, directed
not so much at the effects but at the causes, structures, ideologies and
systems that lead to poverty. The base communities, besides being the
expression of the Church’s preferential love for the simple people,89
have through their experience “helped the Church to discover the
evangelizing potential of the poor”.90
Conclusion: The Kingdom of God is abdication of control

The issue here is people’s experience of growing together in full
and free relationships. If there is to be the development of all, then
the renunciation of control is decisive. Every person has their own
rhythm, their own space, their own aspirations. The CEBs become that
privileged space where the conditions of possibility are established for
88 Sobrino, J., Fuera de los pobres no hay salvación, Madrid 2007, 57-58, available in
English as: No Salvation Outside the Poor, Prophetic-Utopian Essays, New York 2008.
89 See Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops, Puebla No. 643.
90 Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops, Puebla No. 1147.
each person to grow and to become themselves, firstly through the

development of the immediate group and, in the longer term, through
that of society at large.
Towards a Transformative Spirituality
in Basic Ecclesial Communities
John Mansford Prior
Spirituality
What drives us to do what we do, to be what we are? What makes
us change or not change, go in one direction rather than in another
when faced with choices that must be made? What motivates us to
act as we do in daily life? The answer is our spirituality – the spirit
within, the fire in our belly, the “heart within the heart” that roots our
basic perspectives, our underlying attitudes, the choices we make day
by day. For Christians, core perspectives and daily decision making
are directed by personal and communal faith in Jesus the Nazarene.
Spirituality is expressed in our particular appropriation of Gospel
values and the Catholic tradition, the manner in which God’s love
inspires us to love God and one another (Mrk 12:28-31; Matt 22:34-40;
Lk 10:25-28; also Jn 13:34-35; 1 Jn 4:11-16). The question that arises is:
what spiritualities are being nurtured by Basic Ecclesial Communities
(BECs)?
While faith is a key source, basic perspectives and daily choices
also take us to the core of our culture, to cultural meaning, values,
convictions, that which gives us a particular cultural identity, that
which forms our relationships with one another, with others, with
the surrounding world. Worldview and world ethos demarcate all
that is good and valuable, all that we feel the need to nurture in a
particular culture. Hence cultural values are closely interwoven with
our spirituality.
Caution is needed. The Indonesian Bishops once declared that
“the deepest root of our political problems is that faith is no longer the
87
source of inspiration for daily life.” 91 The link between spirituality and
daily life is not always obvious or healthy. In rapidly changing societies,
religion may well become a social identity marker, demarcating one
group over against another, and be seen as primarily a matter of ritual
observance detached from any ethical stance.
And so this essay looks at the ways spirituality impacts upon
the individual, the family and the common life of Basic Ecclesial
Communities, the ways BEC members respond to their environment.
For this we need to look at the ways faith and spirituality influence
cultural values, stimulate responses to unjust social situations, and
guide relations with people of other faith traditions. Spirituality in BECs
also involves looking at the way the Bible is read, and at the role popular
devotions and liturgy play. All these compete in forming attitudes and
actions in daily life, in shaping the spirituality by which we live.
Cultural Values and Spirituality

Cultural Values
The majority of Asian, African and Oceanic Christians come from
nations and ethnic groups that enjoy indigenous cultures. While many
indigenous cultural domains belong to small ethnic groups, some,
such as in Nigeria, belong to large nations. Each is culturally unique,
and yet there are a number of similar key values, mutatis mutandis,
found in each cultural domain. This essay reflects experience with
spiritualities in the cultures of eastern Indonesia.
To appreciate the spirituality of BECs, we need to understand
the way culture channels and influences our thought processes along
certain lines.92 We are formed by our cultural environment and at the
same time are active agents of cultural change. The globalisation of
economics and communication systems is not simply dissolving local
cultural ways of thinking.
91 Indonesian Bishops’ Conference, Nota Pastoral, Keadilan Sosial bagi Semua, Aspek
Sosial Politik, Jakarta 2003.

92 This section on cultural values is indebted to the life-time engagement of Bishop
Francisco Claver (1926-2010) whose participative pastoral vision inspired the Federation
of Asian Bishops’ Conferences for 40 years. See his “final testament” in: The Making of a
Local Church, Quezon City 2009, in particular Chapter 9, The Spirituality of Discerning
Communities, 151-170.

Towards a Transformative Spirituality in Basic Ecclesial Communities 89
In indigenous cultures, the extended family forms the matrix that

holds all key societal values together, such as clan-based order, respect
for old age, the authority of elders, their love and concern for children,
the obedience, respect, and gratitude owed to parents on the part of
children, family solidarity, the paramount good of the family, care for
its good name, its prestige and honour. From this matrix springs the
cultural values of hospitality, the welfare of the immediate community,
good relations with non-family members, social harmony, and accord
with nature. Each value that makes cultures indigenous flows from the
heart of society, from the extended family. Family values help to sustain
the family spiritually and materially. All this is positive and in such
societies, BECs usually form closely bound communities. However,
where there is a weak sense of citizenship and the common good,
family values can engender systemic corruption. For in indigenous
societies, the family comes first.93 In which case, what impact is being
made by the presence of BECs?
BECs can and do open up horizons and prompt concern beyond
the family. For while an “ethnic spirituality” would confine the Gospel
within tightly defined family concerns, a Gospel spirituality redraws
each and every relationship, both local and global, as between brothers
and sisters. The ideal is extreme: “love your enemies … If you love
only those who love you what reward will you get? Even the tax
collectors do as much.” (Mt 5:44, 46) BECs in town, whose members
come from a variety of ethnic and social backgrounds, are more open
to this Gospel spirituality, than are village BECs, which by their very
location, may well consist of members of a single extended family.
Local Values, Global Values

In the age of the hand phone and internet, nowhere is isolated,
everywhere is influenced by global trends and values. In fact
traditional family values have long intermingled with “modern” values
such as individualism, personal initiative, and achieved rather than
proscribed social status. Indigenous societies have also long been part
93 I am in no way intimating that indigenous societies are more corrupt than the
non-indigenous; the financial and banking crises of 2009 are sufficient proof of that.
Nevertheless, cultural values are ambivalent: immensely good and yet open to distortion
in rapidly changing social environments.
of nation states which formally accept political participation and the

legal equality of citizens. Many countries have legislated on gender
equality and domestic violence.94
The encroachment of the acquisitive global market, with the
mass migration it has generated, has led to a clash between traditional
family values and modern commercial values. Often enough they
lie un-integrated, whereby clan values remain strong in the family
sphere (at birth, marriage, death/inheritance), while market values
are increasingly decisive in the workplace. This clash often leads to
indigenous societies being pushed to one side as their ancestral lands
with their vast natural resources are taken over by outsiders driven by
the acquisitive values of the market. What is the role of the BEC in this
scenario?
In BECs and faith-based social movements, biblical spirituality
can integrate the values of the extended family with modern values
such as personal freedom, participation, individual initiative and
achievement. Christian spirituality can and should encourage support
for social and gender equality, active participation in social issues,
non-violence as both ethos and strategy, and honesty and transparency
in personal and commercial relationships. As Francisco Claver puts
it, “a powerful spirituality, the kind which if internalized and truly
believed in, and made the dominant force in a community’s thinking
and acting on social questions, would radically change society.”95 We
find such spiritualities in socially-engaged BECs and in faith-based
social movements and networks.
Questions for Reflection

How far are religious practices in the BECs, such as Bible sharing,
helping to create a counter culture which is questioning the
pragmatic and instrumental logic of post-modernism? Are its
religious practices strengthening and extending the bounds of
solidarity, nurturing ever greater sensitivity to social justice? Is
the spirituality of BECs enabling their members to live in the
94
India (secular state with large Hindu majority) and Indonesia (secular state with large
Muslim majority) have some of the most advances legislation on gender justice anywhere.
95 Claver, op cit. 160.

midst of both traditional local and modern global values systems,

enabling them consciously to decide upon what is of value, what
is possible? Is their spirituality making it possible for members to
attain their own forms of modernity, a world that is still populated
with both capricious nature spirits and protective ancestral spirits,
as well as ghosts and devils, the internet and hand phones?
Spirituality and Social Justice

As concerned Christians, members of BECs engage in analysing
social problems that they themselves face, and those faced by their
neighbours. They ask: who is benefiting what, who is loosing out and
why? How has the situation developed over the past five, ten, fifteen
years?
In multi-faith societies, socially-engaged BECs are almost
invariably open to inter-faith collaboration in efforts to lessen poverty
and stem corruption, to struggle for greater social justice and work for
more ecologically-enhancing economic development.

Do the religious practices of the BEC tend to make its members
more ready to accept their fate, remain passive and turn inwards
on themselves, or do their religious practices inspire them with the
Gospel vision of a community of equals living in loving solidarity
and compassionate justice? Do their religious practices tend to
make members quietly conformist or do they empower them to
readily resist social injustice?
This is not a question of selecting specific Bible passages or opting
for particular devotions, but rather the way the Bible and religious
practices are inducing basic attitudes.
Spirituality and People of Other Faith Traditions

Wherever Christians are a minority, as they are in Asia apart
from in the Philippines and Timor Leste, the choice is to withdraw
inwards, to reinforce what distinguishes us from others (rosaries,
statues, grottos, Marian pilgrimages), and reduce religious observance
to community ritual for individual comfort and support. The
alternative, the dream behind BECs, is that Gospel spirituality will

be appropriated through openness to the Spirit wherever She blows,
through dialogue with people of other faith communities, identifying
oneself as leaven, as salt, as a beacon in society. Surveys show that in
practice, a majority of BECs are concerned with their own members,
their personal, family and social life; only a minority reach out as a
small committed communities to engage with wider society. 96 Also,
research in five Indonesian cities found that Catholics active in the
charismatic movement had a decidedly more negative attitude to
Muslims than other Catholics.97

Does the stronger our faith identity, the more active our religious
involvement, and the more fervent our spiritual commitment,
inevitably entail a distancing from people of other faith traditions,
demand negative stereotyping? Is it to be expected that the
more fervent our spirituality, the less likely we are to listen and
learn from people of other faith traditions? Does openness to
“the other” always imply compromise, shallowness, a lack of
commitment?
Devotions celebrated in BECs can be specifically Catholic while
sensitive to members of the majority faith in a multi-religious society.
Religiosity can be ecumenical or exclusive, open to “the other” as
fellow pilgrims or set up impervious religious identity boundaries.
Spirituality and Popular Religiosity

Religious practices either reinforce a culture of the inarticulate
or free them from such. In the latter case, ordinary people are able
to make choices and claim a role in remaking their world. The spirit-
uality of popular religiosity can work both ways. Feeling powerless
96 For research in eastern Indonesia see Panda Koten, P., Potret Komunitas Basis
Gerejani Kita, Laporan Riset Candraditya 2004-2007. Maumere: Penerbit Ledalero &
Puslit Candraditya, 2009. For research in eight diverse Indonesian districts see: Laporan
Penelitian Kelompok Basis Gerejawi (KB) di Indonesia 2002-2004, Sawi, No.20, Jakarta
2009.
97 Subangun, E., Dekolonisasi Gereja di Indonesia, Suatu proses setengah hati, Jogyakarta
2003.

to improve the national political culture and faced with the erosion
of public ethics, which seem impervious to any action by the poor
majority, what remains is the “weapons of the weak”, that is, popular
rituals and devotions that symbolically resist the encroachment
of global and local capitalist tentacles of social injustice. Popular
rituals potentially play an important role in BECs, if and when
social movements for societal renewal have occasion to irrupt.98 A
mobilisation of concerned people to tackle political and economic
corruption, for instance, can transform the spiritual landscape of
BECs. Such “politics of conscience” can break through the enervating
dynamics of conventional popular religiosity. Suffering often lies at
the core of many popular devotions.
Spirituality and Suffering

Throughout much of Africa, Asia and Latin America, and by
no means confined to areas once colonised by Spain or Portugal, the
crucified Christ and the Mater Dolorosa are central in devotional
life. There is a stark difference between sentimental devotion and
biblically-inspired devotion. We can discern the difference in the way
devotions impact on life. The assimilation of Catholic devotions by
local indigenous cultures has taken place in quite diverse ways.
In parts of the Philippines, where young men have themselves
physically nailed to a cross on Good Friday, the pain inflicted is very
much a “shamanistic” exercise, a source of personal and spiritual
empowerment, whereby intense suffering provides the inner strength
to overcome the challenges of another year.99 In other areas, such as
in eastern Indonesia, crucifixion tableaus on Good Friday reinforce
a sense of helplessness, failure, sinfulness, of passive resignation to
painful fate.100
98 See: Scott, J.C., Weapons of the Weak, Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistancem, New
Haven 1985. Also: Domination and the Arts of Resistance, Hidden Transcripts, New Haven
1990.
99 For background see: Mesa, J. de, And God Said, “Bahala Na!” The Theme of Providence
in the Lowland Filipino Context, Quezon City 1979.

100 Kleden, P.B., Salib Yesus – Penderitaan Maria, Devosi Maria dalam Ibadat Jalan Salib
versi Solor-Lamaholot, Jurnal Ledalero, 10/2 (2011) 161-187.


Do the Stations of the Cross during Lent, the Holy Week liturgy,
and the tableaus on Good Friday reinforce a sense of helplessness,
inevitability, a quiet acceptance of fate? Conversely, does such
empathy with the suffering of the Crucified One and His mother,
open devotees up imaginatively to the suffering around them, and
so inspire them to do something to relieve it?
Popular religiosity reminds us of the importance of rituals and
devotions for the mass of ordinary people in rebuilding their world and
in creating solidarity. Both the role and the form that these rituals take
tell us how the weak can maintain a ray of hope in situations that do
not give any apparent cause for hope (see Rm 4:18). Through popular
devotions, the crushed reed will not be broken nor the faltering wick
snuffed out. (cf Is. 42:3)
Popular religious practices can increase personal and communal
self-respect, and strengthen trusting relationships among ordinary
people who refuse to resign to fate. Popular religious practices produce
an experience of solidarity and self-reliance, which in the right
conditions raises social awareness, giving rise to a spirit of struggle,
while increasing personal and communal self-respect.
It may well be that ordinary people in their BECs are creative
agents who, through their Bible sharing and popular devotions, are
forging their own identity in the face of a tsunami of social pressure.
The Spirituality of Bible Sharing

The majority of BECs are primarily concerned with their own
members. Many are comforted by traditional devotions while also
seeking spiritual insights for personal and family life in Bible sharing.
Meanwhile, a minority of BECs are socially engaged with followers of
other faith traditions, and read the Bible in order to discern Christ’s
presence in “the other”, and are involved in inter-faith networks for
social transformation.
Question for Reflection

What role is Bible sharing playing in solving the problems of daily
life, as families, neighbourhoods and with the wider society?

A transformative spirituality will approach the Bible in any

number of contextual ways, recognising the social, cultural, economic
and political context of any passage being pondered. For Bible sharing
is not just a sharing of experiences and insights; it is at the heart of
spirituality and leads to shared action with shared responsibility.
An example. One BEC has members who are HIV/AIDS survivors,
both widows and men, married and single, the young and not so
young. Most are returned migrants. Rejected by their families (what
spirituality is at work here?), and consciously ignored by the pastor
and pastoral council who “pass by on the other side” (Lk. 10: 31-32),
they meet regularly for mutual support, and to share information,
pain, problems and possibilities. In the Scriptures they have met Jesus
personally. On one occasion they shared the story of the sick man
at the Pool of Bethesda (Jn. 5:1-18).101 This reading gave them new
meaning, renewed strength, fresh hope and further self-respect as
friends and followers of Jesus, despite rejection by the wider society
and the official Church. The HIV/AIDS survivors manage to weave
the thread of social justice in the Gospel narratives with their life
situation. They discover a spirituality within and begin “drinking from
their own wells” (Prov. 5:15), and in so doing have become spiritually
somewhat independent from the parish.
BECs are creating spiritualities according to the needs of their
members, rooting them in an increasingly rootless society, and so they
discover a new vitality. When this happens, BEC biblical spirituality
can be seen as a form of local wisdom from which the official Church
can learn and grow.
Liturgical Spiritualities
Liturgical celebrations can also be influential on the spiritual life of
BEC members, for emotions, feelings and attitudes are fed by symbols
and rites more than by formal doctrine. In the context of BECs, the
celebration of the sacraments can be rooted in the life experience of
the people. This is not automatic.
Where Christians are a minority, or where social upheaval is
101 Trinold Asa, B., Memaknai Pengalaman Hidup Orang Dengan HIV/AIDS KDS Flores
Plus Support, Sebuah Refleksi Teologis-Biblis, Jurnal Ledalero 20/2 (2011), 231-248.
endemic, religion can tend to confine itself to ritual. Here liturgy is an

internal matter for the congregation, reinforcing personal commitment
and communal identity, a source of inspiration and comfort for
individuals and family life. The alternative, is to celebrate liturgy in
the BEC as the celebration of God’s creative and salvific presence in
the whole of life, a sacramental celebration of life’s value, meaning and
purpose in Christ. Such liturgies of Word and Eucharist can change
values, for instance, from tolerance of corruption, injustice and the
devastation of the ecology to acknowledging them as wrong, harmful
and destructive. With the accelerating destruction of communities and
the earth in much of Asia and Africa, such a spirituality sees the root
values of global capitalism as sinful: individual acquisition, unbridled
greed, the deification of the market place with the subjugation of
the poor to the profit of the super-rich. Such liturgies are at once all
embracing and prophetically challenging.

How creative and life-giving are our BEC liturgical celebrations?
Do they consciously unite the person and proclamation, the life
and deeds of Jesus the Christ with His members in the BEC, their
life and their daily struggle?
Liturgies can include or exclude, embrace or ignore. The joy of
our Catholic sacramental and prophetic worship can inspire daily life
when celebrated in small communities, when rooted in their daily
struggle.
Spirituality and Basic Ecclesial Communities

In this essay I have understood BECs to be relatively small
communities of trust, of around 15 to 20 families, who can easily get
together regularly to listen to and grapple with God’s Word, to share
daily issues and problems among themselves and in wider contexts,
and then seek out solutions in the light of God’s Word – and act on
them. Such BECs tend to act as semi-autonomous communities in
dynamic networks. However, where BECs are diocesan policy, it can
come about that every parish is divided into small groups, some of
which are true BECs, others little more than administrative units of
the parish that also gather for prayer.

The character of the BEC – a small creative faith community or,

conversely, a devotional and administrative unit, very much decides
which spirituality will be appropriated by its members. A clericalised
Church will tend to absorb BECs as administrative and devotional
units within a parish under the authority of the priest and his pastoral
council. Here spirituality gives personal comfort and sustenance in
patient hope for God’s shalom in the next life. On the other hand, a
participative, dialogal Church will make room for a variety of BECs,
ecclesial and social movements with varying relationships with parish
and diocese. Of these, many will mature with a socially-engaged
spirituality, a faith-based commitment actively witnessing to and
struggling for Gospel values in social life.
BECs and socially-engaged ecclesial movements and networks
are the best place to birth and mature a biblical spirituality, the small
trusting community where the members themselves learn to live and
act joyfully in solidarity with the victims of local and global injustice,
where they both spontaneously and consciously fuse the best of their
cultural values with those of the Gospel.
Exploring Closeness –
Small Christian Communities as hubs of pastoral care
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst
“The ‘door of faith’ (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering
us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his
Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is
proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming
grace.” These are the opening words of Benedict XVI’s motu proprio
entitled Porta Fidei102, with which he indicated a Year of Faith on
11 October 2011. He started his initiative with a word of gratitude,
calling to mind the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council
and expressing “[…] the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as
to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the
encounter with Christ.”103
Benedict XVI then develops this idea further, as a starting point
for the missionary propagation of the Christian faith: “We cannot
accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden (cf.
Matthew 5:13-16). The people of today can still experience the need to
go to the well, like the Samaritan woman, in order to hear Jesus, who
invites us to believe in him and to draw upon the source of living water
welling up within him (cf. John 4:14). We must rediscover a taste for
feeding ourselves on the word of God, faithfully handed down by the
Church, and on the bread of life (…).”104
The approach formulated here also characterises an initiative
called Small Christian Communities, which started in other parts
102 Benedict XVI., Apostolic Letter “Motu proprio data” Porta Fidei of the Supreme Pontiff
Benedict XVI for the Indication of the Year of Faith, 11 October 2011, Art. 1.
103 Ibid. Art. 2.
104 Ibid. Art. 3.
99
of the world and recently reached Europe.105 Inspired by positive

experiences in sister churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America,
including those that adopted the Asian Integral Pastoral Approach (an
initiative supported by missio Aachen), the idea of Small Christian
Communities gradually came to be adapted to German culture
from the late 1980s onwards. The basic idea of these Small Christian
Communities, which originated in South Africa, is that of a small
locally based group living out its Christian faith. It involves accepting
a challenge that was predicted as an important future development by
Karl Rahner in the 1970s: “The devout Christian of the future will either
be a ‘mystic’ (…) or will cease to be anything at all.”106 The concept of
a Small Christian Community is, therefore, a response to the situation
of Christians in society, a situation which is currently undergoing
substantial changes. Prompted by demographic developments, by an
increasing mobility of relationships within society and, in particular,
by a growing process of secularisation which encompasses all spheres
of life, Christians have been seeking ways to proclaim the Gospel with
a greater focus on mission.107 We cannot and must not close our eyes
to the fact that “the level of religiousness and Church has sunk to a low
point in our society and throughout Europe.”108
Set against this background and in sensitive perception of the
same, the German Bishops see the global community of faith in
the universal Church as an opportunity. In their pastoral letter “His
Salvation for all Nations” (2004) they say: “The universal Church as
105 See also: Hennecke, H., Kirche, die über den Jordan geht, Expeditionen ins Land der
Verheißung, Münster 2008; o. cit. (ed.), Kleine Christliche Gemeinschaften verstehen,
Ein Weg mit den Menschen zu sein, Würzburg 2009; Vellguth, K., Eine neue Art Kirche
zu sein, Entstehung und Verbreitung der Kleinen Christlichen Gemeinschaften und des
Bibel-Teilens in Afrika und Asien, Freiburger Theologische Studien, Volume 169, Freiburg
i.Br. 2005.
106 See also: Rahner, K., Frömmigkeit früher und heute, in: o. cit. Schriften zur Theologie,
Volume VII, Einsiedeln-Zurich, Cologne 1966, 22.

107 See also: Tebartz-van Elst, F.-P., Gemeinde in mobiler Gesellschaft. Kontexte – Kriterien
– Konkretionen, Studien zur Theologie und Praxis der Seelsorge, Volume 38, Würzburg
2001, especially 266-359; o. cit. Werte wahren – Gesellschaft gestalten, Plädoyer für eine
Politik mit christlichem Profil, Kevelaer 2012, especially 11-16; 19-32.
108 Kasper, W., Neue Evangelisierung, Eine pastorale, theologische und geistliche Heraus-
forderung, in: Augustin, G./ Krämer, K. (ed.), Mission als Herausforderung, Impulse zur
Neuevangelisierung, Theologie im Dialog, Volume 6, Freiburg i.Br. 2011, 23-39, 24.

Exploring Closeness 101
a community of faith is at the same time a learning community, a

community of prayer and a community of solidarity. As the universal
Church manifests itself through numerous local churches, which are
each rooted in their respective cultures, the universal Church is an
inter-cultural and inter-church learning community.”109
This fundamental attitude makes it possible to develop an
awareness whereby the experiences of other sister churches are seen
as an inspiration for one’s own situation. The purpose of this article
is, therefore, to take a close look at the initiative of Small Christian
Communities, as implemented and developed in Germany in recent
years, and then to report on specific steps taken in the Diocese of
Limburg.
Church in the neighbourhood

Small Christian Communities are very clearly based within their
local context. They follow the basic principle of manageable Christian
groups, comprising a small number of members, who live out their
Church-based Christian faith in everyday life. The term ‘community’
does not refer to the formation of spiritual fellowships in the sense of
spiritually like-minded Christians, organised in a wider context, e.g.
at the diocesan level or beyond.
Rather, the key concept for a Small Christian Community is
that of communio, i.e. a Church fellowship that can be experienced
specifically within a local church and thus within a parish and a
pastoral context. The reference point continues to be the communio
of the entire Church. For this purpose Small Christian Communities
endeavour to be Church at the truly local level, as outlined, in
particular, by Vatican II. Church is to be fully accessible in everyday
life, in all areas of life and thus ‘in the neighbourhood’. This is the sense
in which the communities see themselves as “the most local units of
the Church”110.
Mission der Weltkirche, Die deutschen Bischöfe, No. 76, Bonn 2004, 55.
110 Erklärung der ostafrikanischen Bischöfe, Kleine Christliche Gemeinschaften, 1979, in:
missio Aachen, Wir sind Kirche, Kleine Christliche Gemeinschaften in Ostafrika, missio-
Reihe, Volume 8, Aachen 1984, 8-16, 11.
Where Church is concerned, the concept of communio therefore

goes further than a spiritual community formed on a voluntary basis
and its manifestation is always geared to the surrounding locality. Small
Christian Communities do not wish to be elitist groups or “self-help
or life help groups on faith issues” (Bishop Wanke)111, but realisations
of Church in a given locality where each Christian understands the
calling received through baptism, or – as Benedict XVI reminded us
when he declared the Jubilee Year to the Apostle Paul: “The Church
is not an association that wishes to promote a certain cause. It is not
about a cause. It is about the person of Jesus Christ, who also as Risen
remained ‘flesh’. (see Luke 24:39) (…) He has a body. He is personally
present in the Church. ‘Head and Body’ form a single subject.”112
Witness of life – witness of the Word

Being aware of the inseparability of Christ and the Church and
experiencing his presence through Holy Scripture and the Sacrament,
the approach of Small Christian Communities is based on the desire
to give Christ room in everyday life through Scripture.
Small Christian Communities, therefore, put special emphasis
on sharing the Bible.113 However, this approach to God’s Word is
definitely not regarded as one (among many) method(s) of Bible study
or exegesis. “Rather, the purpose of sharing the Bible is that Christians
should experience the presence of Christ in the Word of God, an
experience that is theologically founded in Dei Verbum so that they
can enter into dialogue with Christ in a Church setting.”114 Interpreted
in this way, the idea of sharing the Bible is essentially Christological in
character: gathered together in prayer, Christian brothers and sisters
join together as they listen to the Lord who is present through the
Word of God in Holy Scripture. As the context is very clearly that of
communio and thus a Church-based fellowship, these communities go
111 Quoted from: Kehl, M., Die neuen ‘Lebenshilfegruppen im Glauben’ und die Priester,
in: Geist und Leben 78 (2005), 53-60.
112
Benedict XVI, Papal Homily at Vespers, inaugurating the Jubilee Year to the Apostle
Paul in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, 28 June 2008.
113 See box on (insert page number in text)
114
Hennecke, C., Kleine Christliche Gemeinschaften – eine kleine Navigationshilfe, in:
www.kcg-net.de (20 April 2012).

beyond any privately focused spiritual self-assurance in the sense of an

individualised journey of faith. The people of God, the Church, is the
subject of Scripture. “It is about experiencing the presence of Christ
in a way that manifests the Church. As Christians gather to hear the
Word of Christ, it becomes ‘incarnate’ in His Body. And His Body is
the Church, which – like Christ Himself – has the important mission
of proclaiming the good news to the poor.”115
115 Hennecke, C., Kirche, die über den Jordan geht, Expeditionen in das Land der
Verheißung, Münster 2008, 188.

Sharing the Bible 116

Sharing the Bible is more than a method of interpreting
Scripture. It is a way in which Christ Himself speaks
through His Word, meets people and makes them part of
his Body.
1. Welcome – sitting down with Christ
We welcome Christ who is in our midst. We realise that
He is the one who has invited us.
Facilitator: Let’s just spend some time appreciating that
the Lord is in our midst: Who would like to welcome Christ
in their own words?
2. Reading – hearing God’s Word
We give expression to God’s Word through our own
voices. Each voice conveys His Word.
Facilitator: Let’s open the Bible – the Book/Gospel/Epistle
of … chapter … (When everyone has opened their Bibles:)
Who would like to read out verses … to … ? Who would
like to read the passage for a second time?
3. Abiding – discovering hidden treasure
We let God’s Word speak to us. Christ speaks within
us.
Facilitator: We are now going to speak out certain words or
short phrases three times. Each time we will pause briefly
after the first and second times.
4. Silence – being aware of God’s presence
We are silent together. Now God can speak within us.
Facilitator: Let’s be silent for… minutes so that God can
speak to us.
5. Sharing – meeting with God together, through the
others
116 Procedure at a Bible-sharing session in: Hennecke, C., o. cit. 187.

We share what God is saying through us. The Body of

Christ can now grow among us.
Facilitator: Which word spoke to you? Let us talk about
the things that have touched our hearts.
6. Action – letting ourselves be inspired by God’s Word
“What is the specific purpose for which we are sent?”
– Decision-making as a communal process of spiritual
discernment.
Facilitator: We’re now going to talk about the task we are
facing and which we want to accept as a challenge.
7. Prayer
Having thought and talked about things, we are now
going to put them before the Father again. This is the
common priesthood of all believers.
Facilitator: Let us pray. Anyone who wants to is welcome
to pray freely in their own words. (Then:) Let’s finish with
a prayer or a song which we all know by heart.
Eucharistic position
The “incarnational principle” of Scripture is always clearly
related to the sacramental presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. This
connection was emphasised by Benedict XVI in the first volume of
his book about Jesus: “The connection with ‘God’s people’ as a subject
is vital for Scripture. On the one hand, this book – Scripture – is the
yardstick that has been set by God and gives direction to His people.
On the other hand, Scripture only lives within His people who reach
beyond themselves in Scripture in order to become God’s people in all
profoundness, as prompted by the incarnate Word. God’s people – the
Church – are the living subject of Scripture where the words of the Bible
are continually present. This naturally means that the people must see
themselves in this way, receiving this status from the incarnate Christ,
and that they must let themselves be directed, led and guided by Him.”117
In this sense Small Christian Communities are focused entirely on
the Eucharistic centre of the Church, the “fount and apex of the whole
Christian life”.118 Small Christian Communities derive their strength
not from within themselves or from meetings, but from the Eucharist
that is held within the parish or the church district as a celebration of
the one Church. “The Eucharist impacts the Church, and the Church
impacts the Eucharist.”119 This interconnection creates identity and
forms the very centre, which is manifested through Small Christian
Communities. It is by celebrating the Eucharist that the local church
bears testimony to the faith it shares with the Pope and with the local
bishop. This is what makes their faith Catholic. “The Bishop ensures
that his section of the Church should be Eucharistic, in other words,
that it should meet the basic purpose of the Eucharist, i.e. that his
local church should partake of communio and thus ‘communion’ of the
entire – one – Body of Christ.”120
117 Ratzinger, J. /Benedikt XVI., Jesus von Nazareth, Erster Teil, Von der Taufe im Jordan
bis zur Verklärung, Freiburg i.Br. 2007, 20.

118 LG 11.
119
Beinert, W., Eucharistie wirkt Kirche – Kirche wirkt Eucharistie, in: Stimmen der Zeit
122 (1997) 10, 665-677.
120 Tebartz-van Elst, F.-P., Der Kirche Gesicht und Stimme geben, Petrusdienst als
pastorale Sendung, in: Gänswein, G. (ed.), Benedikt XVI. Prominente über den Papst,
Illertissen 2012, 155-168, 161.

What enables and empowers Christians to offer a living testimony

is the official oversight and support they receive through the ministry of
preaching the Gospel and of maintaining unity, a ministry that is born
of the Eucharist. These connections give a Small Christian Community
a special awareness of its own mission: “The Eucharist creates the Body
of the Church, and the corporal character of Christian existence must
not be reduced to anything purely individualist or private in everyday
life. Church must continue to be a tangible experience in everyday
life, both when gathering together and in being sent out. Therefore it
manifests itself locally, as everyone living in this place is part of this
Church as a community. This is the only way that mission (i.e. being
sent out) can take shape.”121
Ministry to the world – a sign to the world

Faith comes through hearing. It does not come primarily through
logical conclusions or philosophical endeavours. Our faith develops
through fellowship (communio) and in response to the testimonies of
others. It is through a sacramental community and through listening
to Scripture that our faith also develops on a personal level. Yet it
cannot be reduced to a purely private sphere. Christian faith can never
be an end in itself, but must be testified through one’s own life. “Faith,
precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for
what one believes.”122
This shows very clearly what is also expressed at stage six in a
Bible-sharing session of a Small Christian Community (see above). It
is important to ensure that our own mission to the world, as a witness
of Christ, turns into action. It is very much part of the Eucharistic
essence of the Church that every Christian is called to become a sign
to others that God is present among men (sacrament).
This universal challenge to engage in missionary evangelisation
is met by the local and specific engagement of a Small Christian
Community. By offering a living testimony we also point to the
testimony of the Word. Christians thus become ‘placeholders of
121 Hennecke, C., o. cit. 191.

122
Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter “Motu proprio data” Porta Fidei of the Supreme Pontiff
Benedict XVI for the Indication of the Year of Faith, 11 October 2011, Art. 10.
God’ in the midst of the world, yet without losing their identity in
it. Benedict XVI particularly emphasises this point in connection
with the forthcoming Year of Faith: “Intent on gathering the signs of
the times in the present of history, faith commits every one of us to
become a living sign of the presence of the Risen Lord in the world.
What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness
of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and
capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God
and for true life, life without end.”123
Small Christian Communities in the Diocese of Limburg

The Church of Limburg sees itself as an active member of a
learning community – the universal Church. It is particularly through
partnerships with other local churches that we can draw on such an
immense wealth of experience. Limburg’s partner dioceses in Africa
and Asia show lively new beginnings within the Church in the form
of Small Christian Communities or Basic Ecclesial Communities. In
recent years many German dioceses have begun to take a close look at
this pastoral approach.
For thirty years the Church of Limburg has cultivated diocesan
partnerships with the global South. It is twinned with the dioceses
of Ndola in Zambia (1982), Alaminos in the Philippines (1987) and
Kumbo in Cameroon (1988), and with dioceses and archdioceses
in eastern and south-eastern Europe. Also, a wide variety of small
partnerships are in place at the levels of parishes and church districts.
Over the past ten years the Diocese of Limburg has received a great
deal of fresh impetus, all of it inspired – at the level of the universal
Church – by an exchange of experiences on those new pastoral
beginnings, supported by the missio project “Spirituality and Local
Church Development – Small Christian Communities in Germany”.
One project which focused special attention on the pastoral initiatives
of our sister churches was called SPRING, a Church development
project that was conducted three times between 2000 and 2006. This
project enabled small groups of guests to visit parishes and Church
districts in the Diocese of Limburg, where they reported on their
123 Ibid., Art. 15.

specific experiences. Arising from this experience of being a learning

community within the universal Church and based on a fact-finding
visit to the Diocese of Mumbai (India), a number of initial starting
points were developed, adopting the concept of Small Christian
Communities within the diocese and fulfilling the basic purpose of
those communities as outlined here. It turned out to be central to the
initiation of Small Christian Communities (not for their ‘foundation’
as spiritual communities!) that some burning persons124 should be
won over – local Christians who would generate enthusiasm and take
the first steps.
Small Christian Communities have so far formed in four Church
districts in the Diocese of Limburg, where they wish to test the idea.
In two places the relevant pastoral teams have been commissioned
to give active support to the experiment. This approach to pastoral
care is expressly supported under a diocesan process called “Prepared
to Move”. In August 2010 a five-year project unit was created under
Church Development. This has an emphasis on Small Christian
Communities and acts as a central point of contact. As well as
supporting experimental groups, the unit takes part in a nationwide
exchange of experiences and contributes to it.125 Moreover, a pilot
project has been launched in Bierstadt (in Wiesbaden) with the
express purpose of exploring further-reaching ideas that will help
forthcoming pastoral development processes in the diocese as it seeks
to create “parishes of a new type” within its wider local and social
context. The main purpose is to derive inspiration from the practice
of Small Christian Communities as a way towards the indispensable
closeness needed at the local level with its large structures and geogra-
phical areas.
The basic idea of Small Christian Communities as outlined in
this article – i.e. being a neighbourhood Church – derives its strength
from the interaction between the Word and the Sacrament, between
gathering and sending out, between the Christian creed and agape
124 The concept of ‘burning persons’ in this sense was coined in the churches of Asia. See
also: Tewes, D., Das Feuer anblasen, in: Unsere Seelsorge, November 2011, 28.
125 Mention should also be made in this context of the work of the National Small Christian
Communities Team in Germany which has been networking with the various new groups
in German dioceses. See: www.kcg-net.de/.
(confession and solidarity nourished by faith). In this way it helps the

local church to be close to its locality and to accept the challenges
we face today. Following the basic principles of these new beginnings
within the universal Church, as demonstrated at the local level by
Small Christian Communities, Benedict XVI encourages this pastoral
initiative: “In our day, all too often marked by incentives to indivi-
dualism, it is more necessary than ever that Christians offer the
witness of a solidarity that crosses every border to build a world in
which all feel welcomed and respected. Those who carry out this
mission personally or as a community sow the seeds of authentic love,
love that sets the heart free and brings everywhere that joy ‘that no one
can take away’ because it comes from the Lord.”126
126 Benedict XVI, Address to the Members of the Assembly of Organisations for Aid to the
Eastern Churches (ROACO), 23 June 2005.

Ecclesiological Understanding
of Small Christian Communities
Small Christian Communities as a New Way
of Becoming Church: Practice, Progress
and Prospects
Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator
We have to insist on building church life and work on Basic

Christian Communities in both rural and urban areas. Church life
must be based on the communities in which everyday life and work
take place: those basic and manageable social groups whose members
can experience real inter-personal relationships and feel a sense of
communal belonging, both in living and working. (AMECEA Study
Conference on “Planning for the Church in Eastern Africa in the
1980s,” Nairobi, Kenya, 1973).
The fortunes and prospects of Small Christian Communities
(SCCs) have risen and waned both historically and contextually.
Variously rendered as “basic ecclesial communities,” “living ecclesial
communities,” “basic Christian communities,” “basic church
communities,” “vital Christian communities,” “grassroots Christian
communities,” “small communities,” or “basic family communities,”
SCCs owe their origin to several factors.127 In Eastern Africa, SCCs
emerged in the 1970s as neighborhood associations or groups of
Christians, under the auspices of the Association of Member Episcopal
Conferences of Eastern Africa (AMECEA).128 The seminal option
127 Apparently there are as many as 3,000 names, expressions, titles and terms for SCCs/
BECs. Healey, J./ Hinton, J., Explanation of Terms, in: Healey, J. /Hinton, J. (ed.), Small
Christian Communities Today, Capturing the New Moment, New York 2005, 8.
128 Joseph Healey traces the origin of SCCs in Africa to the emergence of “Living
Ecclesial Communities” in: Zaire (now DR Congo) in 1961. “Timeline in the History and
Development of Small Christian Communities (SCCs) in Africa Especially Eastern Africa.”
Available at: http://www.smallchristiancommunities.org/africa/africa-continent/107-
timeline-in-the-history-and-development-of-small-christian-communities-sccs-in-
africa-especially-eastern-africa.html.
113
114 Ecclesiological Understanding of Small Christian Communities
by AMECEA to build SCCs as “local churches” inaugurated a new

ecclesiological reality in the region.
Initially conceived of as a pastoral strategy of evangelization
and inculturation of the church in Africa, SCCs offered alternative
ecclesial communities to correct the anonymity and impersonality
characteristic of membership in the large parish structure. “SCCs
were meant to be cells where the Christian faith would be intensely
lived and shared. They were in fact seen as the ecclesiastical extension
of the African extended family or clan.”129 Often described in
ecclesiological terms as “church in the neighborhood,”130 they were
to be small enough to facilitate close and meaningful relationship
and flexible enough to address a variety of issues in the everyday
life of Christians. In brief, SCCs were hailed as a new way of being
church and a “church on the move” under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit.131
The ecclesiological expression of SCCs corresponds to uniquely
African values of interdependence, harmony, cooperation and
hospitality that are constitutive elements of the human community.
Commonly rendered as “Ubuntu”, this anthropological principle
grounds the fundamental understanding of person-in-community as
wholeness, relationality and solidarity.132 In light of this understanding,
official texts defining SCCs as local churches emphasize the aspects of
communal belonging, inter-relationship and a shared vision of and
responsibility for the mission of the church in the local context.
As expressions of the church in its local context, there is no
exclusive definition of Small Christian Communities. The purposes
for such associations vary from place to place, but they follow some
129 Magesa, L., Anatomy of Inculturation, Transforming the Church in Africa, New York
2004, 43. See also: Cieslikiewicz, G., Pastoral Involvement of Parish-Based SCCs in Dar es
Salaam, in: Healey, J./ Hinton, J., Small Christian Communities Today, 101.
130 Mejia, R., The Church in the Neighborhood, Meetings for the Animation of Small
Christian Communities, Nairobi 1992; Omolo, A., Small Communities Light Up

Neighborhoods in Kisumu, Healey, J./ Hinton, J., Small Christian Communities Today,
110-114.
131
Healey, J./ Hinton, J., Introduction, A Second Wind, in: Healey, J./ Hinton, J., Small
Christian Communities Today, 4, 6.
132 See: Mason, C., Why Africa Matters, New York, 2010, 124-125.

Small Christian Communities as a New Way of Becoming Church 115
broad patterns in terms of the mode of operation. Typically, outside

of the standard parish devotional routine, SCCs meet regularly to
pray together and reflect on the word of God. This reflection either
anticipates the liturgical readings of the week or focuses on them
retrospectively. Besides the reflection on the word of God, SCCs
offer a locus for discussing common concerns of the local Christians.
Furthermore, they create a forum for members to plan particular
activities either in their locality or toward the fulfillment of certain
tasks assigned to the SCCs at the level of the parish community. More
importantly, the opportunity and occasion to meet as local Christians
serve to strengthen the bonds of communion among members of
Small Christian Communities.
SCCs, CEBs, BECs….: varieties of ecclesiological expressions

Small Christians Communities are present in various forms in
different parts of the world, but they have gained a distinctive ecclesio-
logical notoriety in Latin America. In this wider context the specificity
or uniqueness of SCCs in Africa does not appear obvious. In some
instances, they have been compared to and confused with the Latin
American model of Comunidades Eclesiales de Base (CEBs). The simila-
rities between both models of SCCs are noticeable, but the distinctions
are clear. The same can be said of the historical trajectory of the two
models. On the evidence of history, they are contemporaries, albeit
they developed on opposite ends of the globe.133 Their emergence is
coterminous, such that “it would be hard to establish clearly whether
one was prior to the other in logic or historical development.”134
Some criticisms of SCCs as pale replicas of CEBs or products
of the negative influences of CEBs seem unfair and baseless. In the
context of African ecclesiology, Oliver Onwubiko has lambasted BECs
(or CEBs) as “anti-church” and “anti-institutional church” and claimed
“that the BEC developed some specific dim characteristics, ecclesiolo-
gically speaking, because of lack of priests and priestly supervision.”135
133 See: Healey, Timeline.

134 Haight, R., Christian Community in History, Volume 2, New York 2005, 409.
135
Onwubiko, O., The Church in Mission, In the Light of Ecclesia in Africa, Nairobi 2001,
166-167. See my critique of his position in my: From Crisis to Kairos, The Mission of the
Church in the Time of HIV/AIDS, Refugees and Poverty, Nairobi 2005, 82.
His criticism, it must be said, is redolent of a theological position

that incorrectly assumes institutionalization and clerical control as
essential elements of ecclesiological configuration. As I will point out
below, clerical control and supervision account for some of the factors
militating against SCCs and BECs as actualizations of the church in
the local milieu.
Undoubtedly, the Latin American model of CEBs rests on a deeper
and much more articulated theology of liberation. This is partly due
to the fact that the socio-political and economic context of the Latin
American model is very different from that of the African model
of Small Christian Communities. Whereas the former developed a
strong consciousness and praxis of political engagement in view of
resisting systemic and structural forces of oppression and marginali-
zation, such cannot be said for the latter African model, where “social
issues are still marginal in the life of SCCs.”136 “The fact remains
that up to now African SCCs have been more effective in prayer and
mutual assistance among their members than in the sociopolitical
life.”137 Yet the desire for a more socially relevant and theologically
meaningful experience of the community called church remains the
shared characteristic of both models.
In considering SCCs in Africa, one needs to pay attention to the
context of their evolution and practice. As indicated above, SCCs
followed a clearly discernable path of development in Eastern Africa.
In particular, they received the approval and endorsement of ecclesia-
stical leadership. Several official documents of the leadership of the
church in Eastern Africa affirm the enduring value, pastoral necessity
and ecclesiological status of SCCs in the dioceses and archdioceses of
the region. Such ecclesiastical support for SCCs cannot be presumed in
the rest of the church in Africa. In West Africa, for example, with a few
exceptions, the development of SCCs appears to be less patterned or
systematic and more sporadic. In some parts of Nigeria, for example,
SCCs are referred to as “zones”. They engage in a variety of activities,
including prayer and devotions. Besides the focus on fundraising or
planning to take part in the activities of the parish, these “zones” can
hardly be called church in the neighborhood in the theological sense
136 Cieslikiewicz, Pastoral Involvement of Parish-Based SCCs in Dar es Salaam, 99.
137 Cieslikiewicz, Pastoral Involvement of Parish-Based SCCs in Dar es Salaam, 103.

of the term, as I have outlined above. In Central Africa region, a form

of SCCs has existed since the early 1960s. The emergence of these
groups can be attributed to the charismatic Cardinal Joseph Malula
who worked tirelessly to promote inculturation of the gospel not only
in the context of liturgy (for example, the Zairean Rite of the Roman
Missal), but also in the practice of Christian life in concrete context
of the parish.138 In this pastoral context, lay leaders were trained
and commissioned to take active responsibility for the organization
and leadership of parish life (as “Mokambi” or “head of the parish”),
while Christians were encouraged to gather in small communities or
living ecclesial communities for the purposes of promoting Christian
devotion and providing mutual self-help.139
Considered as local churches, SCCs face particular challenges that
ought to be understood in the cultural, theological and sociological
contexts of these Small Christian Communities. Some of these
challenges are evident in the following areas.
Gender in the ecclesiological practice of SCCs

A plethora of studies have observed the tendency of SCCs to attract
a predominantly female membership, leaving out the influential male
members of the community.140 “One of the greatest challenges for the
communities today is to succeed in getting men involved in the life of
SCCs…. It has been noticed that SCCs tend to turn easily into simple
prayer groups where the presence of women prevail.”141
Besides this gender imbalance, there is a cultural factor. Given the highly
patriarchal cultures of Africa, it is difficult, at best, and impossible,
at worst, to create and sustain neighborhood Christian communities
where women assume leadership positions unhindered or where men
138 Uzukwu, E., Worship as Body Language, Introduction to Christian Worship, An
Orientation, Collegeville, Minnesota 1997, 302ff.

139 See: Healey, Timeline; Léonard Santedi Kinkupu, Catholic Theology, African
Approaches and Elaborations from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Available at:
http://theo.kuleuven.be/insect/page/66/.
140 See for example: Uzukwu, E., A Listening Church, Autonomy and Communion in
African Churches, New York, 118.

141 Cieslikiewicz, Pastoral Involvement of Parish-Based SCCs in Dar es Salaam, 101-102. A
similar challenge concerns the inclusion of youth in Small Christian Communities or the
formation of SCCs of the youth.
would be content to play subsidiary roles. It is not uncommon that

where few men participate in SCCs, such men ‘naturally’ take over
the running of the communities; conversely, women tend to or are
coerced to acquiesce to the authority of the male members of Small
Christian Communities.
Taken together, such cultural factors consistently militate
against the functionality and effectiveness of SCCs as loci of ecclesial
communion, pastoral cooperation and equal participation. However,
viewed from a wider perspective, the higher proportion of female
membership of SCCs and their relative lack of effective authority
mirrors ministerial practices in the universal church which prioritizes
male authority and domination. Notwithstanding this situation, ample
room exists for a positive valuation of SCCs as the place where women
“assume a voice in a patriarchal culture” as well as relative authority
and prominence in the community of the church.142
Lay leadership of SCCs

From the perspective of the theology of the church and the
sociology of religious organization, SCCs are lay-led and lay-run
ecclesial communities. In SCCs, “the laity carry forward the cause of
the gospel … and are the vessels, the vehicles of ecclesial reality even
on the level of direction and decision-making.”143 Ideally, under this
arrangement, membership includes ordained clergy who participate
on equal footing as other lay members. In reality, however, this is
rarely the case. Just as male domination of SCCs mirrors practices
in the larger ecclesial community and secular society, sometimes the
involvement of clergy in SCCs turns them into “clerically supervised
community.”144 Consequently, clergy control and domination of the
affairs of SCCs undermine their creativity and functionality as a
community of lay faithful called to be the church in the neighborhood.
142 Haight, Christian Community, in: History, 419; Nasimiyu-Wasike, A., The Role of
Women in Small Christian Communities, in: Radoli, A., (ed.), The Local Church with
a Human Face, Eldoret 1996, 181-202; Radoli, A., (ed.), How Local is the Local Church?
Small Christian Communities and the Church in Eastern Africa, Eldoret 1993.
143
Boff, L., Ecclesiogenesis, The Base Communities Reinvent the Church, New York,
1986, 2.
144 Uzukwu, Worship as Body Language, 31.

A strong rationale for the development and growth of SCCs stems

from the fact that they serve as a means of localizing the church. This
implies a greater sense of ownership among Christians and increased
participation of the laity. Put differently, SCCs represent a form of
ecclesiological devolution that allows lay Christians to assume and
exercise leadership roles at local level. Accordingly, lay Christians
facilitate activities such as catechesis and the planning and preparation
for various sacraments. In some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, parish
catechetical programmes have been devolved to Small Christian
Communities. Each SCCs has its catechist or an equivalent minister
responsible for recruiting members for and organizing a variety of
sacramental and formational activities and services. For example,
besides the Eucharist celebrated on a regular basis in SCCs, sacraments,
such as baptism, marriage, anointing of the sick, and burial, are
offered through the network of Small Christian Communities. This
arrangement gives a vivid expression to SCCs as the church in the
neighborhood.
Notwithstanding the observation in the preceding paragraph,
in particular instances, the devolution of pastoral and sacrament
activities to the SCCs creates a bureaucratic hurdle in which the local
catechist and/or local leaders assume the unofficial role of gatekeepers
of the sacraments. They are at liberty to impose conditions and create
regulations that serve to determine access to certain sacraments by
the local Christians. In extreme circumstances, the imposition of
conditions and regulations can deteriorate into punitive measures.
According to a firsthand account, leaders of one SCC in Tanzania,
refused the rite of Christian burial to a deceased member of the SCC
on account of his non-attendance at meetings. While this represents
an extreme case, other examples include refusal of registration for
baptism and wedding for non-payment of dues, fees or levies. In its
extreme form, this practice undermines the very essence and rationale
of Small Christian Communities as expressions of the church in the
local context.
Ecclesial identity of SCCs: a new way of being church?

A related challenge concerns the theological evaluation and
precise meaning of the oft-repeated expression that SCCs are a
new way of being church. In particular instances, where the parish
structure remains dominant and parish-based devotional groups or

sodalities remain vibrant, questions emerge concerning the ecclesio-
logical status of Small Christian Communities. “Indeed, while some
dioceses in Eastern Africa see the function of SCCs as replacing the
parishes, others do not see the situation in that way.”145 For the most
part, however, the parish structure of the church remains widespread
and deeply rooted. As a result, “the popularity of pre-SCC parish
structure more often than not reduces the SCC to a prayer group
instead of a new burgeoning church structure for the renewal of the
community and the transformation of society.”146
Furthermore, taken as expressions of the church in the
neighborhood, SCCs contend with particular challenges that are
not so evident in a parish-based structure. In SCCs that are situated
in areas where a variety of ethnic affiliations and configurations
exists, membership can tend to be defined by such considerations
as ethnicity and cultural affiliation. Thus, where SCCs are supposed
to bridge such gaps, their organization can reinforce the lines of
division and separation. The level of belonging and participation of
membership would depend on how much members feel at home in
the community. The more ethnically homogenous, the deeper the
sense of belonging, but also the deeper the level of exclusivity of the
group. The temptation for SCCs to develop exclusivist tendencies has
been noted and condemned by the two African Synods.147
A variant of this tendency of exclusivity of membership along
particular ethnic lines exists at a sociological level. Not unlike the
145 Uzukwu, A., Listening Church, 119; in a similar manner, Boff distinguishes and
juxtaposes two “postconciliar” and “post-Medellin” ecclesiological models: a. “the church
as grand institution” of dioceses and parishes; b. church as “the network of the basic
communities.” Both models converge in a “dialectical interaction” of mutual reinforcement
and renewal – with the former not seeking to absorb the latter into its bureaucracy nor the
latter attempting to replace the former and “present itself as the only way of being church
today,” 7-9. Also see SCCs as means of renewing and transforming the institutional church,
“Introduction: A Second Wind,” in: Healey, J., /Hinton, J., Small Christian Communities
Today, 3.
146 Uzukwu, A Listening Church, 119.
147 John Paul II, Ecclesia in Africa (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation), 1995, no.
89; Propositio 35 of the Second African Synod (2009). See also Cieslikiewicz, “Pastoral
Involvement of Parish-Based SCCs in Dar es Salaam,” 105.

Latin American model, a noticeable feature of SCCs in Africa is that

they have tended to draw their membership from the class of the poor
and socially disadvantaged: “Small Christian Communities are still the
church of the poor and for the poor, helping to create an alternative
from the base.”148 The condition of women has been analyzed above,
but the key point here is the difficulty of SCCs to attract a more
socially diverse and integrated membership. Membership tends to be
socially exclusive – SCCs of the poor organize themselves separately
from SCCs of the middle class or the rich. Given the fact that SCCs are
organized geographically and in light of the fact that such geographical
configurations are also markers of economic and social affiliation, it
would be difficult to overcome this challenge.
However, it is important to note that one of the interesting features
of SCCs is that they can be intentional communities. This means that
geographical or socio-economic boundaries are not rigid lines of
demarcation for determining membership. Ideally, the development
of more socially diverse and economically integrated Small Christian
Communities remains a strong possibility. Unfortunately, where such
intentional communities exists, the social and economic bonds have
proved stronger than Christian and egalitarian principles. As a result,
“despite the support of the hierarchy for this new way of being church,
its appeal is more pronounced among the poorer classes than among
the middle class.”149
The future of SCCs as a new way of being church

Despite the challenges facing SCCs in their self-understanding as
“local churches,” it would be patently false to suggest that SCCs do
not allow for a positive valuation of the theology and practice of the
church in Africa. Several factors suggest positive and bright prospects
for SCCs as “kairos” events in the life of the church and “today’s new
way of being church from the bottom up.”150
Without a doubt, SCCs have facilitated a new understanding and
experience of the church in Africa. In local churches where they are
148 Healey, J. / Hinton, J., Introduction: A Second Wind, 3.
149 Uzukwu, A., Listening Church, 118.
150
Healey, J., Twelve Case Studies of Small Christian Communities in Eastern Africa, in:
Radoli, How Local is the Local Church?, 96.
integrated into the functioning of the community and, therefore, benefit

from the resources of the parishes for leadership, faith formation and
empowerment for service and ministry in fields as diverse as children,
youth, single mothers, widows, widowers, charitable assistance,
health, marriage counseling, support groups, income generating
activities, etc., they constitute ecclesiologically relevant and beneficial
communities. Due to the emergence and growth of SCCs, the church is
no longer considered a remote reality subject solely to the direction of
the ordained clergy. Whether as CEBs, BECs or SCCs, they “represent
for some churches – such as the Roman Catholic Church whose parish
congregations can be excessively large – a more effective organiza-
tional unit for making God’s word and sacrament relevant to actual
everyday life.”151 As ecclesial communities, they embody the meaning
of the church as the community of God’s people and the family of
God, where women and men feel a sense of belonging, celebrate their
shared faith and take responsibility for the mission of the church in
the local context. “The privileged place for translating this model
of Church as Family into reality is the Small Christian Community
(SCC). The SCC is the church in the neighborhood, which helps to
promote communion and co-responsibility, and give every member a
sense of belonging.”152
In terms of the ecclesiological profile of SCCs in the church,
the last two African synods have affirmed the significance of SCCs
as essential to the growth of the church in Africa. Although we can
expect the level of interest and support to vary from place to place,
the warrant supplied by the two synods will boost the ecclesiological
profile and development of Small Christian Communities.
The first African Synod (1994) specifically recognized SCCs as
the theological mainstay of the model of Church as Family of God.
According to the synod, “the Church as Family cannot reach her full
potential as Church unless she is divided into communities small
enough to foster close human relationships.”153 Such communities
are characterized by their commitment to the proclamation of the
151 Haight, Christian Community in History, 409.

152 Orobator, A.E., Theology Brewed, in: An African Pot, New York 2008, 90-91.
153 John Paul II, Ecclesia in Africa, no. 89.

gospel; they are attentive to the word of God, inclusive of all people,
and animate members in taking responsibility for the life and mission
of the church in the world.
In the context of the social mission of the church, the Second
African Synod (2009) underlined the critical status and role of SCCs as
agents, signs, loci, custodians and promoters of reconciliation, justice
and peace. “Together with the parish, the SCCs and the movements
and associations can be helpful places for accepting and living the gift
of reconciliation offered by Christ our peace. Each member of the
community must become a ‘guardian and host’ to the other: this is the
meaning of the sign of peace in the celebration of the Eucharist.”154
Several Episcopal conferences and diocese have underlined these
aspects of the ecclesiological roles of SCCs in their particular contexts
and circumstances.
Furthermore, theologians are taking keener interests in the
function, theology and development of Small Christian Communities.
More than ever before, there is a growing corpus of theological
scholarship devoted to Small Christian Communities.155 This suggests
a growing theological expertise in the theology and practice of SCCs
in the church. An offshoot of this increased level of theological interest
and scholarship dedicated to SCCs is the fact that they are being
integrated into the mainstream of theological education in seminaries
and theological faculties and colleges in Africa. Examples are not
hard to find. At least two theological colleges and faculties in Nairobi,
Kenya, offer compulsory courses on Small Christian Communities. In
one college, the theology of SCCs is an elective or optional course.
Finally, SCCs have become the loci of ecclesial mission and identity.
The gathering of Christians in the neighborhood is not only in the
name of the church but is church. In their localization and specificity,
SCCs actualize the mission of the church as both “sign and agent of
the kingdom of God”; in other words, “these small ‘churches’ empower
154 Benedict XIV, Africae Munus (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation), 2011, no. 134; see
no. 169 and no. 131.

155 Key monographs include Healey, J. /Hinton, J., Small Christian Communities Today;
Radoli, The Local Church with a Human Face; How Local is the Local Church?; Healey,
J., Building the Church as Family of God, Evaluation of Small Christian Communities in
Eastern Africa. Available at: www.smallchristiancommunities.org.
Christian existence in active, Christian subjects, and this manifests

itself in concrete ways.”156 In this way, at their best, SCCs internalize,
embody and exemplify the radical meaning of the theological insight
that the church is a community of the people, for the people and by the
people.
Conclusion: SCCs as communion and mission

In Eastern Africa, where SCCs have continued to thrive in their
thousands, some members have developed a unique formula for
greeting one another: one member calls out: “Jumuia Ndogondogo!”
(‘Small Christian Community!’); the other responds: “Roho mmoja,
Moyo mmoja katika Kristu!” (‘One spirit, one heart in Christ’).
Communion of heart and spirit is central to the ecclesiological
comprehension of Small Christian Communities. Their existence
reflects the notion of the church as a communion of communities.
Although part of the rationale for their existence is the fostering of
close inter-personal relationship and communal belonging, they are
not closed communities. Essentially, they are communities for mission:
announcing the Good News in the local context of the community
called church.
Although some would argue that SCCs have never really fulfilled
their potential as the expression of the church alive and active in the
local context of the Christian community, a definitive judgment on
their success or failure would appear premature. In Africa, SCCs have
experienced at least four decades of development and growth as the
local embodiment of the meaning, theology and function of the church.
Understandably, the rate of success varies from region to region. The
initial enthusiastic proclamation of SCCs as the catalyst of a global
ecclesiological renaissance has met with the realism of established
ecclesial structures and hierarchical propensity for the preservation of
the tried and tested pastoral strategies of evangelization and incultu-
ration.157 Thus, in assessing the fulfillment of the promise of SCCs, it
is important to take a long view and affirm with Boff that “this is still
156 Haight, Christian Community in History, 417.

157 At the height of the flourishing of CEBs, Latin American liberation theologians referred
to them using the evocative term ‘ecclesiogenesis’. Boff, Ecclesiogenesis, 2; see 4.

just beginning, still in process. It is not accomplished reality.”158 Small

Christian Communities represent a way of becoming church; they are
not a finished product or prefabricated ecclesial reality. In this sense,
process takes precedence over event as key markers of the ecclesio-
logical comprehension of Small Christian Communities.
The significant factors of the future development of SCCs include
the level and nature of interest from ecclesiastical leadership, the
commitment to the formation and empowerment of the lay faithful
and the relative strength of negative socio-economic and cultural
factors, some of which have been outlined above. Along with the
need for ongoing critical reflection on the present organization and
practices of SCCs, much still needs to be done to develop the theology
of Small Christian Communities as church in the neighborhood. This
theology ought to facilitate the expansion of the missionary focus of
SCCs to include attention to socio-political, ecological and economic
conditions of their context. In this vein, SCCs in Africa would have
much to learn from the history and praxis of the Latin American
model, while, at the same time, developing a distinctively African
model of Small Christian Communities as a new way of becoming
church.
158 Boff, Ecclesiogenesis, 2.

An Ecclesiological Approach to Small Christian
Communities – An ecclesiology that promotes
and supports them
Barbara Sweet-Hansen
“But what are today’s churches if not just tombs

and pantheons of God?” 159
Friedrich Nietzsche
It is fascinating to approach Nietzsche’s essay “The Madman”

with its assertion that “God is dead” from a hermeneutic perspective.
Our postmodern epoch is witnessing a search for coherence amidst
distraction accompanied by atomism.
It may be that “The Madman” represents coherence, a notion I
find stimulating. It brings to life the persuasive words and careers of
such people as Oscar Arnulfo Romero, Ignacio Ellacuría, Gustavo
Gutiérrez, Jon Sobrino, Leonardo Boff, Helder Cámara, Pedro
Casaldáliga, Ernesto Cardenal and so many other ‘madmen’ (and
‘madwomen’, who still exist, even if they are condemned to silence),
who have left the pantheon to seek God and Jesus in the wider church
formed by the street, the neighbourhood, the slums and the suburbs,
159 Nietzsche, F., Der tolle Mensch, in: idem, Gesammelte Werke, Die fröhliche Wissen-
schaft, Munich, 1924, Section 125. The statement that “God is dead” and the equally
well-known formulation of the “death of God” is usually attributed to the German
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. However, it appeared earlier in Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hegel’s Phänomenologie des Geistes, in: Gesammelte Werke, edited by Bonsiepen, W. /
Heede, R., Vol. 9, Hamburg, 1980, 435. Here reference has been made to: Die fröhliche
Wissenschaft (“The Gay Science”) Section 108 (“New Struggles”), Section 125 (“The
Madman”) and Section 343 (“On the Meaning of Our Cheerfulness”). These texts are also
to be found in Thus spake Zarathustra, the book we have to thank for the wide dissemi-
nation of this expression.
127
while at the same time pointing up the solution to the present day’s
manifest paradox of cognitive dissonance. In so doing, they wish to
put an end to an epoch of despair and suffering and open the door to
laughter, prosperity and plenty so that everyone with restored dignity
can taste their freedom and jump for joy – in our shared home on
Mother Earth as it spins through the infinity of the universe.160
These voices cry out together with those who, like the ‘madman’,
are trying to tell us with their hoarse and scarcely audible sounds that
for them God is dead and Jesus, too, because we have thrust them
aside and forgotten them. But there are other, bolder voices whose
owners tell us with their lives: No! There is good news. These people
are telling us that the legacy of Jesus of Nazareth, who lived in poverty
among the poor, must spur us on to do all in our power to redefine
‘church’.
These people were able to ‘reinvent’ an ecclesiology. They did so
by reviving historical models from the remote past, returning to the
original meaning of the term ‘church’ and risking their lives by bearing
living witness in order to produce a model that is to be found in the
street, among simple folk, and in the vastness of the Kingdom of God.
We shall briefly recall a very broad and general definition of
ecclesiology – even at the risk of repeating something that for many
goes without saying – before proceeding to take a closer look at three
perspectives that will help us to present the ecclesiology that sustains
the small communities. They are the following:
• the perspective of the ‘founding tradition’ or the historical
path that leads to the definition of an ecclesiology;
• the perspective of the ecclesiastical models which, inspired
by the Second Vatican Council and the synods of bishops of
Medellín and Puebla,161 call for a radical leap in the identity
of the church itself, and
• the perspective of those who risk their lives to build bridges…
160 Cf. Luke 6:20-26: “The Beatitudes”.

161
The documents are accessible in Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (ed.),
Die Kirche Lateinamerikas. Dokumente der 2. und 3. Generalversammlung des latein-
amerikanischen Episkopates in Medellín and Puebla (6.9.1968 / 13.2.1979), Stimmen der
Weltkirche, no. 8, Bonn, n.d. (translator’s note)
Ecclesiological Approach to Small Christian Communities
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In conclusion we shall take a closer look at the title of this paper:

“Ecclesiological Understanding of Small Christian Communities or
Basic Ecclesial Communities”.
Understanding the term ecclesiology

The term ecclesiology comes from the Greek word ekklesía, which
in turn is composed of two parts: ek = outside the group, and kaléo = to
call. In ancient times the term ekklesía was used to designate a group of
people who were summoned to take part in a public meeting. The type
of meeting was not important.162 From a secular or political perspective
‘the summoning of the citizens’ implied that the Attic ekklesía was a
meeting at which the overwhelming majority of participants remained
silent.163
In this secular-political context the agora, according to John
Stuart Mill, was interpreted not only as a physical presence, but as a
totality of ‘voices’ which were represented proportionally.164
In the writings of the Covenant two Hebrew terms are used to
designate the meeting of God’s Chosen People, the Israelites. The
term edhah, whose secular meaning referred to the grain or wine
harvests, also describes the group formed to carry out a specific task.
Its root means ‘assemble’ or simply ‘assembly’. In the translation of
the Septuagint the Hebrew word edhah is translated as sinagoga or
‘bring together’. Later, in the revised versions, ‘assembly’ (or in the
162 Ekklesiologie, in: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekklesiologie.

163 The basic principle of Attic democracy consisted in the isegoria or the individual’s right
to speak at a meeting. The prytanes introduced a system of remuneration in cash so as
to ensure attendance and not to enable people to speak. Prytanes were members of the
fifty advisory commissions formed out of the 500-member Senate and held the presidency
of the Senate for about a tenth of the year. These details are taken from a monograph
by Bishop Ruben González Medina, La iglesia local: la reunión de los “cuerpos”como el
símbolo dinámico de la encarnación, Caguas, 2005. Quoted with express permission of the
author.
164 Cf. Mill, J. S., Considerations on Representative Government, in: idem, On Liberty and
Other Essays, edited by Grey, J, Oxford/New York 1991. It should be noted that the meeting
in the Agora claimed the right to inspect the ‘Executive’, make its activities public, demand
a justification of these activities, and finally even the right to censure the politicians and
remove them from public office. This implied a power of control designed to ensure the
‘freedom of the nation’.
verbal form ‘to assemble’) is used. The other Hebrew term is tahal,
whose root means ‘to call’ or ‘to call together’.165 This means that those
who are called or summoned assemble at the designated location for
a specific purpose.
In this way the Greeks combined the meanings of these terms and
gave them an additional and more differentiated meaning than that of
the Hebrew harvest or the mere assembling of citizens in a city-state.
In doing so they re-interpreted their definitions of ekklesía and ágora.
Ágora and ekklesía were to be translations that somehow assumed the
external written form as understood from the Hebrew writings. As
so often happens with translations, the particular meaning of these
external written forms in the original language was lost in the course
of translation.
Definition of ‘ecclesiology’ in the light of theological history

Since the earliest dialogues of Genesis, the sacrifice of the
Covenant in Exodus (24:3-8), and the promises of the prophets to the
table fellowship of Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 2:15-16; 6: 34-37; 15:40-41;
Luke 15:2; 14:12-24; 7:31-32…) we find God taking the initiative in
gathering his people and entering into a dialogue with them. This
means that it is not just a question of physical, silent and passive
presence, but of a real dialogue which assumes an ‘oral’ exchange and
hence a relationship of mutuality. The various examples to be found
in the biblical texts make it clear how anxious God is to do this. How
does it come about that the ecclesiastical and secular authorities are
re-interpreting this original and fundamental gesture of God’s?
Early sources contain indications of the existence of sites for
meetings at the gates of settlements where, among other things, the
law was read and discussed. This led to assemblies being tied to
specific sites: in Hebrew these meeting sites were called Bet Knesset,
while Bet Midrash – in Greek oikos paideia – referred to the sites of
meetings with a more or less didactic purpose.166 In Palestine a Greek
form of voluntary organization was introduced. Thus there arose the
165 Cf. Peláez del Rosal, J., La Sinagoga, Córdoba, 1988.
166
Cf. Runesson, A., The Nature and Origins of the 1st Century Synagogue, in: http://
www.bibleinter com/articles/Runesson-1st-Century_Synagogue_1.htm, retrieved on 22
March 2012.
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institution of the synagogue with a clearly defined purpose: reading

and studying the Torah.167
The terms sunagoge or proseuche refer to the places for the meeting
or the study of the Torah. By the first century A.D. the synagogue
was designated as an official institution with its own hierarchy of
office-holders.168
Following the establishment of the synagogue as an institution a
dispute broke out among the populace about who should be admitted
to the formal synagogue and who should not.169 The need of the rural
population to continue to cultivate their religious practices led to the
setting up of what were known as ‘prayer houses’, which were open
to the common people and any who were marginalized for social or
religious reasons.170
In this difficult context we encounter in the scriptures the ish
ha’Elohim,171 or men of God, who at that time and under the then
prevailing circumstances had the gift of performing certain acts for
the benefit of the people – not through any merit of their own, but
because of their special proximity to God when it came to easing the
lot of the poor.172 The various titles attributed to Jesus in the scriptures
correspond exactly to those of these holy men173 to such an extent
that it was possible to say about Jesus of Nazareth that he was an
exceptional and charismatic Galilean Jasid. The Hellenistic influence
167 Cf. Horsley, R., Galilee - History, Politics, People, Valley Forge, 1995, 22-231. Cf.
Anders Runesson, o. cit.

168 Cf. ibid.
169
It should be noted that the laws on cleanliness and patronage excluded those who
could not claim any family relations or patronage, as well as the sick, women, etc. Cf.
Malina, B., The Social Gospel of Jesus, The Kingdom of God in Mediterranean Perspective,
Minneapolis 2001.
170 Cf. Horsley, R.A., o. cit.
171 Vermès, G., Jesus in his Jewish Context, Minneapolis 2003; idem, Jesus in the Jewish
World, London 2010 (especially Chapter 2: “Jesus the Jew and His Religion”, 18-30). See
also: Segal, J.B., Popular Religion in Ancient Israel. Manuscript of a paper given at the
Society for Old Testament Study, Manchester, on 26 July 1973; see especially 20-22.
172 People like ‘Elias’ are mentioned, and Honi and Hanania ben Dosa as direct benefactors
of humanity and mediators of God, with whom they have a particularly close relationship.
Ibid. 21.
173 Ibid. 18-30 and Segal, o. cit.
notwithstanding, the religion, the oral tradition and the childhood of

Jesus were Jewish and subject to the Jewish laws and their provisions,
albeit more in the natural or popular religious than in the formal sense
[…].174
It is against this background that the cry breaks forth of those
demanding a Messiah who will bring the Kingdom of God… There is
an interesting document that explains this cry.
“The Talmud contains an expression which means: ‘to force
an issue’. This means (in the literal sense), to force God to send the
Messiah – the Kingdom of God – down to earth. Judaism has, in its
time, entertained various notions about the coming of the Messiah
[…]. Some think he will come on the day of Tisha B’Av, the memorial
day of the destruction of the two temples, and will therefore be a
nationalist Messiah. Another possible date is the first day of Tishra,
the day on which God created humankind, which moves others to
think he will be a universal Messiah.”175
The zealots in the Jewish War and the Bar Kokhba Revolt
attempted to ‘force the issue’. Their expectation was directed towards
political liberation. Jesus tried to bring the Kingdom of Heaven. For
the Jews of 2000 years ago political freedom was a religious ideal.
There was no separation of church and state. All were activists for the
Kingdom of God – some, like the followers of Judas the Galilean and
his descendants, decided in favour of violence, while others, like Jesus,
did not.176
The circumstances described above make it clear that there is
a natural human inclination to join forces and that this tendency
persists. This is a profound value that speaks to us from the depths
of the collective consciousness and which we experience as a call, a
summons, to rally round. It is as if the coming together of human
beings, for whatever purpose, is an element that binds identity to a
larger entity.177
174 Ibid. 21.

175 Cf. Reiss, M., Christianity, A Jewish Perspective, in: http://www.moshereiss.org/
christianity/02_tradition/02_tradition.htm, retrieved on 22 March 2012.
176 Cf. ibid.
177 Of interest in this connection is the valuable and wide-ranging study by Hans de Wit
An 133
In that social situation and borne by the cry for liberation by

the hoped-for Messiah the ‘incarnation’ comes to pass, as it has been
handed down to us by the Christian tradition or by the post-Easter
version of the first communities.
Jesus burst into this world and gave the whole epoch new life with
a radical style and a completely different way of interpreting Jewish law
and understanding contemporary society. Luke places the beginning
of Jesus’ activities in the context of a liberation/healing in the ‘here and
now’. Luke 4:14-21 is a key text and ends with the statement: “This text
is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.”
Against the background of the preceding explanations we
understand ekklesía, or church, to mean a space, a human collective,
a meeting of individual human beings with voices, as a conceptual
notion which has been analysed in the light of various interpretative
theories, has experienced a development and possesses a meaning
that crystallized in the New Testament with the connotation of ‘being
summoned’ and the ‘Christian community’ which, according to some
interpretations, extends right up into our own time.
The reports in the four gospels arouse in us the desire to follow
this man who, because of his exceptional proximity to God – whom
he called Father – exercised such a great influence on a society torn
by claims to power. Jesus died because he had become a threat to
these claims. His first followers of both sexes were left behind, sad and
confused.
Pablo Richard comments on this idyllic story which the Apostles
have served up to us as follows. “It gives a false picture of the beginnings
of Christianity as a single movement with a single institutional
structure and a single body of doctrine which is supposed to have split
up into all directions only later.”178 The image of the Body of Christ, to
which Paul appeals, is an attempt to integrate the differences.
with the significant title: En la dispersión el texto es patria, Vols. 1 and 2: Introducción a
la hermenéutica clásica, moderna y posmoderna, San José, 2002. What unites us in the
Diaspora, what unites us in our postmodern, distracted and atomized world?
178 Richard, P., Los diversos orígenes del cristianismo, Una visión de conjunto (30-70 d.C.),
in:. Pixley, J.V. et al. (ed.), Cristianismos originarios (30-70 d.C.), Revista de Interpretación
Bíblica Latinoamericana, vol. 22, Quito, 1996, 7-20.
González Faus expresses this as follows: “The New Testament

offers no uniform and obligatory model for structuring the church
(let alone one handed down by Jesus or the Apostles). It only offers
various examples of how different churches structured themselves in
response to the needs and requirements of various historical models.
[…].”179
The fact that this movement and the emergent communities were
able to spread out at the fringes of the prevailing power structures
seems hard to explain.
In the third century there were Christian centres in southern
Spain, southern France and the British Isles with their own local
bishops. The persecutions they were exposed to, however, soon
forced the Christians to flee, which resulted in the rapid dissemi-
nation of the Christian message. This made it essential to structure
the communities and introduce various offices. Rome, the site of the
martyrdoms of Peter and Paul, was regarded as the centre. Ignatius of
Antioch recognized the church of Rome as the guardian and dispenser
of the ‘agape’.180
The following centuries were spent in strengthening the identity
of the Church, both in a structural and legal sense and in its theological
and spiritual aspects. To this end the communities, which had been
largely autonomous, subordinated themselves to the central authority
of Rome. In doing so they had every intention of organizing and
standardizing their unwavering devotion to the gospel of Jesus. The
fight against heresies, the official confirmation of the future canon of
the New Testament and the Christological definitions, and the final
recognition of Rome as the highest political and military power tell
179
González Faus, J.I., Hombres de la comunidad, Apuntes sobre el ministerio eclesial,
Santander, 1989, 30.
180 ‘Ignatius of Antioch’, in: The Encyclopaedia Britannica, (http://www.britannica.com/
eb/article? tocId=3478>, retrieved on 23 March 2012). “Irenaeus of Lyons and Cyprian of
Carthage confirmed their adherence to the Catholic faith, and this meant their assent to
the See of Rome. The Epistles of Cyprian of Carthage offer a wealth of information on one
of the most interesting moments in the history of the Church. Although the persecution
continued, the ethical and theological positions laid down in the collection To Quirinus:
Three Books of Testimonies (Testimoniorum libri tres ad Quirinum) were confirmed.
In the document On the Unity of the Catholic Church (De catholicae ecclesiae unitate)
Cyprian explained the meaning and the spirit of early Christianity.”
An 135
of the problems they were facing, although these did not manage to
obliterate the central message altogether, even if it did suffer a loss of
clarity under the pressure of events.
The conquistadors were to have brought the Christian message to
the New World, but they did so in a spirit of occupation and coloni-
zation which had more to do with oppression and slavery than the Glad
Tidings of the Kingdom of God as preached by Jesus. They brought
in their sea chests a collection of dogmas, rites and laws which even
questioned the humanity of the original inhabitants of these exotic
climes. The history of Latin America and the Caribbean is a history
of manipulation, blood, suffering, oppression, corrupt rulers, capitu-
lations to big landowners and struggles for survival. Latin America
was defined as a ‘Third World’, with all that the term implies. For the
Church Latin America suddenly became an ‘area of missionary activity’.
Its dealings with the native inhabitants were largely characterized by
paternalism and condescension. Not until the Second Vatican Council
would it contribute to a qualitative leap forward. From this moment
on the Latin American church gained in awareness and maturity. It
began, in fact, to open its eyes and its ears.
The ecclesiastical models

In his work Teología Práctica181 Casiano Floristán Samanes
gives a historical chronicle of the authors who developed the various
structural and spiritual notions designed to explain the development
of the identity of the Church. We shall permit ourselves to emphasize
those elements which, in our opinion, form or express the ecclesio-
logical model on which today’s Small Christian Communities, or
CEBs, are based. The term ‘paradigm’ is more comprehensive than
the term ‘model’, especially as this is an attempt to put the approaches
suggested by the paradigm into practice.
Hans Küng proposes six major paradigms:182 the proto-Christian/
Jewish eschatological paradigm; the ancient Hellenistic/Byzantine
paradigm; the mediaeval Roman Catholic paradigm; the Protestant
181 Floristan Samanes, C., Teología Práctica, Teoría y Praxis de la Acción Pastoral,
Salamanca, 1993.
182 Küng, H., Camibos de modelo de Iglesia en la marcha del pueblo de Dios, in: http://
servicioskoinonia.org/relat/265.htm, 2 February 2005.

Reform; the paradigm of the Enlightened Modern Age; and, finally, the
paradigm of the Post-enlightened, Postmodern Age.183
Marins and his research team184 have presented six models for
discussion: the Church as institution; the Church as sacrament; the
Church as Word; the Church as ministry; the Church as community
and liberation; and the Church of the people, a liberating and Easter
community, which is reflected in the Basic Ecclesial Communities of
Latin America and is in keeping with the five models presented by
Avery Dulles: the Church as perfect society; the Church as mystic
community; the model of the sacramental Church; the model of the
promulgating Church; and the model of the ministerial Church.
The descriptions presented by Dulles185 are based on a multidis-
ciplinary study of the changes that have taken place in the theology of
the Church in the course of its history. They represent a development
which acts as a guide for interpreting the model derived from the
Second Vatican Council.
With regard to the ‘ecclesiastical practice’ of Latin America,
Leonardo Boff describes four models: the Church as civitas Dei (totality
ad intra); the Church as Mater et Magistra (former colonial pact);
the Church as sacramentum salutis (modernization of the Church);
and the Church of the poor (a new model of liberation theology and
practice).186
Joaquín Losada Espinosa, on the other hand, distinguishes four
models of the Church: the exorcist Church; the Church as Ark of
the Covenant; the Church as Mater et Magistra; and the prophetic
and ministerial church.187 Victor Codina enumerates three models: a
pre-Council model;188 a Council model rooted in the community or a
183 Ibid.
184 Cf. Marins, J. et al., Modelos de Iglesia, CEB en América Latina, Hacia un modelo
liberador, Bogotá, 1976, 40, quoted after Casiano Floristán Samanes, o. cit.
185 Cf. Dulles, A., Models of the Church, Dublin, 1988.
186
Cf. Boff, L., Kirche, Charisma und Macht, Studien zu einer streitbaren Ekklesiologie,
Düsseldorf 1985, 15-30.
187 Cf. Losada Espinosa, J., Distintas imágenes de la Iglesia, Madrid, 1983, 23-52, quoted
after Casiano Floristán Samanes, o. cit.
188 Cf. Codina, V., Tres modelos de eclesiología, in: Estudios Eclesiásticos 58 (1983), 55-82.
An 137
charismatic-communal model; a post-Council model as exemplified

by Medellín and Puebla, and a historically liberating model of the
Church of the poor and oppressed.
This demonstration of the diversity of ecclesiastical models
requires us not only to analyse the individual models, but also to draw
conclusions from their practical application, but that would take us
beyond the scope of the present paper. This highlights the option
of the synods of Medellín and Puebla: Medellín takes the clear and
straightforward option of going with the poor, whereas Puebla dilutes
this option somewhat, while basically retaining the option for the
poor. Medellín revives the original and unusual decision taken by
forty bishops in the Catacomb Pact under the exhaustive title “For
a Poor and Ministerial Church”.189 “The light for the nations” of this
original biblical option has been gradually extinguished and, with the
exception of some “madmen and women” [although the reference is
again to Nietzsche, the German word toll (= mad) is used informally
in modern German to mean ‘great’ or ‘wonderful’. Tr. note], the option
for a triumphalist Church generates a palpable tension which could
lead to a split.
“After Puebla,” said José Comblin, “there began the Church of
silence. The Church had nothing more to say.”190 Santo Domingo191
meant an about-turn and an attempt at a Neo-Christendom. In this
The pre-Council model is described by Antonio José de Almeida as an institutionally

hierarchical ecclesiastical model. Cf. Modelos eclesiológicos e ministerios eclesiais, in:
Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira 48 (1988) 310-352, quoted after Casiano Floristán Samanes,
o. cit.
189
Comblin, J., La Iglesia de los pobres y la experiencia de Dios, in: http://www.cristia-
nismeimondavui.org/vincles/ponenciaProzent20JProzent20Comblin.pdf, retrieved on
24 March 2012. See: “Der Katakombenpakt” in: http://www.konzilsvaeter.de/referenzen/
deutsch/index.html, retrieved on 24 March 2012. Cf. also: http://blogs.periodistadigital.
com/contracorriente.php/2010/05/06/p269890 as well as http://stefansilber.blogspot.
com/2010/04/eine-neue-seite-zum-ii-vatikanischen.html.
190 José Comblin quoted after Jon Sobrino in the article, El Pacto de las Catacumbas, on the
occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dom Helder Cámara, in: http://evangeli-
zadorasdelosapostoles.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/el-pacto-de-las-catatumbas/, retrieved
on 23 March 2012.
191 Cf. CELAM, Neue Evangelisierung, Förderung des Menschen, Christliche Kultur.
Schlußdokument der 4. Generalversammlung der lateinamerikanischen Bischöfe in Santo

Domingo, Stimmen der Weltkirche, no. 34, Bonn 1993.
connection Oscar Elizalde remarked: A small, but significant proof of

the profound breach this entailed (he was referring to Santo Domingo)
is reflected in the following quotation: “The parish is called upon to be
a community of communities and movements (Santo Domingo, no.
58).” And he continued: “This clearly shows that in Santo Domingo
the CEBs are allocated to the same category as the movements and
subsumed under the same identity. In other words, it is assumed that
the Church is both community and movements. We are left doubting
whether the neo-conservative movements are also backers of the
communion.”192
According to Comblin, Aparecida193 has applied the brakes
slightly, but in a Church that has not yet performed that “historical
turnaround” which Ellacuría called for to heal a seriously sick society.
This means that we must return to being a Church of the poor and
work towards that goal. Since the death of Mgr. Romero the situation
in San Salvador has grown markedly worse, making the necessity of a
restoration of the Church greater than ever.
How is this necessary restoration of the Church to be understood?

It is the testimonials of the ‘madmen and madwomen’ who, armed
with a new understanding, ventured forth into an absolute vacuum,
that enable us to understand the restoration of the Church, which
is still going through a process of atrophy. All depends on life itself,
which will force a change of style, as is shown by these testimonials.
The key to their understanding lies in going to and experiencing these
192 Elizalde, O., Eclesiología Pueblo de Dios – Comunión de Medellín a Aparecida. (This
text came into our possession without any further information than that given here.) It is
also worth reading the text Aparecida: Renacer de una esperanza, in the presentation of
which D. Demetrio Valentini had the following to say: “At the beginning of the conference
the Basic Ecclesial Communities ran up against the pig-headedness of some who even
wished to suppress any mention of them, but they were finally included in the document
as a way of life, even if this chapter has now undergone profound changes as a result of
the inserted modifications.” This digital book belongs to the Fundación Amerindia, which
is making it publicly available free of charge and allowing it to be shared with others,
printed out and disseminated at http://www.hechoreligioso.net/Proyectos/VCELAM/
docuVCELAM/206_AmerindiaAparecidaLibroVirtual.pdf, retrieved on 23 March 2012.
193 Cf. CELAM, Aparecida 2007. Schlußdokument der 5. Generalversammlung des
Episkopates von Lateinamerika und der Karibik, Stimmen der Weltkirche, no. 41, Bonn,
2007.
An 139
‘theological sites’, in probing the reality of people’s lives, where the

subjects of the Beatitudes are to be found and where the Kingdom
of God somehow does shimmer through – with all that that implies.
Evidently there is a moving force, a spirit and a Holy Spirit emanating
from the Scriptures, which expands our consciousness and grants us
special knowledge.
Ignacio Ellacuría takes up the question of the meaning of the
‘body’, which we proposed for discussion at the beginning of these
remarks in the following sense: “Let us say quite bluntly: the historical
form of the Church implies that in it the reality and the acts of Jesus
Christ ‘assume physical shape’ so as to constitute an ‘incorporation’
of Jesus Christ in the historical reality. […] ‘Assume physical shape’
refers to a series of interrelated structured aspects. It means […] that
something is physically present and really makes itself so present,
for only a physical presence is really a presence; it also means that
something makes itself more real through the very fact that it assumes
physical form and manifests itself by becoming something else without
ceasing to be what it was; furthermore it means that something gains
actuality in the sense that we ascribe the actuality of the body to the
person; and, finally, it means that something, which did not use to
be such, is now in a position to act. From a theological point of view
‘assuming physical shape’ corresponds to the ‘becoming flesh’ of the
Word so that it can be seen and touched, so that it can intervene in the
actions of human beings in an entirely historical way […].”194
The ethical significance of incarnation is shown to us by Ignacio
Ellacuría, whose text has just been quoted, and whose life and work
cannot be summed up in a single quotation. On this basis we shall
now let pass in review the many witnesses who may serve as a bridge
between the Church as an institution, with its tendency to involution,
and the ‘beatified’ individuals who yearn for their liberation and who,
for their part, define ecclesiology as the binding link, the universa-
lizable, the general that is adopted by the small communities or CEBs
and which comes into being there.195
194 Ellacuría, I., Conversión de la Iglesia al Reino de Dios para anunciarlo y realizarlo en la
historia, Santander, 1984, 183.

195 In order not to exceed the scope of this paper we shall select a few names and deal
in detail only with Mgr. Romero. At the same time, however, we acknowledge the Latin
Mgr. Oscar Arnulfo Romero196

In his three-year tenure as Archbishop of San Salvador, Romero
faithfully set forth the pastoral options of the Latin American bishops
at their Medellín and Puebla conferences. His pastoral letters and
other texts reveal a new way of being a ‘Church of the poor’.
The first pastoral letter affirms that the Church must be an ‘Easter
sacrament’. This means a Church that “does not live for itself, but whose
destiny is that of Jesus: a service for the world, as formulated in Gaudium
et Spes 3.”197 Romero confirms that Medellín was a true Whitsun on
the Latin American continent.198 “A Paschal and a Pentecostal Church
must be a Church of new direction, of fundamental submission to
Christ, whose simple transparency we want to share, and to the radical
demands of the Sermon on the Mount.”199
His second pastoral letter depicts a situation of martyrdom and
persecution caused by his faithful pursuit of the aim of being the “body
of Christ in our history”.200 The Church goes out of itself, incarnates
itself in the world and in history.201 In clear accordance with the
Second Vatican Council, Romero went on to affirm: “The Church is
in the world in order to demonstrate and realize the liberating love of
God which appeared in Christ. That is why it feels the special concern
American martyrs and other individuals who strove valiantly to restore an ecclesiology that
comes from the communities and sustains them.
196 Cf. Coto, L., La Eclesiología en el pensamiento de Mons. Oscar A. Romero, in: La
Prensa Gráfica, 13 September 1971.

197 Romero, O.A., Primera Carta Pastoral, Iglesia de la Pascua, 4 April 1977, in: Coto, L.
(ed.), Mons. Oscar A. Romero, Escritos Pastorales, San Salvador, 2000.

198 Cf. Coto, L., La Eclesiología en el pensamiento de Mons. Oscar A. Romero, o. cit.;
See also idem. (ed.), Mons. Oscar A. Romero, Su Pensamiento, vol. 2, San Salvador, 2000,
19-20.
199 Coto, L. (ed.), Mons. Oscar A. Romero, Escritos Pastorales, Salvador 2000, 211. Cf.
also Mgr. Oscar A. Romero, Primera Carta Pastoral, Iglesia de la Pascua, in: Coto, L. (ed.),
Mons. Oscar A. Romero, Su Pensamiento, o. cit.
200 Romero, O.A., Segunda Carta Pastoral, La Iglesia, Cuerpo de Cristo en la historia, 10
April 1977, in: Coto, L. (ed.), o. cit., 25.

201 Before the murder of Mgr. Romero the church of El Salvador had lost six priests, many
pastoral workers, lay missionaries and delegates and celebrants of the Word (delegados
y celebradores de la Palabra), catechists and sacristans. They were all murdered. Many
Protestant brothers, sisters, pastors, deacons and preachers were murdered with them.
An 141
of Christ for the poor (Lumen Gentium 8). For, as Medellín explained,
they confront “the Latin American Church with a challenge and
an evangelizing mission that it cannot evade and to which it must
respond with intelligence and a boldness appropriate to the urgency
of the moment’ (Poverty, 7).”202
The organization of the Salvadoran people was an achievement of
the poor who could no longer bear to live in a state of humiliation.
His third pastoral letter addressed the Church’s relations with the
popular movements. In this connection Romero said: “The Church
has a duty to serve the people […]. Its field of responsibility covers
everything which is human in essence and is part of the struggle of the
people […]. In our country these rights are in most cases little more
than the right to survive and escape poverty.”203
The fourth pastoral letter, which covers various topics, contains the
following reflection: “Those who have heard bad news in the secular
sphere and experienced even worse realities, […] now hear, through
the Church, the Word of Jesus: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’.
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’
And hence they also have Glad Tidings to bring to the rich: that they
should go to the poor to share the good things of life with them.”204
Romero instructed the people to assume responsibility and
take an active part in rebuilding their country: “The hope which we
promulgate among the poor is one of having their dignity restored to
them and taking their fate in their own hands.”205
The key to understanding and adopting the clearly integrative and
active ecclesiology of Romero is the necessity of a new ministry or an
accompanying of the small communities, which includes a political
dimension.
The Church requires a special ministry, which we call pastoral
care or accompaniment and which breaks with the familiar forms
202 Ibid.
203
Romero, O.A., Cuarta Carta Pastoral, La Iglesia y las Organizaciones Políticas, 6 August
1978, in: Coto, L. (ed.), o. cit.
204 Ibid.
205 Ibid.
of a mass ministry. That is why Romero reproves those who wish to

reduce the faith to the personal or family sphere and exclude it from
the vocational, economic, social and political spheres, as though sin,
love, prayer and forgiveness had nothing to do with them. In fact, the
necessity of the Church’s presence in politics lies at the heart of the
Christian faith: the dominion of Christ over all spheres of life. Christ
attests that all human beings are brothers and sisters; each individual
is worth as much as any other; all are “‘one’ in Christ Jesus (Galatians
3:28; Puebla 515-516)”.206
In Romero’s thought the Church and its actions must exhibit the
following characteristics:
1. The unity created by evangelical mission and persecution.207
2. The striving for holiness in peace.208
3. The apostolic zeal for a liberating evangelization.209
4. The ecclesiastical solidarity: The Church is community and
participation.
What kind of a model of Catholicism does Romero represent?
According to Jon Sobrino SJ, “Mgr. Romero’s model of Catholicism
is that the universal Church becomes Catholic when all its local
churches support one another by deepening their Christian essence
and giving a Christian response to historical challenges. This is the
Pauline model of ‘each carrying the other’s burden’. Each individual
church gives to all the other churches and receives from the others.”210
206 Cf. Ibid. no. 94. (Digital version: http://www.romeroes.com/monsenor-romero-su-
pensamiento/cartas-pastorales, retrieved 26 March 2012).

207 Ibid. no. 87.
208 Mgr. Oscar A. Romero, Homilía 21 agosto 1977, in: Coto, L. (ed.), o. cit. 190.
209 Ibid. 21.
210 Sobrino, J., Mons. Romero y la Iglesia salvadoreña, un año después, in: ECA 389 (1981)
144. “I am moved and inspired by what Father Jon Sobrino writes about Mgr. Romero and I
fully share his view of the significance of ecclesiastical solidarity. I have taken up some of his
theological intuitions. I think that when we speak of ecclesiastical solidarity it is important
to mention its ecumenical significance. We only need to look at what is happening in other
churches outside of El Salvador to convince ourselves of the effectiveness and significance
of this ecclesiastical solidarity, that is to say of what the “Catholicity” of the Church might
also imply.” Cf. Coto, L., La Eclesiología en el pensamiento de Mons. Oscar A. Romero, o.
cit.
An 143
On the basis of his testimony Leonardo Boff describes a development

of thought and its core, thus contributing to the construction of an
ecclesiology which promotes and sustains the small communities.
His collection of essays entitled “And the Church Was Made a People:
Ecclesiogenesis”211 offers a retrospective view based on the verse of
the Gospel according to St. John (1:14) “The Word became flesh” up to
the beginnings of liberation theology and its development, which was
the occasion of this work.
“The CEBs want to be and are visible Church based on these four
elements: faith, celebration, community and mission. The valuable
faith is the outstanding feature of the CEBs. And yet this faith has
nothing sweet about it, it is no panacea for mediocre minds, no refuge
for the timorous, nor is it resignation in the face of the world’s misery.
This faith is a principle of response and dedication to the liberation
of the whole man [sic!] and of all men, starting with those who are
objectively oppressed in our capitalist society. The main reference
point for this faith is the Word of God, the practical life of Jesus and
trust in the mighty power of the Holy Ghost.”212
Boff explains that the faith is celebrated and that the celebrations
are no empty rites, but calls upon us “to ritualize life before God
and the brothers and sisters”. The Church-like nature of the CEBs
also implies community, only assuming radical change in the style
in which it has been lived so far: “The singer must reckon with the
bishop and have his worth [and his voice]; the layman in charge of
a group with the priest; the farm hand with the monk; and the rich
man, who has become converted to the cause of justice, with the
poor man, who is loved by God because he is poor, not because he is
good.”213
The last basic element in ecclesiology that Boff refers to is the
mission, which means ministering to men and women in the world.
The mission is fulfilled by the prophecy that heralds the message
211 Cf. Boff, L., Y la Iglesia se hizo pueblo, Ecclesiogenesis, La Iglesia que nace de la fe del
pueblo, Santander, 1986, especially 112-114. Cf. the German edition: idem, Und die Kirche
ist Volk geworden, Ekklesiogenesis, Düsseldorf, 1987.
212
Boff, L., Y la Iglesia se hizo pueblo, Ecclesiogenesis, La Iglesia que nace de la fe del
pueblo, o. cit.
213 Ibid.
of God while at the same time denouncing everything that offends

against life and the Kingdom.
The ministry, Boff explains, includes the ecclesiastical community
which “accompanies the individuals and groups in their specific
situation, which fosters hope and life and the trusting frankness before
God and our fellow men, by creating communities of faith, hope and
charity which strive for integral liberation”.214
As one of the outstanding “madmen” I would choose Pedro
Casaldáliga for his incarnate, pertinent and vital poetry. It may suffice
to refer to the book Espiritualidad de la Liberación,215 which he
published with José María Vigil. Chapter Three, which deals with new
ecclesiology, contains the following passage:
“In the spirituality of liberation the chapter on the Church is a
crucial and often controversial one, as it not only agitates individuals,
but shakes the foundations of the institution itself. The image, the
understanding, the perspective, the access, the love, the spirit […],
with which the spirituality of liberation brings into focus the mystery
and the ecclesiastical reality, permits us to speak of a new ‘sense of
ecclesiality’ or of a new spirituality in the life of the mystery in the
Latin American Church. People here are speaking and writing – quite
rightly – of a ‘conversion of the Church’,216 of a ‘new way of being
Church’, even of a ‘new, communal – communal from top to bottom –
way of being for the Church as a whole.”217
The testimonials of these and many other, very well-known
personalities, whom we do not have space to mention here, open up
a window to us through which we can see the small communities or
CEBs calling for certain key elements, which of course lie in the ‘grace’
or gift of God, but also in the consciousness and inner strength of
214 Ibid.
215
Casaldáliga, P./ Vigil, J.M., Espiritualidad de la Liberación, Santander 1993. The
quotation given above has been taken from the digital edition on the website Servicios
Koinonia: http://servicioskoinonia.org/Casaldaliga, retrieved on 25 March 2012.
216 Ellacuría, I., Conversión de la Iglesia al Reino de Dios, o. cit. 1984.
217 A characteristic feature of the Basic Ecclesial Communities in Brazil. On the subject
of our ecclesiastical peculiatities see Vigil, J.M., Descubrir la originalidad cristiana de la
Iglesia latinoamericana, in: Sal Terrae 79 (1991) 629-640.
An 145
human groups, who are taking their fate in their hands and deciding
to found a ‘community’ based on faith, a community that is in itself an
agent of change.
The CEB cannot be a ‘placeholder’ for missionaries whose
mentality is as remote from reality as was that of the former conqui-
stadors and colonizers, who wrapped themselves in a false paternalism
and only needed the poor to define their own identity. The CEB aims
to be a place of mutual edification for everyone, a place of learning and
growing. It must be a place of decisive political practice, of activity in
which people take part with ‘body and voice’, people who are no longer
victims but are aware of their dignity and, drawing strength from their
newly found sense of identity with those who have stood up, stand up
here and now to transform society.
“The CEBs bring forth not only the new Christians, who feel
themselves to be inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem which is in
the process of emerging as a city of those inspired by justice and
solidarity, but also the citizens who care about the fate of their brothers
and sisters and have the courage to devote their blood and lives to
such an exalted cause. This fact alone is sufficient to confer upon the
Basic Ecclesial Community – which Paul VI called the “hope of the
universal Church”– dignity and greatness.”218
Challenges for an ecclesiastical understanding of the

Small Communities or CEBs
It is not an idea of Nietzsche’s that is lurking behind the scenes
but a simple statement of fact: there are no easy options or convenient
decisions with regard to the models presented above. Usually it is the last
model which the authors offer us and which we have focused attention
on. It is one aimed at an ecclesiology or ecclesiastical model which
supports the small communities. Proceeding from Küng’s paradigm of
enlightened Modernism, in which these small communities arose, and
from post-enlightened Post-modernism, the following models may be
distinguished:
• the people’s Church as a liberating Easter community
(Marins/Dulles);
218 Boff, L., o. cit.

• a Church based on the poor as a new model of liberation

theology and practice (Boff);
• the prophetic and ministerial Church (Losada Espinosa);
• the post-Council Church, as exemplified by Medellín and
Puebla (Codina and De Almeida);
• the historically liberating model of the Church of the poor
and oppressed (Codina).
Even if explanations may seem superfluous, the applied models
are not lacking in challenges and resistance from the other models. It
appears that the radicalism of the ecclesiological model required by
the CEBs gives rise to a certain alarm.
Pablo Richard notes critically how at the Fifth General Assembly
of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida219
(Brazil) the clear and unambiguous message concerning the sole
option with and for the poor was gradually so diluted that what we
were left with was an “overriding option for the poor”. Richard calls for
vigilance: “If the Church adopts an overriding option for the poor, it
must necessarily decide against neo-liberalism. The whole document
of Aparecida contains not a single criticism of neo-liberal ideology. The
Church, which denounced Marxist ideology in no uncertain terms, is
now silent in the face of neo-liberalism. Why? Because neo-liberalism
is the ideology which justifies the present free market economy. The
Church refrains from criticizing neo-liberalism because it is the
ideology of the Christian elites. The rich sense that today’s Church
is closer to them than in previous decades; the poor are doomed to
silence.”220
He goes on to point out that two models are identified in the
document: one that speaks of an “overriding option for the poor” and
another that is characterized by an “overriding option for the elites”.221
“In general,” Richard explains, “the Church seems to incline more
to the model of a Church of elites (almost the whole of chapter 10).
219 The Fifth General Assembly of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean was
held from 13 to 31 May 2007 in Aparecida (Brazil).
220 Richard, P., Iglesia sobre roca, in: http://sicsal.net/reflexiones/PabloRichardIglesiaso-
breroca.html, retrieved on 25 March 2012.
221 Ibid.
An 147
The ‘elites’ are all those who stand at the head of society, whence they
exercise the power to determine the economic, social and political life
of a country: journalists, media moguls and publicists, businessmen,
politicians and others. The option for the elites is presented as a
‘modernization’ of the Church. ‘The elites’ do not necessarily identify
themselves with ‘the rich’, but they do have a ‘top down’ power which
identifies them with the prevailing groups. The option in favour
of the elites makes the poor feel slowly abandoned by the Catholic
Church.”222
Pablo Richard points out that the Aparecida document does
mention the Basic Ecclesiastical Communities, but what follows
puts us on the alert: such communities are defined as “the strongest
foundation for a Church that opts for the poor”. If that is the case,
the elite as a model from which an ecclesiology can be derived that
supports the Basic Ecclesial Communities has no role to play. This
turns out to be an internal contradiction, since only an ecclesiology
that defined itself as being ‘by the poor and for the poor’ would be
able to support the Basic Ecclesial Communities. Let us remember
that the elite to which Richard refers is the group wielding the power
that makes it feel entitled to uphold the institutional structures. Its
instinct is rather to destroy or at least weaken the small communities,
as it realizes that the united people possess a liberating power of
transformation. If the people are strengthened by the Word of God
and the example of Jesus of Nazareth it will, like the prophets of yore,
expose the patterns of oppression of the prevailing power-holders.
In this sense it is inevitable that the small communities also define
themselves as entities of a political force.
Just one text, according to Richard, speaks clearly of the CEBs or
small communities, even if the above-mentioned document refers to
them indirectly on occasion. In sections 178, 179 and 180 Aparecida
describes their place in the structure and highlights their function
as “the germ of an ecclesiastical structuring and centring of the faith
and its evangelization”223 in the sense of Medellín. For its part, Puebla
222 Ibid.
223 Cf. CELAM, Die Kirche in der gegenwärtigen Umwandlung Lateinamerikas im Lichte
des Konzils. Sämtliche Beschlüsse der II. Generalversammlung des Lateinamerikanischen
Episkopates Medellín 24.8.–6.9.1968, in: Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz
affirmed that the small communities, especially the Basic Ecclesial

Communities, granted the people access to a better understanding of
the Word of God, to social commitment in the name of the gospel, to
the setting up of new services to be performed by the laity, and to a
deepening of faith among adults.224
In Section 179 Aparecida repeats more than once the unity
with the pastoral offices and their subordination to the latter so as
to safeguard the ecclesiastical community. The communities, the
Aparecida document notes, develop their evangelizing and missionary
work among the ordinary people and those who live on the fringes
of society. They are a visible expression of the overriding option for
the poor. They are the source and seed of a wide range of services
and ministries which enrich the life of society and the Church. The
document goes on to reaffirm the localization of the communities in
the visible structure of the Church, thus assuring their ecclesiastical
character.
But if one reads the document in the context of social reality and
the above-mentioned models, one senses a certain domestication. And
in the “modernization”, which Richard addresses and to which chapter
10 of the document urges us, there is an unmistakable suggestion of
allegiance to the interests of the capitalist world.
The re-establishment of the ecclesiastical foundation, the ‘ecclesio-
genesis’ inspired by the Early Christian communities and the Second
Vatican Council, is largely based on what the General Assembly of
the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in Medellín laid
down concerning the Joint Pastoral Letter in sections 10 and 15 of the
closing document. Paul VI approved this text and included it in his
apostolic exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi.
If we see ecclesiology as expressing the efforts of the Church to
understand itself by getting closer to its own mystery in historical
(ed.), Die Kirche Lateinamerikas. Dokumente der II. und III. Generalversammlung
des Lateinamerikanischen Episkopates in Medellín und Puebla (6.9.1968 / 13.2.1979),
Stimmen der Weltkirche, no. 8, Bonn, 1979, 121-128, no. 15.
224 Cf. CELAM, Die Evangelisierung Lateinamerikas in Gegenwart und Zukunft,
Dokument der III. Generalkonferenz des Lateinamerikanischen Episkopates Puebla

26.1–13.2.1979, in: Sekretariat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (ed.), o. cit., 258, no. 629.
An 149
terms, then it, ecclesiology, thus understood, is by definition a plural

dynamic, which is cultural to the extent that it blends in with the
culture of other nations, and political to the extent that it stands in
the service of the intellectual progress of the ecclesiastical community
itself and reshapes everything.
According to Puebla this ecclesiastical inculturation was promoted
not only by the doctrine of the Council, but also by the experience of
the Latin American peoples in these “years […] of anxious searching
for their own identity, characterized by an awakening of the popular
masses and by attempts to achieve American integration […]. This
made it easier for the Catholic populace to accept the setting up of
a Church that also presented itself as a ‘nation’. The Church is also,
however, a universal nation that penetrates other nations in order to
help them to fraternize and blend into one big community, as Latin
America was beginning to imagine it”.225
This definition depends on a crucial incarnation […] of specific
individuals who are present, have a voice and are equipped with a
perfect right to participate in order to bring about a change of course
or, as Juan Carlos Scannone said with regard to the theology of the
People of God: “It is as if, proceeding from an inculturated re-reading
of ‘Whitsun: one spirit and many tongues’, one were to re-interpret
the expression ‘Laós ex ethôn’ and arrive at a ‘new, global, ecclesio-
logical formula’ […]. This would facilitate – in keeping with the
experience of the Latin American and Argentinian churches and in
the spirit of folk theology – the ecclesiological relevance of cultures in
the ‘marvellous mutual exchange’ [Scannone speaks of discovering a
‘maravilloso intercambio’] of inculturation. In this way we understand
the catholicity of the People of God as an ‘incarnation of the People of
God among the nations’.”226
225 Ibid. 187-188, no. 233.

226
Scannone, J.C., Perspectivas Eclesiológicas de la teología del Pueblo de Dios, in: http://
www.mercaba.org/fichas/teologia_latina/perspectivas_eclesiologicas.htm, retrieved on 27
March 2012. It is here that the author explains his understanding of the theology of the
People of God: “There occurs an inter-relation based on the theological priority of the
People of God, if one counts the People of God as being ‘in’ the nations: the incarnation (in
general) of the People of God, its incarnation ‘in’ the nations, just as one sees the People of
God as a historical subject ‘among’ the nations and the unity ‘between’ the People of God
and the world of the nations.”
In this connection we should not fail to mention what Daniel García

Delgado has called “grass-roots neo-communitarianism”. Carlos Galli
quotes the relevant passage: “In this phenomenon faith can discover
the creative and healing actions of God, especially among the poor
and the positive response of man [sic!]. For, faced by an indivi-
dualist struggle to compete, unemployment and the contrast between
those who live in society [incluídos] and those who are excluded
[excluídos], vibrant, networked communities are springing up at all
levels (religious, cultural, social and economic), producing a new
cultural synthesis and new ways of perceiving the world, new forms
of folk spirituality, of intelligent readings of the Word, of personal
and communal prayer, of communal exercise of Christian works of
charity and of participatory institutionalization. All this is in harmony
with Latin American Christian folk wisdom as well as with the new
(modern and postmodern) cultural sensibility. One can transfer to
this neo-communitarianism what Walter Kasper says: ‘Whenever
something new crops up, whenever life and reality awaken and tend
to excel themselves to an ecstatic extent […], something is revealed
of the workings and reality of the spirit of God. The Second Vatican
Council recognized these universal workings of the Holy Ghost […]
in culture and human progress’227.”228
This newly emerging force is doubtless a response to the meaning
of the Body of the Church, as explained by the Second Vatican
Council and in which a degree of subjectivism has been granted to the
individual local churches.229 Medellín and Puebla and, if it comes to
that, Aparecida too, help to explain this meaning by giving the small
basic communities historical and sociological substance as a church
which is building itself from the ground up, from the people, in the
people and by the people, in a bottom-up process.
Thus it comes to pass that our “madmen and madwomen” have
left the pantheon in order to imbue the notion of Church with new
meaning by making it a Church for the people. Their promulgation of
227 Kasper, W. Der Gott Jesu Christi, Mainz, 1982, 279-280; quoted after Scannone, J.C., o.
cit. note 62.
228 Galli, C., El Pueblo de Dios en los pueblos del mundo, Catolicidad, encarnación e
intercambio en la eclesiología actual, unpublished dissertation, Buenos Aires, 1994.
229 LG 23.
An 151
the glad tidings makes it clear to all that if God may have been dead
at some moment in the past… He has arisen and is now alive and well
again.
Ecclesial Dimension of Small Christian Communities
Michael Amaladoss
Small Christian Communities (SCCs) or Basic Ecclesial

Communities (BCCs) are a post-Vatican II phenomenon. They have
been called a new way of being Church.230 The term ‘basic’ refers
to the bottom or base of a hierarchical society from which such a
communities arise. This could give it a certain ideological slant, as
we shall see. So I shall speak of Small Christian Communities (SCCs),
though both phrases refer to the same reality. Looking around the world
we can see three kinds of SCCs. In certain areas like Africa or India
they represent a geographical and pastoral division of a parish for the
purpose of better catechetical, liturgical and missionary animation.
The people may be economically poor or better off depending on
the area where they live. In Latin America and Philippines they may
represent groups of the poor (from the base) that have, in addition,
a liberational thrust.231 We also have groups of people who come
together for a more intense spiritual life like new ecclesial movements
like Focolarini, Communione e liberatione, and the Neo Catechu-
menate. They tend to be middle or upper middle class people. Some
of the ‘basic communities’ in Latin America have been criticized for
being anti-hierarchical in the 1970s.232 I do not think that it is so now.
Some bishops have been critical of the independent behavior of the
new ecclesial movements with reference to parish structures. But
there seems to be a modus vivendi now. However I am not taking such
matters into consideration here. I am just looking at them as SCCs
and exploring their ecclesiological significance. At the moment I am
230 See: Ponnumuthan, S., The Spirituality of Basic Ecclesial Communities in the Socio-
Religious Context of Trivandrum/Kerala, India, Rome 1996, 13 and passim.

231 Barreiro, A., Basic Ecclesial Communities, The Evangelization of the Poor, New York
1984.
232 EN 58.
153
also taking for granted that they have to relate to a priest, either from
a parish or belonging to a religious congregation, to preside over their
Eucharistic celebrations. I shall explore the implications of this later.
Before the Second Vatican Council the Church was primarily
identified with the clergy: the Pope, the bishops and the priests. It
was an institutional and hierarchical view of the Church. The people
were the beneficiaries of the institution. The Pope had universal
jurisdiction. He appointed all the Bishops. The priests worked
under the Bishops. The people benefited from their catechetical and
sacramental services. The ‘lay’ people had organizations like the
Catholic Action to get involved in the evangelization of the secular
world. But they too were under the control of the clergy. The Church
was a clerical institution.
Ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council: The Church

as the People of God
The Second Vatican Council brought in, among others, three
kinds of change in perspectives that are significant for the life of the
Church and of the SCCs. The first was the vision of the Church as
primarily the priestly People of God. The bishops and presbyters were
ministers at the service of the people, even if this service included
a dimension of leadership in teaching the faith and in sacramental
celebrations. Jesus establishes a community of the new covenant as
“a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation… who in times past
were not a people, but now are the People of God.” (1 Pet. 2:9-10)233 In
the liturgy “full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of
Jesus Christ, that is by the Head and his members.”234 Therefore Christ
is their head. They have the dignity and freedom of the ‘sons of God’,
“in whose heart the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple. Its law is the new
commandment to love as Christ loved us. (cf. Jn 13:34) Its destiny is
the kingdom of God.”235 “The faithful indeed, by virtue of their royal
priesthood, participate in the offering of the Eucharist.” They exercise
it “by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the
233 LG 9.
234 SC 7.
235 LG 9.

Ecclesial Dimension of Small Christian Communities 155
witness of a holy life, abnegation and active charity.”236 “The whole

body of the faithful… cannot err in matters of belief…, when “from
the bishops to the last faithful” they manifest a universal consensus in
matters of faith and morals.”237 This “sense of the faithful” balances
the role of the “teaching office” or Magisterium. It is this dignity as the
People of God that gives a certain status to the SCCs. Bishops, priests
and the religious may have had a role in launching the SCCs. They
have their responsibility as ministers – servants. But over the years
the people become aware of their dignity, significance and role in the
Church.
The Church as a Communion of Local Churches

The second development is the theology of the local Churches.
The bishops are seen as a college with the Pope as their unifying
centre. The bishops in their turn are the unifying centres of the local
churches called by the Council ‘particular Churches’.238
This Church of Christ is really present in all legitimately organized
local groups of the faithful, which, in so far as they are united to their
pastors, are also quite appropriately called Churches in the New
Testament.239 For these are in fact, in their own localities, the new
people called by God, in the power of the Holy Spirit… In them the
faithful are gathered together through the preaching of the Gospel of
Christ, and the mystery of the Lord’s super is celebrated… In these
communities, though they may often be small and poor, or existing in
the diaspora, Christ is present through whose power and influence the
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is constituted.240
This is a crucial affirmation which will help us identify the
ecclesial character of the SCCs. It is true that this is said about a
particular Church around a bishop. But a particular church is itself
made up of many communities gathered around the presbyters. The
SCCs are normally associated with presbyters who preside over their
236 LG 10.
237 LG 12.
238 CD 11.
239 Cf. Acts 8:1; 14:22-23; 20:17 and passim.
240 LG 26.
Eucharistic celebration. So this can be applied analogously to them

too.
The third significant affirmation is the vision of the Church as
a communion. This has many facets. The Document on the Church
starts with the statement that “the Church, in Christ, is in the nature
of sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with
God and of unity among all men.”241 The thrust towards communion
is attributed to God’s will. The Decree on Missionary Activity asserts:
“It pleased God to call men to share in his life and not merely singly,
without any bond between them, but he formed them into a people,
in which his children who had been scattered were gathered together.
(cf. Jn 11:52)”242 This communion is assured by the Holy Spirit and
does not exclude diversity. “All the faithful scattered throughout the
world are in communion with each other in the Holy Spirit… Holding
a rightful place in the communion of the Church there are also
particular Churches that retain their own traditions.”243 So we have an
image the Church as a communion of local Churches. This image adds
itself to other non-institutional images of the Church evoked earlier in
the same document: sheepfold, cultivated field, building of God, and
Body and Bride of Christ. Analogously the Church can be seen as a
communion of SCCs.
The Church and the Churches in the New Testament

The SCCs which arose in the 1970s, especially in Latin America,
Africa and Asia, may not have been aware of these ecclesial dimensions,
because the Council did not speak of the SCCs. The SCCs were started
to increase the Christian awareness, the life and the missionary
witness of the people. But once they began searching for their ecclesial
status they could go back to these texts to understand, affirm and even
defend their identity as Churches. Their efforts also got the support
of the experience of early Church, especially as reported by St. Paul.
When we go to the New Testament the experience of the first Christian
community strikes us as a model of an SCC. The first Christians
241 LG 1.
242 AG 2.
243 LG 13.

devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the

breaking of the bread and the prayers… All who believed were
together and had all things in common; they would sell their
possessions and foods and distribute the proceedings to all, as any
had need. Day by day, as they spend much time together in the
temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and
generous hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the
people. (Acts 2:42, 44-47a)
We can agree that this is an ideal image of an SCC. It is also an
experiential one.
St. Paul in his letters uses the word ‘Church’ in the singular (cf.
Rom 16:23; 1 Cor 14:23) and in the plural (cf. 2 Cor 11:8; 12:13;
Phil 4:14). He concludes his first letter to the Corinthians: “The
churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with
the church in their house, greet you warmly in the Lord.” (1 Cor
16:19) The Church may be the liturgical assembly (1 Cor 11:18;
14:19, 28, 34-35), or a local community (1 Cor 1:2; 16,1) or the
whole universal community of believers. (1 Cor 15:9; Gal 1:13;
Phil 3:6)244 So we can say that we have scriptural warrant to call
SCCs churches.
Theologically Speaking
Theologically speaking, every community that comes together to
listen to and reflect over the Word of God and to share bread and wine
in memory of Christ’s paschal mystery becomes the body of Christ,
animated by the Spirit and witnessing to and working for the Kingdom
of God that Jesus proclaimed and realized. The Word and the Eucharist,
Christ and the Spirit, witness and mission to the Kingdom become the
characteristics of the Church. It is not a section of a larger Church. It
is the full realization of the mystery of the Church in a particular place
and time. The (universal) Church is not a totality of parts. It is the
multiple realization of the one Church, fully present in each place and
united in communion with each other in Christ and in the Spirit. The
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a document showing
how the Church can be seen as a communion says:
244 Cf. Ponnumuthan, o. cit. 19.

The particular Churches, insofar as they are “part of the one Church

of Christ”, have a special relationship of “mutual interiority” with
the whole, that is, with the universal Church, because in every
particular Church”the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of
Christ is truly present and active”. For this reason, “the universal
Church cannot be conceived as the sum of the particular Churches,
or as a federation of particular Churches”… In fact, the community,
in receiving the eucharistic presence of the Lord, receives the
entire gift of salvation and shows, even in its lasting visible
particular form, that it is the image and true presence of the one,
holy, catholic and apostolic Church.245
Blessed John Paul II spells out the ecclesial role of the SCCs in his
Encyclical The Mission of the Redeemer, 51:
These are groups of Christians who, at the level of the family
o ina similarly restricted setting, come together for prayer,
Scripture reading, catechesis, and discussion on human and
ecclesial problems with a view to a common commitment.
These communities are a sign of vitality within the Church, an
instrument of formation and evangelization, and a solid starting
point for a new society based on a ‘civilization of love’.
The Experiential Dimension

The sociologists distinguish between ‘society’ and ‘community’. A
society is an organization. A community is an experiential fellowship.
The SCCs provide the Christians an experience of community. As
Blessed John Paul II says: “Within them, the individual Christian
experiences community and therefore senses that he or she is playing
an active role and is encouraged to share in the common task.”246
This experiential, pastoral and practical dimension has been stressed
by bishops from different parts of the world. The Bishops of Latin
America (CELAM) in their conference at Medellin (1968) said:
The Christian base community is the first and fundamental
ecclesial nucleus, which on its own level must make itself
245
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church
on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion, May 1992, Nos. 9 and 11.
246 RM 51.

responsible for the richness and expansion of the faith, as well as

the cult which is its expression. This community becomes then
the initial cell of the ecclesiastical structures and the focus of
evangelization.247
The East African bishops stress the importance of becoming
local churches that can be self-ministering, self-propagating and
self-supporting – somewhat like the three-self church of China.
They also point to the experiential dimension of the SCCs. “Church
life must be based on the communities in which everyday life takes
place; those basic and manageable social groupings whose members
can experience real inter-personal relationship and feel a sense of
communal belonging both in living and working.”248 Bishop J.X.
Labayen of the Philippines speaks of his efforts to promote the growth
of the SCCs in his diocese and says: “I have seen faith of our people
deepen, commitment to one another, narrow minds and hearts open
up, prayer intensify community life form.”249
SCCs, the Eucharist and the Minister

Speaking of the Church as the People of God, the Second
Vatican Council’s Document on the Church says: “Taking part in the
Eucharistic sacrifice, the source and summit of the Christian life, they
offer the divine victim to God and themselves along with it.”250 It is in
the Eucharistic celebration that the Church becomes and experiences
itself fully as Church. This means that the SCCs must be in touch with
a priest who can preside over the Eucharist. But given the shortage of
priests everywhere the SCCs and even many parishes today have to be
satisfied with Sunday celebrations without a priest. This is obviously a
problem. The Church is primarily the People of God, at whose service
there are appropriate ministers. Ideally speaking the Church must be
able to have the necessary ministers rather than adapting itself to the
available ministers. In the early Church the person who was the head
of a community seems to have presided over the Eucharist. This must
have been true of the house Churches of St. Paul. (cf. 1 Cor 16:19)
247 Quoted in Ponnumuthan, o. cit. 28.

248 Ibid. 31.
249 Ibid. 33-34.
250 LG 11.
There were different ministerial charisms in the Church: apostles,

prophets, healers, miracle workers, etc. (cf. 1 Cor 12:4-11) But as the
structures of the Church developed, all these different charisms were
rolled up into one and attributed to the presbyters. Later the charism of
the monk was also added and celibacy also was demanded from them.
It may be time to rethink this ministerial structure in the Church. The
college of Bishops with the Pope at its centre will be there. Of course it
could become really collegial and promote diversity and communion
rather than remain a hierarchical and centralizing monolith. At the
local level, from the SCCs to the diocese, the community could choose
their leaders, who could be recognized and ordained by the leaders of
the neighboring communities in the name of the Church, as was and
is the practice. This would be the manifestation of the Church as a
communion of Churches. The leaders of the SCCs and of the parishes
could be viri probati, mature people, who could also be married
persons. In this way the SCCs can really be a new way of being Church.
Due to the shortage of priests everywhere the (lay) people are taking
increasing responsibility for various ministries in the local Churches.
At this time a new structuring of the ministerial roles in the Church
may be necessary and useful. The people then will get involved in the
renewal of the life and mission of the Church with greater enthusiasm
and commitment. The Church communities themselves will become
relevant and dynamic.251
The Global and the Local

Today there is much talk about globalization. The rapidity, extent
and diversity of the media of communications have made the world
a global village. But this has led to the dominance of a consumer
culture and a growing polarization of the world between the rich
and the poor. People are losing their cultural identities and getting
alienated. In such a situation SCCs can offer a new sense of rootedness
and community. Unfortunately the Church may be one institution
that remains strongly global and centralized. It may be time that the
Church promotes localization and inculturation that were a promise
251 Leonardo Boff has discussed this issue elaborately. See his Ecclesiogenesis, The Base
Communities Reinvent the Church, New York 1986, 61-75. As a background see: Schille-
beeckx, E. /Metz, J.B. (ed.), The Right of a Community to a Priest, Concilium, vol. 135, New
York 1980.

of the Second Vatican Council. Encouraging SCCs could be one way

of achieving such pluralism-in-unity in the Church. It is said that we
must think globally, but act locally. SCCs offer a base for such local
activity.
Small Human Communities

Asian theologians suggest that in the multi-religious context
of Asia we must think also of Small Human Communities (SHCs)
which would include people of all religions and ideologies living in a
particular area.252 The goal of the mission of the Church is no longer
Church extension, but the building of the Kingdom of God and of
the Church as its symbol and servant. In this journey towards the
Kingdom the other religions are seen as co-pilgrims and collaborators.
The Church recognizes today that the Spirit of God is present and
active in all cultures and religions.253 The Spirit is moving all peoples
towards communion with God and each other. The real enemies of
this process are Satan (the power of evil) and Mammon (the power of
money), not the other religions. All religions are against egoism and
inordinate desire and wish to promote love and compassion that will
bring people together. It is possible for people of different religions
to collaborate in the promotion of common human and spiritual
values, though they may find justification for it in their own religious
traditions. Through dialogue they can arrive at a consensus that will
enable them to act together in society.
The intention is not to drown out or marginalize the SCCs in the
SHCs. On the contrary the SCCs could be the nucleii around which
the SHCs could coalesce. The SCCs will still feel inspired by their
common reading of the Bible and the celebration of the Eucharist. But
when they think about the community around them and what they
could do to promote in it the Gospel values of freedom, fellowship
and justice they will seek to build wider coalitions and collaborate
with the believers in other religions and all people of good will. These
252 For a reference to the Asian Bishops see Rosales, G. / Arevalo, C.G. (ed.), For
All the Peoples of Asia. Manila 1997, 254. See also: Sekhar, V., Strong Neighbourhood
Communities, Religion and Politics in Secular India, Bangalore 2008. Sekhar calls SHCs
‘Neighbourhood Communities’.
253 RM 28.
SHCs will have their own structures and leadership. But the SCCs,
well organized and motivated as they are, could be the motive force
behind them. They would not seek to dominate, but be humble as
Jesus was (cf. Phil 2:6-11) and work as leaven transforming the world
from within. (cf. Mt 13:33)
Such collaboration in promoting common human and spiritual
values may lead them to encounter each other at deeper spiritual levels.
As a matter of fact the Second Vatican Council did launch a movement
towards an ongoing inter-religious dialogue, which a developing
positive appreciation of other religions as facilitators of salvific divine-
human encounter has further encouraged. Such a dialogue can lead,
beyond collaboration at the civic-secular level, to a common reading
of the various scriptures and even to praying together.254 Such prayer,
bringing them together before God/Absolute, can unite them in
communion with God/Absolute and with each other. Side by side with
ecclesial communion we will have emerging a cosmic communion.
Thus will find fulfillment God’s mystery which is “to gather all things
in him (Christ), things in heaven and things on earth”. (Eph 1:10) The
SCCs are playing an important evangelizing role here.
Conclusion
Foreseeing the future of the Church in an era of increasing secular-
ization Karl Rahner said that the Church will become a ‘little flock’. I
think that we are called to envisage the Church, not as a grandiose
reality, but as a network of SCCs, working from within as leaven and
transforming the world. The Church of the future will be one of the
people, not of the clergy, though the clergy will always be there at the
service of the people as facilitators and coordinators. It will indeed be
a new way of being the Church.
254 Cf. Puthanangady, P. (ed), Sharing Worshi Bangalore, National Biblical, Catechetical
and Liturgical Centre, 1988; Ryan, T., Interreligious Prayer, A Christian Guide, New York
2008; Béthune, P.F. de, Une prière interreligieuse? Monastère de Clerlande, 2011.
A New Way of being Church –
Ecclesiological reflections on Small Christian Communities
Klaus Krämer
Small Christian Communities are now once again under

discussion. The main reason for this renewed interest has to do with
the present pastoral situation in Germany. Because of the expansion
of pastoral areas and the merging of congregations many people feel
increasingly out of touch with the Church in their everyday lives. The
question of how the Church can maintain a vibrant presence close to
where people live is, therefore, one of increasing urgency.
The building of Small Christian Communities is a road down
which other parts of the universal Church have already travelled.
Could this model be a source of help and inspiration for the pastoral
challenges we face? To begin with, there are a number of justifiable
misgivings. Can something that works in Africa and Asia really
function in a European context? Is there not a fundamental difference
in the social conditions here and there? Is it not the case that the pastoral
situation of the Church in Germany rests on different premises? On
the one hand, there are established community structures with their
own social forms, with groups and circles, Catholic associations and
organisations. On the other, there is a pronounced need for individual
ways of experiencing spirituality.
It is also becoming increasingly clear that things are not going to
stay the way they once were. A historically significant period of the
Church, during which it engaged in commendable social activities,
appears to be coming to an end or to be heading for major change
at least. Quite a few people link this development with the initially
unsettling, but ultimately fascinating question of what new shape the
Church will take in the future. In such circumstances it is worthwhile
taking a look at successful models and good examples to see what
potential they have to offer. To what extent do they manage to highlight
163
aspects of the ‘complex reality of the Church’ to which we have hitherto

paid insufficient attention and which could prove productive for that
very reason?255
Approaches to a new way of being Church

The first question that needs to be asked is what Small Christian
Communities really are. What are their characteristic features? What
constitutes their ‘theological essence’, so to speak? To find out I shall
first take a look at how they came about.256
The biblical pastoral approach of the Lumko Institute (South Africa)

The new pastoral approach has its origins in South Africa in the
1970s when the apartheid regime was in power. Fritz Lobinger und
Oswald Hirmer drew on East African experiences of Bible-sharing
methods in small communities and used these to develop the concept
of Small Christian Communities.
They regarded this new concept as a response to their analysis
of the pastoral situation they faced. This analysis had shown that
the large number of foreign priests was an important factor in the
growing gap that had emerged between the clergy and the laity and
had exacerbated the problems posed by inculturation.257 The number
of sects and free churches was climbing steadily. The attraction of
these new communities was attributed first and foremost to the fact
that they were organised in small, easy-to-handle groups. Hirmer
and Lobinger realised that “the survival of the Church in these social
circumstances will depend on how successful it is in participating in
people’s lives, particularly the lives of poor people, and in letting them
participate in the life of the Church.”258
255 Cf. Krämer, K., Gemeinsam ein Feuer entfachen, Ein weltkirchlicher Impuls für eine
Gemeinde der Zukunft, in: Dettling, W./ Grillmeyer, S. (ed.), Das Feuer entfachen, Die
Botschaft des Evangeliums in einer globalen Welt, Festschrift für Erzbischof Ludwig
Schick, Würzburg 2009, 146-152.
256 On the genesis and fundamental methodical approach see especially: Vellguth, K., Eine
neue Art, Kirche zu sein, Entstehung und Verbreitung der Small Christian Communities und
des Bibel-Teilens in Afrika und Asien, Freiburg i. Br. 2005; Spielberg, B., Kann Kirche noch
Gemeinde sein? Praxis, Probleme und Perspektiven der Kirche vor Ort, Würzburg 2008.
257 On the social situation in South Africa see: Vellguth, K., o. cit. 45-58.
258 Spielberg, o. cit. 283.
New Way of being Church
A 165
However, it was not enough merely to increase the number of

parishes and deploy more catechists. The aim was to ensure that
the common responsibility of all baptised people formulated by the
Council could find concrete expression in the everyday activities of
the Church in South Africa. People at the local level needed to be given
the capacity to form communities that would be self-ministering,
self-propagating and self-reliant. From the very beginning, therefore,
the Training for Community Ministries courses developed for that
purpose were not concerned primarily with making the individual
ministries more professional but with changing Church practice.
Small Christian Communities are the social manifestation of this
change in Church practice.
Crucial importance attaches here to the Seven Steps method of
Bible-sharing. Drawing on East African sources, this method was
devised by Oswald Hirmer who, as the National Director of what
is now the Catholic Biblical Federation at the Lumko Institute, was
responsible for the biblical apostolate. The impressive thing about
this method is its structural simplicity, although it has elements of
complexity, too. The participants first pray together and then share in
reading from the Holy Scripture. There follows a period of complete
silence in which the passage that has been read can impact on the
participants, move them to the very core of their being and enable
them to relate to God. The participants subsequently talk to each
other about what has moved them and the consequences this may
have for the life of the community. Finally, they all pray together
again.259
What is immediately striking is the simplicity of this method. All
the participants can contribute irrespective of their social status and
educational qualifications. The moments of silence and exchange,
in particular, create a “spiritual atmosphere in which the power that
resides in the Word of the Scripture can be sensed by all”.260 The Seven
259 The Seven Steps method as developed at the Lumko Institute: (1) Prayer as introduction;
(2) Reading of the Bible text; (3) Picking out words and mediating on them (ruminatio);
(4) Silence; (5) Exchange about experience with the Bible text; (6) Reflection on what task
results from the Bible text; (7) Prayer. See: Vellguth, o. cit. 127
260 Hirmer, O., Bibel-Teilen entdecken, Werkbuch zum Bibel-Teilen, Die Idee für eine
neue Weise, Kirche zu sein, in: Hirmer, O./ Steins, G. (ed.), Gemeinschaft im Wort, Munich
Steps are strictly Chistocentric in character – they build up to an

experience of the almost sacramental presence of Christ in the Word.
In contrast to traditional methods of spiritual reading and interpre-
tation of Scripture, which tend to focus on the individual as observer,
the Seven Steps method produces a shared experience of the Word of
God. The individual can contribute what he or she has experienced in
a manner that is not too demanding. Particular significance attaches
to the sixth step, the social component of Bible-sharing. As time
passed, it became increasingly clear that this step was of the utmost
importance for the productivity and sustainability of the process.
Gradually, inspirational ideas from Latin America were incorporated,
which led to more advanced variations of the Seven Steps method.
These subjected the social conditions in the community concerned to
close scrutiny (Amos Programme).261
In Germany, this method of sharing the Bible was regarded largely
as a new kind of Bible discussion. The Small Christian Communities
context was completely ignored, however. This was made very clear by
the lack of any response to the sixth step concerning reflection on the
tasks arising.
The Asian Integral Pastoral Approach (AsIPA)

A further important stage in the development of the Small
Christian Communities concept began following the Fifth Plenary
Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences in Bandung
in 1990. In view of the new challenges facing the Church in Asia it was
agreed that a process of renewal should be launched that would be in
keeping with the Church’s missionary task.262
Consideration clearly needed to be taken of the specific Asian
context, which was very different from that in Europe and in Africa,
too, of course. Asia is a continent with an abundance of religions
and one in which religious experience is crucial to the forging of
community identity. On average, Christians make up around one per
1999, 9-17, 9.
261 See: Vellguth, o. cit. 132-135.
262 Spielberg, o. cit. 319f; on the Fifth Plenary Assembly of the FABC see: Klaus Vellguth,
o. cit. 197-203.
A 167
cent of the population in the Asian countries, which puts them in the
position of a minority. People in Asia have clearly not been able to
warm to Christianity. Felix Wilfred attributes this not just to the fact
that it represents an ‘alien’ import from the West, but also “because
the churches in the Asian countries have largely remained aloof from
the everyday lives of the population, from their history, struggles
and dreams. The Christians have failed to identify with the people,
although they have admittedly provided many social services for the
population”.263
The challenge at present is thus to take the practical steps needed
to establish a connection between the Church and the people of
Asia. Hence the mission of the Church is seen as being to engage in
dialogue with the poor of Asia, with local cultures and other religious
traditions. Mission means being close to people, responding to their
needs with a fine sense of the presence of God in the other cultures
and religions, and bearing witness to the values of the Kingdom of
God through solidarity and sharing the Word of God. If the People
of God are to go about their missionary work in the local church it
is important to form a participatory Church community in which
people can discover for themselves that they belong to one another
and to the Church. In the view of the Fifth Plenary Assembly of the
FABC, Small Christian Communities have a major role to play in the
development of “a new way of being Church”. The specifically Asian
character is underlined by the use of the term Asian Integral Pastoral
Approach (AsIPA).264
The AsIPA process launched by the Asian Bishops’ Conferences
has influenced the discussion on pastoral theology in Germany.
It has inspired a more detailed examination of the Small Christian
Communities approach and ensured that the question of whether
and how the experience gained in Africa and Asia can be adapted
to the pastoral situation in Germany has been put firmly on the
agenda. Pastoral care officers in the German dioceses have gone
263 Wilfred, F., Die Vereinigung Asiatischer Bischofskonferenzen (FABC), Zielvor-
stellungen, Herausforderungen und Erfolge, in: Bertsch, L. (ed.), Was der Geist den
Gemeinden sagt, Bausteine einer Ekklesiologie der Ortskirchen, Freiburg 1991, 148-167,
here 150; quoted after Spielberg, o. cit. 308.
264 On the origin of the term AsIPA see: Vellguth, o. cit. 206-211.
on several exposure trips to India, Korea and the Philippines. The

issue has been debated at various symposia and congresses. Small
Christian Community pilot schemes organised in German dioceses
have furnished initial experience. Another major step forwards was
the fact-finding mission to Korea in 2009 undertaken by the German
Bishops’ Conference to learn more about the AsIPA approach and its
results by talking to representatives of the FABC. While the outcome is
still open, the process as such is remarkable in theological terms. What
has emerged over the past forty years is nothing less than a practical
example of a dialogue on the pastoral experience gained in pursuing
new ways of being a missionary Church.
Essential elements of Small Christian Communities

Fritz Lobinger defines Small Christian Communities as
communities of Christians who “almost always have good-neighbourly
relations; they have weekly meetings in one of their homes, read the
Bible together […] and provide neighbourly help, take on pastoral tasks
in the community, send delegates to attend parish council meetings
and have close ties with the parish.”265 Despite all the differences in the
specific form taken by Small Christian Communities, which are the
product of their respective circumstances and, as such, constitute one
of the great strengths of this approach, there are nonetheless a number
of common structural features, which I shall now summarise in four
points.266
A Small Christian Community is open to everybody in the
immediate neighbourhood: the Small Christian Communities are
organised on a territorial basis. People living nearby are invited to
come along. These are not communities of choice but communities of
the called located at the place where those who are called live.
A Small Christian Community draws its sustenance from the
Word of God and from prayer: Bible-sharing opens the way to a
spirituality of the Word of God. Bible-sharing is not regarded primarily
265 Lobinger, F., Small Christian Communities, in: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche,
Volume 6, Freiburg i. Br. 1997, 124.

266 See: Tewes, D., Miteinander Kirche sein vor Ort, Milieuintegration durch Small
Christian Communities?, in: Ebertz, M.N. / Hunstig, H.-G., Hinaus ins Weite, Gehversuche
einer milieusensiblen Kirche, Würzburg 2008, 224-231, here 228f.
A 169
as a method of Bible study but as a way of experiencing the presence of

Christ in the Word. Bible-sharing is thus a form of liturgy and at the
same time a school of prayer.
A Small Christian Community has an impact on its surroundings
as a result of the missionary work it performs: during Bible-sharing
the community is called upon to address the question of what mission
God has for it in the locality and what tasks he has in store. Helping to
carry out Jesus’ mission in the immediate surroundings is one of the
key features of a Small Christian Community.
A Small Christian Community is connected with the Church as a
whole: it is Church on a small scale and it participates in the mission of
the entire Church. The members of the Small Christian Community
join in the celebration of the Eucharist in the parish. They take part in
the life of the local church and perform ministries within it.
Ecclesiological emphases at the Second Vatican Council

In order to evaluate the theological importance of the development
of Small Christian Communities and to assess their relevance for
the future development of Church life in our social and ecclesial
context I shall now look at them from different angles. I shall begin
by examining this ‘new way of being Church’ against the background
of the fundamental ecclesiological statements made by the Second
Vatican Council. Given the prominent status of Bible-sharing, a
number of questions arise as to the theological significance of the Holy
Scripture and its importance for the life of the Church. In conclusion,
I will investigate the pneumatological implications of this approach.
Church at the local level

The defining element of Small Christian Communities is their
ability to establish networks in the places where their members live.
The Council recognised the life of the local churches as a fully adequate
manifestation of the Church. The dogmatic constitution Lumen
Gentium says in its renowned formula about the particular churches
headed by bishops: “…in and from which churches comes into being
the one and only Catholic Church.”267 However, the real presence of
267 LG 23. On the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council see: Kasper, W., Die Kirche
the Church of Christ is also expressly said to be in the local congre-

gations of the faithful by dint of the fact that the Gospel is proclaimed
and the Eucharist celebrated in them: “In these communities, though
frequently small and poor, or living in the Diaspora, Christ is present,
and in virtue of His presence there is brought together one, holy,
catholic and apostolic Church.”268 At the same time, though, emphasis
is always also placed on their close ties with the pastors, especially
the bishop, who is the manifestation in person of the unity and
communion of the universal Church.
Very useful for the theological classification of the Small
Christian Communities are the statements made about Basic Ecclesial
Communities in the post-Council documents (above all Evangelii
Nuntiandi, Redemptoris Missio and the continental Synods).269 The
earlier documents reflect a marked ambivalence. Wherever the Basic
Ecclesial Communities are firmly anchored in the life of the Church
they are welcomed as a sign of the vitality of the Church and as a
point of departure for comprehensive evangelization. However, they
are sharply criticised wherever they adopt an “attitude of fault-finding
and of rejection”, especially with regard to the Church hierarchy.270
The background to this essentially defensive stance is the massive
conflict over the Ecclesial Base Communities in Latin America. The
tone towards the Basic Ecclesial Communities is distinctly friendlier
in the later documents, in which they are recognised as consti-
tuting an important development of the Church in the period after
the Council.271 It is readily apparent that the criteria applied to their
ecclesiality are closely linked to the model of the Early Church (Acts
2): “Every community, if it is to be Christian, must be founded on
Christ and live in him, as it listens to the word of God, focuses its
prayer on the Eucharist, lives in a communion marked by oneness of
Jesu Christi, WKGS 11, Freiburg i. Br. 2008; Pottmeyer, H. J., Die konziliare Vision einer
neuen Kirchengestalt, in: Hennecke, C. (ed.), Kleine Christliche Gemeinschaften verstehen,
Ein Weg, Kirche mit den Menschen zu sein, Würzburg 2009, 31-46.
268 LG 26.
269 See: Scaria, F., Die Ekklesiologie der Kleinen Christlichen Gemeinschaften, Ein
indischer Ansatz und seine Konsequenzen, in: Hennecke, C. (ed.), o. cit., 89-125.
270 EN 58.
271
This assessment is particularly noticeable in RM 51; it is echoed in the document
Ecclesia in Asia (1999) 25.
A 171
heart and soul, and shares according to the needs of its members (cf.
Acts 2:42-47).”272
The Church and communion

‘Communion’ is a central element in this ‘new way of being
Church’. Communion (communio) is also the term that has attracted
most attention in endeavours to gain a theological grasp of what the
Council means by Church.273
The Church’s concept of itself as a communion is expressed first
of all at the structural level: communion as a communio ecclesiarum;
the establishment of communion structures at all levels of Church life
as forms of participation (e.g. the setting up of parish and diocesan
pastoral councils). The communio structure is not limited just to
the communion of different local churches. It means that all those
who form a communion in the Church also constitute a communion
among themselves: in this context Church is understood to be a
communion of communities. The Small Christian Communities are
likewise incorporated into this communion as the smallest cell of the
ecclesial communio, as it were.
In addition to this structural aspect of the concept of the
Church as communio there is, above all, a sacramental dimension:
communion in the Eucharist is the inner source of energy in the
ecclesial communio. The Church continually reconstitutes itself as
the Body of Christ. Small Christian Communities must, therefore,
be integrated into this sacramental reality of the ecclesial communio,
otherwise they forfeit their ecclesial character – in the Catholic
understanding, at least.
If communion constitutes the essence of the Church, all areas
and all experiences of Church life must be imbued with the spirit
of communio. In his pastoral programme for the Church at the
beginning of the third millennium John Paul II called for a spirituality
of the communion: “To make the Church the home and the school of
communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium
which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan
272 RM 51.
273 See: Walter Kasper, o. cit. especially 405-425.
and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings.”274 In his letter John

Paul II specifies some elements of a spirituality of the communion.
Spirituality of the communion means first of all that the heart must
focus its gaze on the mystery of the Trinity that resides within us and
whose light must be discerned on the faces of the brothers and sisters
beside us. Spirituality of the communion also means the ability to
recognise the brothers and sisters in the faith in the deep unity of the
mystical Body, i.e. ‘someone who belongs to me’ so that I can share
his joys and sorrows, anticipate his wishes and tend to his needs,
and ultimately offer him deep and genuine friendship. Spirituality
of the communion is, in addition, the capacity, in particular, to see
the positive sides of other people so that they can be accepted and
prized as a gift of God. Finally, spirituality of the communion means
‘making room’ for one’s brothers, which can be done by everyone
bearing the burdens of the others and resisting the temptation to put
themselves first.
“Communion must be cultivated and extended day by day and
at every level in the structures of each Church’s life.”275 Such spaces
in which communion can be experienced and really lived will arise,
in particular, wherever groups get together whose size leaves room
for encounter and exchange. A biblical strengthening of this need
might be seen in one aspect of the parable of the Feeding of the Five
Thousand, as told by Luke. There Jesus says to his disciples: “Get them
to sit down in parties of about fifty.”276
Communion has an internal sacramental dimension in the
Eucharist. But it also has a sacramental dimension that is directed
outwards, wherever it is a question of the mission of the entire
Church, which is to be the sign and tool of the unity of all men in
God and amongst themselves. Small Christian Communities are not
communities of choice; rather they are directed at everyone in the
respective neighbourhood. It thus becomes apparent that the Gospel
and its message of salvation are directed at all people.
274 Novo Millennio Ineunte (2000) 43. See Scaria, o. cit., 101-103.
275 Novo Millennio Ineunte 45.
276 Luke 9:14.
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Missionary character of the Church

The Church offers the prospect of the Kingdom of God, from
which arises its inherent mission of being a sign and instrument for
the union with God and the unity of the whole human race.277 If
reference to the Church as a community is detached from the prospect
of the Kingdom of God, this will likely give rise to an ecclesiocentric
view and a tendency for Church groups and communities to adopt a
self-centred mentality (Pottmeyer).
One of the key features of Small Christian Communities is that
they carry out the social mission of the Church in specific localities.
In this respect the experience gathered hitherto by Small Christian
communities in the USA278 is of interest, as is the initial response in
Germany.
It is important to note here what is said about ecclesiology
in the decree on mission activity Ad Gentes, which states that the
Church is missionary by her very nature.279 All those who have been
baptized take part in this missionary task of the Church. It involves
announcing the Good News to all people the world over, but also
in the neighbourhoods where individual Christians live. Evangelii
Nuntiandi states that evangelising is the vocation proper to the
Church, her deepest identity.280 In the Council documents the Church
is no longer understood to be merely a hierarchical institution, but
a fraternal community of the People of God, whose members bear
common responsibility for the mission of the Church.281
On the importance of the Holy Scripture for the life of the Church
A reciprocal relationship therefore exists between the Church
and evangelisation: the Church comes about through evangelisation
277 LG 1.
278
See: Lutz, B., Small Christian Communities aus US-amerikanischer Perspektive, in:
Hennecke, C. (ed.), o. cit. 241-256.
279 AG 2.
280 EN 14.
281 See: Chapter II of LG, Participation of all baptised persons in the life and mission of the
Church; participatory understanding of the Church; emphasis on the common priesthood
of all believers.
by Jesus and the Twelve. In turn, it is sent by Christ. The term evange-
lisation describes the very essence of the Church: it says something
crucial about the relationship between the Gospel and the Church.
The Church in relation to the Word of God

In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi Paul VI
emphasises that the Church, as the vehicle of evangelisation, begins
by evangelising itself: “She is the community of believers […] and she
needs to listen unceasingly to what she must believe, to her reasons for
hoping, to the new commandment of love. She is the People of God
immersed in the world, and often tempted by idols, and she always
needs to hear the proclamation of the “mighty works of God” which
converted her to the Lord; she always needs to be called together afresh
by Him and reunited. In brief, this means that she has a constant need
of being evangelized, if she wishes to retain freshness, vigour and
strength in order to proclaim the Gospel.”282
The Church grows as a result of the encounter with God’s Word.
The Church must repeatedly re-address the Word so that it can itself
proclaim this Word in a credible and effective manner. This explains
the significance of Bible-sharing for the life of the Small Christian
Communities. It is a deeply spiritual experience that is ultimately
directed towards encountering Jesus Christ himself. To echo the words
of the Church father Jerome: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance
of Christ.”283 The Council’s Constitution on Divine Revelation took
up this formulation, thus ushering in a paradigm shift in the biblical
pastoral ministry.
The Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum invites all
those who believe in Christ to learn, by frequent reading of the divine
Scriptures, the “excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ”.284 The Pontifical
Biblical Commission rightly referred to this statement as “something
new”.285 Whereas the Church’s magisterium responded with extreme
scepticism to the appearance of the first vernacular translation in the
282 EN 15.
283 Thus Hieronymus in the Prologue to his Commentary on Isaiah (PL 24,17).
284 DV 25.
285 The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993), IV.C.2.
A 175
High Middle Ages (associated with the Waldensian and Albigensian

reform movements) and, in particular, to the independent,
uncontrolled reading of the Bible by lay people during the age of
the Reformation, to which it applied the strictest of conditions, the
Council not only encourages the spiritual reading and interpretation
of scripture by clerics and Religious, but also explicitly recommends it
to all Christians.
The Council document regards both individual and common
study of the Scripture as a deeply spiritual experience. Reading of
the Holy Scripture is to be accompanied by prayer so that God and
man may talk together.286 This high regard for the spiritual reading
and interpretation of scripture is in keeping with the emphasis on
the presence of Christ in the proclaimed Word that is to be found
in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican
Council.
Different approaches to the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God

This new importance of the Holy Scriptures for the life of the
Church is rooted in the conviction that they are a ‘common treasure’
of all the People of God. All members of the Church are, therefore,
entitled to a correspondingly active role in the interpretation of the
Bible. Ralf Huning distinguishes three different approaches to the
Word of God to which three different hermeneutical spaces can be
assigned.287
The first approach is provided by ecclesial tradition, above all in
the liturgy and Church doctrine.288 It leads to the liturgical-institu-
tional space that is determined by the principle of tradition. Here God’s
Word is experienced from the perspective of the faith. The Word of
God is something given and not disposable to the individual believer.
It is more than mere information, it is light and strength; ultimately
God himself is encountered in the Word proclaimed.
286 DV 25.
287 Ralf Huning, Die Bedeutung der gemeinschaftlichen Bibellektüre der Gläubigen für die
katholische Kirche. Bibeltheologische und hermeneutische Überlegungen, in: Hennecke,
C. (ed.), o. cit., 159-186.
288 Ibid. 170f.
A very different hermeneutical approach to God’s Word is

provided by the academic space.289 Here attention is focused primarily
on the written text that conveys the Word of God. Scholarly methods
of textual criticism are used to supply a historical reconstruction of the
normative text stripped of any later addenda and revisions. Another
important outcome of this academic handling of the biblical texts is
their hermeneutically adequate translation into modern languages.
In addition to these two familiar approaches to the Holy Scripture,
Huning distinguishes a third approach that leads to the opening up of
a ‘community space’.290 This hermeneutical space is communitarian,
because the focus here is on all believers as Bible-reading subjects.
Here, specific access to the reality documented in the Scripture is
primarily via intuition, experience and practical knowledge of life
(wise discernment). The focus of interest is not on the text as such but
on contemporary life as the context in which there is a wish to hear
God’s voice.
These three hermeneutical spaces are not devoid of any intercon-
nection. The subjects of the respective spaces are related to each
other in a variety of ways. The doctrinal proclamation of the Word of
God, for instance, must not be in complete contradiction to scholarly
findings. It should also relate to the experiences of the faithful if it is
to be understood and accepted. In the academic space a far-reaching
isolation from the other hermeneutical spaces would ultimately lead to
the research findings losing their relevance. In the community space
consideration of the doctrinal tradition of the Church and scholarly
findings helps to protect against any subjectivist monopolising of the
Bible and against ideological bias. “Therefore, in the Catholic Church
listening to God’s Word with the help of the Bible should be a process of
dialogue in which all the members of the Church have a role to play.”291
The People of God’s sense of the faith

Everyone has their own share in the interpretation of the Holy
Scripture because they are living members of the one Church.
289 Ibid. 171f.

290 Ibid. 172-175.
291 Ibid. 176.
A 177
This emphasis on the ecclesial nature of common access to the

Holy Scripture expresses the specifically ‘Catholic character’ of the
approach taken by the Small Christian Communities. In contrast to a
distinctly Reformation-based understanding, according to which the
Church is subordinate to the Scripture, the Catholic understanding is
that everything to do with interpretation of the Scripture is ultimately
subject to the judgment of the Church. However, the paradigm shift
undertaken by the Council in its understanding of revelation and
tradition consists in the fact that this judgment is now no longer the
exclusive prerogative of the magisterium of the hierarchy, but relates
to the Church community as a whole.
This more comprehensive understanding finds expression
primarily in the doctrine of the sensus fidelium: “Sense of the faith
is interpreted as the God-given capacity of the faithful to take an
active part in finding the truth of the faith and its realisation in life.”292
In keeping with the foundational statement contained in Lumen
Gentium 12, the people of God are enabled by their sense of the faith
to penetrate more deeply into the faith and apply it more fully in life
– under the guidance of the teaching authority. The sensus fidelium
is at work wherever the people of God actively receive a statement of
faith, because they intuitively perceive the truth of this statement. The
basis for this ability deriving from the sensus fidelium is the intuitively
perceived powerful presence of God in the life of man.293
Special significance attaches here to the poor and to ordinary
people. People of humble origins are regarded in the Gospels as
preferred listeners to the Word: Glad Tidings are brought to the
poor.294 Things that are hidden from the learned and the clever are
revealed to little children.295 It is to such as these that the kingdom of
God belongs.296
292 Koch, G., Glaubenssinn, Wahrheitsfindung im Miteinander, in: idem. (ed.), Mitsprache
im Glauben? Vom Glaubenssinn der Gläubigen, Würzburg 1993, 99-114, 99f.

293 In this respect Huning (o. cit., 83) refers to Mesters, C., Por trás das palavras, Volume 1,
Um estudo sobre a porta de entrada no mundo da Bíblia, Petrópolis 1977, 35.

294 Luke 4:18; 7:22; Matthew 5:3; 11:5.
295 Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21.
296 Mark 10:14.
Special consideration is given to this aspect in the official document

on the Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993): “Those who
in their powerlessness and lack of human resources find themselves
forced to put their trust in God alone and in his justice have a capacity
for hearing and interpreting the word of God which should be taken
into account by the whole church, it demands a response on the social
level as well.”297 According to the Pontifical Biblical Commission,
the poorest and the lowliest “can bring to the interpretation of the
Bible and to its actualization a light more penetrating, from the
spiritual and existential point of view, than that which comes from
a learning that relies upon its own resources alone”. In interpreting
this statement, Mesters applies in analogous fashion the scholastic
category of ‘connatural cognition’: the term connaturalness denotes
a natural relationship between the cognizer and the object of the act
of cognition. Applied to the poorest and lowliest, this means that the
people literally understand what is written in the Scripture because it
is existentially related to the people in the Bible.298
Applied to the Small Christian Communities this means that, by
dint of a comparison with their own experiences, they acquire intuitive
access to the message of the Holy Scripture and learn something as a
result. Proof of what they have learned is supplied by what they do in
their lives and their faith. The actions taken by the Bible readers make
it possible to see whether they have really understood the meaning of
the passages in the Bible from which they derive their own models for
action. They make their sense of faith visible by virtue of what they do:
through the benefits generated by their actions.299
Church as the work of the Spirit

The sense of faith, which enables the People of God to adhere
unwaveringly to the faith, penetrate it more deeply and apply it more
297 Interpretation of the Bible in the Church, III.B.3

298 Mesters, C., Das Verständnis der Schrift in einigen brasilianischen Basisgemeinden,
in: Concilium 16 (1980) 10, 561-566, 564. Huning establishes a connection between the
Pauline statement about the weakness chosen by God to destroy what is strong and the
Revelation of God in the inadequacy and imperfection of human language. Corresponding
to this to some extent is the weakness of the preferred listeners to the Word, o. cit. 176.
299 Comparison with the seed of the Word which sprout in the soil of life and bring forth
their fruit; see also: EN 41, the witness of life.

A 179
fully in their lives, is a sign of the working of the Spirit in the Church;
it is aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth.300
This is a further seminal notion that is of significance for the
classification of Small Christian Communities: the Church is the
work of the Spirit. The Spirit is a vital principle for the communities; it
illuminates them and guides their lives. The Spirit enables the Church
to seek the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the
Gospel: “Motivated by this faith, it labours to decipher authentic signs
of God’s presence and purpose in the happenings, needs and desires
in which this People has a part along with other men of our age.”301
These signs are, therefore, in need of interpretation – in the light of
the Gospel, in the faith and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This
interpretation can only succeed, “if the meaning of the facts correlates
with the positive revelation of God’s plan of salvation, which is centred
on Christ, and is illuminated by it”.302
The Spirit at work in the Church is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It
reminds the Church of the self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ. It
keeps alive the memory of what God achieved through His Son. It
leads the Church deeper into the truth of this Revelation so that it
can discern the significance of the event for its own presence. Hence
there is a close connection between the Spirit and the Word of the
Holy Scripture. It is the connection between the Spirit and the Word
that turns the Word of the Scripture into the Word of God which can
make its influence felt in the present: “The Spirit updates the Word on
the basis of its literal meaning. It enables the Word to speak to each
generation in its respective cultural milieu and situation.”303
The Spirit is the Spirit of the truth, which ensures that what has
happened for our salvation in the past is present today. At the same time
it is, above all, also an eschatological reality. It is the Spirit prophesied
for the last days. The Spirit acts with a view to the future, moving
into a space and a time that are opened up by the Word. It moves
the Passover of Christ in the eschatology forwards in the direction
300 LG 12.
301 GS 11.
302 Congar, Y., Der Heilige Geist, Freiburg i. Br. 1982, 186.
303 Ibid. 182.
of Creation – it drives the Gospel on into the period of history that is

yet to come. On the one hand, therefore, God has said and given us
everything in Jesus Christ and yet there are new developments, and
things really do happen in history.304 But the Spirit is and continues to
be the spirit of Jesus Christ […]. A pneumatology can only be healthy
if it relates to Christ. In the combined power of Christ and the Holy
Spirit the Church can be tremendously open in its endeavours to
achieve its catholicity […].”305
Hence, the study of the Scripture in the Small Christian
Communities is primarily a spiritual act, for it is only in the Spirit –
while engaging with the Word of the Holy Scripture – that an encounter
with Christ can take place, that the Word of the Scripture can become
the living Word of God which can unfold its power in the present.
This spiritual occurrence goes beyond mere individual edification;
it has a community function, one that can generate community. The
Church is built up through the encounter with the living Word of
God (creatura verbi), because it is repeatedly reinvigorated with the
life that constitutes its very essence and pushes forward the historical
development of this essence.
One final facet is important in pneumatological terms for the
classification of Small Christian Communities: the Spirit is given to
all. It is God’s eschatological gift to all the People of God306, especially
to the poorest and lowliest. The Spirit is given to each and every
individual; at the same time it is given to all together. It is the Spirit that
unites the Church and brings together the many in the communion of
saints. For that reason the Spirit can only really be at work where the
community of the entire Church is sought and experienced.
Outcome for the Small Christian Communities

Summarizing the thoughts outlined above, it is possible to
conclude that Small Christian Communities can be a viable means to
implement the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council in the life
of the local churches. Small Christian Communities can contribute
304 Ibid. 189.

305 Ibid. 190.
306 Cf. Joel 3:1f.
A 181
to a revitalised presence of the Church in places where people live.

Wherever they respond to the realities of life, to the social and cultural
situation, they foster the inculturation of the Gospel in the respective
context. Conversely, however, this means that the path will of necessity
vary depending on the individual circumstances. Successful models
cannot simply be uncritically transferred to different contexts but
must be constantly revised and developed in response to specific
challenges.
It is important to note that the Small Christian Communities
model does not represent a structural principle, the purpose of which
is to break down large parishes into small and manageable sub-units.
When reference is made to a new way of being Church, this does not
mean first and foremost a new organisational principle but a way of
finding the road along which the Spirit wishes to take the Church –
without knowing what this road looks like in detail. This new way of
being Church presumes, firstly, a great deal of openness in respect
of the road down which the Spirit wishes to take the Church and,
secondly, considerable trust in the sources that have been repeatedly
used in the past to renew the life of the Church: prayer and the Holy
Scripture.
The real players on this road are not the pastoral strategists, but
the people who live and bear witness to their faith in everyday life. The
Council has strengthened confidence in the fundamental recognition
that the Spirit can make its influence felt in all members of the People
of God and that it can speak in a special way through the weak, the
dependent and the disregarded, in particular. This realisation should
lead to an attitude of humility and, above all, of attentiveness so that
the signs of the times can be correctly interpreted and the presence
of the Spirit perceived in the challenges posed by the given situation.
For that reason people who give their faith a perceptible and credible
form by the way they act in their daily lives can become the nucleus of
a Church with a new missionary purpose in our time.
The spirit of the truth is promised to the Church as a whole. Hence
individual groups and communities should not isolate themselves.
They can only maintain their ecclesial character to the extent that they
continuously actively seek integration into the comprehensive ecclesial
communion. The presence of the Lord experienced in the Word must,
therefore, always be connected with the lived and celebrated union

in the Eucharist. Here the sacramental communion with the Lord
is connected with lived communion, with the entire Church and its
shepherds. This ‘Catholic principle’ prevents the Church from disinte-
grating into individual autonomous free churches. It maintains and
strengthens the communion of the Church, which is guided by the
spirit of freedom and held together in unity.
Historical Development
of Small Christian Communities
Historical Development of the Small Christian
Communities / Basic Ecclesial Communities
in Africa
Joseph G. Healey
At its 6th Plenary Assembly from 20 November to 2 December,

1961 the Zaire Episcopal Conference (hereafter called by its present
name the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC) approved a
pastoral plan to promote “Living Ecclesial Communities” (also called
“Living Christian Communities”). Communautés Ecclésiales Vivantes
de Base (CEVB) is the full French term for SCCs. The bishops opted
for these communities to be more important than the well-known
mission structures (church buildings, schools, hospitals). These
Living Ecclesial Communities were said to be the only way to make
the church more “African” and close to the people. So the very first
Small Christian Communities (SCCs)307 in Africa started in DRC in
1961.
Then came the historic Second Vatican Council (http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Vatican_Council) (1962-65). Small
Christian Communities developed as a result of putting the communion
ecclesiology and teachings of Vatican II into practice. The founding
fathers of AMECEA (http://www.amecea.org) (Association of Member
Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa) and other Episcopal
Conferences in Africa had a vision that focused on the communion
(koinonia) and service (diakonia) aspects and developed SCCs as a
concrete expression of, and realization of, the Church as Family Model
307 Small Christian Communities (SCCs) is an umbrella term used in this article and is
the common expression for this new way of being church in Africa. Even some writers in
French prefer the term SCC because it indicates the “scale” of the communities. Different
terms are used on the continent of Africa. BCC means Basic Christian Community. BEC
means Base or Basic Ecclesial Community. CEB means Communautés Ecclésiale de Base.
CEVB means Communautés Ecclésiales Vivantes de Base.
185
186 Historical Development of Small Christian Communities
of Church. Latin America, Africa and Asia (especially the Philippines)

all pioneered the development of a SCC/BCC/BEC Model of Church.
After considerable research and debate, many specialists feel that
quite independently of one another these three areas of the Catholic
Church in the Global South simultaneously experienced the extraor-
dinary growth of SCCs. Thus, contrary to some misinformed interpre-
tations, the African experience did not come from Latin America,
but developed on its own. African SCCs have developed mainly as a
pastoral, parish-based model.
The very beginning of SCCs in Eastern Africa can be traced back
to the parishes of the Luo-speaking Deanery (especially Nyarombo,
Ingri and Masonga Parishes) in North Mara in Musoma Diocese
in northwestern Tanzania in 1966. This began with research on the
social structures and community values of the African Independent
Churches among the Luo Ethnic Group. The first terms used
were chama (meaning “small group”) and “small communities of
Christians” (forerunner of SCCs). The Maryknoll missionaries
focused on the formation of natural communities. By 1968 Nyarombo
Parish had 20 small communities and five were started in a nearby
parish. During the Seminar Study Year (SSY) in Tanzania in 1969
the concept and praxis of SCCs that were then called “local Church
communities” were first articulated as a priority in both rural and
later urban parishes.
The actual launching of SCCs in DRC goes back to the period
1971-1972 when there was a confrontation between President Mobutu
Sese Seko and the Catholic Church. Mobutu’s “authenticity” campaign
suppressed the missionary institutes and associations. To meet the
crisis the church established the priority of the creation and organi-
zation of SCCs. The pioneering Cardinal Joseph Malula of Kinshasa
Archdiocese, DRC stated: “The Living Ecclesial Communities are
slowly becoming the ordinary place of Christian life, with the parish as
the communion of the Living Ecclesial Communities.” This included
emphasizing lay ministries and implementing Vatican II’s theology of
laity, “the People of God.”
The bishops of the neighboring Republic of the Congo closely
followed DRC’s leadership in their 1973 meeting. SCCs were built upon
the extended family. In 1974 the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon

Historical Development of the Small Christian Communities 187
followed suit. The expatriate missionaries in Northern Cameroon and

neighboring Chad had already begun to channel the first evangeli-
zation into SCCs. In war-torn Burundi and Rwanda a similar six-year
renewal plan was conceived in 1976 uniting people on every hill into
“community meetings.” In Francophone West Africa the lead was
taken by Burkina Faso in order that each and every one would feel
truly part of and fully responsible for the Church as a family (1977).
The South African Catholic Bishops Conference made a decisive step
in the same direction in 1975.
During the World Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1971 on “Justice
in the World” the African delegates noted that SCCs already existed in
Africa. At the World Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1977 on “Catechesis”
the Bishops in Africa declared themselves clearly in favor of SCCs.
The AMECEA Study Conference on “Planning for the Church
in Eastern Africa in the 1980s” in Nairobi, Kenya in December,
1973 stated: “We have to insist on building church life and work on
Basic Christian Communities in both rural and urban areas. Church
life must be based on the communities in which everyday life and
work take place: those basic and manageable social groups whose
members can experience real inter-personal relationships and feel
a sense of communal belonging, both in living and working.” This
pastoral policy was in the context of the statement: “We are convinced
that in these countries of Eastern Africa it is time for the Church
to become truly local, that is, self-ministering, self-propagating and
self-supporting.”
This is rooted in the theology that SCCs are not optional, but
are the basic unit/basic cell/basic building block/basic foundation/
most local expression of the Catholic Church. That is why ideally one
should greet all people as Small Christian Community members. SCCs
are different from the traditional parish associations and sodalities
that are voluntary and often base on international constitutions and
guidelines. Even a priest or religious can become a member of the SCC
in his specific neighbourhood or geographical area (that is, where he
or she is actually living).
Two of the founders of SCCs in Eastern Africa were Bishop
Patrick Kalilombe, MAfr, of Lilongwe Diocese, Malawi and Bishop
Christopher Mwoleka of Rulenge Diocese, Tanzania.
The AMECEA Study Conference on “Building Small Christian

Communities” took place in Nairobi, Kenya in 1976. The key statement
was: “Systematic formation of Small Christian Communities should
be the key pastoral priority in the years to come in Eastern Africa.”
This is the single most important statement made about SCCs. The
meeting went on to affirm the essential ecclesial character and charac-
teristics of Small Christian Communities by stating: “The [Small]
Christian Communities we are trying to build are simply the most
local incarnations of the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.”
The Catholic bishops in Eastern Africa chose this SCC pastoral
priority as the best way to build up the local churches to be truly
self-ministering (self-governing), self-propagating (self-spreading),
and self-supporting (self-reliant and self-sustainable). The three selfs
are essential characteristics of SCCs as the base/basic level of the church,
and by extension, of the Local Church. This is a real self-actualization
of the church. The family, the SCC, the outstation, the sub-parish, the
parish and the diocese reflect a “Communion of Communities Model
of Church” starting from below, from the grassroots.
During this meeting the word “small” was specifically chosen to
avoid certain undertones of the word “basic.” Bishop Raphael Ndingi
(later Archbishop of Nairobi, Kenya) stated that to call our grassroots
communities “small” instead of “basic” is another indication that the
movement in Africa was growing on its own, quite independent of
what was happening along the same lines in other places such as Latin
America.
In 1975 Burkina Faso opted for the creation of SCCs on the model
of Church as Family. Similar decisions were made by other Episcopal
Conferences in Africa.
1978 saw the birth of Bible Sharing/Gospel Sharing at the Lumko
Missiological Institute in South Africa. Excellent SCC training
manuals began to be published that popularized the Lumko “Seven
Steps” Method of Bible Sharing/Gospel Sharing. Altogether there are
eight Gospel sharing methods that can be adapted to the local context
and situation. These training manuals have been used throughout the
Africa.
The AMECEA Study Conference on “The Implementation of

the AMECEA Bishops’ Pastoral Priority of Building Small Christian

Communities: An Evaluation” took place in Zomba, Malawi in
1979. One pastoral resolution stated: “SCCs are an effective way of
developing the mission dimension of the church at the most local
level, and of making people feel that they are really part of the church’s
evangelizing work.”
The Bishops of Africa placed SCCs at the center of their pastoral
strategy in two major SECAM (http://www.sceam-secam.org)
(Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar)
documents: Justice and Evangelization in Africa (Yaounde, Cameroon,
1981) and Church and Human Development in Africa (Kinshasa,
DRC, 1984). Pastoral Centers in Africa have been very important in
promoting this SCC Model of Church such as: AMECEA Pastoral
Institute, Gaba, Eldoret, Kenya; Ave Maria Pastoral Center, Tzaneen,
South Africa; Kenema Pastoral Center, Kenema, Sierra Leone; and
Lumko Missiological Institute, Germiston, Delmenville, South Africa.
The AMECEA Study Conference on “Evangelization with its
Central Issues: Inculturation, Small Christian Communities and
Priestly, Religious and Christian Formation” in Lusaka, Zambia in
1992 focused on an “Evaluation of AMECEA.” The research findings
identified four AMECEA priorities that included “Promotion of
SCCs” and recommended in-service training for animators of SCCs.
This conference reiterated the SCC pastoral commitment by stating:
“So we repeat that SCCs are not optional in our churches; they are
central to the life of faith and the ministry of evangelization.”
A major step was the First African Synod in Rome in April, 1994
on the theme “The Church in Africa and Her Evangelizing Mission
to the Year 2000” with five main topics: “Proclamation of the Good
News of Salvation”, “Inculturation,” “Dialogue”, “Justice and Peace”
and the “Means of Social Communications.” Of the 211 interventions
during the first two weeks of the First African Synod, there were 29
interventions on SCCs (the fourth highest number after the topics
of justice, inculturation and laity). Bishop Francisco Joao Siloto of
Chimoio Diocese, Mozambique said that “these communities are an
expression of African communitarianism and the only true way of
inculturation for the African Church.” Archbishop Cornelius Fontem
Esua of Bamenda, Cameroon said that “it is necessary and urgent to
put Sacred Scripture into the hands of the faithful so it can be the
source and inspiration for the life and activities of Small Christian
Communities.” Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth of Kisumu Archdiocese,
Kenya said that „Small Christian Communities help implement the
ecclesiology of communion… It is of paramount importance that the
Synod on Africa recommends the establishment of Small Christian
Communities in the parishes, so that the new model of the parish for
the year 2000 will be the one of a community of communities.“
Regarding the “Ecclesiology of the Church-as-Family” the Final
Message of the Bishops of Africa to the People of God in Section 28
on “The Church-as-Family and Small Christian Communities”
states: “The Church, the Family of God, implies the creation of
small communities at the human level, living or basic ecclesial
communities…These individual Churches-as-Families have the task
of working to transform society.”
1995 saw the publication and promulgation of Blessed John Paul
II’s Apostolic Exhortation The Church in Africa in Yaounde, Cameroon,
Johannesburg, South Africa and in Nairobi, Kenya between 14-20
September, 1995. Numbers 23 and 89 treat SCCs:
Number 23 under “The Family of God in the Synodal Process:” “If
this Synod is prepared well, it will be able to involve all levels of the
Christian Community: individuals, small communities, parishes,
Dioceses, and local, national and international bodies.”
Number 89 under “Living (or Vital) Christian Communities:”
“Right from the beginning, the Synod Fathers recognized that
the Church as Family cannot reach her full potential as Church
unless she is divided into communities small enough to foster
close human relationships. The Assembly described the charac-
teristics of such communities as follows: primarily they should be
places engaged in evangelizing themselves, so that subsequently
they can bring the Good News to others; they should moreover
be communities which pray and listen to God’s Word, encourage
the members themselves to take on responsibility, learn to live an
ecclesial life, and reflect on different human problems in the light
of the Gospel. Above all, these communities are to be committed
to living Christ’s love for everybody, a love which transcends the
limits of natural solidarity of clans, tribes or other interest groups.”

SCCs became an important part of the National Plans for the

Implementation of the African Synod in the AMECEA countries. The
African Synod Comes Home – A Simplified
Text (Pauline Publications Africa, 1995) and other post-synodal
documents stressed the importance of SCCs in the follow-up and
implementation of the recommendations of the First African Synod.
This included developing SCCs as a concrete expression of, and
realization of, the Church-as-Family Model of Church. This SCC
Pastoral Priority was clear in Ndola Diocese, Zambia. The Ndola
Diocesan Guidelines states: “We share in the universal Church’s
mission…This is achieved through the establishment of active and
fully involved Small Christian Communities.”
A key turning point for the growth of SCCs in Tanzania was
promoting a model of church from the bottom up. “The implemen-
tation of the new Constitution of the National Lay Council in 1998
required that the election of lay leaders in parishes throughout
Tanzania start at the level of SCCs and move upwards. This insured
that the parish council leaders would be chosen from those who were
already leaders in their SCCs – thus true representation from below.
Such decisions gave full confidence to the faithful and opened new
possibilities for the laity in the local church.” This can also be seen
in diocesan synods on the local level. The booklet for the Synod of
Mwanza Archdiocese in Tanzania in 2002 contains 105 references to
Jumuiya Ndogo Ndogo za Kikristo (JNNK), the Swahili expression for
SCCs.
Next was the AMECEA Study Conference on “Deeper Evangeli-
zation in the Third Millennium” in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 2002.”
Section 7 of the Pastoral Resolutions is on “Building the Church as a
Family of God by Continuing to Foster and/or Revitalize the Small
Christian Communities,” No. 43 states: “We recommend that a
programme on the theological and pastoral value of Small Christian
Communities be included in the normal curriculum of the Major
Seminaries and houses of formation of both men and women.”
On 19 March, 2009 in Yaounde, Cameroon Pope Benedict XVI
promulgated the Instrumentum Laboris (“Working Document”) of the
2009 Second African Synod.
While the English text of the Lineamenta published in 2006

uses the term “living ecclesial communities,” the English text of the
Instrumentum Laboris published in 2009 uses the more common term
“Small Christian Communities” (note the capitals). The French text
uses “Communautés Ecclésiales Vivantes.”
SCCs are mentioned in 12 times in the Instrumentum Laboris and
twice in the footnotes. This is significantly more than in the Lineamenta
in which “living ecclesial communities” are mentioned three times in
the document and twice in the questionnaire. This increase in the
importance given to SCCs is clearly due to the many responses from
the Episcopal Conferences in Africa and to other answers to the 32
questions of the original questionnaire.
The Second African Synod itself took place in Rome from 4-25
October, 2009 on the theme: “The Church in Africa in Service to
Reconciliation, Justice and Peace.” No. 22 of the Message of the Bishops
of Africa to the People of God states: “Here we would like to reiterate
the recommendation of Ecclesia in Africa about the importance of
Small Christian Communities (cf. EIA, 89). Beyond prayer, you
must also arm yourself with sufficient knowledge of the Christian
faith to be able to “give a proof of the hope that you bear” (1 Peter
3:15) in the marketplaces of ideas…We strongly recommend the
basic sources of Catholic faith: the Holy Bible, The Catechism of the
Catholic Church, and most relevant to the theme of the Synod, The
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.” Small Christian
Communities are mentioned seven times in the “Final List of [57]
Propositions.”
The Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of the Congo
under the patronage of the National Episcopal Conference of the
Congo sponsored the 27th Theological Week of Kinshasa in Kinshasa,
DRC from 21 to 25 February, 2011 on the theme “The Experience
of Basic Living Ecclesial Communities in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo: Theological and Pastoral Perspectives after 50 Years”
(“L’expérience des CEVB en RD Congo: Perspectives théologiques et
pastorales 50 ans après”). This conference commemorated the 50th
Anniversary of “Living Ecclesial Communities” in DRC (1961-2011).
As a sign of unity and solidarity with other parts of Africa, in the day
devoted to “Other Experiences of CEVB in DRC and Elsewhere,” Father

Pius Rutechura, the then Secretary General of AMECEA (and now the
Vice-Chancellor of CUEA), gave a paper under the heading “Echoes
of English-speaking Africa: AMECEA” entitled “The Experience of
the AMECEA Region with Small Christian Communities, Pastoral
Priority since the 1970s.” Father Godefroid Manunga, SVD, the
Director of the Lumko Missiological Institute, gave a paper on “The
Experience of South Africa.”
Pope Benedict XVI promulgated the Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation Africa’s Commitment (Africae Munus) in Ouidah, Benin
in West Africa on 19 November, 2011. The four sections related to
SCCs are:
Number 131 under “Lay People:” ”It can be helpful for you to
form associations in order to continue shaping your Christian
conscience and supporting one another in the struggle for justice
and peace. The Small Christian Communities (SCCs) and the
‘new communities’ are fundamental structures for fanning the
flame of your Baptism.”
COMMENTARY: In most official documents of the Catholic
Church the traditional parish is the basic juridical unit of the Church.
It is significant that SCCs are now called fundamental structures.
Number 133 under “The Church as the Presence of Christ:” “This
is clearly seen in the universal Church, in dioceses and parishes,
in the SCCs, in movements and associations, and even in the
Christian family itself, which is ‘called to be a ‘domestic church’,
a place of faith, of prayer and of loving concern for the true and
enduring good of each of its members,” a community which lives
the sign of peace. Together with the parish, the SCCs and the
movements and associations can be helpful places for accepting
and living the gift of reconciliation offered by Christ our peace.
Each member of the community must become a ‘guardian and
host’ to the other: this is the meaning of the sign of peace in the
celebration of the Eucharist.”
COMMENTARY: SCCs are places to live Christ’s gift of reconci-
liation and peace. SCC members exchange a sign of Christ’s peace
with each other and with others in the spirit of solidarity, unity and
commitment/responsibility to each other.
Number 151 under “The Sacred Scriptures:” “Each member of

Christ’s faithful should grow accustomed to reading the Bible
daily! An attentive reading of the recent Apostolic Exhortation
Verbum Domini (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_
xvi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20100930_
verbum-domini_en.html) can provide some useful pastoral
indications. Care should be taken to initiate the faithful into
the ancient and fruitful tradition of Lectio Divina. The Word of
God can lead to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and bring about
conversions which produce reconciliation, since it is able to
sift “the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
The Synod Fathers encouraged Christian parish communities,
SCCs, families and associations and ecclesial movements to set
aside times for sharing the Word of God. In this way, they will
increasingly become places where God’s word, which builds up
the community of Christ’s disciples, is read, meditated on and
celebrated. This word constantly enlivens fraternal communion
(cf. 1 Peter 1:22-25).”
COMMENTARY: This confirms the central place of Bible sharing
and Bible reflection in the life of SCCs in Africa.
Number 169 under “Missionaries in the Footsteps of Christ:” In the
context of the new evangelization “all Christians are admonished
to be reconciled to God. In this way you will become agents of
reconciliation within the ecclesial and social communities in
which you live and work.”
COMMENTARY: This echoes many synod documents that
encourage SCC members to become agents of reconciliation in
their own faith communities on the local, grassroots level, in their
natural, human communities and in the wider society.The last 10
years has seen the increasing involvement of SCCs in promoting
forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, justice and peace in Africa. There
is considerable documentation on how some of the 20,000 base
communities (another name for SCCs) were involved in the reconci-
liation and healing ministry in Rwanda after the 2004 genocide.
Research in Kenya, Rwanda and Sudan indicates that women are better
in peacemaking than men. Men tend to emphasize power and control
while women emphasize personal relationships. The Jesuit Centre for

Theological Reflection (JCTR) in Lusaka, Zambia produced guided

reflection pamphlets on justice and peace topics for SCCs to generate
faith-based action. The various reflection methods in the Lumko
Program especially related to social justice are used throughout Africa.
There is an ongoing emphasis on formation and training. Lumko
Workshops are regularly held throughout Africa. A workshop on
“The Role of SCCs in Civic Education in DRC” took place in Congo
in Kinshasa in 2008. The annual Kenya Lenten Campaign trains
SCC Leaders to use the inductive „see,’ “judge” and “act“ process
of the Pastoral Circle and to facilitate “Training of Trainers” (TOT)
Workshops on justice and peace in parishes and SCCs. Hopefully
the Biblical Centre for Africa and Madagascar, commonly known as
BICAM, that is located at the SECAM Secretariat in Accra, Ghana can
promote more training programs in bible reflection.
Research shows that a statistical and analytical evaluation of SCCs
in Africa is better done on a diocese to diocese basis, and even on
a parish by parish basis, rather than on a country to country basis.
Presently there are 110,000 SCCs in the nine AMECEA countries.
Kenya alone has over 40,000 SCCs.They are pastorally oriented and
mainly parish-based. Some dioceses in Nigeria have active SCCs. In
other dioceses they are non-existent. SCCs seem to regularly rise and
fall. SCCs started in Lagos, Nigeria Archdiocese of Lagos in 1977.
However by late 1980s the SCCs nosedived. In 1992 SCCs became
alive again. Now there are SCCs in 50 parishes in the archdiocese.
SCCs are very strong in DRC. 2006 statistics indicated that Kinshasa
Archdiocese had 1,800 CEVBs in the city with many more in the
surrounding rural areas. There are many SCCs in Southern Africa
especially South Africa and Zimbabwe. IMBISA (Inter-Regional
Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa) conferences and workshops
are an important catalyst. The small communities of Sant’Egidio in
Mozambique provide another model of SCCs.
In terms of using the internet to promote SCCs in Africa “the
future is now.” Today we have the growing importance of networking,
the internet and the new media/social media: interactive websites
specifically about SCCs in Africa, online journals, online learning sites,
conferencing, webinars, search engines like Google, social networking
sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Skype, podcasts,
video clips, DVDs, special applications (called “apps”), e-readers,

Quick Response (QR) Readers, plug-ins, blogs, list-servs, forums,
email messages, cellphones (especially Smart Phones), other mobile
devices, text messages, etc. The social media revolution is changing the
way the world – and the Catholic Church in Africa – communicates.
In this digital age we can dramatically expand our knowledge and
understanding on three levels. First, the internet and the new media/
social media can help in the formation and training of SCC leaders/
animators/facilitators/coordinators in Africa. Second, the internet and
the new media/social media can help members of SCCs in Africa to
share their experience with the rest of the world. Through the internet
and other forms of this new information technology and digital world,
members of African SCCs can also feel part of the Global Church, the
World Church. Third, the internet and the new media/social media
can help people around the world learn about SCCs in Africa.
A concrete example is the Small Christian Communities Global
Collaborative Website (www.smallchristiancommunities.org) that
shares SCCs contacts, information, events, materials and news for
each of the six continents. The Africa Continent Section includes a
lot of continent-wide material and specific national material from
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Malawi,
South Africa and Tanzania so far. Other features on the website are:
Archives, Book Reviews, Calendar of Events, eBooks, Links to other
SCCs Websites, Photo Gallery, Resources, SCC Polls, SCCs Stories
Database, Search Engine, Videos, Vision and What’s New.
What is the future? Many African SCCs have emerged from
reading the contemporary signs of the times in Africa and responding
to today’s reality. Cardinal Polycarp Pengo of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
and the President of SECAM, calls SCCs “a special or priviledged
instrument of evangelization.” Tanzanian theologian Laurenti Magesa
emphasizes: “For the future of Christian mission, specifically in
Africa, we can say without hesitation that the development of small
faith communities is an indispensable requirement.” They can play a
major role in the New Evangelization. Already as a new way of being
church and a new model of church (closely related to the Church as
Family and the Communion of Communities Models of Church)
African SCCs are influencing the World Church. SCCs in Africa will

continue to develop in the spirit of the Spanish proverb popular with

the Base or Basic Christian Communities in Latin America: We create
the path by walking.
A Spark Ignites a Flame –
Small Christian Communities in Germany
Klaus Vellguth
After the Second Vatican Council, Europe witnessed the

emergence of a movement inspired primarily by the search in Latin
American countries for ways of living as a committed Christian.
From the 1970s onwards Christians began to form Basic Ecclesial
Communities in response to this movement. A look at their
evolution in the different European countries makes it clear that
the momentum generated by the movement varied from country
to country. The development of Basic Ecclesial Communities in
Germany at this time was of only marginal significance compared
to other European countries. Looking back, Norbert Mette writes:
“In comparison with other countries in Europe [the development of
Basic Ecclesial Communities] in Germany was on a modest scale.
In fact, Basic Ecclesial Communities were formed relatively late. A
considerable influence on the situation in Germany was exerted by
the changes taking place at the time in the Catholic Church in the
Netherlands […].”308 A look at the book Die andere Kirche: Basisge-
meinden in Europa309, published in 1982, is revealing in this respect. It
contains reports on the development of Basic Ecclesial Communities
in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland
and Hungary. There is no separate report in this European survey on
grass-roots developments in the Church in Germany, however. The
book merely reviews the situation in the German-speaking countries
at the end of the national reports.
308 Mette, N., Der europäische Kontext (Lecture given at the conference “In the Modern
World? The Church on the way through History in Basic Ecclesial Communities.” Interna-
tional Consultations in Aachen, 14-16 December 2010.
309 Copray, N. / Meesmann, H., / Seiterich, Th. (ed.), Die andere Kirche, Basisgemeinden
in Europa, Wuppertal 1982.
199
In his article on the situation of Basic Ecclesial Communities in

Germany Thomas Seiterich proposes the following as a definition of
what a Basic Ecclesial Community is considered to be in Germany:
“Groups and communities are being formed that exist outside the
institutional parish structures and beyond the scope of ecclesiastical
law. These groups and communities call themselves ‘Basic Groups’
or ‘Basic Ecclesial Communities’. They read the Bible, celebrate
Communion or the Eucharist, intervene in political conflicts and make
their views heard with an increasing degree of self-confidence among
the Church-going public.”310 These groups called themselves Projekt-
gruppe konkrete Theologie (Lauffen), Laurentius-Konvent (Wethen),
Oskar-Romero-Haus (Bonn), Teestubengemeinde (Würzburg),
Gastkirche (Recklinghausen), KABA (Hannover), Dessauerhausge-
meinde (Frankfurt am Main) or simply Basisgemeinde (Darmstadt,
Marburg, Bonn, Wulfshagenerhütten, etc.). Since these groups tended
to regard themselves as part of a reform movement or a changed
practice and not as a substructure within the Church, Hermann
Steinkamp favoured treating the Basic Ecclesial Communities not
as a ‘social form’ but as a ‘practice form’311. He warned against the
expectation that Basic Ecclesial Communities could be transplanted
as “living cells into the ageing organism of the European people’s
church”312, considering it to be unrealistic.
During the Grassroots Catholics Day in 1980 a map was put up
on which Basic Ecclesial Communities could be entered. A total of 40
groups or communities were identified. Writing about the members
of these Basic Ecclesial Communities, Thomas Seiterich said they
were generally between the ages of 18 and 60 and that marginal
social groups were barely represented. The members “come from that
section of the population in which the younger and middle generation
has, with the exception of a small minority, turned its back in
310 Seiterich, Th., Basisgemeinden, in: Copray, N., / Meesmann, H / Seiterich, Th. (ed.), o.
cit., 135-148, 135.

311 Cf. Steinkamp, H., Selbst wenn die Betreuten sich ändern, Theologie im Ringen um
Geschichte und Gesellschaft, in: Schillebeeckx, E., Mystik und Politik, Johann Baptist Metz
zu Ehren, Mainz 1988, 354-363, 355.
312 Steinkamp, H., Prozesse der Gemeindebildung, Exemplarische Schwierigkeiten in der
Bundesrepublik, in: Metz. J.B. / Rottländer, P. (ed.), Lateinamerika und Europa, Mainz
1988, 110.
Spark Ignites a Flame
A 201
disappointment on the churches over the past twenty years.”313 These

Basic Ecclesial Communities in the Federal Republic of Germany
regarded themselves initially as personal communities, membership
of which rested on a conscious decision in favour of a Christian life
involving greater personal commitment. Their high level of binding
personal commitment was also manifested in the vehement resistance
of the Basic Ecclesial Communities to the pastoral practice of a
‘Church of dependents’ or a ‘service Church’. Instead, the members
of the Basic Ecclesial Communities generally attached importance to
political involvement. Many of their members played an active role in
the political disputes over the NATO double-track missiles decision,
the nuclear power plant at Brokdorf and the plans to build the western
runway at Frankfurt Airport.
In addition to the political slant that characterised many of the
Basic Ecclesial Communities they adopted a new approach to the
Bible: “Small groups get together in an effort to interpret the Word
of God, who topples the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the
downtrodden, in their own specific occupational, family and political
settings. […] Basic Ecclesial Communities endeavour to jointly
re-appropriate the Word of God; and in these difficult attempts at
re-appropriation, which in many cases are hindered by the middle-
class practice of steering clear of unfamiliar developments, the
members experience what they regard as a key element of living and
working together in a Basic Ecclesial Community.”314
Many Basic Ecclesial Communities consciously saw themselves
as a living part of a universal Church and maintained direct,
personal relations with parishes or Basic Ecclesial Communities in
countries of the southern hemisphere. In addition to their universal
Church aspirations these Basic Ecclesial Communities asserted the
right to ecumenical openness, which manifested itself in the accessi-
bility of the Basic Ecclesial Communities to members of different
denominations. The Basic Ecclesial Communities which emerged
in Germany at this stage regarded themselves either as groupings on
313 Seiterich, Th., Basisgemeinden, o. cit., 138.

314 Ibid. 143. Cf. Metz, J.P., Im Aufbruch zu einer kulturellen polyzentrischen Welt, in:
Kaufmann, F.-X./ Metz, J.B., Zukunftsfähigkeit, Suchbewegungen im Christentum,
Freiburg 1987, 110-111.
the fringes of the institutional (Catholic) Church, as non-denomina-

tional groupings or, in some cases, as groups that deliberately wished
to form a contrast with the ‘established Church’. The governing body
of the Church reacted in different ways to these new developments.
There were numerous constructive attempts to commend the Basic
Ecclesial Communities as an innovative movement of awakening
propelled by dedicated Christians who offered considerable potential
for the renewal of the Church as a whole. The last Lent Pastoral Letter
written in 1981 by the then Bishop of Limburg, Wilhelm Kempf,
contained welcome words of respect for the nascent Basic Ecclesial
Communities: “There are Christians who feel called upon to give
more than what they currently experience in their parishes in terms
of commitment and dedication. However, they also take the message
of the Bible seriously that you cannot be a Christian all on your own.
They feel that now, more than ever before, it is inconceivable to be
a Christian and not be part of a community. They, therefore, gather
in small groups and strive to find common ways of living that are
in harmony with the Gospel and the following of Jesus Christ. They
hold discussions on the faith and the Bible, celebrate Mass together,
donate a large part of their earnings to the poor and the persecuted
in the Third World, stand up for the defenceless and in some cases
also take political sides. Most of these groups have not been founded
by a priest. They have been formed by lay people acting on their
own free will. […] They aim to give a new, more vocal expression to
the radical demands made in the Gospel of mediocre or introverted
Christians. They suffer if the parish does not give them sufficient
room to pursue their own initiatives. They criticise the fact that
Christians, and often enough the clergy too, are insensitive to social
and political problems. They are disgusted by the new ‘look after
and care for me’ mentality that is to be found among many members
of the Catholic Church.”315 It was thanks to such words of esteem
that many Christians active in the Basic Ecclesial Communities
continued to regard themselves as part of the Church and decided
not to break off contacts with other Church circles, which had often
become very fragile.
315 Kempf, W., Für euch und für alle, Brief des Bischofs von Limburg zur Fastenzeit 1981
an die Gemeinden des Bistums, besonders an die Fernstehenden, Limburg 1981.

A 203
In the 1980s and 1990s many Basic Ecclesial Communities

in Germany revealed a high level of commitment, although the
movement itself never gained the momentum it achieved in some
other European countries.316 In fact, most of the Basic Ecclesial
Communities disbanded after a few years. There were many reasons
for this. The dissolution process was attributed in part to personal
conflicts within the groups, which have a substantial explosive force
in personal communities. On the other hand, many Basic Ecclesial
Communities failed to live up to the high ethical expectations they set
themselves. Finally, the late 1980s and early 1990s saw the end of the
political disputes that had served as a source of identity for many Basic
Ecclesial Communities. The end of the political arguments meant the
loss of an important point of focus and identification for the Basic
Ecclesial Communities. Another problem was that the approach
adopted by the Basic Ecclesial Communities came about “because
of the upheavals in Germany, out of a sense of frustration and with
an idealising look at ‘the others’”317. Moreover, from the 1990s at the
latest Germany underwent a phase of social cocooning that was less
conducive to the political involvement experienced the late 1970s and
early 1980s, favouring a return to familiar structures instead.318 The
new grassroots movement emerging in German local churches today
can be attributed to a later development.
New learning experiences in Africa and Asia

The start of the third millennium has witnessed the emergence
of a new Basic Ecclesial Community movement in Germany.319 There
are two reasons for this. Firstly, the disadvantages of the territo-
rially ever larger pastoral units in the German dioceses are readily
apparent. Secondly, the spiritual and community-based approach of
the Small Christian Communities, as seen from the universal Church
perspective, is regarded as having the potential to serve as a social form
316 Cf. Höhne-Sparborth, J., Länderbericht „Niederlande“, in: Copray, N. / Meesmann, H.
/ Seiterich, Th., (ed.), o. cit., Wuppertal 1982, 37- 49.

317 Cf. Lutz, B., Small Christian Communities – ein weltweites, aber sehr heterogenes
Phänomen, in: Pastoraltheologische Informationen 26 (2006) 1, 22-37, 23.

318 Cf. Horx, M., Trendbuch 1, Berlin 1996.
319 Cf. Lutz, B., o. cit. 22-37.
for the Church at the local level.320 The experience gained in earlier
decades during the initial phase of the Basic Ecclesial Communities,
which ultimately lacked long-term viability, has been analysed and the
lessons learned from the lack of acceptance, attachment to the Church
and spirituality witnessed during that early period.321
Small Christian Communities, which emerged from the mid-1970s
firstly in East Africa, then in southern Africa and finally in Asia,
have proved to be an important source of learning for the universal
Church.322 From the 1980s onwards, missio monitored the processes
of awakening in Basic Ecclesial Communities in the churches of the
South, which were regarded initially as places where there was a lively
biblical apostolate. In its project work missio gave special support
to publication of the Lumko materials323, which encompassed both
the Bible-sharing method and the Small Christian Communities
approach.324 In the 1980s, missio published a workbook introducing
the Seven Steps method of Bible sharing in Germany, where this form
of biblical apostolate found numerous supporters.325 In contrast to the
papers that were very often presented in Bible study groups, the newly
introduced Bible sharing method rested on a different approach.
“Whereas Bible study groups and Bible methods very often – and
justifiably – rely on the superior skills of the person leading the group
320 Cf. Körber, M., Sehnsuchtsorte, Small Christian Communities, in: Pastoralblatt 59
(2007) 81-85.
321 Cf. Weber, F., Gewagte Inkulturation, Basisgemeinden in Brasilien, Eine pastoralge-
schichtliche Zwischenbilanz, Mainz 1995, 38-65.

322 Cf. Vellguth, K., Eine neue Art Kirche zu sein, Entstehung und Verbreitung der Small
Christian Communities und des Bibel-Teilens in Afrika und Asien, Freiburg 2005.
323 Cf. Lobinger, F., Building Small Christian Communities, No. 19 in the series “Training
for Community Ministries”, Lady Frere 1981. Hirmer, O. / Broderick, R., Neighbourhood
Gospel Sharing, No. 20 in the series “Training for Community Ministries”, Lady Frere 1985.
The first edition of this publication was entitled “Neighbourhood Gospel Groups”. The
title chosen for the new, revised edition in 1985 was “Gospel Sharing”. The second revised
edition published in 1991 was called “The Pastoral Use of the Bible”. The title has remained
unchanged since then.
324 Cf. Tewes, D., AsIPA – Small Christian Communities, Ein weltkirchliches Lernprojekt
für die Pastoral im deutschsprachigen Raum, in: Ordenskorrespondenz 48 (2007) 1, 62–69,

63f.
325 Cf. Rappel, S., Eine neue Art, Kirche zu sein, Pastoral aus Afrika und Asien – eine
Inspiration für Deutschland?, in: Anzeiger für die Seelsorge 115 (2006) 9, 5-8, 6f.
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[…], the point of Bible sharing is to experience the practical updating

and full expression of the truth of the Council, which stems from the
fundamental equality and dignity of all who have been baptised – a
dignity which can also be interpreted as meaning that all are called
upon equally to listen to God’s Word.”326
In 1989, the last Diocesan Synod in Germany, which was held
in the Diocese of Hildesheim, addressed the issue of “A New Way of
Being Church”.327 One of the main things the Synod Fathers learned
at that time was that meetings and working groups were not just
technically and bureaucratically efficient ways of working, but also “a
self-realization of the Church and self-evangelisation. Bible-sharing
proved to be a practical way of appreciating what God wants for
the Church today.”328 In the 1990s, missio invited Oswald Hirmer
to give seminars on Bible-sharing in Germany. In doing so, it drew
on the experience that had been gathered in the Small Christian
Communities in Africa.329 In both the Diocese of Hildesheim and, in
particular, in the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart an awareness had
developed at an early stage that a process of Bible-based community
development was taking place in the Small Christian Communities.330
In the meantime the first Asian Integral Pastoral Approach (AsIPA)
texts were available in a German translation supplied by Oswald
Hirmer. In 1998, a workbook on Bible-sharing was published in a new,
completely revised edition.331 In Germany, reception initially concen-
326 Hennecke, C., Mehr und anders als man denkt: Small Christian Communities, in: idem.
(ed.), Small Christian Communities verstehen, Ein Weg, Kirche mit den Menschen zu sein,
Würzburg 2009, 10-28, 21. Alexander Foitzik, Neue Formen gemeindlichen Lebens, Ein
Gespräch mit Regens Christian Hennecke über Kirchenbilder, in: Herder Korrespondenz
64 (2010) 4, 177-181, 180.
327 Cf. Leder, G., Auf neue Art Kirche sein …? Laienhafte Anmerkungen, Münster 2008.
328 Kaune, M., / Hennecke, C., Mehr als Bibel-Teilen, Auf dem Weg zu einer “Kirche in der
Nachbarschaft” im Bistum Hildesheim, in: Anzeiger für die Seelsorge 115 (2006) 9, 16-19,
16.
329 Cf. Nagler, N., Spiritualität und Gemeindebildung – eine neue Art Kirche zu sein, in:
Lebendige Seelsorge 56 (2005) 4, 211-218, 211f.

330 Cf. Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Der Samen ist das Wort Gottes, Bausteine für eine
biblisch orientierte Gemeindeentwicklung (Materialhilfe 11 des Instituts für Fort- und

Weiterbildung der kirchlichen Dienste in der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart), Rottenburg
1998.
331 missio (ed.), Bibel-Teilen, Bekannte Texte neu erleben, Aachen 1998.
trated on the Seven Steps of bible-sharing as a form of Bible study.332

The strong focus on the biblical apostolate also found expression in
the book Gemeinschaft im Wort published in 1999. It presents Bible-
sharing primarily as a form of spiritual Bible reading in which no
account is taken of the ecclesiogenetic context.333 But Bible-sharing
is more than just that: “In actual fact, Bible-sharing is the spiritual
foundation of the Small Christian Communities. Where Bible-sharing
is conducted properly, it turns a Small Christian Community into a
‘mystagogical community’, whose members help each other to grasp
the secret of Christ’s presence in their midst.”334
The introduction of Bible-sharing in Germany paved the way for a
new, nationwide initiative that enabled Small Christian Communities
to be launched in Germany at the outset of the third millennium.
This initiative ultimately had its origins in the journeys undertaken
by two missio members of staff to Sri Lanka and India respectively
in preparation for the missio campaign on World Mission Sunday
in 2000. In the summer of 1999 Dieter Tewes travelled to India and
Klaus Vellguth to Sri Lanka. In the course of these journeys it turned
out that not only was a form of Bible-sharing practised in the Small
Christian Communities that was of interest to Germany, but also that
in the Small Christian Communities in Sri Lanka and India, which
had been set up in Asia as part of the Asian Integral Pastoral Approach
(AsIPA), there was an intrinsic ecclesiogenetic potential that changes
churches in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and leads to a new
way of being Church.335 It became clear that this pastoral approach
offered interesting prospects for Germany in shaping the Church at
332 Cf. Kaune, M./ Hennecke, C., Mehr als Bibel-Teilen, Auf dem Weg zu einer ‘Kirche in
der Nachbarschaft’ im Bistum Hildesheim, in: AnzSS 115 (2006) 9, 16-19, 17. Vellguth,
K., Gemeinschaft im Wort. Das Bibel-Teilen erschließt Christen auf der ganzen Welt neue
Wege zum Glauben, in: Im Blickpunkt, Munich 2004, 10-12.
333 Cf. Hirmer. O./ Steins, G., Gemeinschaft im Wort, Werkbuch zum Bibel-Teilen, Munich
1999.
334 Hirmer, O., Small Christian Communities, Ein starkes Werkzeug zur inneren Reform
der Kirche, in: Anzeiger für die Seelsorge 115 (2006) 9, 20-21, 21.
335 Cf. FABC, Journeying Together Towards the Third Millennium, The Final Statement
of the Fifth Plenary Assembly of FABC, Bandung, Indonesia, July 17-27, 1990, in: FABC
Papers (1990) 55-59, 57d, 26f. Cf. Vianney, F., Our Vision of Communion and Solidarity in
the Context of Asia, in: Colloquium on Churches in Asia in the 21st Century, Manila 1998.
A 207
the local level.336 An application to present this approach in Germany

stated the following: “The AsIPA programme […] addresses the
pastoral and spiritual needs in the communities and forms viable
basic ecclesial structures. The pastoral strength of the AsIPA approach
resides in the dovetailing of spirituality and community building; it
convincingly implements the communion ecclesiology. The different
cultural context notwithstanding, this concept also offers a vision for
local churches in Germany.”337 Norbert Mette subsequently wrote the
following about this method of drawing attention to the experience of
Small Christian Communities in Asia and implementing a learning
community in the universal Church: “A look at other regions within
the universal Church can give cause for hope and provide confir-
mation that there are other ways of proceeding.”338
Launching the Spirituality and Community Building project

Missio decided to introduce the pastoral approach of the Small
Christian Communities to audiences in Germany as part of a multi-year
project. In September 2000, the newly established Working Group on
Spirituality and Community Building, headed by Norbert Nagler, met
in Aachen to map out the prospects for such a project.339 Once again
it became clear that the strength of the AsIPA approach derives from
the fact that full-time pastoral staff, in particular, learn a new, partici-
patory style of leadership and lay people are invited to share respon-
sibility. Emphasis was also put on the spiritual and pastoral opportu-
nities this approach had to offer for the Church in Germany: “For the
German dioceses and parishes, which in the present circumstances
336 Cf. Vellguth, K., Am Anfang steht die Vision, in: Fürstenberg, G. von/ Nagler, N. /
Vellguth, K. (ed.), Zukunftsfähige Gemeinde, Ein Werkbuch mit Impulsen aus den Jungen
Kirchen, Munich 2003, 60-64. Vellguth, K., Die Sonne geht im Osten auf, in: Pastoralblatt
54 (2002) 10, 251-254. Tewes, D., o. cit., 64.
337 Vellguth, K., Antrag zur Etablierung eines Projekts „Small Christian Communities”
(unpublished document), Aachen 1999.

338 Mette, N., Situation der Gemeindepastoral in Deutschland, in: Fürstenberg, G. von /
Nagler, N. / Vellguth, K. (ed.), o. cit. 12.

339 In 2000 the members of the Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building
were Gabriele Eichelmann, Werner Meyer zum Farwig, Helmut Gammel, Max Himmel,
Rainer Kiwitz, Annette Meuthrath, Hadwig Müller, Norbert Nagler (as project leader),
Werner Schmitz, Harald Strotmann and Dieter Tewes (who later took over as project
leader).
are seeking pastoral prospects for the future, AsIPA offers a special
opportunity to counter the threat of exclusively structural thinking by
supporting the congregations in their search for a sound spiritual basis
and accompanying them effectively down this road.”340
To learn more about the development of Small Christian
Communities in Asia two missio representatives, Armin Ehl and
Norbert Nagler, took part in the Second AsIPA General Assembly
in October 2000 in Sam Phran (Thailand). During this conference
Oswald Hirmer stressed that Small Christian Communities focus
on Christ and made it clear that the practice of Gospel-sharing is
just one way of placing Christ at the heart of the community or the
Church.341 This line of argument was taken up shortly afterwards by
Ottmar Fuchs, who wrote the following about the connection between
a focus on the Bible and a focus on Christ: “References to the Bible and
references to Christ belong together in these communities. First of all,
Christ is positioned at the centre. He is given a presence so that he can
be experienced as the person who speaks to the faithful through the
biblical texts. The faithful regard their own interpretations of the texts
as an answer to this word. There is no discussion of the texts; instead
they become the medium for the encounter with Christ.”342
A journey with consequences

A few weeks after this AsIPA General Assembly a second meeting
of the Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building was
held in December 2000. Representatives of the dioceses in Aachen,
Osnabrück, Rottenburg and Trier reported on the pastoral situation
in their respective dioceses and identified points of departure for a
grassroots model of Small Church Communities.343 One of the key
340 Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building, minutes of the meeting of 14
September 2000 (unpublished minutes), Aachen 2000.

341 Cf. Hirmer, O., AsIPA, A Tool for Implementing Our Vision of Church as a
Co-Responsible Community of Brothers and Sisters, in: AsIPA General Assembly II, A
New Way of Being Church in the New Millennium, Taipei 2002, 26-31. Cf. Nagler, N.,
Meditation in Gemeinschaft, Bibel- und Leben-Teilen als Gemeinde am Ort, in: Anzeiger
für die Seelsorge 114 (2004) 7/8, 18-23.
342
Fuchs, O., Immer noch: Neue Impulse aus der Weltkirche, in: Fürstenberg, G. von /
Nagler, N. / Vellguth, K. (ed.), o. cit. 17-27, 25.
343 For related aspects concerning a contextualisation in Europe cf. Spielberg, B., Wo lebt
A 209
steps agreed was that in the following year pastoral staff should be
offered the opportunity to travel to India and Sri Lanka so that they
could observe the Small Christian Communities approach in practice.
The journey was undertaken in March 2001 with participants from the
(arch)dioceses of Aachen, Hamburg, Osnabrück, Trier and Rottenburg-
Stuttgart.344 The participants were invited “to put day-to-day business
to the back of their minds and join with partners from the universal
Church in a discussion and exchange of experience in order to jointly
develop models appropriate to the circumstances in the respective local
churches”. The following practical project objectives were formulated:
“To experience the Church as a Universal Church Learning Community
under the overall heading of The Future Viability of Parishes the
World Over; on the basis of the AsIPA programme to find out about
the development of a thriving and sustainable community spirituality;
to learn from the pastoral changes in the Church in Asia and derive
momentum from these for the pastoral concepts of the respective
dioceses in Germany.”345 The journey initially took the group to an
introductory seminar in the Indian city of Hyderabad, after which
the members split up and visited various dioceses in India (Mumbai,
Nagpur) and Sri Lanka (Negombo, Kandy). The group subsequently
met up again in the Indian city of Nagpur, reflected on the experience
gathered in the various dioceses and agreed on ways in which the
outcomes of the journey could be incorporated in pastoral discussions
in the dioceses in Germany. After returning home, Werner Meyer
zum Farwig had the following to say about the pastoral approach
experienced in Asia and its applicability to the Church in Germany:
“The Small Christian Communities offer the experience of a special
spirituality. It is based on the Word of God, the communion in Christ
and a common responsibility to look after each other. […] We would
need to inculturate AsIPA into the European cultural environment.
That is the challenge we face. As our hosts frequently pointed out, this
can only be done step by step and with a great deal of patience.”346
die Kirche? Antworten aus Asien auf eine drängende Frage, in: Lebendige Seelsorge 56
(2005) 4, 235-240, 240.
344 Cf. Rappel, S., o. cit., 7f.
345 Norbert, N., o. cit. 212f.
346 Nagler, N./ Meyer zum Farwig, W., … Auf eine neue Weise Kirche sein, in: Fürstenberg,
G. von / Nagler, N. / Vellguth, K. (ed.), o. cit., 130f.
Although no precise ‘roadmap’ was available for the introduction

of Small Christian Communities in Germany, a decision was taken
to adopt a bold approach and “simply make a start. ‘Just do it’ were
the encouraging words that were heard time and again from Africa,
Asia and Latin America. The most important steps are learning by
doing, experimenting, continuous reflection, exchange, networking,
information and lobbying.”347 Looking back, Dieter Tewes recalls the
process of implementing this pastoral programme in German local
churches, which now got under way: “We adopted an ‘error-friendly
learning’ approach in which we looked at the repeated experiences
of local churches in recent years, analysed them and examined
them for their contextualisation potential.”348 The strengths of the
AsIPA approach were deemed to be the focus on community, the
provision of a home for Christians seeking spirituality in the Church,
the independence of full-time ‘Church managers’, the link between
pastoral work and social welfare work, the empowering of lay people
and the ecclesiogenetic character of the approach349: “During Bible-
sharing there is not just talk about the Church, but it also manifests
itself, because people feel called out of their isolation by the Word of
God and out of their service to their respective idols and they hear
the message of salvation from the Good Father in Heaven who knows
what we need and who has long provided for us (cf. Matthew 6).”350
The Spirituality and Community Building initiative launched by
missio fell on fertile soil in a number of dioceses. During a Diocesan
Day in Aachen, for example, it was noted that “The Diocese of
Aachen encourages the establishment, support and development
of groups which, motivated by biblical spirituality (Bible-sharing,
living Gospel), support each other as faith and life communities and
encourage activities.”351 This resolution had been preceded by several
347 Rappel, S., o. cit. 8.

348 Dieter Tewes discussion on 30 May 2012.
349
Cf. Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building, minutes of 6/7 November
2001 (unpublished document), Aachen 2001.
350 Steins, G., Die ekklesiogene Dimension des Bibel-Teilens, in: Fürstenberg, G. von /
Nagler, N./ Vellguth, K. (ed.), o. cit. 67.

351 Bistum Aachen, Bistumstag 2001 im Bistum Aachen, Handlungsoptionen zu den
Leitlinien (Beschlüsse zur Weiterführung des geregelten Dialogs), Aachen 2002.

A 211
courses given by Fritz Lobinger and Oswald Hirmer in Aachen.352

In 2001, the (arch)dioceses in Hamburg, Freiburg, Osnabrück,
Rottenburg-Stuttgart and Trier succeeded in projecting the experience
of the universal Church into the diocesan context.353 The same year
representatives of the Archdiocese of Freiburg joined in the Spirituality
and Community Building project. By that time other dioceses had
begun to take notice of this promising pastoral initiative. The heads
of the German Pastoral Care Offices invited Norbert Nagler, who was
head of the working group at that time, to present the Spirituality
and Community Building project at their conference in Goslar in
December 2001.354
Interest grows
In 2002, missio again invited Oswald Hirmer and Fritz Lobinger
to give seminars in various dioceses in Germany on the subject of
Small Christian Communities. Thomas Vijay and Agnes Chawadi,
two representatives of local churches in India, were also recruited
to report at the beginning of the year on their experiences with
Basic Ecclesial Community structures in Asia.355 In addition to the
seminars and workshops in Germany two journeys to Asia were
undertaken in 2002 by pastoral staff from the dioceses of Aachen356
and Hamburg357. These journeys, together with the universal Church
experiences gathered in the course of such a voyage, had a catalytic
effect. After the return of the Hamburg travel group, fifty enquiries
about events, information, etc. concerning the Asian approach to
pastoral work were submitted to the missio diocesan contact point.358
352 Further seminars with Oswald Hirmer were held in the dioceses of Trier and Erfurt in
2001.
353 Cf. Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building, minutes of the 6th
working meeting (unpublished document), Aachen 2001.

354 Cf. Nagler, N., o. cit. 215.
355 Cf. ibid.
356
The AsIPA journey to India and Sri Lanka undertaken by the Diocese of Aachen, which
was headed by Werner Meyer zum Farwig, lasted from 18 January to 8 February 2002.
357 The journey to India undertaken by pastoral staff of the Archdiocese of Hamburg
headed by Guido Brune lasted from 14 to 29 September 2002. Cf. Nagler, N., o. cit., 215.
358 Cf. Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building, minutes of the meeting
of 3 December 2003 (unpublished document), Aachen 2003.

Moreover, the members of the Working Group on Spirituality and

Community Building were repeatedly asked to report on their
experiences to interested people in Germany. In March 2002, Dieter
Tewes talked about his AsIPA experience at an in-house conference of
the Pastoral Care Office in the Diocese of Osnabrück and combined
the approach of the Small Christian Communities with a five-week
training course for pastoral assistants in celebrations of the Word of
God in the diocese. 2002 also saw the setting up of a cross-depart-
mental project group called Spirituality and Community Building –
Small Christian Communities. Its task was to build up Small Christian
Communities in the parish associations and so gather experience
with this dedicated form of being Church at the local level.359 In
Rottenburg-Stuttgart the linking of spirituality with the building of
communities was discussed at numerous meetings of the Ordinariate.
Max Himmel, who was active in community development in the
Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, began passing on the experience
gained in Asia to the community renewal animators on the basis of
the Rottenburg model. In the Diocese of Trier the issue of spirituality
and community building was dealt with at the meeting of deans in
January 2002.
Bible sharing is more than Bible study even in the Year of the Bible
The Year of the Bible was held in Germany in 2003. In the run-up,
numerous members of the Working Group on Spirituality and
Community Building were asked to hold meetings on Bible-sharing
to mark the Year of the Bible. This enabled individual aspects to be
addressed in the dioceses of Essen, Hamburg, Osnabrück and Trier.
The plan in the Diocese of Osnabrück was to announce Bible-sharing
in many groups in a parish and to train leaders for these groups.
After an intensive period lasting several weeks the aim was that as
many as possible of the existing groups and circles, together with
groups specially trained for the purpose, should meet once a week
or once a fortnight to engage in Bible-sharing. Dieter Tewes wrote
of this project: “The intensive period was intended to function as a
359 Cf. Tewes, D., Kirche in der Nachbarschaft, Von AsIPA zu Small Christian Communities
in Deutschland – Erfahrungen im Bistum Osnabrück, in: Lebendige Seelsorge 56 (2005) 4,

228-234, 230.
A 213
‘spiritual renewal of the parish’. The project group combined the

intensive period with the hope that groups would continue to meet if
their experience of Bible-sharing proved to be positive and that they
would thus gradually develop into Small Christian Communities.”360
However, it turned out that longer preparation was needed for such an
intensive period. This meant that the latter could not be carried out
in the Year of the Bible in 2003. The efforts undertaken bore initial
fruit in 2004, however, when the first parish associations began work
on the programme in the Diocese of Osnabrück. It turned out that
the initiative led to the strengthening of Bible study groups rather
than to the building of Small Christian Communities. “It is apparently
very difficult to convey the inner connection between Bible-sharing
and sharing services in the parish.”361 The members of these groups
were less interested in the building of a community or church. The
emphasis was very much on Bible study and spirituality. Looking
back, Dieter Tewes concedes: “At that time we succeeded in initiating
or strengthening spiritual self-help groups. However, these groups
were more interested in doing something for their own spirituality
and less focused on the community.”362 It did not prove possible either
to subsequently persuade these groups to become more involved
in community development. “Each of these groups had a ‘genetic
code’ that was incapable of change later on. We found out that the
groups who were prepared to embrace a process of change ultimately
disintegrated.”363 In only one parish in the Diocese of Osnabrück did
it prove possible to transform the original Bible-sharing group into a
Small Christian Community. This continues to exist and sees itself as
a lively sub-structure of its parish.364
360 Ibid, 231.

361
Foitzik, A., Kirche in der Nachbarschaft, Impulse aus der Weltkirche zur Gemeindeer-
neuerung, in: Herder Korrespondenz 60 (2006) 9, 463-468, 467.
362 Dieter Tewes, conversation on 30 May 2012. Cf. Lutz, B, o. cit.
363 Dieter Tewes, conversation on 30 May 2012. Cf. Tewes, D., Kirche unter den Menschen,
Small Christian Communities in großen pastoralen Strukturen, in: Unsere Seelsorge
3/2011, Münster 2011, 48-51, 51. For similar experiences in the Archdiocese of Hamburg
cf. Leittersdorf-Wrobel, L., Small Christian Communities in Deutschland, Eine andere Art,
Kirche vor Ort zu leben, in: missio konkret 1/2007, 13-15, 14.
364 A Diocesan Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building was set up in
Trier in 2003. Cf. Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building, o. cit.
Bavarian dioceses also showed an increasing interest in the Small

Christian Communities model. The strength of this pastoral approach
was considered to be that it focused on the community, practised a
non-dominant leadership style and led to an ‘amateurisation of
pastoral care’.365 In 2003, workshops on Small Christian Communities
and on a participatory leadership style were held in many Bavarian
dioceses. The meetings with Sister Tshifiwa, a member of the South
African Lumko Institute, met with a great deal of interest, especially
in the Diocese of Würzburg. Good neighbourliness, spirituality, social
commitment and connectedness with the Church366 were seen as the
key pillars of this Basic Ecclesial Community-oriented approach to
pastoral care.367
The search for a context-related designation

At this stage there was an intensive discussion of how best to describe
the process of building Small Christian Communities that had been
initiated in many dioceses. Agreement was reached in the debate that
expression should be given to the connection between spirituality and
community building and that the aim was to arrive at a viable model of
community formation.368 There was, however, a general awareness that to
use the terms Basic Ecclesial Group or Basic Ecclesial Community was to
risk entering a minefield. In theological debates these terms were closely
connected with the disputes over liberation theology in Latin America.
Hence they would not prove helpful for the development of Basic
Ecclesial Community structures in Germany. There was also intensive
discussion of whether ‘groups’ or ‘communities’ should be formed. It
transpired in the course of the debate that, in contrast to the numerous
Basic Ecclesial Communities that had been formed in Germany in the
1980s, the Small Christian Communities were not interested in setting
up an ‘alternative Church’. The communities regarded themselves much
more as an integral part of the Catholic Church or as part of the parish
in which the Eucharist was celebrated in communion. Referring to the
365 Cf. Spielberg, B., o. cit., 39f.

366 Cf. EN 58.
367 Cf. Tewes, D., Kirche in der Nachbarschaft, Von AsIPA zu Small Christian Communities
in Deutschland – Erfahrungen im Bistum Osnabrück, o. cit., 230 f.
368 Cf. The workbook of the same name “Zukunftsfähige Gemeinde” published in 2003.
A 215
connection between Small Christian Communities and the Church

or parish as a Church structure, Dieter Emeis wrote: “The smaller
communities must consciously seek communion with each other. This
distinguishes them from self-contained circles of friends or groups of
like-minded people devoted to the common pursuit of certain pleasures.
By bringing together kindred spirits, smaller communities always run
the risk of supporting or even reinforcing differences and distinctions
between people. The community, however, should by its very nature be
a sign of the power of the faith that brings together what is different and
reconciles what has been rent asunder. The larger community, which
assembles on Sunday for the Lord’s Supper, is also the place for those
who live their faith in family and society without any involvement in a
group.”369
Among the possible descriptions for the pastoral process in
Germany under discussion at that time were “Joint community life in
spiritual communities” and “New Church – kindling a fire together”.
While these proposals did not prove acceptable, there was agreement
that the subtitle for the Basic Ecclesial Community-oriented pastoral
process should be “Kindling a fire together”.370
German National AsIPA Team

Two representatives of the Working Group on Spirituality and
Community Building, Norbert Nagler and Simone Rappel, took part
in the Third AsIPA General Assembly in Seoul in September 2003
which addressed the issue of “SCCs/BECs Empowering People to
Serve”.371 During this meeting Orlando Quevedo stressed that Small
Christian Communities, especially those in secularised societies, offer
a pastoral opportunity to bring Christians together in a network.372
Responding to Quevedo’s remarks, Thomas Dabre developed an
ecclesiology of Small Christian Communities that was founded in
369
Emeis, D., Realistische Treue zur Vision der Gemeinde, in: Fürstenberg, G. von /
Nagler, N. / Vellguth, K., (ed.), o. cit., 13-16, 15.
370
Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building, minutes of the meeting of
16/17 September 2003 (unpublished document), Aachen 2003.
371 Cf. Vellguth, K., o. cit.
372 Cf. Quevedo, O., SCCs/BCCs, Empowering People to Serve, unpublished lecture given
at the Third AsIPA General Assembly on 4 September 2003, Seoul 2003.
Trinitarian theology.373 Norbert Nagler later wrote the following about

the status accorded to the representatives from Germany at this AsIPA
General Assembly: “The learning community of Asian and German
theologians had in the meantime advanced to such an extent that the
German delegation no longer participated in the General Assembly
as sponsors and ‘observers’, but was rather welcomed as the German
National AsIPA Team and treated as such.”374
In February 2004 the first network meeting of all the Small
Christian Communities in the German-speaking countries was held in
Georgsmarienhütte near Osnabrück. This paved the way for the later
founding of the German National Small Christian Communities Team
in 2005. On the fringes of this meeting a SWOT analysis was carried out
of the situation of the Small Christian Communities in Germany. It was
also established that the introduction of Small Christian Communities
would trigger a paradigm shift in pastoral work in line with the spirit
of the Second Vatican Council and the Würzburg Synod375: Small
Christian Communities transform the Church from a hierarchically
structured system into a service-based system. They develop a mode
of communication that rests not on preaching but on dialogue. The
faithful become the subjects (and not the objects) of pastoral care. In
the communities there is less teaching and more listening. Visionary
work is performed. The Church is wrested away from actionism and
transformed into a Church of the present. Last but not least, what
emerges is a Church in which the focus is on the spiritual experience
of the individual. “This means moving away from the service-based
community to a community which derives from the Bible the strength
and the inspiration it needs for its ecclesiastical and social work; a
community that consists of a number of communities acting on their
own responsibility, which are networked with each other and in which
there are very specific rules for cooperation (including with the priest
373 Cf. Dabre, Th, Pastoral Imperatives of Forming Small Christian Communities,
lecture given at the Third AsIPA General Assembly from 3 to 9 September 2003 in Seoul;
unpublished document.
374 Nagler, N., o. cit., 216.
375 The Würzburg Synod said: “A community whose pastoral need are served must turn into
a community which puts its life at the common service of all and in the non-transferrable
responsibility of each and every individual.” Synod resolution “Pastoral Services” in the
community, Würzburg 1974.
A 217
and the full-time team).”376 This goes hand in hand with the emphasis
on, and actual experience of communion ecclesiology and with a shift
in emphasis away from the experience of ‘official priesthood’ in the
direction of the experience of common priesthood on the part of all
believers (LG).377 This common priesthood of all believers does not
see itself as being in competition with the official priesthood, but
rather as constituting an essential characteristic of all Christians378
(thereby easing the burden on the official priests) designed to ensure
that the official priesthood and the common priesthood complement
each other. “The task of priests and full-time staff in this system is,
therefore, primarily the important service of unity. They will satisfy
the growing need in the groups for more knowledge about the faith
by organising seminars and courses. They will motivate the leaders,
animators and ‘ministries; they will discover charismatic traits and
encourage people to contribute. They will accompany, advise and
spiritually strengthen the leaders of the groups and the represen-
tatives of the teams. They will gradually visit the individual groups,
occasionally take part in their meetings, and celebrate services with
them and in the communities. Together with a team of leaders (PGR)
they will take charge of managing the community association.”379 As
the South African Bishop Michael Wüstenberg pointed out, the Small
Christian Communities ultimately further the existence of priests:
“Lay people give the shepherds spiritual strength (AA 10). If priests
participate in the meetings of the Small Christian Communities, they
directly encounter the joy and the hope, the grief and the fear of the
individual members of their parish. […] If ‘the world’ is a common
place of spirituality of the so-called world priests […], then the priest
certainly meets the world – his spiritual home – here.”380
376 Tewes, D., o. cit., 229.

377
Cf. Working Group on Spirituality and Community Building, The German National SCC
Team Meeting, Osnabrück 10/11 February 2004 (unpublished document), Osnabrück 2004.
378 Cf. LG 32.
379 Tewes, D., Damit Kirche vor Ort lebendig bleibt, Small Christian Communities im
Gemeindeverbund”, in: Anzeiger für die Seelsorge 115 (2006) 9, 11-15, 14. On the role of
the full-time pastoral worker see also Dieter Tewes, AsIPA – Small Christian Communities,
Ein weltkirchliches Lernprojekt für die Pastoral im deutschsprachigen Raum, o. cit., 69.
380 Wüstenberg, M., Small Christian Communities, Kraftvolle Zukunftsperspektive der
Kirche als Familie, in: Anzeiger für die Seelsorge 118 (2009) 10, 5-8, 8.
The network meeting of all the Small Christian Communities

in Georgsmarienhütte was followed shortly afterwards by another
exposure trip in March to Malaysia and Singapore, in which represen-
tatives of missio were joined by representatives of the dioceses of
Aachen, Dresden, Erfurt, Rottenburg-Stuttgart and Würzburg and
of the Faculty of Pastoral Theology at the University of Würzburg.381
In the meantime the German Bishops’ Conference had pricked
up its ears and signalled its interest in this movement for pastoral
change. In April 2004, the Chairman of the Pastoral Commission,
Joachim Wanke, and the head of the Pastoral Conference, Manfred
Entrich, met representatives of the Working Group on Spirituality
and Community Building in Bensberg.382 A few weeks later, several
events devoted to Small Christian Communities were organised at
the Catholics Day in Ulm, including a panel discussion with Oswald
Hirmer, Fritz Lobinger, Wendy Louis and Joachim Wanke, which was
attended by over five hundred Catholics Day participants.383 That,
too, was an indicator of the interest in this pastoral model that had
in the meantime been aroused in broad circles in Germany. It had
proved possible to communicate the pastoral relevance of this model,
particularly in the light of the situation facing the Church in Germany.
The documentary report on the Day of the Diocesan Councils in the
Diocese of Osnabrück stated, for example384: “The movement towards
a missionary Church is propelled by the fundamental concern to be
a blessing for the world. The Church regards itself by its very nature
as the advocate of the disadvantaged. In order to achieve these key
pastoral prospects, in which devotion to God and to people, spiritual
depth and a commitment to social welfare work can be very deeply
experienced, we therefore strive […] for initiatives that will spiritually
renew the communities (everyday spiritual exercises, Small Christian
381 Cf. Rappel, S., o. cit., 7. Nagler, N., o. cit., 216.

382 Cf. ibid, 215.
383 This meeting revealed the potential for conflict “between critical historical exegesis
and the experience gained in Bible-sharing that God says something to everybody and
enables people to pass on His Word to others as the word of life” (Simone Rappel, o. cit., 8.
Cf. Vellguth, K., Die Hermeneutik des Bibel-Teilens, Wenn das Christentum sich an seine
Wurzeln faßt, in: Anzeiger für die Seelsorge 116 (2007) 5, 20-23.
384 Shortly beforehand, in March 2004, four Small Christian Communities had been set up
in the Wesergemeinden Community Association in the Diocese of Osnabrück.

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Communities, preparing the way seminars, prayer schools, etc.;

support and care for people who can be the agents of these processes
of evangelisation.)”385
Setting up a National Small Christian Communities Team

The first Annual Meeting of Small Christian Communities in
the German-speaking Countries was held in Hünfeld in December
2004. Organised by missio in the form of a future workshop, it was
attended by representatives of 14 German dioceses, which had gained
initial experience of Small Christian Communities and had come
to regard this pastoral approach as an opportunity for the Church
in Germany, particularly in the light of the decline in financial and
personnel resources that was keenly felt at the time.386 Proceeding
from the consideration that had been given to a common ‘vision
of the Church’, it was decided to set up a National Small Christian
Communities Team.387 This was a significant step towards institutio-
nalisation. Another important decision taken in 2004 was to shore
up the work of the Working Group on Spirituality and Community
Building and of the later National Small Christian Communities Team.
Dieter Tewes, who had been closely associated with the project from
the very outset, was officially entrusted by missio with the supervision
and support of the Basic Ecclesial Community pastoral concept in
Germany. In committing this personal resource, missio ensured that
the movement for pastoral change that could be observed in Germany
was underpinned in institutional terms.
The year 2004 had been devoted largely to consolidating the
process of spirituality and community building.388 In early February
385 Bistum Osnabrück, Suche nach den Suchenden, Tag der diözesanen Räte im Bistum
Osnabrück, Dokumentation zum Tag der diözesanen Räte, 10 and 11 September 2004,
Osnabrück 2004, 19.
386 Cf. Nagler, N., o. cit., 217. Tewes, D., AsIPA – Small Christian Communities, Ein
weltkirchliches Lernprojekt für die Pastoral im deutschsprachigen Raum, in: Ordens-

korrespondenz 48 (2007) 1, 62-69, 65. Vellguth, K., Kirche und Fundraising, Wege einer
zukunftsfähigen Kirchenfinanzierung, Freiburg 2007, 328-332.
387 Cf. http://www.missio-aachen.de/angebote-medien/bildungsangebote/asipa/Jahres-
konferenz_2005_Kleine_Christliche_Gemeinschaften_im_deutschsprachigen_Raum.
asp#0; accessed on 7 June 2012.
388 Cf. Nagler, N., o. cit. 216.
2005, the National Small Christian Communities Team met in

Frankfurt am Main to agree on the next steps to be taken. The
minutes of this meeting record that it was a meeting of the National
AsIPA Germany Team. This newly introduced designation in the
minutes was an indicator that it had so far proved impossible to find
a viable designation for the process in Germany. “Hitherto no satisf-
actory translation has been found for the English word ‘community’;
the German word ‘Gemeinschaft’ can trigger false associations and
expectations. Small Christian Communities are by no means cosy,
self-sufficient groups characterised by great emotional closeness.
Even the key term of good neighbourliness can be misconstrued
[…].”389 Although a generally accepted designation for the process
had yet to be found, specialist theological journals390 had begun to
take note of the movement for change and so agreement was reached
on how articles for the various publications could be compiled. In
addition, preparations were made for a Federal Conference of Small
Christian Communities that was to be held at the end of the year in
Hünfeld. Here again it turned out that interest continued to focus
on questions of identity and self-discovery. The intention was that
the Federal Conference should deal with the issue of what Small
Christian Communities in Germany are and what Small Christian
Communities in Germany aim to achieve.391
Three weeks after the meeting of the National Team a day of
study on Small Christian Communities was held for multipliers in
Würzburg. This day of study can be regarded as the launching of the
AsIPA project group in the Diocese of Würzburg. In the summer,
missio invited Wendy Louis, another advocate of the AsIPA process,
to come to Germany and give seminars in the (arch)dioceses of
Aachen, Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hildesheim, Mainz, Osnabrück
and Rottenburg-Stuttgart. In the summer of 2005, too, participants
389 Foitzik, A., o. cit., 466f.

390 This was indicated not least by the fact that Lebende Seelsorge published as many
as three articles on the subject of Small Christian Communities in October 2005. Cf.
Nagler, N., o. cit.; Tewes, D., Kirche in der Nachbarschaft, Von AsIPA zu Small Christian
Communities in Deutschland – Erfahrungen im Bistum Osnabrück, o. cit.; Spielberg, B.,
o. cit.
391 Cf. National AsIPA Germany Team, minutes of the meeting held on 2 February 2005
(unpublished document), Cologne 2005.

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in the Spirituality and Community Building process from the (arch)

dioceses of Hamburg, Hildesheim and Osnabrück met to launch
the metropolitan project on the construction of Small Christian
Communities.392 Guido Brune, Ludmilla Leittersdorf-Wrobel, Dieter
Tewes and Christian Hennecke had become the pacemakers in the
building of Small Christian Communities in these north German
dioceses. It was planned that in future there should be a regular
exchange of experience between the dioceses on the question of Small
Christian Communities and that, in addition, joint training courses
should be provided for participants from all three dioceses.
Another important milestone was the launch of the AsIPA website
www.asipa.de in July 2005. Since then up-to-date information, reports
on events, experiences, etc. have been published online on this site.
At the end of the year Thomas Vijay gave seminars in the dioceses
of Hamburg, Hildesheim, Osnabrück and Würzburg.393 During
the second Diocesan Day of the Small Christian Communities in
Hildesheim, in which Thomas Vijay participated in November 2005,
it transpired that the grassroots pastoral approach, which was being
increasingly well received, provided an answer to several challenges
faced by local churches in Germany. It became clear, firstly, that the
traditional form of community building would no longer be the sole
form of Christian life in Germany and that, in view of the expanding
pastoral areas and structures, there was a need to strengthen the
Church at the local level. In addition it turned out that the catechism
in Germany has a very strong focus on children and adolescents, while
ever greater urgency attached to the question of how adults could be
introduced to the faith and given support in their belief.394
Thomas Vijay also participated in the Annual Conference of
Small Christian Communities in the German-speaking Countries,
which was held in December 2005 in Hünfeld. This conference
für die Pastoral im deutschsprachigen Raum, o. cit., 65. The Diocese of Münster joined this
metropolitan project in 2011 and the Archdiocese of Paderborn in 2012.
393 Cf. Foitzik, A., o. cit., 466.
394 Cf. Kaune, M. / Hennecke, C., Mehr als Bibel-Teilen, Auf dem Weg zu einer „Kirche
in der Nachbarschaft“ im Bistum Hildesheim, in: Anzeiger für die Seelsorge 115 (2006) 9,
16-19, 18.
was attended by representatives of eleven German and two Swiss

dioceses.395 Under the supervision of Thomas Vijay a clarification of
the term Small Christian Communities was undertaken, the contours
of which were still regarded by the participants as being too hazy.
There was discussion of how Small Christian Communities can be
distinguished from other groups; what the specific characteristics of a
community (communio) are; how contacts with the neighbourhood
in Germany should be assessed; what the indispensable fundamental
elements of this pastoral approach are; and how the success this
grassroots-based, participatory and spiritually oriented pastoral
model has achieved in Asia and Africa can help to revitalize and
reform the Church in Germany so as to ensure its future viability.396
Essential characteristics of a Small Christian Community were
considered to be their neighbourhood character and self-image as
local level church; the common celebration of a liturgy of the word
in Bible sharing; social and charitable activities; and the connection
between the parish and the universal Church.397 Among the other
subjects discussed in Hünfeld were the extent to which the role
of a priest or of full-time pastoral carers changes following the
introduction of Small Christian Communities. The experiences in
Asia made it quite clear that the role of the priest is enhanced: “The
Asian experience shows that the work of the priests and pastoral staff
is changed in this system. They are no longer essentially organisers
and managers but rather spiritual and theological teachers and, of
course, carers. While there is no increase in the amount of work they
do, its character changes, because many of the tasks performed in the
past are taken over by active members of the community in the groups
as well as in the networking bodies of the groups. […] The priest is
somebody who fans the fire so that it burns more brightly. Christ
395 Whereas the annual meetings of Small Christian Communities in the German-
speaking countries in the period from 2005 to 2008 were directed at the representatives of
the dioceses, the annual conferences from 2009 onwards were open to all those interested
in building up Small Christian Communities in Germany.
396 Cf. Rappel, S., o. cit. http://www.missio-aachen.de/angebote-medien/bildungsan-
gebote/asipa/Jahreskonferenz_2005_Kleine_Christliche_Gemeinschaften_im_deutsch-
sprachigen_Raum.asp#0. Accessed on 7 June 2012.
397 Cf. Leittersdorf-Wrobel, L., o. cit. Viecens, G. / Hußmann, W., Eine Heimat finden …
Erfahrungen aus den Small Christian Communities, in: missio konkret 4/2008 10-12, 10.
A 223
will ignite this fire himself.”398 Looking back, Matthias Kaune and
Christian Hennecke had the following to say about the experiences
and reactions of the participants in this second Diocesan Day of the
Small Christian Communities: “The participants are spellbound,
because here they are witness to the emergence of a Church that
responds to the deep-seated yearnings of many people. At the same
time they are impressed by the simplicity and practicality of this
model. None of the participants had anticipated that such a powerful
and modern theological vision would be at the heart of the concept
of Small Christian Communities.”399
First expert symposium

Interest in the process of Small Christian Communities in
Germany continued to grow the following year. In February 2006,
the Working Group on Fundamental Issues of Pastoral Care of the
Central Committee of German Catholics organised a study block on
this topic in Frankfurt am Main. In March, Simone Rappel offered
a day’s training on the subject of Small Christian Communities for
pastoral assistants in the Diocese of Augsburg. At the Catholics Day
in Saarbrücken in May a panel discussion was held with Cora Matteo,
Ottmar Fuchs and Christian Hennecke. The East German dioceses
also began to show an increasing interest in the movement for pastoral
change. On 30 May 2006, a day of study at the Pastoral Care Office
in Magdeburg was devoted to the pastoral opportunities for building
Small Christian Communities at local church level. A workshop was
held especially for priests in the cities of Hamburg, Hildesheim and
Osnabrück in early June and at the same time there was a two-day
introductory course for multipliers at the convent in Marienrode
(Hildesheim).400 A further three-day training course for multipliers
was held in June in Hamburg and at the end of that month the pastoral
model of the Small Christian Communities was presented at a plenary
session of the German Catholic Missionary Council in Würzburg.
398
Tewes, D., Damit Kirche vor Ort lebendig bleibt, Small Christian Communities im
Gemeindeverbund, in: Anzeiger für die Seelsorge 115 (2006) 9, 11-15, 15.
399 Kaune, M. / Hennecke, C., o. cit. 19.
400 For the developments in the Diocese of Hildesheim in 2006 see: Viecens, G. / Hußmann,
W., o. cit. 10-12.
In September 2006, the specialist journal Anzeiger für die

Seelsorge published four feature articles on Small Christian
Communities and in the same month Herder Korrespondenz
published an article on the development of this pastoral approach
in Germany. Networking also intensified at the international level.
Simone Rappel and Dieter Tewes were the German delegates at the
Fourth AsIPA General Assembly in the Indian city of Trivandrum,
where the development of the ecclesiology of the Small Christian
Communities and the relationship between these grassroots Church
groups and the sacraments were discussed.401 In December 2006
the first expert symposium on Small Christian Communities took
place in Schmerlenbach, which was attended by over one hundred
participants.402 The symposium was intended to provide an answer
to a number of questions: whether the method of pastoral care on
which the Small Christian Communities are founded might also
point the way forward for the Church in the German-speaking
countries of Europe; what requirements a model of this kind should
satisfy; what specific circumstances it would need to address in
Europe; and which cultural, socio-political and ecclesiastical
conditions would need to be taken into account.403 The approach
adopted by the Small Christian Communities was regarded in
Schmerlenbach as an important field of experimentation for the
future viability of the Church. Its strength resides in the incorpo-
ration of all Christians; the communication and networking system
in the parishes and parish associations; its spiritual approach, which
makes mystical experiences of God possible; its social and ecclesia-
stical activities at the local level; and its missionary potential.404
Reflecting on the symposium Dieter Tewes later wrote: “The entire
symposium reflected the situation in which the pastoral approach of
the SCCs finds itself at present. Initial experience is being gathered,
which gives considerable cause for hope, but questions are also
being raised which will only be able to be answered in practice.
für die Pastoral im deutschsprachigen Raum, in: o. cit. 66.

402 The symposium was followed by the annual meeting of the National Small Christian
Communities Team.
403 Cf. Tewes, D, o. cit.
404 Cf. Ibid. 68.
A 225
There are fears and uncertainties amongst the full-time staff and
the parishioners in view of the pending changes in the nature of
their work which will come about as a result of the restructuring of
the parishes throughout Germany. There are almost no perceptible
alternatives to the SCCs when it comes to the pastoral reshaping of
the new large-scale structures in parishes and pastoral areas. Many
full-time staff still fight shy of embracing this new model; however,
it will mean switching to a new ‘operating system’ that will entail
changes in the lives of the staff members affected.”405 It was agreed
that an expert symposium should subsequently be held every two
years.
The spark ignites a flame

In February 2007, a group of people from the dioceses of
Hildesheim and Osnabrück travelled to the Indian city of Nagpur to
attend a seminar on Small Christian Communities.406 The process
of building up Small Christian Communities was consolidated in
the Diocese of Hildesheim from 2007 onwards by the setting up of a
special project office for the purpose. A training course for full-time
staff was held in the Diocese of Augsburg in May, while an SCC
workshop was held in June for the metropolitan group comprising
Hamburg, Hildesheim and Osnabrück. This was attended by members
of Small Christian Communities from Hildesheim, Hanover, Celle
and Braunschweig, who reported on their experiences. Oswald
Hirmer took part in this workshop, at which the debate centred on
the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, which finds practical
ecclesiological expression in the Small Christian Communities.407
The participants were impressed by the meetings organised in the
Small Christian Communities of their region. Christian Hennecke
wrote the following about the SCC workshop: “The experiences in
the Small Christian Communities were moving and overwhelming
for the participants. The genuine welcome, the sharing of the Bible
together, the tangible manifestation of the Church through the Word
405 Ibid. 68f.

406 Cf. ibid. 66.
407
Cf. http://www.missio-aachen.de/angebote-medien/bildungsangebote/asipa/Copy_
of_Workshop_KCG_Hirmer_Juni_2007.asp#0.
and the surprising moments of awakening in these groups were very

impressive.”408
The Small Christian Communities approach was presented at a
forum held during the Diocesan Day of the Archdiocese of Freiburg.
The Diocese of Eichstätt also showed an interest in this new form
of being Church. A meeting with 15 Indian experts to explain the
method of Bible-sharing was held in the Diocese of Eichstätt in July
and was followed there in November by a training course on Small
Christian Community Management and Leadership in Pastoral Units.
In December an information meeting was organised for all the parish
councils in the Diocese of Eichstätt, at which the Small Christian
Communities model was explained.
In November 2007, a diocesan Small Christian Communities team
was constituted in the Diocese of Hildesheim and in early December
a day of study was held at the Halle/Saale Conference of Deans in the
Diocese of Magdeburg, at which the grassroots pastoral model was
introduced. Early December also saw the Annual Meeting of the Small
Christian Communities in the German-speaking Countries, which
reviewed the situation of the Small Christian Communities a few
years after their foundation. This meeting was attended by represen-
tatives of 15 dioceses.409 At this annual meeting Christian Hennecke
emphasised that the Small Christian Communities approach involved
far-reaching prospects for Christian life, in which the focus was on
the quest for God’s Kingdom. He drew attention to the importance
of universal Church contacts as a key resource in the global learning
process.410
Small Christian Communities – A new way of being Church with people

When the National Small Christian Communities Team met three
months later in Würzburg for its next meeting, it once again became
408 Ibid.
409
This Annual Meeting of the Small Christian Communities in German-speaking
Countries (3/4 December 2007) was attended by representatives of the (arch)dioceses
of Osnabrück, Augsburg, Würzburg, Hildesheim, Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Berlin, Trier,
Cologne, Münster, Eichstätt and Bamberg.
410 Cf. National Small Christian Communities Team, minutes of the annual meeting of 3/4
December 2007 (unpublished document), Munich 2007.

A 227
apparent that the process of building up Small Christian Communities

had begun in many dioceses. Participants from Augsburg, Cologne,
Eichstätt, Hildesheim, Hamburg, Magdeburg, Münster, Osnabrück,
Paderborn and Würzburg reported on the experiences in their
dioceses. Information was also provided on the first movements for
reform in neighbouring Switzerland.
In early 2008, a training course on Small Christian Communities
was held in the Diocese of Würzburg and a workshop on “Small
Christian Communities and the Church” in Marienrode in the
Diocese of Hildesheim. This was followed in February by a workshop
for priests and full-time staff on the subject of “Small Christian
Communities and the Role of Full-time Staff ” at the seminary in
Hildesheim. The topic of Small Christian Communities was also dealt
with during four events at the Catholics Day in Osnabrück. There
was a panel discussion on “The Church grows locally – What we can
learn from India”411, a workshop on “The Church grows from the
Word: Practising Bible-sharing as a method of community building”
and a workshop on “How does the Church grow at the local level?
Small Christian Communities as Church in the neighbourhood”. In
addition, the Catholics Day hosted the first meeting of all the members
of Small Christian Communities in Germany, which served as a forum
for exchange between the participants. The position paper on “Small
Christian Communities – A new way of being Church with people”,
issued in the run-up to the Catholics Day, represented an attempt to
assess the status quo. In this document the National Small Christian
Communities Team wrote: “For over 25 years now, various impulses
from the universal Church concerning Small Christian Communities
have been received in the German-speaking countries. The efforts to
inculturate this approach have shown that it contains pastoral and
theological options and principles that are important for the further
shaping of the Church. We are talking here about a Church which,
in all its endeavours, strives to ensure that human beings can live an
abundant life, which finds expression in their relations with the poor,
with God and amongst each other. We are talking about a Church that
focuses on the fundamental equality of all believers, as was emphasised
411 The Catholics Day in Osnabrück also had a panel discussion on “How does the Church
grow at the local level? Small Christian Communities as Church in the neighbourhood”.
at the Second Vatican Council. In this Church everyone is among the

called and the sent; everyone gathers in a specific community in a
specific place; everyone is capable of performing a certain service.
We are talking about a Church in which various charismatic talents
can fully unfold. It is the task of all priests, pastoral workers and
full-time staff to discover and foster them. That is the service they
provide for all the People of God. We are talking about a Church in
which all those who bear responsibility or hold office adopt a serving
style of leadership. This leadership style is inspired by the Gospel and
finds its clearest expression in the person of Jesus. Small Christian
Communities are not an end in themselves. They are a manifestation
of the Church in miniature which is at the service of the coming of the
Kingdom of God.”412
Small Christian Communities in Germany – Kindling a fire together

The Second Expert Symposium on Small Christian Communities,
held in November in Hildesheim, focussed on the ecclesiological
dimension of Small Christian Communities.413 In his lecture on “The
Conciliar Vision of a New Kind of Church“ Hermann J. Pottmeyer
said that the mystery of the Church is founded in the mystery of God,
whose love gave life to the Church, the new People of God, in order
to begin the establishment of His Kingdom. The real mystery of the
Church is the mystery of its divine mission, which corresponds with
the vocation and mission of all believers. This mission is closely related
to the community of the Church: Communio and missio, gathering
and sending, belong together.”414 In conclusion, Pottmeyer referred to
the apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, in which Pope John Paul II
states that the great challenge is to “make the Church the home and the
school of communion”415 and that communion is inseparably bound
up with the experience of spirituality: “Let us have no illusions: unless
412 National German Small Christian Communities Team, Small Christian Communities
– Ein neuer Weg, Kirche mit den Menschen zu sein, Ziele-Entwicklungsstand-Grundsätze,
Osnabrück 2008, 3.
413 Cf. Hennecke, C. (ed.), o. cit.
414 Pottmeyer, H.J., Die konziliare Vision einer Kirchengestalt, in: Hennecke, C. (ed.), o.
cit., 39.
415 NMI 43.
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we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will

serve very little purpose. They would become mechanisms without
a soul, “masks” of communion rather than its means of expression
and growth.”416 Referring to these deliberations on communion
and spirituality, Pottmeyer recalled that John Paul II had shown the
Church the way forward, “which will enable the Church to become
a communion of communities. That was, of course, the aim of the
Council, which regarded the Church as a Communio Ecclesiarum, as a
community of local churches, and wished to see it develop along those
lines. Such a restructuring – and this was the Pope’s main objective
that he shared with the Council – can only succeed in connection with
a spiritually motivated and guided process of rethinking.”417 Medhard
Kehl also referred to the rooting of the Small Christian Communities
model in the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council and the
considerable potential it harboured for renewal: “My impression is
that it is largely unclear at present what importance the SCCs will have
here in the German Church in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless,
as a staunch supporter of the communion ecclesiology of the Second
Vatican Council, I urge that a closer look be taken – in an open and
unbiased, but purposeful way – at the opportunities offered by SCCs
in the current processes of restructuring and that this project be driven
forward.”418
Finally, a meeting of the National Small Christian Communities
Team was held in December in Würzburg, at which a process of
discussion lasting several years was brought to a conclusion. It was
decided that the pastoral method known in Asia as the Asian Integral
Pastoral Approach (AsIPA) should be contextualised in Germany
under the heading of “Small Christian Communities in Germany –
Kindling a fire together” and communicated accordingly.419
416 Ibid.
417 Pottmeyer, H.J., o. cit., 46.
418 Kehl, M., Sind die Small Christian Communities eine Zukunftsperspektive für die
Kirche in Deutschland?, in: Hennecke, C. (ed.), o. cit., 262. Cf. Kehl, M., Zukunftsper-
spektive für die Kirche in Deutschland? Small Christian Communities, in: Anzeiger für die
Seelsorge 118 (2009) 10, 18-23.
419 Cf. National Small Christian Communities Team in Germany, minutes of 2 December
2008 (unpublished document), Osnabrück 2008.

German bishops experience grassroots Church in Asia

At the invitation of the Chairman of the Federation of Asian
Bishops’ Conferences, Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, and the Korean
bishops a delegation of the German Bishops’ Conference headed by
Archbishop Ludwig Schick, the Chairman of the Commission for
International Church Affairs, travelled to South Korea in April 2009 to
find out more about the concept of Small Christian Communities.420
In the dioceses of Suwon and Jeju the bishops met representatives of
Small Christian Communities before coming together in Jeju to attend
a seminar with bishops from various Asian countries who had many
years of experience in building up Small Christian Communities. “We
see our mission as being to give back warmth to the believers who have
grown cold“, said the members of the Small Christian Community
in Korea to the representatives of the German episcopate. “We wish
to act as missionaries, to approach people in the places where they
live, make contacts and help wherever we are needed.”421 Archbishop
Schick described this encounter with the pastoral model of Small
Christian Communities in Asia as an “impressive implementation of
the universal Church learning community”. Klaus Krämer focused on
the specific challenges for the Church: “We must gain more practical
experience of the changes that need to be made so that in Germany,
too, the Small Christian Communities can become a viable way of
being Church.”422
In October 2009, a delegation from Germany took part in the
Fifth AsIPA General Assembly in Davao City (Philippines).423 This
General Assembly made it clear how important it is to differentiate
between the evolution of the Basic Ecclesial Communities in the 1970s
and 1980s and that of the Small Christian Communities which have
420 Archbishop Ludwig Schick and missio President Klaus Krämer were joined on this
journey to South Korea by Suffragan Bishops Johannes Bündgens (Aachen), Hans-Jochen

Jaschke (Hamburg), Gerhard Pieschel (Limburg), Thomas Maria Renz (Rottenburg-
Stuttgart) and Ludger Schepers (Essen) as well as by Ulrich Pöner und Ralph Poirel (both
from the German Bishops’ Conference) and Dieter Tewes (missio).
421
http://www.missio-aachen.de/angebote-medien/bildungsangebote/asipa/KCG_
Studienreise_Korea_2009.asp#0.
422 Ibid.
423
The members of the German delegation were Gabi Viecenz, Matthias Kaune, Christian
Hennecke, Simone Rappel, Norbert Nagler and Dieter Tewes.
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emerged since the 1990s. The good international networking practice

of the National Small Christian Communities Team was also expressed
by the fact that the annual meeting of Small Christian Communities
in November 2009 was held not in Germany but in the neighbouring
country of Switzerland. In the Maria Lourdes parish in Zurich it was
possible to see how the pastoral situation changes at the local level if
Christians systematically make their way down the road to a partici-
patory Church. This parish in Zurich had been undergoing a process
of transformation since 2001, which had led to the formation of the
first Small Christian Communities in 2006.
Drawing on the results of the journey undertaken to South Korea
by the German Bishops’ Conference in 2009, a joint discussion of
the Pastoral Care Commission and the Commission for Interna-
tional Church Affairs of the German Bishops’ Conference was held
in March 2010 on the contribution of Small Christian Communities
to the development of pastoral care in the (arch)dioceses in Germany.
Archbishop Schick pointed out that in Germany the missio ad intra
could only succeed in conjunction with the missio ad extra. The point
of universal Church learning processes was not simply to copy the
working methods of other churches, but rather to enable the positive
experiences of other churches to be adapted to local pastoral situations.
Christian Hennecke provided a survey of the initiative on spirituality
and community building launched by missio in 2000 and highlighted
the development of Small Christian Communities in Germany.424
In their concluding remarks Franz-Josef Bode and Ludwig Schick
reiterated that the Small Christian Communities offered a dual
opportunity for the Church in Germany. On the one hand, they formed
a necessary substructure of the parishes or parish communities that are
becoming ever larger (and ever more anonymous). On the other hand,
they encourage the development of spirituality in the communities
and help to overcome an excessive focus on structural matters.425
424 Hennecke, C., Experiences up to now in Germany with Small Christian Communities.
Paper given on the occasion of the joint discussions between the Pastoral Care Commission
(III) and the Commission for International Church Affairs of the German Bishops’
Conference on 12 March 2010, unpublished document, Hildesheim 2010.
425 Joint discussions between the Pastoral Care Commission and the Commission for
International Church Affairs of the German Bishops’ Conference on 12 March 2010,

unpublished document, Bonn 2010.
The return of responsibility

The need for introductory courses on Small Christian
Communities continued undiminished throughout the country in
2010. A course with participants from the dioceses of Augsburg,
Magdeburg, Münster, Osnabrück and Paderborn was held in May in
Osnabrück. A Diocesan Day of Small Christian Communities was
organised in Würzburg in June. In the same month Hildesheim was
the venue for the Second Small Christian Communities Summer
School, at which there was a workshop for priests, a course for parish
teams and a course for core teams / diocesan teams. In September
there was an introductory course on Small Christian Communities
in the Diocese of Hildesheim. The grassroots pastoral approach was
presented at the Ecumenical Church Congress in Munich as well as
during the panel discussion on “A Broad Church Needs Closeness –
Small Christian Communities and Home Groups: Local Church?”.
The third expert symposium on “The Return of Responsibility
– Small Christian Communities and Social Initiatives as Church in
the Neighbourhood” was held in Hildesheim in June. In view of the
realisation that the presence of the Church must take due account of
various milieus in different areas of society, the participants addressed
the question of the extent to which Small Christian Communities
can make a contribution to community orientation. During the
symposium Klaus Dörner advocated the reunification of professional
social and welfare work and civic involvement at the parish level in
local churches, describing this as a strengthening of the Third Social
Space. He referred to his own field research, in which it was significant
that initiatives which turn their attention to others mostly take as
their starting point the small communities in the context of Church
parishes. He deemed this to be a sign of hope for grassroots Church
groups at the local level.426
During the Annual Meeting of Small Christian Communities
in the German-speaking countries in 2010 in Nuremberg interest
centered on the fact that a community which has set out on the
426 Cf. Dörner, K., Kirche im Sozialraum? Überlegungen zur Bedeutung und Chance
sozialraumorientierter Gemeinschaft, in: Hennecke, C. / Samson-Ohlendorf, M. (ed.),

Die Rückkehr der Verantwortung, Small Christian Communities als Kirche in der Nähe,
Würzburg 2011, 23-36, 33.
A 233
spiritual and participatory road to the future must come to terms with
a holistic process of becoming Church. This includes the development
of a vibrant liturgy, the kindling of a missionary awareness among the
whole community and the transition to a culture of welcome for all the
members of the community.
Of continuing importance were the journeys to Asia, which
enabled interested parties to gain relevant (biographical) experience
of Small Christian Communities. In 2011, a group from Hildesheim
flew to the Philippines to find out more about the Basic Ecclesial
Communities approach there. In addition, introductory courses or
workshops were held on Small Christian Communities inter alia
in the dioceses of Eichstätt, Hildesheim, Münster and Osnabrück.
The annual meeting of Small Christian Communities took place
in Bad Kissingen in November 2011. Over 70 participants from 16
dioceses (from Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg) found out
more about the home groups model in Bad Kissingen, which had
evolved in a ten-year process of renewal of the faith and community
reform. The emphasis in Bad Kissingen was on the fact that the
groups there had developed not in, but alongside, the traditional
parish structure.
Encouraged by the response to the missio initiative on spirituality
and community building and the presentation of Small Christian
Communities in local churches in Germany, Adveniat signalled its
interest in joining missio in holding universal Church meetings on the
Small Christian Communities / Basic Ecclesial Groups in Germany in
the course of 2012.427 A look at the flyer published by the two welfare
organisations in early 2012 shows how broad the range of courses is
on the subject of “Local Church – Basic Ecclesial Communities and
Small Christian Communities”. They extend from a study trip to the
Philippines to workshops and specialist conferences on the subject of
Local Church Development and Church at the Local Level.428 At the
Catholics Day in Mannheim alone the pastoral approach of the Small
Christian Communities was presented at seven events.
427 Cf. Weber, F., Eine neue Art Kirche zu sein, Was sich von den lateinamerikanischen
Basisgemeinden lernen läßt, in: Herder Korrespondenz 66 (2012) 3, 128-132, 128.

428 Cf. missio/Adveniat, Kirche vor Ort, Kirchliche Basisgemeinschaften und Small
Christian Communities, Aachen 2012.

Outlook
A concluding report on the development of Small Christian
Communities in Germany cannot be written in 2012. It is only
possible to look back and provide a snapshot. In retrospect it becomes
apparent that the initiative on spirituality and community building
at the outset of the third millennium was a response to the pastoral
challenge of developing a spiritual form of being Church at the local
level alongside traditional and occasionally non-committal forms of
being a Christian. In this connection the crisis of the Church was
seen as a propitious moment “for an original way of being Church
which, as a community pastoral approach, offers a clear option for
the local church”.429 A conscious decision was taken to adopt an
anti-cyclical approach to pastoral discussions that emphasised and
favoured the development of the Church in large-scale structures.
Since there are no ‘ecclesiogenetic master plans’ in pastoral work,
the inductive, bold and open-ended path of ‘trial and error’ must be
pursued. In retrospect, therefore, the development of Small Christian
Communities in Germany does not appear to be a linear process,
but rather a meandering development propelled by a considerable
momentum. “These communities are a direct response to the question
of how faith can be experienced as Church in a certain place – not
just as a spiritual community and not as a kind of elective spiritual
community either. Hence social welfare work, the relationship with
the world at large remains an essential element of this form of being
Church.”430 The pastoral success of this process can be attributed not
least to the personal commitment of individual protagonists such as
Dieter Tewes and Christian Hennecke, who provided an initial helping
hand in the building of Small Christian Communities in their dioceses
and well beyond. It was also helpful that an organisation such as missio
was able to provide the institutional framework that enabled sustained
learning to take place in the universal Church learning community.
The introduction of Small Christian Communities in Germany
has shown that universal Church relationships are in the throes of
429 Tewes, D. / Vellguth, K., Kirche von der Basis denken, Small Christian Communities als
Modell einer Kirche im Nahbereich, in: Anzeiger für die Seelsorge 119 (2010) 10, 33-36, 35.
430 Hennecke, C., quoted after: Foitzik, A., Neue Formen gemeindlichen Lebens, Ein
Gespräch mit Regens Christian Hennecke über Kirchenbilder, o. cit., 180.

A 235
change. ‘Donor churches’ and ‘recipient churches’ went out of existence

a long time ago. In the era of globalisation at the very latest the Church
in Germany has come to realise at the outset of the third millennium
that, particularly in situations of crisis, a look at what is going on in
the universal Church can provide new impetus for one’s own pastoral
activities.
A ‘Revitalisation’ of Basic Ecclesial Communities
José Ferrari Marins
Dynamic context
At a first superficial glance Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs)
appear to be a development confined to the ‘Third World’. In actual
fact this is not true. The so-called New Age is not interested in God
and even less in churches. The Catholic Church, which has evolved
out of the historical model of medieval Christianity, is facing a
structural crisis. It corresponds with a statement made by Pius XII
in 1952 about the condition of the world431: “It should be re-thought
from the grass-roots.”432
At the Medellín conference, held in response to the Second
Vatican Council, it was recognised that the Church community was in
danger of disappearing from ordinary people’s lives and of revolving
exclusively around itself.433 Moreover Church structures such as
parishes (particularly in the realm of bureaucracy and the pastoral
model) did not involve assumptions of being a primary authority of
the Church. Nor did they represent a Church reality with the capacity
to act as the leaven of the Gospel for God’s kingdom in the modern
world.
It was against this background that the Second General
Conference of Latin American Bishops took place (Medellín 1968),
influenced by movements in various countries434, inspired by the
431 See the speeches of 10 February and 15 October 1952.

432
The Pope’s original sentence in Italian was formulated more strongly: “rifare delle
fondamente” – restore thoroughly from the foundations.
433 Being largely concerned with many forms of piety, sacraments, liturgy, catechism,
administration, lack of priestly vocation …

434 The first steps towards Basic Ecclesial Communities were taken at the end of the 1950s
in Brazil (Barra do Pirai, RJ; S. Paulo do Potengi, RN; Pirambú, CE; Cravinhos, SP) and
237
Second Vatican Council435 and strengthened by ‘normative’ texts

(Revelation) of the first New Testament communities.436 At that time
a historically unique pastoral decision was taken which was to have
enormous consequences. It triggered the emergence of a ‘new Church
model’ starting from where the ‘last ones’ left off. (Beginning from
the periphery of the institution, it gave serious thought to the subject
of God’s People, as taken up and co-ordinated by the hierarchy –
Lumen Gentium, Chapter 2; its presence and ability to act marked the
beginning of God’s kingdom and the proclamation of the kingdom
(where “people’s lives unfold”437). It represented an option in favour
of Basic Ecclesial Communities as covered in the sixteen subject areas
announced at that conference.438
Steps
The steps presented below complement each other but they are
not the only way of proceeding. They do not represent any previously
established, closed-off spheres. They are not a cure-all and do not
form a constant in all diocesan churches.
shortly afterwards in Panama (San Miguelito), the Dominican Republic (Santiago de los
Caballeros) and Ecuador (Riobamba).
435 Especially LG 1, 8, 9, 26; GS 1.
436 As described in the Acts of the Apostles and the Apostolic Letters (Acts 2:42; 4:32).
437 An expression coined by the Church of Ciudad Guzmán in Mexico.
438 See the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM), The Church in the current
transformation of Latin America in the light of the Council, Complete resolutions of
the Second General Conference of Latin American Bishops, Medellín, 24.8 – 6.9.1968,
in: Secretariat of the German Bishops’ Conference (ed.), The Church of Latin America,
Documents of the Second and Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops in
Medellín and Puebla, Voices of the Universal Church, No. 8, Bonn 1979, 123, Document 5,
no.10. Supporting Humanity: 1. Justice, 2. Peace, 3. Family and Demography, 4. Education,
5. Youth, evangelisation and strengthening belief; 6. General pastoral care, 7. Pastoral care
of elites, 8. Catechism, 9. Liturgy. The visible Church and its structures, 10. Lay movements,
11. Priests, 12. Members of religious orders, 13. Education of the clergy, 14. Poverty of the
Church, 15. Pastoral de conjunto, 16. Social communication media. Particularly about the
documents of Pastoral de conjunto (15), Justice (2) and Peace (3). [‘Pastoral de conjunto’
is a co-operative pastoral project incorporating various Church groups and levels which
seeks to co-operate with all people of good will in solving human need. (Translator’s note
in the German version.)] .
‘Revitalisation’ of Basic Ecclesial Communities
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Step one: general motivation

General motivation incorporates specific aspects: the ministry
of Jesus, the first Christian communities of the New Testament, the
Holy Church, discipleship and the mission that gives life, the Second
Vatican Council, the conferences in Latin America and the Caribbean
and the reality that challenges us and presents opportunities. The
model embodied in the Basic Ecclesial Communities has its focuses,
priorities, structures, participating methodology and spirituality,
which influence the whole of its activity. All possible means (sermons,
assemblies, training courses) must be used to motivate those who
already take part in community life (regularly or occasionally) and
to continue developing Basic Ecclesial Communities rooted in the
Church. Motivation is generated not only by word of mouth, by passing
on the content that reinforces the idea, but should also be manifested
in specific actions. This motivation phase can last for about a year.
Step two: the units

At this stage the parishes have to be split up into individual units.
Structural decentralisation of this kind will not lead to the creation of
Basic Ecclesial Communities all by itself, however. We are not dealing
with simple mini-versions of parish structures that have already been
outgrown, but with the sprouting of a seed, a new model with an
ecclesiology as its foundation.
Re-structuring, or a change of visions, priorities and, above all,
of the model, will lead to a strengthening of the small Tridentine
parishes.439 The idea of Basic Ecclesial Communities complies with
Church life and its mission as formulated by the Second Vatican
Council. This is not about re-painting a house as a way of re-designing
it. Nor is it about a new house that accommodates a family in which no
changes have been made. This is about people building the right kind
439 Up to now the parish has been, and for many people still is, the only canonical Church
base for baptised Catholics. But this is precisely what need. to be reconsidered today. The
parish on its own is structurally incapable of reaching the majority of baptised Catholics; it
is constructed according to the model of a strictly clerical and centralised “Christendom”.
Its language, priorities and representatives are far removed from present-day realities and
concentrate almost exclusively on the realms of prayer, pastoral care and administration,
and to a minor extent on catechism and liturgy.
of house for a new kind of family experience. The starting point for
this new development is not just a change in the parish structure, but
also a change in the way community is experienced, the way in which
life is given a present-day relevance, the Word of God is read, the
obligation to transform society is taken on, the power of community
is understood and organised, and relationships with other Church
institutions are fashioned.
This grouping is primarily intended to strengthen the Church
model of Basic Ecclesial Communities. The parish ceases to be the
Church base and takes on the role of articulation and co-ordination.440
This is about:
n defining a human, territorial or functional space which is
taken over as a church base by a group (support unit) for
animation and co-ordination purposes; it is not about putting
up canonical boundaries as in the case of parishes.
n finding out who can be counted on in a particular area so that
these people can become supporters and founders of BECs;
they should be trained to be helpful and considerate and to
take appropriate action;
n solving logistical and operational problems, such as the venue
and frequency of meetings;
n enabling life to be lived in a community, as inspired by the
Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:42);
n building personal, not merely episodic, relationships with
people with whom hitherto only occasional meetings have
taken place or whom one has met in family situations.
n sharing the worries, joys, suffering and expectations of daily
life of all individuals and their families, also in relation to
work;
440 Therefore the parish as a network of communities does not pursue the strategy of
multiplying Church cells but makes intensive efforts in the sense of a missionary community
and a community mission to be a Samaritan church which designs life and supports life.
Support for the particular pastoral projects and articulation of the pastoral council aim to
help the Basic Ecclesial Communities in their life according to the new Church model of
the Second Vatican Council.
A 241
n engaging in conversation and discussion about events, books,

films, newspaper reports, novels, etc. within the meaning of
the Word of God and one’s own faith (family values or one’s
own values). This is about approaching people not only ‘with
the Bible’ but also ‘as in the Bible’. This is about a journey as a
community, not as a single individual.
n praying, celebrating one’s faith with symbols, hymns and
silent worship, and cultivating one’s ability to gain a profound
understanding of the situation of people and groups;
n facing the challenge posed by the situation of poor people,
not only through aid and support but also through structural
changes;
n seeking allies; taking part in meetings and performing
tasks for the common good as well as supporting liberation
initiatives;
n being aware of the presence of God’s Spirit in reality, in time,
in people and communities; using and extending common
ground that already exists through the inspiration of your
own faith. You never begin from scratch because God’s Spirit
is already present in people. It is important to find out how
He is already working.
n supporting and promoting more open activities with newly
interested people: Christmas, Holy Week, Mother’s Day,
ecological campaigns, training courses and celebrations
of the Resurrection. Care should be taken to ensure that
establishing contacts with others is not simply turned into a
kind of ‘show’ for distributing food or similar campaigns of
that type.
n holding parish meetings of the Basic Ecclesial Communities
on a weekly basis or more often if required; it would also
make sense to set up a special pastoral council of Basic
Ecclesial Communities in close agreement with the parish
council.
Step three: advisers

Their most important task is to441:
n set up the Basic Ecclesial Communities in such a way that
they get into areas which are generally beyond the scope of
systematic and effective pastoral care and can create spaces
in which ‘sinners’ and those who have lost touch with the
Church as an institution can feel accepted.
n use the many opportunities for meeting people, such as in
case of illness, celebrations and significant religious events of
popular piety.
n detach the religious and spiritual life of the parish from
baptisms, first communions, celebrations of the Resurrection,
etc.
n stimulate the development of a spiritual group experience.
This type of living spirituality constitutes the mysticism of
the community as a local church. (This does not mean the
spirituality of a particular movement or programme.) Jesus
and His teachings gradually assume central importance
in community life. A grateful reading of the Word of God
deepens faith, and popular piety with all its symbols is
evaluated, accepted and re-assessed with Jesus as the starting
point.
n visit families several times in the course of a year. Family
visits are ‘as in the Bible’, not just ‘with the Bible’.442 A visit
represents not just a stage in the process, but also the Church’s
simple way of establishing a link with its surroundings.
n build up contacts with the young people in the parish, listen
to them, and over time enable youth work to be developed
and co-ordinated by young people themselves and not by
adults.
441 It is not absolutely essential to put everything defined and explained here into practice.
The great majority of new pastoral directions that have been undertaken in the history of
the Church have ‘not been ordered, but have not been forbidden either.’
442 Unlike conversion visits, during which there is no dialogue, but merely a short-lived
conversation in proselytising style.

A 243
Strategic lessons
Let us make some comparisons:
n A snake grows its new skin under the old one. As soon as the
new skin is ready, the old one falls off. Taking the old one
away earlier would mean killing a living animal.
n Or a micro-dose443: this is a common term in alternative
medicine and means a therapeutic process in which the deciding
factor is quality not quantity. Basic Ecclesial Communities, too,
can be seen as a micro-dose of a new Church model.
n An African proverb says: “Little people in little places who
build little houses cause big changes!” Like the great historian
Arnold Joseph Toynbee we can say: “At difficult times in
human history it has always been a qualified creative minority
who found a way out, and later the majority united with that
minority.”
n Communities learn to live with a minimum of structures and
a maximum of life. With existing oppressive structures there
can often be very little life.
n Every hour is God’s hour and so every hour is suitable for
beginning God’s work.
n You should work with what you have got and not with what
you wished you had.
n It is essential to work communally, in a team, because Jesus
promises to be with those who meet in His name (Matthew
18:20).
n The special thing about Jesus is the Good News, not threats
of divine vengeance.
443 A therapeutic process that is not scrutinised by big laboratories but can be carried out
by patients themselves without prescriptions and at low cost. There is no instant cure and
no side effects, but it takes time. This makes very clear what Basic Ecclesial Communities
are all about: they are in people’s own hands; no complicating structures of production,
commercialisation, etc. arise; there are no negative side-effects; this is a process, not a result;
they need a lot of time, but they are effective; they are not subject to official propaganda
from people who commercialise medicine (or faith or pastoral care.)
n Christian communities are neither homogeneous nor

uniform. They come in a multiplicity of models and remain
faithful to the elements of proclamation and the ideas of the
Latin American Bishops’ Conferences, which are applicable
to the current historical moment.
n The early Christian communities did not have mass devotional
Christianity.
n Conversion to Jesus and baptism inevitably meant belonging
to a community.
n Tasks occur in the community as needs arise. God’s Spirit
never stops sending vocations to the Church; the crucial
thing is simply to recognise and nurture them.
n In Latin America the Basic Ecclesial Communities appear
together with the Church as a whole. In their organisational
structure they are situated at the lowest level, i.e. where
people live. At the second level they take part in a large
network of communities within the parish. The third level is
the diocese, which provides support for an appropriate path
to be taken by Basic Ecclesial Communities. At every level
there is a team that supports and accompanies people on
their journey. At regional level, communication is managed
by a group that represents the various dioceses and in which
the needs and challenges of the individual dioceses can be
discussed so that the necessary support can be given by this
top-level group.
This organisational superstructure for the Basic Ecclesial
Communities is a process in itself which is neither top-down nor
uniform.
Closing remarks
There are global trends affecting the future of the Church and
hence the future of the Basic Ecclesial Communities, such as the
massive extension of the liberal capitalist model, which will not only
attain global hegemony but will also become the criterion of national
and personal security.
A 245
Grace will become greater (Romans 5:20; 1 Corinthians 10:13;

Hebrews 4: 15-16) but will have to withstand a test (1 John 5:5). The
processes are very slow, it is God who determines the pace of change.
This calls for well-tried patience and is an invitation to become aware
of the presence of God’s Spirit. Happy is he who lives life and has a
thousand reasons for living.
Out of today’s crisis there will emerge a Church that has lost a great
deal. It will be small and to a large extent it will begin all over again. It
will not have enough members to fill the space in the many buildings
left by the age of great splendour. Due to its low number of members
it will lose many of the privileges it enjoys in society. But it will be
strengthened by what it has experienced up to now and will progress
as a community of volunteers who belong to it of their own free will.
As a small community it will demand a great deal more initiative from
individual members and will certainly also produce new kinds of office
or ministry. The project of professional lay members is appropriate in
this context, but it does not solve the fundamental problem, which is
that BECs need officials. In many small communities and in similar
social groups, too, evangelisation will take place in this way. The
position of priest will obviously still be indispensable.
Furthermore, despite all these changes that we in the Church
anticipate, I think that, once we have experienced renewal and our
resolve has been strengthened, we can find a place in which the same
central issue is significant: belief in the one and triune God, in Jesus
Christ the Son of God, and in the Holy Spirit. The Basic Ecclesial
Community will find its anchor point of life in faith and in prayer,
where the sacraments are lived as divine service and not as a problem
of liturgical interpretation.
A Church is emerging in which political opinion does not
predominate and there is no left-wing or right-wing influence. It will
put great effort into pursuing this development, since the process of
building up and thriving will be very hard work. It will be a Church
of poor people and little people. Implementing it will be laborious
because of the links of restricted narrow-mindedness among those
who hold fast to their arrogance.
Obviously all this will take a lot of time. The journey will be long
and arduous, as the journey of the Church has been up to now.
Nevertheless, it should be possible to withdraw from the lap of

an introverted and seriously simplified Church. People who live in a
completely planned world are inevitably hounded by loneliness. Since
God has completely vanished from their lives, the disappointments
they experience reveal the whole terrible poverty in which they are
trapped. In the small community of those who are creating something
really new there rests the hope of an answer to all their hidden
questions.
The Church today is indisputably going through very difficult
times. Its true crisis is only just beginning and we must anticipate
some upheavals. It is also absolutely certain, however, that what will
remain in the end is not a Church geared to the political practice of
religion, but a Church full of faith. It will no longer be a dominant
force in society as it has been up to now, but for whoever so wishes, it
will rise again and, thriving on its humanity, will become a source of
life and hope beyond death.
The Christian communities will directly and pragmatically
represent the two fundamental messages of Christianity which make
it universal and a meeting place for everyone. The first is the option
for the one and only God, who became man in Jesus Christ. This God
withstands mammon (money, power, pleasure, the idols of neo-liberal
globalised society and hegemony). The second is the option for those
in need.
Basic Ecclesial Communities will not simply evolve of their own
accord. They will require work on the part of the Christian communities.
In order to be ready for God’s offer in Jesus, the Church and the Basic
Ecclesial Communities must embrace the longed-for options.
As in the well-known romance, Jesus will ask His Church exactly
the same question as He asked Peter when he was fleeing again:
“Whither goest thou?” Will the Church accept the neo-Constantine
reforms (awakened by the dreams of Christianity at the opening of the
Colosseum) or will it return to the catacombs?
In the words of Pedro Casaldáliga:
Es tarde, pero es nuestra hora.
Es tarde, pero es todo el tiempo que tenemos a mano para hacer
futuro.
A 247
Es tarde, pero somos nosotros esta hora tardía.

Es tarde, pero es madrugada si insistimos un poco.
It is late, but it is our hour.
It is late, but this is all the time we have to make a future.
It is late, but we ourselves are this late hour.
It is late, but it is dawn if we insist a little.
Basic Ecclesial Communities in ASIA
Estela P. Padilla
Asian Context 444

Asia is the world’s largest (30% of the earth’s land area) and
most populous continent (about 60% of the world’s population). It is
divided into central (e.g. Kazakhstan), east (e.g. Japan), southeast (e.g.
Philippines), south (e.g. India) and west (e.g. Iran) – 51 countries in
all.
Asian tigers (fast-growing economies) Japan, South Korea,
Hongkong, Taiwan and Singapore have received developed country
status. Asia is also very rich in natural resources. However, Asia also
houses 2/3 of the world’s poor with 80-90% of them living in rural
areas. It is the most disaster-prone region in the world, suffering half
of the world’s natural disasters.
In terms of political systems, there are: constitutional monarchies
(e.g. Thailand), absolute monarchies (e.g. Brunei), one-party states
(e.g. China), federal states (e.g. Malaysia), dependent territories (e.g
Hongkong), liberal democracies (e.g. Philippines), and military rule
(e.g. North Korea). There are also various forms of independent
movements.
The vastness of land, also means varied social, environmental
and cultural conditions. To give an idea: more than 800 languages are
spoken in India and more than 600 in Indonesia. Since language is
culture, this would mean thousands of varied, rich, colorful cultures.
Every country could have hundreds of ethnic groups, as well as
indigenous peoples.
444 The following general information on Asia are taken from: The New Encyclopedia
Britannica 15th edition, Vol. 1, 2007 and Wikipedia.
249
Asia is the seedbed of the world’s religions. Judaism, Christianity,

Islam originated in West Asia. Judaism is practiced primarily in
Israel. In the Philippines and East Timor, Roman Catholicism is the
predominant religion (more than 80%). All over Asia, only 3% would
be practicing Christianity. The world’s largest Muslim community
is in Indonesia. The religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and
Sikhism originated in India. In China and Japan, Confucianism,
Taoism and Zen Buddhism took shape.
Asian Church
In Asia, Catholics445 represent only 2.9% of the nearly 3.5 billion
Asians. Moreover, well over 50% of all Asian Catholics are found in
one country – the Philippines. Thus, if one excludes the Philippines,
Asia is only about 1% Catholic. Despite its extreme minority status,
the Catholic Church in Asia continues to grow: from 84 million (1988)
to 105 million in 1997 (a 25% increase). Most of the Asian clergy and
religious are indigenous.
The Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC) developed
a new vision of church and new way of understanding mission, as
follows:
1) The Church in Asia will be a “truly local Church‘, a “Church
incarnate in people, a Church indigenous and inculturated.”446
2) This Church brings the Good News of the Kingdom of God
through its ‘triple dialogue with the poor, with cultures, with
religions’ believing that the Spirit is at work in the religio-
cultural traditions and socio-political realities of Asia. 447
3) The spirit/spirituality that sustains this vision and mission
is harmony: “Interreligious dialogue is not ultimately our
project, but our response to God dialoguing with individuals
445 For resources on statistics of the Asian churches, consult Statistical Yearbook of the
Church (Vatican Press); cited in: Phan, P., Reception of Vatican II in Asia, in: FABC Papers
No. 117, 111.
446 Gnanapiragasam, J. /Wilfred, F., Being Church in Asia, Theological Advisory
Commission Documents 1986-1992, Vol. 1, Quezon City, 1994, 32-78.

447 Office for Theological Concerns, The Spirit at Work in Asia Today, FABC Paper No. 95,
1997.
Ecclesial Communities in ASIA
Basic 251
and peoples in a variety of ways, which are articulated in

the plurality of religions. Hence we can walk together on
the path of dialogue and service towards harmony as sisters
and brothers bound in one love and drawn by the Divine
Truth.”448
Asian bishops note: “This dialogue will allow us to touch the
expression and the reality of our people’s deepest selves, and enable us
to find authentic ways of living and expressing our own Christian faith.
It will reveal to us also many riches of our own faith which we perhaps
would not have perceived. Thus, it can be a sharing in friendship of
our quest for God and brotherhood among His sons.”449
Dialogue, in the Asian sense, is understood as dialogue of 1)
daily life, 2) collaborative action, 3) theological exchange and 4)
religious experience. Though dialogue, Asian churches hope to live
out its mission of liberation/justice, inculturation and interreligious
harmony450.
BECs451 in ASIA
The vastness and variety that is Asia would also be manifested in
its church life. So much literature has been produced on BECs from
different Asian countries. This paper’s exploration of BEC has a very
limited scope – it only attempted to look into BECs using a particular
approach – AsIPA (Asian Integral Pastoral Approach). Although the
study has been called ‘perhaps the first scientific study of BECs in
Asia’452, it is still a very limited and initial study of a small represen-
tative sample of BECs in Asia.
448 Bishops' Institute for Interreligious Affairs (Bira) V/3, 160 (no. 9); cited also in: Wostyn,
L., Vatican II and the Asian Theology of Harmony, in: Aureda, J./Ang, R. (ed.), Vatican II,
40 Years After, Manila 2007, 201.
449 FABC 1, #16, cited in: Kroeger, J., Ecclesiological Developments in Asia, in: Aureda,
279-296.
450 FABC 7, #17.
451 The term “Small Christian Communities” has become more popular in Asia. However,
this paper will use BECs (Basic Ecclesial Communities) for the sake of uniformity.
452 Bp. Fritz Lobinger of South Africa (co-founder of Lumko Pastoral Institute where
AsIPA originated from) commenting on the AsIPA survey in the FABC-OLF Newsletter
Dec. 2012.
There are definitely other approaches used in BEC-organizing

and formation all over Asia but AsIPA would be the most organized,
supported as it is by the FABC through its Office of Laity as an official
arm for promoting a Participatory Church in Asia453. As an approach,
AsIPA seeks to be rooted in the Asian context and culture, integrating
spirituality and action as well as all the efforts and actors at the level of
the local church454.
Comments about BECs therefore in this paper does not refer to
BECs in Asia but to BECs that were part of this limited, initial survey.
AsIPA Survey on BECs

Since the ‘90s, AsIPA workshops on Participatory Church
have been given to more than 12 Asian countries. AsIPA materials
and resources were influenced by the works of the Lumko Pastoral
Institute in South Africa. AsIPA texts, used for BEC formation, have
been translated into more than 20 languages455.
In 2009, AsIPA Desk decided to survey BECs in Asia, specifically
those using AsIPA approach and materials for atleast 5 years.
Coordinated by East Asia Pastoral Institute, a team of Philippine
theologians conducted surveys with 75 BEC member-respondents
(using Frequency Evaluation and Quality Evaluation) and Focus
Group Discussions with 25 BEC member-respondents (from the 75
who answered the survey) coming from 3-5 parishes belonging to 5
dioceses from 5 Asian countries (South Korea, Thailand, Philippines,
India, Sri Lanka) 456. The surveys and the FGDs were done in the local
language with a facilitator who translated to the assigned theologian457.
453 Mentioned by the FABC as a vision of church in its 5th Plenary Assembly in Bandung,
Indonesia in 1990.
454 This paper’s author is part of this AsIPA Resource Team, being a founding member
when it started in 1993.

455 AsIPA texts or formation programs for nourishing the vision of a Participatory Church
are published by the FABC-Office of Laity. Lumko materials, which inspired AsIPA
materials, are from the LUMKO Pastoral Institute in Delmenville, South Africa.
456 EAPI printed the survey results and reports in: F. Macalinao (ed.), AsIPA Research
Project, East Asia Pastoral Review Vol 48 (2011) No.1-2, Quezon City, 2011.
457 Emmanuel de Guzman, Ph.D (reported on the BECs of the Diocese of Jeju in Korea);
Jose de Mesa, Ph.D.,(Diocese of ThareNongSaeng in Thailand); Ando Macalinao SJ, STD

Basic 253
The framework of ‘communion and mission’ was used to evaluate the

BECs, especially as it applies to the triple-dialogue focus of the Asian
church. Following are some general information about the Church in
the country and dioceses surveyed.
1. INDIA458
The origins of BEC in India started when Jose Marins and his
team (Brazil) went to Bangalore for a seminar in 1981. Fr. M. J. Edwin
from Kottar Diocese and Fr. Bosco Penha (now Bishop) from Bombay
started and developed BECs in their area which quickly spread to
other dioceses. In the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India held in
1992 in Pune, the bishops decided to make BECs a pastoral priority for
the Church in India.
Mangalore
In 1990, Fr. Arthur Pereira, Director of Pastoral Institute, set the BECs
work in motion. He trained parish animators, translated many AsIPA
books and Lumko lessons into local language, Konkani, and produced 7
books. Animation Teams (parish and vicariate) are formed to handle the
ongoing training of leaders both at the parish and the BECs levels.
2. SRI LANKA459
The Catholic faith came to Sri Lanka via the Portueguese in 1505.
There are 11 dioceses in Sri Lanka and the Catholic population is
approximately 1.6 million, 7% of the total population. Fortunately
the Christians especially the Catholics have followers both among
the Sinhalese as well as the Tamils. Religious as well as ethnic tension
exists among the followers of the different religions and tribes.
(Diocese of Mangalore in India), Msgr. Manny Gabriel, STD (Diocese of Nueva Segovia in
the Philippines) and Jeyaraj Rasiah SJ, STD (Diocese of Kurunegala, Sri Lanka).
458 Macalinao, F., AsIPA Research Project Report, Archdiocese of Mangalore, South India,
in: Macalinao, EAPR, 101-118; data taken also from the report of Gordon Morris from
CBCI-Commission on Laity in the BEC Asian Assembly held from Sept 2-5, 2011, in: One
World Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
459 Rasiah, J., AsIPA Research Project Report, Archdiocese of Kurunegala, Sri Lanka,
in: Macalinao, F., EAPR, 79-100. Data taken also from the report of Fr. Emmanuel
Ravichandran representing Sri Lanka in the BEC Asian Meeting held in Sept 2-5, 2011, in:
One World Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
The first attempt to promote BECs began in the late ‘70s with Fr.
Reid Sheltan of Kelaniya. Inspired by the idea of forming small groups,
about which he had read material from Philippines, he went to Brazil
for 3 months to learn about the Latin American experience. He later
became the BEC diocesan coordinator and BECs spread in a lot of
parishes. In 1995, an AsIPA team conducted a workshop attended by
bishops, priests, religious and lay people from all the dioceses. The Sri
Lankan Bishops’ Conference has issued three joint pastoral letters in
10 years to intensify their efforts in making the church a “participatory
communion”.
Kurunegala
The Diocese of Kurunegala was erected in 1987. According to Fr.
Rufas Thalis, Diocesan Coordinator, 29 parishes (out of a total of 30)
are organised on the basis of BECs.
3. PHILIPPINES460
In the late ‘60s, foreign missionaries in Mindanao and Negros
formed the first BECs. The Mindanao-Sulu Pastoral Conference which
was first held in 1971 and since then meets every 3 years was instru-
mental in propagating these BECs all over Mindanao. Some dioceses
and parishes in Visayas and Luzon would soon adopt the formation of
BECs as their pastoral thrust. The first wave of BECs emerged during
the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Suspected as being
influenced or infiltrated by the Left, BECs were harassed by the military
and some leaders and members were arrested and even murdered.
After the fall of the Marcos regime and the restoration of democracy,
it became easier to build up BECs and engage in social action. BECs
were involved in anti-logging, anti-mining and anti-dam campaigns;
setting up livelihood projects and cooperatives and establishing peace
zones in areas affected by armed conflict.In 1991, the 2nd Plenary
Council supported the vigorous promotion and formation of BECs all
over the country was adopted as a pastoral priority.
460 Gabriel, M., AsIPA Research Project Report, Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia, Philippines,
in: Macalinao, F., EAPR, 119-136. Data taken also from the report of Fr. Amado Picardal of
the CBCP-BEC Desk representing the Philippines in the BEC Asian Meeting held on Sept
2-5, 2011, in: One World Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Basic 255
Nueva Segovia
The Archdiocese is known for its pastoral thrust which
is the formation of Simbaan Sangkakarrubaan- ‘church in the
neighborhood’- and establishing barangay (village)-based catechisms
for children, youth, adults and families. Structures of participation
and empowerment are in place – Pastoral and Finance Councils in all
the 40 parishes.
4. THAILAND461
The Catholic Church in Thailand is constituted by 2 archdioceses
and 8 dioceses, with around 700 priests and over 1500 religious. The
number of Catholics is about 300,000 among a population of around
66 million.
Thare-Nongsaeng
The Archdiocese of Thare-Nongsaeng has over 3 million people,
with about 1% Catholics. In 2006, 56 priests and 131 religious were
ministering in 74 parishes and church institutions. The creation and
continual growth of BECs is the priority pastoral program of the
Archdiocese which has established 431 BECs in 74 parishes.
5. SOUTH KOREA462
Baptized in Beijing in 1784, Seung Hoon Lee, one of the scholars
who studied Catholicism, returned to Korea and began to baptize other
Koreans. These believers gathered as Myongryebang a Christian faith
community. The Catholic faith was voluntarily accepted and spread by
the laity and their faith communities without foreign missionaries and
priests until 1795.
The government, steeped in Confucianism, considered Catholicism
as subversive and “as a dangerous belief that contravenes the social
461 Mesa, J. de, AsIPA Research Project Report, Archdiocese of Thare-Nongsaeng,
Thailand, in: F. Macalinao, EAPR, 137-152.

462 Guzman, E. de, AsIPA Research Project Report: Diocese of Jeju, S. Korea, in:
Macalinao, F., EAPR, 54-78. Data taken also from the report of Ms. Bibiana Ro, National
BEC Coordinator representing S. Korea in the BEC Asian Meeting held on Sept 2-5, 2011,
in: One World Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
256
hierarchical system.” Severe persecution and suppression of Catholics

lasted from 1791 to 1886 and about 10,000 of the faithful died as martyrs.
From among the martyrs, 103 were canonized in 1984 (11 clergy and 92
lay - 47 women and 45 men). In 2010, the Church of Korea consists of 16
dioceses and 1,609 parishes; 5 million Catholics, about 10 % of the total
population; and with 4,490 priests.
Jeju
The volcanic island of Jeju has 565,000 citizens, with 12% of the
population Catholics. The Catholic Church in Jeju has 2 bishops, 40
priests, 24 parishes, and 11 sub-parishes (2005).
SUMMARY TABLE OF SURVEY RESULTS

COMMUNION IN PH SL TH SK
PRAYER LIFE / / / / /
• Having a personal relationship with, better knowledge and
appreciation of, “living and sharing” the Word of God
• Able to pray spontaneously; deeper realizations with a personal
God; “more Christ-centered life”
• Learned to pray more from the heart; Eucharistic celebrations
have become more meaningful
• Family became Christ- and Word-centered; attend Sunday mass / /
as family
• BEC responds to formation of laity as agents of evangelization; /
• “Transform consciousness”:bible sharing helps them to “treat
others as God treats them” and “proclaim His kingdom on earth”
• The most important task of the church is “proclaiming and /
evangelization” or “teaching” which “continues the work of
Jesus”
• “to be free from sin and return to the sacraments” /
RELATIONSHIPS / / / / /
• Personal changes in one’s self and towards others; “experience
more genuine community, a sense of belonging, harmony”; a
means of socializing; learned to listen, relate as brothers and
sisters with their families and neighbors resulting in improved
relationships; Formation of a faith community that has intimacy,
mutual support and participatory character
Basic 257
• More sensitive to the joys, pains and needs of their neighbors; /

strengthen relationships by decreasing ethnic divisions; BEC
leaders participate in common Buddhist celebrations; some
Buddhist conversion
• BEC is for all – “no more discrimination between the rich and poor” /
MINISTRIES / / /
• Growth in taking up and sharing leadership responsibilities
• Greater participation in parish life; deeper unity, cooperation, / / / / /
collaboration among bishops, priests, lay
• Participation in the life of the Church means “being a Good /
Catholic” which means “giving witness”
• Reaching out to others in need through “giving love because /
all are equal”, ”forgiving the neighbor”, “visiting, sympathizing,
helping, sharing (food, goods)”
CULTURE / /
• Familiar cultural expressions are constantly used in Gospel-
sharing; distinctly Mangalorian (use of traditional leaders
gurkars, traditional neighborhood units vado; use of local
language konkany)
• BEC is focused on evangelization of cultures /
• Integrating with culture (“WE culture”, sharing of food, /
hospitality)
MISSION IN PH SL TH SK
LOVE OF NEIGHBOR / / / /
• love of neighbor expressed through help, respect, sharing, being
one in hope and celebrations, treating neighbors as family; home
visits, esp. orphans, elderly, and the sick; healthcare, listening and
bringing good news; aid to the homeless
INTERRELIGOUS DIALOGUE / / / /
• By service and actions, “life dialogue” takes place; reaching
out to non-Christians, esp. through social (not religious)
gatherings such as birthdays, weddings, burials, fiestas, funerals;
reconciliation services; share what they have in the spirit of good
neighborhoodliness; learn from Buddhists regarding “devotedness
to their faith”
• Collaborate with peoples of other faiths (in the political and /
socio-economic field ); during harvest
258
POLITICAL ACTION / /
• Participate in local and national elections; youth confronting
political dynasties; volunteering for NAMFREL and PPCRV –
church groups working for clean and honest elections
• Commitment to transformation of life “especially in the field of /
economics and politics”
• Political consciousness-raising /
INCULTURATION /
• the use of cultural expressions, esp. the titles for addressing
members of the family (mano/ang, agkarruba, agkakabian, etc.)
to address fellow BEC members, denoting closeness and solidarity
• “use of the vernacular”, ”taking off shoes”, “giving of wai during /
the sign of peace”;
SOCIAL ACTION / / /
• Environment care: cleanliness and sanitation, tree planting; waste
management, herbal medicine, healthcare; medicine provision;
taking the sick to the hospital; building houses; giving free labor;
participate in common shramadana (voluntary work)
• protest and action against prostitution dens; /
• women’s participation in organic farming /
• tackling poverty and marginalization /
OTHERS /
• Participate in liturgical services (May devotion, Holy Hour, etc.)
• “Collective action to right what is wrong and to work on the basis /
of principles and commitment”
• Reconciliation /
• Corporal works of mercy /
• Doing good to others is already missionary work /
SOME COMMENTS FROM THE THEOLOGIANS

The theologians’ report also included some observations and
challenges for further growth of the Asian BECs that have been
surveyed463, as follows:
463 See: Macalinao, especially pages 62-77, 95-99, 143-149.

Basic 259
COMMUNION
• BEC was definitely able to deepen relationships – to one’s self, to
God, to others/neighbors.
• BECs are definitely grounded in and nourished by the Word of
God and Eucharist. However,
• the Gospel sharing and the liturgies do not lead the community
to critique both the culturally-
• determined text and their own socio-political context because
of the emphasis on personal sharing of insights on the Word.
• Community leadership that is shared and empowering is
practiced in the BECs. However, this participatory leadership
does not appear to have transferred to or affected the central
parish/diocesan styles of leadership.
• Closer family ties but family situations and issues have not been
addressed and responded to.
• Most of the efforts in BECs have concentrated on community-
building and less on mission.
MISSION
• Mission is understood as doing something good to other people,
a matter of witnessing
• The social dimension, particularly responding to the structural
issues and problems, are not yet within the main concerns of the
BECs
• Mission is done by individual members, not by an BECs as a
whole
• Dialogue with the Poor (Justice):
• Although reaching out to neighbors have been mentioned in
all the reports, reaching out to the ‘poor’ was not explicitly
mentioned;
• Although ‘sin’ has been mentioned, there was no mention of
sinful structures;
• Political action is mentioned only in the diocese in the

Philippines and India maybe because of a more democratic
environment
• Dialogue with Cultures (Inculturation)
• A seemingly surface-level inculturation (some cultural
expressions were used as well as some community rituals
were collectively participated in)
• There was no mention in the reports about reaching out
and ministry to, or integrating and networking with the
marginalized (indigenous tribes, untouchables, women, etc.)
in their respective areas
• Dialogue with Religions (Interreligious Harmony)
• Most of what have been shared refer to socialization (attending
celebrations, feast days, burials); very little have been shared
on common actions of solidarity or common learning of each
other’s religious traditions, etc.
Part 3:
Affirmations, Challenges and Possibilities
1. UNDERSTANDING OF CHURCH AND ITS MISSION

a. Church as Local
From above survey results, the most important contribution of
BECs is a shift in the understanding of church. BECs have showcased
the conciliar idea of church as ‘people of God’, very different from a
concept of church as a hierarchical institution. As believers gather in
their own daily life settings, reflect on the Bible and respond to the
social issues that confront them prodded and guided by the Word of
God, BECs make ‘church’ happen.
Basic 261
The BECs have somehow given face to the goal of the FABC,
from its very inception, that “the church in Asia would be local and
inculturated”. For FABC, inculturation is simply the self-realization
of the local church464. A BEC, as a local faith community, realizes
itself as it is grounded on a particular culture and context and lives
its faith life and mission in that particular daily life-setting. This
culture and context, in the case of Asia, is necessarily multi-religious,
as well as socio-culturally and politically diverse. And therefore the
self-realization of the local church inherently involves what has been
called Asian Church’s ‘triple dialogue’.
“In Asia, the local church realizes itself by entering into new
relationships with neighbors of other faiths and by involving itself in
concerns of justice, human dignity and human rights, and in concrete
fulfillment of the preferential love for the poor; also by effectively
responding to the challenges of new historical forces”.465
However, the results of the survey also show that the BECs did
not significantly measure up to the church of dialogue that FABC
envisions. Minimal, or perhaps initial, efforts have been extended by
the BECs surveyed in terms of building up dialogue with cultures,
with other religious traditions, and with the poor and marginalized.
What could be some reasons for seeming lack of efforts in these
areas? Below are two ideas to initially and in a limited way respond
to this question: through the church model appropriated and the
formation approaches used in BECs surveyed. A discussion on church
leadership structures and socio-cultural-political analysis could have
added more insights to respond to this question but this is outside the
scope of this paper and therefore a limitation.
b. The Challenge and Critique of Church Models
The Church, even from New Testament times, has been imaged
through different models. Vatican II has left us with powerful images
of church as the ‘people of God’ and as a ‘pilgrim people’. Church
as ‘communion’ is a postconciliar development. These models or
metaphors do not and cannot fully describe the reality that is church
at that particular time but they emphasize a way of being church.
464 Gnanapiragasam, 36.

465 Ibid. 54, 57.
However, models are important because the way we look at reality

also shapes the way we respond to it.466
When one peruses the church model used by BECs surveyed,
mainly articulated through the AsIPA or Lumko materials used for
its formation, the native model of church envisioned by FABC – the
local church in dialogue with the poor, religions and cultures – is not
the model of church promoted. Instead, the image of church used
and popularized is the church as a ‘communion’, a ‘communion of
communities’467. These images are not in opposition to one another
(especially as seen in Church and BEC teachings), however, one model
(reception of one model) would emphasize some areas and be limited
in other areas.
The model of church as communion has emphasized relationships
at different levels of church life (communion with God, family, others;
communion at the level of neighborhood, chapels, church organi-
zations, parish, diocese, universal church). Survey results have shown
that indeed the BECs have developed and grown depths of relati-
onships in the different levels of communion.
However, could this model (reception of this model) have limited
BECs in the way it views and lives ‘communion and mission’, especially
in the areas of dialogue with the poor, with religions and with cultures?
Because this model has emphasized inner church communion,
perhaps it has deemphasized (unintentionally) reaching out to the
‘other’ (the marginalized, other religious traditions, disadvantaged
and poor, government and peoples’ organizations, etc). Indeed, this
‘communion’ model of church has been critiqued as inward-looking
and self-absorbed.468
Below are brief explorations of two different church models that
could also give and strengthen even more the possibilities of a church
466 McFague, S., Metaphorical Theology, Models of God in Religious Language, London 1983.
467
FABC V, # 8. This vision – a Communion of Communities - is written at the back of all
AsIPA texts and is also the church vision promoted by Lumko Pastoral Institute in South
Africa; see their foundational material on church vision – ‘Towards a Community Church:
The Way Ahead for Today’s Parish’.
468 Phan, P., Cultures, Religions, and Mission in Asian Catholic Theologies, Japan Mission
Journal, 2009, 37-53.

Basic 263
responsive to the challenge of dialogue which is the thread that binds

the definition and mission of a local church in Asian perspective.
Reimaging Church
a. as Servant-Sacrament of Harmony469
In 1995, the FABC-Office for Theological Concerns came out
with a comprehensive presentation of the Theology of Harmony has
been explored in Asia for almost two decades.In exploring the Asian
concept of harmony, it delved into the resources of Asian primal/
cosmic religions, as well as Hindu, Buddhist, Islam and Chinese
(Confucianism, Daoism, and Chan Buddhism) religious traditions,
and from the Christian Scriptures.
The document affirms that God’s spirit is at work beyond
Christian communities, in whatever is good and true470 in other
religions and religious traditions and that “openness to the Spirit
present there will greatly enrich our own lives of faith”.471 This
document reminds Asian Christians that they cannot do the work of
restoring harmony by themselves and that they can accomplish it by
way of triple dialogue. This theology of harmony becomes the Asian
churches’ energy for collaboration with other religious traditions and
governmental as well as civic groups working for social change in
Asian contexts.472
In conclusion, the document calls for a development of a ‘cosmic
Christology of harmony’, saying that only by basing itself on such a
Christology will the theology of the Church go beyond its institu-
tional concerns to understand church essentially as a centrifugal
church, open to the whole universe and present in and for the
universe.473
469 Also called ‘dialogical ecclesiology’ or ecclesiology of harmony by Phan, ibid.

470 FABC II, NA 2, LG 16.
471 Eilers, F.J., (ed.), For All the Peoples of Asia, FABC Documents 1992-1996, Quezon
City, 1997, 278.
472 Eilers, F.J., (ed.), For All the Peoples of Asia, FABC Documents 1992-1996, Quezon
City 1997, 292.
473 Eilers, For All, 294.
b. as ‘Bridge of Solidarity’
Filipino theologian A. Brazal, responding to BEC reports from
different parts of Asia in an Asian BEC Meeting in 2011, challenged
BECs to extend beyond inward communion by presenting an image
of BECs as ‘bridges of solidarity’474. For Brazal, ‘bridges’ symbolically
facilitate the crossing of geographical, social, economic, political,
cultural and religious divisions. Bridges therefore function both as
site and as means or medium for social groups separated by a divide
to meet.
Brazal, sourcing from Solicitudo Rei Socialis (SRS), contends that
‘solidarity’ refers to a firm commitment to the common good of all
individuals and various groups. This call, she noted, is based on the
fact of our interdependence and our sharing a bond of common origin
(SRS #33).
Furthermore, Brazal notes that for John Paul II, solidarity is the
virtue needed to overcome structures of sin (SRS 40). Solidarity helps
us move toward collaboration (SRS #39.8)
with other faiths/religions, governments, NGOs, etc. because of our
mutual interest. For Brazal, solidarity finds its ultimate inspiration
from our being images of the Triune God (SRS #40.3), ‘the primordial
Solidarity of divine Others’475 which is also the model of a community
where equality, difference, mutuality, fecundity and unity are simulta-
neously recognized and affirmed.
With the image or model of Church as a Bridge of Solidarity, Brazal
explored BECs as a site of solidarity among and with the poor and the
marginalized. The BECs can also be in solidarity with other Catholic
groups in a parish/diocesan setting, as well as to work in solidarity
with other faiths/faith traditions and government and non-govern-
mental organizations.
474 Brazal, A., BECs in the Late Modern World, Church as Bridge of Solidarity, a paper
presented at the BEC Asian Meeting held from Sept. 2-5, 2011 in: One World Center,
Taipei, Taiwan.
475 K. Min, A., The Solidarity of Others in a Divided World, A Postmodern Theology after
Postmodernism, New York 2004.

Basic 265
c. The Possibilities of Basic Human Communities (BHCs)

Arising from a BEC experience, BHCs have been part of Asia’s
theological reflections the past two decades. BHCs would be a
gathering of neighbors belonging to different religious traditions and
could possibly be joined also with local government and civic groups
existing in a neighborhood setting. Basically following a dialogue of
daily life, they could participate in each others’ religious celebrations
or traditional folk rituals, and most especially cooperate and work
together towards common community concerns involving economic,
political and social issues to improve their life conditions. Sharing of
spiritual experiences are also possibilities in BHCs.
The Catholic Church in India has been exploring the possibilities
for BHCs. In an all-India survey, it was opined that BECs should be
moving towards BHCs “because of the religious divide that is growing
in the country.”476
Existing in multi-religious and multi-cultural settings, the
Catholic church in Asia could support the forming of BHCs which
promote the value of respect in the midst of difference, cooperation
towards common goals of justice, peace and integrity of creation, and
compassion for all.
2. BUILDING UP THE FAITH

a. Co-responsibility in Faith Formation
With BECs, believers have taken responsibility for their own faith
formation and life of discipleship through Bible sharing and other
formation and prayer activities done regularly. Ordinarily, when one
talks about faith formation, one only thinks of the regular Sunday
worship as a way of being formed into the faith, aside from the short
catechetical lessons before sacramental celebrations or undergone
by those who went to catholic schools. The small percentage of the
baptized who belongs to Church organizations would also receive faith
476 Penha, B., Through Human Communities to National Integration – an all – India
Survey Assesses the Strength and Problems of SCCs in India, The New Leader, May
1-15, 2003, 12, cited by: Diaz, J., in a paper entitled “Small Christian Communities and
Interreligious Dialogue – Small Human Communities” presented at the SCC Theological
Congress in Nagpur, India from August 17-19, 2011.
formation during their organization meetings. Faith formation then

largely depended on the priest or the catechist or the group leader.
More importantly, in BECs, the approach to faith formation
has changed – from knowledge as imparted by those ‘who know’ to
knowledge as gleaned from life’s experiences. BECs have transformed
the understanding of formation as an input given by ‘experts’ (priests,
religious and catechists) to faith formation as a collective reflection and
discernment based on one’s life experiences and leads to improving
collective lives.
b. The Critique and Challenge of Formation Approaches

However, one comment from one theologian who did the survey:
the bible sharing
methods the BECs were using did not provide them with a critical eye
to look into the culture of the world that made the Scriptures and also
into the world that surrounds them at present. Another theologian
said, although there was a high degree of awareness of personal sin,
there was no discussion of social or structural sin. The formation the
BECs have undergone (bible sharing and awareness sessions) were
perhaps mostly directed to growth in one’s personal life of discip-
leship or simply awareness-raising that did not always flow into an
action-response to the different challenges the BECs were facing in
their social locations.
Definitely, the limitation of a church ‘communion’ model has also
affected the formation of the BECs. Although communion and mission
are intricately connected, the growth in commu-nity relationships, as
well as personal life of discipleship, did not naturally translate into
growth in action response towards the mission of evangelization
through the triple dialogue mode.
Formation in Dialogue
Dialogue is also a formation approach that could be utilized in
the faith formation of BECs. As God also manifests Gods’ self in the
dialogue partners (the poor, the religions, the cultures), dialogue then
is a very humble listening and learning approach to faith formation in
the Asian context.
Basic 267
In terms of formation as dialogue, especially with the poor and

marginalized (aside from interreligious dialogue), Asian liberation
theologies - particularly of the dalits of India or the minjungs of Korea
- have apparently not been utilized in BEC formation. The theologies
of women, as well as of indigenous peoples and communities all over
Asia, have seemingly not been explored as well in BEC formation
programs of those surveyed.477
c. The Possibilities of Building up the Sensus Fidelium through BECs

The faith life of the BECs is a concrete way to build up the sensus
fidelium which has a very important teaching/formation role in the
Church.478 The BECs can provide the space for building up this sense of
faith more consciously through the Christian formation they undergo
(their regular meetings, Bible sharing, formation seminars, worship and
celebrations, ministries and services). Their use of the bible and church
teachings, as well as their local folk teachings, customs and rituals,
builds up their collective collective faith wisdom (sensus fidelium)
which guide the BECs to make a stand or walk new paths as they face
varied and changing environments and their attendant life issues.479
The sensus fidelium contains the life of faith of a local church.
Through the sensus fidelium built up in BECs, the traditional teachings
of the Church are engaged in dialogue with the ‘signs of the times’
and guide a faith response to the life issues of the contexts the BECs
find themselves in. The sensus fidelium of the BECs therefore contex-
tualize / inculturate the Christian Tradition and sustains it for the next
generation480.
477 For Asian liberation theologies, check out the writings of Sri Lankan theologians Fr.
Aloysius Pieris SJ and Fr. Tissa Balasuriya OMI. For women’s perspective in faith life and
mission, check out the work of Ecclesia of Women in Asia. India and the Philippines would
have much literature on tribal or indigenous peoples’ theologies.
478 LG 12. BECs and Sensus Fidelium is a popular exploration in recent Asian BEC
theological conferences. Fr. Thomas Vijay of the AsIPA Team and Mr. Elvic Colaco of
Bombay have presented papers on BECs and Sensus Fidelium during the SCC Theological
Congress held in Nagpur, India last Aug. 17-19, 2011. In the Philippines, theologian
Emmanuel de Guzman has written extensively also on this topic.
479
Guzman, E. de, Exploring the Terrain of Sensus Fidelium among ‘Root -Crops’
Christians, in: MST Review 6, no. 2 (2004), 1-75.
480 Crowley, P., Catholicity, Inculturation and Newman’s Sensus Fidelium, Heythrop
CONCLUDING NOTE
Considering the affirmations, and weighing the challenges as
well as the possibilities that BECs have opened up in Asia, we can see
why it has been called a ‘new way of being church’, an “instrument for
formation and evangelization” and „a solid starting point for a new
society based on a civilization of love’481.
Journal XXXIII (1992), 161-174.

481 RM 51.
The Visions of Ministry
of the Small Christian Communities
The Pastoral Vision of Basic Christian Communities /
Ecclesial Communities
Pius Rutechura
It is from the early Church tradition of gathering to be nurished

by the apostle’s instruction, pastoral vision of Basic Christian/
Ecclesial Communities. The foundations of the pastoral vision of
Small Christian Communities has something to do with contextual
theological approach which is nourished by concrete experiences
and by the life of faith of people. Dialogue between the praxis of
contemporary human beings, the Gospel and the Christian tradition
has led to transforming human actions and ways of relating. Small
Christian Communities serve the purpose of responding to the call
of loving God and the neighbor on foundations that transcend mere
natural solidarity. Within the past five decades, in their various levels
of manifestations as per the richness of vocabulary: communidades
de base, basic ecclesial communities, intentional communities, Small
Christian Communities were inspired by the ecclesiology of the
Second Vatican II (See Joseph Healey, Small Christian Communities
Global Collaborative Website (www.cngs.com). They emerged from
lived experiences of people in the context of families, local church
communities or parishes, as starting points of theological reflection.
This paper basically draws from the African perspectives within the
AMECEA Countries where back in 1976, it was resolved to make
Small Christian Communities a pastoral option of being Church in
the region482.
Foundations of the Pastoral Vision

Of the major pastoral dimensions of the pastoral acts of the
Church, i.e., proclamation of the word (kerygma), teaching (didache);
482 The writer of this Article served the AMECEA region as Secretary General 2005-2011.
271
272 The Visions of Ministry of the Small Christian Communities
symbols and rituals (leiturgia); pastoral care and social commitment

(diakonia) and identity and community (koinonia), Small Christian
Communities observing from the African Church perspectives have
influenced mainly the diakonia and koinonia aspects.
Koinonia has much to do with identity and community. The concept
koinonia contains as it were the kerygma, the leiturgia and the diakonia
.It is the building of community (koinonia) which keeps the other
dimensions in balance. Koinonia distinguishes a people promoting
Church community from just sectarian groups and contributes to
an authentic Christian identity, in which knowledge, celebration and
commitment are closely linked together. Koinonia implies the dialogue
between Church and world as an essential element of it.
Several scholars and practitioners of Small Christian Communiteis
agree that Small Christian Communities are not a mere pastoral
strategy but a communion of communities, a way of being Church
Family of God. I concur very much with a view that Small Christian
Communities have contributed to giving birth to a Church that is
communion, a people seeking to be in communion with the Triune
God, a communion of participatory faith-communities483. Several
dimensions have emerged from the pastoral vision of Small Christian
Communities that prioritize koinoia.
As a matter of fact, faith is a treasure which is enriched by being
shared (Catechism of the Catholic Church 949). The Koinonia aspect
of being Church: Small Christian Communities are defined and
marked by the aspect of mutual sharing of prayer, meal (sustenance)
and wisdom. The household church is incomplete without nurturing
and exploring the pastoral vision of a people committed for a common
purpose of living and witnessing gospel values to the various aspects
of life. Proactively responding to the needs of people in community.
Emerging Features of the Pastoral Vision

In sequence of importance, Small Christian Communities
have broadened parameters of Diaconia both in terms of Care and
483 See: O’Halloran, J., Small Christian Communities, Vision and Practicalities, St Pauls
2002; Quevedo, O., The Basic Ecclesial Community as a Church Model for Asia at: http://
www.ucanews.com/html/fabc-papers/fabc-92i.htm.
Pastoral Vision of Basic Christian Communities / Ecclesial Communities
The 273
Social Commitment. Small Christian Communities have led to a

way of being church whereby formation with regard to the caring,
servicing and social acting of the Church are defined in modes of
relating and being to each other. This being and acting is addressed
to both fields inside and outside the Church. Social welfare work
implies both the individual pastoral care (poimenics) and pastoral
care with groups and the reflection on the social acting of the
Church. In this diakonia, there are some focus areas: day to day
mutual support: prayers, care for the sick, provision of basic needs
of life such as food, clothing and shelter; pastoral care of the sick,
of children and orphans, of people with disabilities, elderly persons;
pastoral care in the context of poverty, Pastoral care of marriage and
families, pastoral care for youth and schools, Social organisations of
the Church.
These are some of the key features that have emerged from priori-
tizing Koinonia and Diakonia in approaching the building of Small
Christian Communities. From experience, some of these features pose
challenges that need call for appropriate solutions so as to make the
pastoral vision of these communities more effective.
Church of the Neighbourhood: Identity and Bonding

Titus Amigu rightfully makes an important point from the
Tanzanian perspective that Small Chrisitan Communities within the
pastoral option of the AMECEA Bishops, squared with the vision of
extension or perfection of neighbourliness. This neighbourhood is the
immediate context and field which can be rightly termed nurturing
the Church of the neighbourhood. Thus, witnessing to Christ’s love
through Small Christian Communities was meant to be an act of living
the Christian commitment of love, cementing the bonds of belonging
and togetherness.
It is within the koinonia perspective that Small Christian
Communities have provided a forum of opening up gates to welcome
the neighbour, being a means of bridging differences and social strata
in the day to day social living, economic status and varied cultural
backgrounds. These communities serve the purpose of providing a
way of being as church of the neighbourhood with a call to help, share
and witness; indeed a way of being and living a Christology and an
Ecclesiology of communion at parish and diocesan levels, creating

active participation and sharing484. It can be rightly concluded that
Small Christian Communities have provided a more profound way of
evangelization that is participatory, sharing and witnessing in nature.
In this way, Small Christian communities have led to new ways
of building Christian identity and a sense of belonging and bonding.
There is the power behind the names in Small Christian Communities.
Names mostly drawn from saints, shape both the identity and a sense
of belonging.The building of small Christian communities reflect the
identity within the neighbourhood, parish and even leadership. Names
define what the community stands for in terms of values, bonding and
activities that are carried out up to the parish and even diocesan levels.
It is a strong wish and recommendation that hopefully there could be
more catechisis on emulating the virtues of particular patron saints at
various levels of witnessing Christian faith by community members.
Pastoral Governance Tool at Grassroots

Small Christian Communities have provided an effective
grassroots tool of parish restructuring and governance. Where
effectively embraced and guided, these communities have provided
the administrative structure of the Church which at times has become
obligatory in terms of accessing services of the church. Positively this
has led to providing collaborative leadership that effectively engage
grassroots levels, whereby laity leadership is nurtured and elected
from grassroots up to parish, diocesan and national levels!
However, I maintain the view that there is need for striking an
appropriate balance by nurturing right attitudes in terms of methodo-
logical and pedagogical approaches both for adherents and leaders
in these communities. Rather than embracing them as compulvise
or cohersive, these communities must be viewed as moments of
grace and mutual growth by practitioners who are both convinced
and committed. Essential to the development of an evangelizing
community is nurturing leadership and accepting responsibilities
484 See: Amigu, T./ Ndogo Ndogo, J., Small Christian Communities in Tanzania, http://
www.c-b-t.org; Same idea is confirmed by Cieslikiewicz, C., in: Pastoral Involvement of

Parish Based SCCs in Dar es Salaam, Healey, J./Hinton, J., Small Christian Communities
Today, New York 2005, 99-105.
The 275
within the spirit of enhancing stewardship of God’s Kingdom. This

calls for full collaboration between the clergy, religious and the laity.
Similarly, these communities must empower God’s family to share
gifts and form life giving and stransformative modes of being and
witnessing to Gospel values. As a matter of fact, these communities
must provide both a modality and an atmosphere/ambiance of being
Church in which the ordinary faithful interact and connect their faith
and life.
Vivification of the Ecclesiology of Church-Family of God

In several dioceses where SCCS have been prioritized, they have
become an important organ of strengthening evangelization at the
grassroots levels with a practical touch of manifesting the ecclesiology
of Church Family of God. As spelled out in Ecclesia in Africa, the
concept of Church-family of God was meant to instill values of
rejoicing in and respect for life, solidarity and community life. The
concept of Church-Family of God pointed to the direction of being
acceptable and at home within the community of believers (EA 43).
As Kieran Flynn rightly points out, these communities have taken
on a new relevance in the light of the understanding of the Church-
as-Family model in Africa. Whereas within the AMECEA countries,
SCCs had previously been introduced as a pastoral priority for the
Church in determining its autonomy and emerging pastoral identity,
presently the role of SCCs is envisioned in the understanding of the
Church-as Family in Africa. It is in being transforming communities
that SCCs realize their identity in the Church-as-Family model. These
individual Church-as Family have the task of working to transform
society485.
Small Christian Communities are a chance of broadening
family ties, a new moment of living and being Church and neighbor,
broadening and deepening networking to an extent of overcoming
fears and ethnic/tribal, or divides along wealth lines. However, it should
be noted that the traditional African family faces several threats which
tend to make it dysfunctional and at times being plagued by disease,
hunger, poverty and ignorance, traditions that segregate, alienate and
even ostracize. It is in here that Small Christian Communities are
485 Kieran, F., Communities for the Kingdom, AMECEA, Spearhead Nos 181-182 (98-99).
challenged to be nucleus of rectifying the image of the Church Family

of God and preserve its true dignity. Without going into details, it
is worthy noting that the two Apostolic Exhortations on the Special
Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops point to the importance
of safeguarding as well as healing the Church Family of God within the
various African contexts.
A Seedbed of Inculturating the Gospel and Healing Wounds of Division

The first African Synod affirmed that „a serious concern for a
true and balanced inculturation is necessary in order to avoid cultural
confusion and alienation in our fast-evolving society.“486 Africans are
challenged to look inside themselves, nurture and emulate values that
correspond to the best of their traditions and their Christian faith.
Genuine freedom was to come from with inculturation. Africans
are encouraged to overcome the fears of embracing their traditional
values while embracing Christianity. It is through inculturation of the
Gospel that dichotomous modes of living can be overcome, paving
way for authentic living as truly Africans and truly Christians.
It was rightly indicated that Small Christian communities are
venues for transforming humanity from within and making it new.
Small Christian communities provide an opportunity in and through
the only Son the relations of people with God, one another and all
creation will be renewed. For this reason the proclamation of the
Gospel can contribute to the interior transformation of all people of
good will whose hearts are open to the Holy Spirit‘s action.
Indeed, working towards restoring hope in Africa calls for bridging
faith gaps and purification and expiation of consciences and cultures.
This can be better accomplished at Small Christian Communities
levels. Africa still needs more directing of efforts towards developing
a personal relationship with Christ. For example, within the AMECEA
region situations, it has been emphasized that there is need for incultu-
rating forgiveness and reconciliation. In war-torn areas and perpetual
conflict areas, there is need for instilling values that would replace
hatred, revenge, division with common good ideals . For people
who have fresh emotional scars and are still traumatized by inflicted
486 EA 48.
The 277
sufferings and loses, there is need for healing processes and intensive
programs of renewal, whereby reconciliation and forgiveness skills are
combined with counseling and addressing issues related to justice.
To effectively respond to spiritual needs as intentional groups,
there is need for fostering ministries as per directives of the Church. As
was pointed out in recent times, the Church in Africa need reconcilers
and peace makers, care givers and counsellors. Nurturing ministries
to respond to various challenges such as HIV/AIDS, witchcraft and
violence leaves out much desired in existing ecclesial communities in
the greater part of Africa.
To remain truly in unity with the Church as true expressions
of communion and means of contructing more profound relevant
communion, there is need for nurturing ministries as per guidlines of
the Church. Good examples in Zambia and Uganda, in face of HIV/
AIDS challenges of ministering to both the affected and infected,
ministries of care givers and counsellors have been developed. These
can be emulated elsewhere.
Conclusion
The pastoral vision of Small Christian Communities can be better
understood as a new sign of vitality and synergy at grassroots within
the Church, a valuable instrument of formation and evangelization,
indeed one of the most effective ways for nurturing a new society
based on a civilization of love. What is expressed in Redemptoris
Missio, No. 51 stands valid. These communities are “signs of vitality
within the Church, an instrument of formation and evangelization and
a solid starting point for a new society based on a civilation of love.
They give possibility for all the baptized in church life and mission in
their own areas487. It is not enough to passionately talk about SCCs or
even to value them in terms of providing basic structures for pastoral
administrative purposes. There is urgent need for revisiting their
relevance and impact at various levels. “Small Christian Communities
continue to be the nucleus of evangelization. The whole family of God
needs to be trained, motivated and empowered fro evangelization
each according to his or her specific role within the Church488.
487 RM 51.
488 McGarry, C., Small Christian Communities, in: African Ecclesial Review 41 (1999),
The Vision of Ministry of the Ecclesial Base
Communities in Latin America and the Caribbean
Socorro Martínez Maqueo
In April 2011 we met in Santiago de Chile for the annual meeting

of the advisors to ecclesial base communities in Latin America and the
Caribbean. This was particularly fruitful in deepening and clarifying
our identity and mission. The following article is based on that
collective reflection, a reflection also nourished by the contributions
of people from other continents.
Discerning the signs of the times

The vision of ministry that prevails in Ecclesiastical Base
Communities (Comunidades Eclesiales de Base, CEBs) is much
concerned with discerning the signs of the times and responding to
them. Today we live in a globalized world and a market culture that is
not limited to the economic sphere but also invades the cultural and
even spiritual levels, as it seeks to permeate people’s desires, feelings
and behaviours.489
Despite the efforts made in certain Latin American countries,
there is still a profound gulf between the social classes, wealth being
concentrated in the hands of a few. Harrowing poverty and uncons-
cionable opulence exist side by side.
Latin America finds itself caught in a dynamic whereby its natural
resources are extracted by great transnational corporations, to the
ecological, cultural and economic detriment of our peoples.
Religious movements proliferate that appeal to the sensibility but
not to the heart and, therefore, do not take up the quest for justice.
4-6, 2000.
489 See Jas 1:14.
279
The fortitude of the indigenous, peasant and neighbourhood

communities has been a force in Latin America, but this wisdom is
threatened by neo-liberalism. To resist the destruction of community
ties is to promote the life and the true wealth of our peoples.
Here, I will delineate some distinctive features of the CEBs’ vision
of ministry that situate it within the current context.
Bearers of Good News

The CEBs are bearers of Good News; that is their mission. The
CEBs are also tremendously fragile, a defenceless flower, as Carlos
Mesters called them. But strength resides in their fragility. This accords
with the mysterious ways of a God who took flesh in the frailness of a
child.
At this level of the Church, meeting in houses, chapels or in the
shade of a tree, they feel they have been sent to proclaim the love
of God from the place of the “little people,” of those who are not
recognized by the world, who might be compared to tiny grains of
salt that dissolve and give savour to everyday life. God makes himself
present, and though they make no fuss about it, no loud proclamation
of their wonder and hope, the people of the CEBs are conscious of the
worth conferred upon them. A space without exclusions where there
is room for all, where gifts and the knowledge of all count for the same
and are freely shared. There are people who have never been asked
what they think, what they want, and to be able to express this is Good
News: I am worth something, I exist, I count. The world of today still
needs to find out that each of us has a place, that we all of us count, we
all of us know, that we appreciate and value each other, that we have
something to say and things to do.
We take ourselves to be like the yeast in the dough (Matt 13:33),
which works almost without being noticed, though not by virtue of
our own merits, but through the Grace of God. The CEBs’ presence in
the neighbourhoods is often weak and tenuous, but where it exists, it
makes a difference. What they do and experience is expressed in few
words, for the poor are people of actions rather than words. The CEBs
live their essence spontaneously, in the simplicity that is God’s gift to
the poor, and he enables their efforts to bear fruit.
Vision of Ministry of the Ecclesial Base Communities …
The 281
Missionary CEBs
It is their relish in knowing themselves to be worthy sons and
daughters of God that gives rise to the missionary impulse. This
experience that nourishes the whole of their life has to be communicated
to everyone else.
The vocation and mission of the CEBs is to be disciples, witnesses
to the power of the Gospel, of Jesus’ project, and on this basis to form
a community. There is striking testimony from all over the continent:
María, a poor woman from the Tehuantepec isthmus, who day after
day strove to contribute to the family budget by making totopo, a kind
of tortilla, and never had any time to do anything else. One day, after
repeated invitations to visit the base community, she decided she
would go, for despite her efforts every day her life was not improving.
María’s life changed radically as a result, as did that of her family
and her neighbours: she learned to read with the Bible, her family
and neighbours participated in meetings and actions. María became
a tireless missionary for the formation of communities, to such an
extent that she has become known as the “little Paul” of the village
and its surrounding farms. Or there is Moyitz in Haiti, in the parish
of Kazal, beautifully organized into CEBs. Poor and without family,
Moyitz discovered his worth in a community and this inner wellbeing
impelled him to bring the Good News to others. He has developed
into a tireless missionary who pays special attention to the partici-
pation of children.
What motivates is vital experience, the certainty of having
discovered the pearl of great price. It is in mission, in journeying and
in giving and receiving that the CEBs learn. Today, poverty in the cities
of Latin America and the Caribbean has new faces and there is a latent
demand for the Good News, challenging the people of God to bring
Jesus’ project to life among the poor.
The CEBs are a process and a way of being Church

in permanent development
The ecclesiogenesis discussed in the 1970s and 1980s490 has
suffered many vicissitudes, but the process continues to seek its way
490 See Boff, L., The Base Communities Reinvent the Church, New York 1986.
amid many difficulties. The CEBs are not finished products that have
achieved full perfection, but are in permanent construction. They are
a church in progress that begins from the community, witnessing to
what is possible. We are entirely aware that this way of being Church
is far from being accepted and practiced in the majority of parishes
and that many people think its day is past. However, like the early
Christian communities, the CEBs are dogged.
Their roots go back millennia to those early Christian
communities, on whose mysticism and spirituality they draw, seeking
to give them a form appropriate to the world of today, without the
latter overwhelming it and robbing it of its counter-cultural essence.
Sometimes it might seem as if they are waning, that there are too many
obstacles to overcome, even from the Church itself, which looks at
them with suspicion, yet they go forward like the defenceless flower
that shows itself to be vulnerable, flexible, unrigid. It is Jesus’ project
for his people that guides them and lights their way; and when they lose
sight of this, their identity finds itself weakened, lost in unimportant
rules and structures.
A sister who recently visited a community in a parish that for
years had supported the CEBs and then abandoned them following a
change of priest commented as follows:
“When I visited a community that had emerged in the 1970s
someone said, ‘I think that was an experience that can’t be repeated.’
But when I think about what I saw and heard in those days, I don’t
believe that’s the case. They repeated day after day the experience
of the Kingdom of God. They lived it in their work, in love of their
children, in fidelity to the Church. They remained communities
that built life in a context that suddenly turned violent. One
member is now preparing, together with his wife, for ordination
as a permanent deacon, now that he is retiring Another woman is
the manager of the shop at the secondary school, and from there
she offers support and encouragement to the young people of the
neighbourhood. Others are catechists. All are witnesses to God’s
tender and faithful love.”
The CEBs represent a way of being Church in which the whole
essence of the Church is rethought and restructured, reconfigured in
The 283
accordance with priorities grounded in the New Testament revelation

and the fundamental orientations of the Latin American and
Caribbean Church as laid down at the bishops’ conferences. Efforts are
always being made to identify the CEBs with something they aren’t.
The way the CEBs figure in certain passages of the Final Document of
the Aparecida Conference in 2007 shows that some thought of them
as simply one movement among others, speaking of unidentified and
undefined “small communities” and finishing after arduous discussion
by granting them a place in the sacramental life of the Church as one
level of the Church itself and one mode of being Church.
What enthusiasm one finds in those parishes that really are a

network of communities! More than once, having gone with others to
Mass in some unknown place and having left feeling happy and renewed
by it, they have remarked, “They have CEBs here, don’t they?”, and yes,
they did indeed. The parishes that understand this way of being Church
give relish to all their activities. It’s not that everyone is in a CEB, and
that’s even less the case in parishes that cover a wide territory or are
responsible for a larger parishioner population, running to thousands.
However, they make their mark on style, rhythm and perspective,
on the services, the sacraments and the hymns, on everything to do
with mission, and on the organisation that is intended to serve the
mission that Jesus Christ entrusted to us. Being the first level of the
Church, their vision of ministry leads them to seek to form networks
of communities within the parishes, always with a view to being a light
to the community, the yeast in the dough (Matthew 5:13-16; 13:33). In
this way of being Church each community takes responsibility for its
own ministry. Since this is the case, the priests who promote them are
grateful for the vitality they bring to the latter’s ministry, which helps
them concentrate on the essentials of it.
The main function of the CEBs, however, is not to reinforce the

parochial structure but to be an organised network. Hence, while
vitalizing the parish, they know that they have also been sent by the
Spirit to sow the good seed; filled with the life-giving wind, they resist
the temptation to rest on their laurels after discovering that they
are recognized and valued. More commonly, the CEBs are attacked,
persecuted, misunderstood and undervalued. But like the poor who
live the Beatitudes they place their trust in God and go on their way
with their eyes on the teachings of Jesus, on the world “turned upside
down” that leads to the Kingdom of God, which is their reward and
occasion for great joy. The CEBs need a minimum of structure and
organisation if they are to be free to proclaim, and to be, the Good
News (Matthew 5:1-12, the Beatitudes).
A Church of diverse ministries

Given their vision of ministry, the CEBs tend to develop a whole
range of ministries and services. The more, the more dynamic:
cantors, celebrants, visitors of the sick, catechists, defenders of human
rights, protectors of nature, co-operators, leaders of Christian Family
Movement groups, youth leaders, activists in civil society organi-
sations and many more, uniting faith and commitment. Ministry
within the CEBs is a team affair, based on the understanding that the
CEB itself is a ministerial community.
The CEBs’ engagement is gratuitous and discreet, and its best
reward is the life of the community, the tasks accomplished, the relati-
onships strengthened, and the knowledge that one is about the Lord’s
business.
The CEBs are active where the organised presence of the parishes
does not normally or habitually make itself felt. They enjoy autonomy
within communion.
Ministry of the Word

Characteristic of Latin America and the Caribbean is “the
prayerful Word,” which combines the encounter with God’s revelation
in the Bible with that simple way of understanding the Word as
communion with God, with others, with the whole world, as a gift
and a responsibility. Hence it does not restrict itself to contemplation,
but takes it into life, into action, where it installs the Kingdom of God
as the permanent frame of reference, grounding a Christocentric and
Trinitarian spirituality.
The Bible is a book that the poor appropriate and make their own.
In the countryside it is the sharp machete that allows them to cut a way
through the difficulties of life; in urban areas it is the lamp that casts
light into the shadows that assail life in their myriad forms.
The 285
The daily life of poor neighbourhoods and rural areas becomes the
starting point for re-reading God’s passage through our history. We
encounter God in the powerless and the simple, in family gatherings,
in demands for water, land or human rights. The Word is thought,
prayed, drunk, contemplated and sung, and it illuminates the emanci-
patory practice of the communities, lending presence to the Paschal
mystery.491
Ministry of celebration
In the context of our culture of feast day and festival the CEBs
celebrate faith and life in many different ways. We celebrate with
dances, drumming and songs of liberation that express the spirituality
that moves us.
Our faith expresses the simplicity of our people, its ancestral
religiosity and the longing for a new society in which we all have a
place.
Solidarity – the efficacy and tenderness of the peoples

A value of permanent importance in the CEBs is solidarity, the
rallying to those who need our presence and support. Solidarity is the
tenderness and efficacy of the peoples, says the poet and priest Dom
Pedro Casaldáliga. The CEBs are known for their solidarity, for joining
in the righteous struggles of organised groups claiming their right to
a life of dignity. This they have done across Latin America and the
Caribbean, with peasant fightbacks, rural movements, struggles over
minerals, the demands of teachers, and the demand for a planet free
of the irrational exploitation of natural resources, for respect for the
sacred sites of the indigenous peoples, and with victims of violence,
with migrants, with widows.
The CEBs are simple in the way they act, but they are intuitive:
they have a nose for how justice and truth are to be sought or initiate
actions or join together with larger groups. Of course they make
mistakes from time to time and they are exposed to the permanent
risk of being used or manipulated. So they constantly endeavour to
remain independent in order to be evangelically efficacious. Jesus’
491 Personal communication from Fr. Moacyr Grechi, 27 July 2009.

temptation by power is one that stalks us all and it is necessary to

recognize it, to explore its profound causes, and to remain consistent.
The re-reading of history is a great teacher.
The matter was well put on the occasion of a pilgrimage to San
Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas by the CEBs of forty dioceses, many
years ago: “Look how this wonder comes about. Old things, like the
way our Indian peoples have of living the faith, old, enormously
old, ancient. Here is a church as old as Isabella, pregnant with light,
pregnant with authentic life, impregnated with truth; and here we are
being visited by this young experience of the Latin American Church
that is the CEBs, which are likewise impregnated, likewise pregnant
with light and love and truth and the struggle for justice”.492
The CEBs are a Samaritan Church: they share in charity; they
share in service to people, to society, to humanity. They are a prophetic
Church of service, a service to the world, to bring about a world of
kindness, in which relations are governed not by violence but by
justice.
The CEBs’ involvement in society

One of the characteristic features of the CEBs in Latin America
and the Caribbean is their involvement in society in a constant effort
to unite life and faith.
With their method of “See, Judge, Act, Evaluate and Celebrate” the
CEB’s have the capacity to concretize in large or small-scale actions the
results of their analysis and reflection in the light of the faith. As the
African saying has it: “Little people doing little things in little places
achieve great changes.”
The CEBs come to enjoy the analysis of reality at its different
levels, connecting what they experience at the grassroots, in everyday
life, with national and international problems. They reflect as they
go along, practising the art of analysis, of identifying the causes, and
also identifying the forces and resources on which they will rely in
confronting the problem or in seeking alternatives together with
others.
492 Oscar Salinas, pastoral vicar of the Diocese of San Cristobál de las Casas.
The 287
Citizen participation
One aspect of the CEBs’ social involvement is the citizen partici-
pation so necessary in our countries, where democracy has gained
such an uncertain foothold. This is furthered in the everyday practice
of the CEBs, through simple but significant measures:
• Equality without regard to sex or academic qualifications.
• A variety of roles providing services for the common good.
• Election to the various roles and rotation of the same.
• Analysis of needs with a view to action to meet them.
Women in the CEBs

The fact that women are a majority in the CEBs is not the result of
a pastoral decision taken in advance or of any vision prioritizing one
matter over another. The women simply responded to Jesus’ invitation.
They asked, “Lord, where do you live?” He answered, “Come and see,”
and they stayed and made the place their own.
With time it has become clear what a good thing, what a gift the
CEBs have been for women, and women for the CEBs.
There are a number of paragraphs about women in the Aparecida
Document, some of them better than others: “At this time in Latin
America and the Caribbean, the so often silenced cry of women who
are subjected to many forms of exclusion and violence in all their
forms and at all stages of their lives must be heard. Among them,
poor, indigenous and Afro-American women have endured double
marginalization. All women must be able to participate fully in
ecclesial, family, cultural, social and economic life with the creation of
spaces and structures to foster greater inclusion”.493
In the CEBs poor women develop their skills and grow in
self-esteem, overcoming fears and anxieties and making an enormous
effort to advance themselves, conscious of the extra burden imposed
by life in marginal neighbourhoods.
The principle of equality rules in the CEBs and is a crucial element
of democracy. An equality defined by justice and not by similarity.
493 CELAM, Concluding Document, Aparecida, Bogotá 2008, No. 454.

Women’s equality is central to the model and to the vision of ministry,

excluding no-one but emphasizing the role of those who for years have
been relegated to second-class status in both society and the Church.
Testimony by Lorette Moncoeur, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

“I have been involved in the communities; I have belonged to this
family, since 1980. That day we read Acts 4:32-37. There and then I
pledged to prepare myself to live with them, and that day I felt a gust of
hope blow through me and learned ways of sharing that I knew nothing
of. Above all, [I learned] to share what I had with my brothers and sisters
in need. This little Word stayed in my heart from then until today.
Each week in the Community we share our troubles and joys.
There is an atmosphere full of joy at what God tells us in his Word.
We share the Word and we bring some small thing with us to share it
with the others.
My community became a little school where we learned to live
as sister or brother with other people. I learned to live as a person; I
learned how to think about my country’s problems, about the Church
and about many experiences that I knew nothing of until I joined the
CEB.
In the community I educated myself for life and I am very happy,
for it is in that small community that I have had my most important
experiences as a person, as a woman. Thank you.”
Training – a cross-cutting dimension

Training, whether systematic or otherwise, is a priority that
gives the CEBs a clearer idea of their identity in terms of the historic
periods in which they find themselves. Faced with the tasks of the
Kingdom, the CEBs feel the need to set their life and their activity
on firm foundations. The most important agency of training is the
community itself: if relationships are formed there, the CEB endures,
becoming a point of reference. The communities additionally benefit
from workshops, courses and the knowledge of qualified profes-
sionals, a benefit which they in turn pass on to others. Following the
example of Jesus, learning is a permanent aspect of the life of the
communities.
The 289
Inter-organisation
At the heart of this diversity there is a single proposition, a
course, a direction, to which we give expression in different kinds
of organising at the levels of region, country and continent. These
networks or meetings are spaces for getting together and planning.
They help in the identification of new angles and dimensions.
Here an important role is played by meetings between the
communities themselves that take place at different levels, in the
parish, the diocese, the region, the country and the continent.
These encounters provide the setting for an exchange of experiences
amongst the organized and believing poor, the refinement of goals and
of concrete means, celebration in joy and hope despite discrimination,
persecution and problems, and rediscovery of the signs of life, of joy,
of beatitude.
It has gradually become clear, and integrated into the life and
activity of the CEBs, that the goal is the Kingdom, the Reign of God.
In this vision of the ministry of the CEBs of Latin America and the
Caribbean we prize and cannot abandon:
• the centrality of Jesus Christ and his project of the Kingdom;
• the discernment of reality in the light of faith and of the Word
of God;
• our critical and prophetic voice within society and within the
Church itself;
• a steadfast attitude of resistance and persistence;
• the consciousness of the CEBs’ distinctive identity as a way of
being Church with its own autonomy;
• the fundamental importance of the CEBs’ communal
dimension;
• the meetings of the communities and work in networks
coordinated at the continental level;
• the option for the poor, against poverty and for a life of
dignity;
• the remaking of life and the recreation of the sense of living
well;
• the fundamental commitments of liberation theology;
• an ecclesiology in accordance with Vatican II and its

conception of the Church of the People of God;
• the involvement of the CEBs in popular movements such
as those of indigenous peoples, Afro-Americans and the
landless, in social struggles and in political parties tied to
popular struggle, and in green campaigning;
• work with teenagers and young adults;
• ecumenism;
• commitment to the defence of the environment;
• the programmes of initial and ongoing training of CEB
leaders and advisers organized by diocesan and national
coordinating committees;
• systematic reading and conjunctural analysis by biblical
scholars, theologians and specialists in different fields, which
offers ongoing sustenance to our project.
The CEBs cannot compromise on their commitment to the poor,
to justice, which would only lead to uncertainty. That is how our lay
people, our martyrs, our forebears lived.
Challenges
The CEBs find themselves constantly challenged by:
• the need for resistance in the face of the great challenges
of reality and also those from the Church, which finds it
difficult to accept the CEBs as its own first level and its own
small-scale expression;
• the ongoing planning and evaluation of the CEB’s effects on
the life of society;
• young people and their need for spaces of participation and
action;
• the need for greater critical autonomy, within the Church and in
relation to political movements that may rob us of our identity;
• the reaffirmation and further promotion of lay ministry in
the widest sense, rather than any narrow institutionalisation;
• the preservation of the memory of our martyrs and theologians
who have given their lives in this process;
• opening ourselves to inter-religious dialogue;
• the exploitation of technology in order to enrich our
experience;
The 291
• the search for ways of developing citizenship within the CEBs,

given that favouritism, caudillismo, bribery and corruption
are prevalent in the surrounding cultures;
• inter-organisation, establishing new realities and new horizons;
• the permanent, ongoing repair of the social fabric.
I conclude with some words of encouragement from the National
Conference of Brazilian Bishops, meeting on 12 May 2010:
“The ‘ecclesiastical base communities,’ we said in 1982, represent
‘in our country a reality that expresses one of the most dynamic
features in the life of the Church’ (“Comunidades Eclesiales de Base
en la Iglesia del Brasil,” CNBB, Doc. 25,1). Following the Aparecida
Conference (2007) and the 12th Inter-Church Meeting [of CEBs]
(Porto Velho 2009), we wish to offer our sisters and brothers of the
CEBs a brief message of encouragement on their journey.
We wish to reaffirm that they continue to be ‘a sign of vitality
within the Church’ (RM 51). In them, Christ’s disciples come together
in attentive listening to the Word of God, in the quest for more fraternal
relations, in celebration of the Christian mysteries in their own
lives and to live their commitment to the transformation of society.
Furthermore, as was affirmed by Medellín, the base community is
‘the first and fundamental ecclesiastical nucleus […] the initial cell
of the ecclesiastical structures and the focus of evangelization, and it
currently serves as the most important source of human advancement
and development’ (Medellín 15).
Therefore, ‘As pastors, attentive to the life of the Church in our
society, we would look on them with affection, listen to them, and
attempt to discover, through their life, so intimately connected to the
history of the people amongst whom they exist, the road that opens up
before them for the future’ (CNBB 25,5). […]
‘To conclude these reflections, we wish to thank God for the gift
that the CEBs represent for the life of the Church in Brazil, for the
union that exists between our brothers and sisters and their pastors,
and for the hope that this new way of being Church will increasingly
act as a ferment of renewal in our society. (CNBB 25, 94)’.” 494
494 CNBB, “Mensaje al pueblo de Dios sobre las Comunidades Eclesiales de Base,” 48th
General Meeting of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, at: http://www.adital.

com.br/site/noticia.asp?lang=ES&cod=47951.
Theological-Pastoral Foundations of DIIPA-Vision
for Small Christian Communities
Thomas Vijay
The origin of ‘DIIPA’ (Developing Indian Integral Pastoral

Approach) Vision goes back to the Lumko Small Christian Communities
training programmes from South Africa which was widely used in India
in the 1990s. The FABC (Federation of Asian Bishop’s Conferences)
in Bandung, Indonesia in 1990, making the SCCs a pastoral priority
for the whole of Asia, stated that the Church in Asia will have to be a
Communion of many small communities, in which the clergy, laity and
religious accept each other as brothers and sisters.
Bishop Oswald Hirmer, one of the visionaries of the Lumko Small
Christian Communities programme of South Africa, who animated
the workshop on SCCs for the above-mentioned FABC General
Assembly in 1990, prepared Training Programmes to promote this
vision of the Church given by the Asian Bishops, in the Asian countries.
He called these training programmes ‘AsIPA’ (Asian Integral Pastoral
Approach).
This programme was introduced in India in January1995 in
Palai by Oswald Hirmer and Fr. Thomas Vijay and since then several
AsIPA workshops were held in different parts of the country. An
interested group of SCC animators from several dioceses of India
met in Sept-200l at Pallottine Animation Centre, Nagpur and gave
this programme an Indian name ‘DIIPA’, adapting the programme
to the Indian situations and needs. DIIPA programmes received wide
acceptance since then and some of these texts are translated into 12
Indian languages - Hindi, Oriya, Malayalam, Marathi, Angami, Tamil,
Sadiri, Konkani, Bodo, Khasi, Santhali and Bengali.
DIIPA in many Indian languages means light. We hope that this
programme becomes a light for the people of our country in renewing
293
the Church. Each word in DIIPA has special Theological Pastoral -

Spiritual connotation as stated below.
We speak of ‘Developing’ because we want to remind ourselves
and the pastoral workers in India that no pastoral programme is final.
The Spirit is always present and active in the community, renewing,
challenging and transforming it continuously and helping it to
respond in the Kingdom way to the changing situations and needs of
the people in different places and times.
Indian:
We place the vision given by the Asian Bishops in the Indian
situation. We want to empower the people of India to respond to this
vision together as a people from within their life context. In this way
they make this vision their own and take the responsibility to realize it
in their life.
Integral:
We seek the integral growth of the whole person and of the whole
community, integrating body and soul, secular and sacred, theory and
practice, faith and life and building the clergy and laity into one body.
Pastoral:
Our concern is to enable our people to re-dream the dream of Jesus
in their life context and respond to it together in their neighbourhood.
In this way they become instruments for God to reveal the Indian face
of Jesus among the people of India.
Approach:
DIIPA is an approach, one way to serve the Kingdom plan of
God, but a very effective and biblical way. This approach has certain
characteristics.
It is Christ - centred
We emphasize on Gospel Sharing as the way and means through
which the community is led to experience the Risen Lord in their lives
and to discern God’s will for them in their life situations and respond

Theological-Pastoral Foundations of DIIPA-Vision for Small Christian Communities 295
to it decisively and positively. All our lessons are rooted in the Word
of God as a source of life and light for their lives.
It is community - centred
We want to move away from the ‘expert centred’ approach to
pastoral programmes to a ‘community- centered’ approach. Here, the
expert sits with the people, listens to them and lets them participate
with him in making the kind of programmes they want to have. In
this way we affirm that ‘the Church is the People of God’ and that
they are subjects of the Kingdom and are capable of contributing to
the community building process. The so called expert is a servant/
animator of the community and must work with the community.
It is mission-oriented.
It helps the whole community to become aware that through
Baptism and Confirmation they have accepted the responsibility to
continue the mission of Jesus in their respective places in a concrete
way. There is no non-servant disciple of Jesus; all have the duty to
participate actively in the building up of the Body of Christ and
witness to the Gospel in their place and time.
Non-dominating Leadership
In the future Church, as the Asian Bishops said, the experts and
leaders are not dominating leaders. They are not the focal point;
Jesus and the community are. It is the community which will work
together and evangelize the neighbourhood to make the Kingdom of
God present there. The leaders and pastoral experts are servants and
animators of the community.
Theological Foundations of DIIPA Vision

A New Sense of Church: the Church in the Neighbourhood
“The Church in Asia will have to be a communion of communities
where laity, clergy and religious recognize and accept each other as
sisters and brothers. They are called together by the Word of God
which, regarded as a quasi-sacramental presence of the Risen Lord,
leads them to form Small Christian Communities (e.g. neighbourhood
groups, Basic Ecclesial Communities and covenant communities).

There they pray and share together the Gospel of Jesus, living it in
their daily lives as they support one another and work together, united
as they are “in one mind and heart”495.
When Vatican II stated that the Church is the People of God496
no one understood fully what it would imply in concrete terms.
The community of the faithful became the focus. SCCs helped us to
experience ‘the People of God’ sense of Church in a new and concrete
way. The focus of Church got a new emphasis from the parish to the
neighbourhood. Until recently parish was the smallest unit of the
Church and the centre of Church activities. Now the neighbourhood
also becomes an important centre of Church life and activity. A group
of the faithful living in a certain neighbourhood never understood
themselves as Church before; now the Church considers an ‘SCC a
Concrete Expression of Ecclesial Communion’497. Pope Paul VI stated
that the emergence of SCCs is a result of the failure of the existing
Church structure to live truly ecclesial life and that SCCs will unite
people in the Church and cause the Church to grow.498 The East
African Bishops conference said that they support SCCs emphat-
ically because “it is time for the Church to become “local”, that is:
self-ministering, self-propagating and self-supporting”.499 We can see
SCCs as an instrument of the Spirit, gathering into unity the various
peoples of this universe, making the Church a sign of communion
of all humanity in Jesus Christ.500 Whatever mission the Universal
Church stands for is to be fulfilled in the particular neighbourhood
by the Christian community there. If the faithful living in that
neighbourhood do not come together, neither will they have a sense
of Church nor will they understand their mission in that place, even
though they may have been living there for years and go to Church
on every Sunday. People meet in the Church only once a week while
they live in the same neighbourhood seven days a week and interact
495 FABC Bandung Statement 1990, 8.1.1.

496 LG 1.
497 RM 51, CL 26.
498 EN 58.
499 AMACEA, Planning for the Church in East Africa in the 1980s, 9-10.
500 EA 17.

with people of different creeds and cultures there in a stable way. It

is there that they need to be Church, a Sacrament of God’s love501, in
a concrete way and become responsible for their Christian mission.
Only they can fulfill that mission there on behalf of the Universal
Church. When they fail in that, the Universal Church fails there. In
the midst of so many cultures and religions, the life of the Church as a
communion is of paramount importance.502 The Sunday Liturgy will
hopefully enable them to grow stronger in faith and witness to Jesus
in the neighbourhood.
Karl Rahner says that forming basic communities is a reality based
on a spontaneous response of a group of Christians. He argues that
we will no longer be able to maintain communities of faith through
official insistence from above. People are liberated today to follow their
own values and life style. Faith can be nurtured only by free choices of
believers and must allow such basic communities to emerge503.
When such communities attain certain structure, solidity and
permanence and not merely an association and when they are able
to responsibly sustain the basic essential functions of the Church like,
organized proclamation of the Gospel, celebration of the Sacraments,
Christian charity ad so on, it can very well be considered a ‘Local
Church’ in some sense504. The Local Church is not a branch of the
Universal Church, but a legitimate local congregation of the faithful,
united under their pastor making the Church of Christ truly present.505
Building up a truly local Church is the primary focus of evangeli-
zation. The local Church is the enfleshment or embodiment of the
Body of Christ in a given people, time and place.506 This is most visible
and experienced in the life of a group of believers living in a certain
neighbourhood. Even when they do not interact with one another they
are already affecting the shape of the Church there very concretely and
in this case certainly in an unchristian way. The SCCs is a fundamental
501 LG 1, EA 13.
502 EA 24.
503
The Shape of the Church to Come, Karl Rahner, The Crossroad Publishing company,
New York, 108.
504 Ibid. 109.
505 LG 26.
506 Florez, G., An Appeal to the Church, the Mission of the Church in Asia, 110.
way of Christian gathering and is treated as a ‘Concrete Expression of

the Church’. A group of believers in a particular neighbourhood give
shape to the Church when they allow their faith to interact lovingly
and continuously with the living traditions of people there.507 The
mystery of Church is a dynamic event which happens to a group of
believers in a place, leading them to an encounter with the Risen Lord.
That experience generates an urge in the believer to share it with the
rest of the community and celebrate it joyfully in the Eucharist. This
God-experience gives them the motivation and power to transform
the contemporary situation through their humble and loving services
and interactions with the society.508
The Universal Church is concretely present, alive and active in
the neighbourhood. Pope John Paul II said that SCCs are “a true
expression of communion and a means for the construction of a more
profound communion”509, obviously in the neighbourhood. SCCs
have a great potential to build up authentic local churches with a sense
of mission.510 Hence it is important that we pay utmost attention to
and foster carefully the Church in the neighbourhood. One of the
most common things that SCCs members say everywhere e is that
unlike their life before SCCs were started, they feel united with the
rest of the neighbours and the sense of belonging has grown. This is
exactly what a Church of communion means. It confirms that SCCs
is a sure way to build up a more profound communion among the
members of the community, as Pope John Paul II said.
The neighbourhood is a real arena of life filled with activities,
tensions and interactions. It is where life is made or broken, where
people make, break or restore relationships and where we face poverty
and affluence, injustice and human rights issues. It is where people
compete with one another for sheer profit or help one another to face
up to life, where people experience the fury of modern warfare and
where people struggle to make peace with one another. The Word
must be planted here like a leaven, like a mustard seed and nurtured.
507 Ibid. 111.
508 Ibid.
509 RM 51.
510
Message to the Church in India from the National Assembly Yesu Khrist Jayanti 2000
Bangalore, no.44.

The Small Christian Communities, enthused and empowered by the

Word to respond to these challenges, become source of new life in
Jesus and a prophetic sign of the Kingdom in the neighbourhood511.
The neighbourhood stands between the individual and the larger
society as an agent of transformation. Ordinarily an individual alone
finds it difficult to act against social evils. A community empowered by
the Word of God can effect conversion in the individuals and support
them in acting in a prophetic way for the transformation of the society.
The new way the Church sees a diocese is as “a communion of
communities”.512 The emphasis of parish as the centre of the Church
activities is now re-focused to the neighbourhood. The parish still has
a role as the animator, unifier, energizer, coordinator of the SCCs; but
it is in the neighbourhood that people experience a new and powerful
sense of ‘Being Church’ in a concrete way. As they gather together for
prayer and discussions on various issues and needs of the community
they feel called to undertake different services in the neighbourhood,
inspired by their faith and witnessing to the Lord in a prophetic way.513
“The church is constantly in the process of becoming, at the local level of
the parish or the base community. This is where ministers will nourish
or hinder that process of becoming. The incarnation of the Church
cannot remain an abstraction but must become visible as sacrament in
concrete form in the actual life of the believing community.”514
Some of the examples in the parish of Badmal in Sambalpur
diocese, will verify what we mean by this new sense of the Church in
the neighbourhood. Before SCCs were started in this parish, people
had no real sense of community and service. SCCs helped them to see
themselves as a Church and live that sense of Church in concrete ways
as inspired by the Gospel. They:
• Helped a drunkard to stop drinking and to become responsible
member of the family.
• Started to dig a pond for the village, which inspired the
‘panchayat’ to help them to complete it.
511 Bandung Statement, no.8.

512 EA 25.
513 Bandung Statement, 8.1.1.
514 Rademacher, W., Lay Ministry, The Crossroad Publishing Company New York, 95.
• Took initiatives to do the maintenance work of a panchayat

road.
• Built a shed for cooking for the patients who come to the local
hospital.
• Initiated a cleanliness drive in the village.
• Leveled a hill and built a grotto near the parish church.
• Built a ‘balwadi’ school building for the village children.
• Fenced the whole parish compound
• Took initiative to start five other SCCs and successfully
guided and supported these newly started groups.
One can see the new sense of community and mission these people
gained through SCCs and this sense of Church in the neighbourhood
is the hope of the Church of tomorrow. Karl Rahner says that such
communities and their leaders have a right to be recognized by the
institutional Church. Their leaders must be allowed to serve the
community and to build up the community.515
‘Sensus Fidelium’ – the Sense of Faith of the Faithful.

James and Evelyn Whitehead speak of the profound sense of faith
a community needs to have in order to organize its faith living and
activities:
“The maturity of a community of faith will be related to its
developing sense of instinct about Christian values and how these
are to be practically lived. Each community might be expected
to come to a practical and reliable sense of how to exercise its
faith – how we as Christians here and now are to celebrate the
Lord’s presence, to act for justice, to commit ourselves in love
and work. This practical sense of belief is fragile and always in
need of development: as such it is a focus of the ministry in the
community. And it is a sense of faith that is rooted in the whole
body of believers. It is not a sense of teachings and beliefs brought
to the community by professional ministers, but a sense or instinct
about lived faith that is developing within this body of believers,
…. most of whom are not clergy, but laity”516.
515 Rahner 109.

516 Whitehead E.E. / Whitehead, J.D., Community of Faith, New York, 164.

A very common complaint we hear everywhere about the lay

faithful is that their ‘sense of faith’ is poor/weak. They would give up
their faith for very silly reasons or they expect the Church to serve
them and they are not willing to serve the Church and so on. What is
alarming is that these communities have been existing for many years
and some of them for centuries. This weak sense of Church and mission
could be the result of the belief, even if implicitly, that the proper sense
of faith is always found in the hierarchy only and people are ignorant.
The Church documents affirm that the people do have a sense of faith
which can guide the Church. The Dogmatic Constitution on Church
speaks of ‘a supernatural sense of faith the community is capable of, to
which it clings, which penetrates it more deeply by accurate insights
and applies it more thoroughly to its life.517 Christ made laity his
witnesses to whom “he gave understanding of faith (sensus fidei) and
attractiveness in speech so that the power of the Gospel might shine
forth in their daily social and family life”.518 The synod of bishops in
1980 spoke of the sense of faith the families, rooted in the Church
traditions, live. It admitted that the faith of the Church is the fruit of
the living faith of all the people – once again affirming the ‘sense of
faith of the faithful’ as important element of Christian faith.519 In fact
the Church has survived all these centuries with the sense of faith the
faithful lived and shared in communities around the world. I think
that the hierarchy needs to pay greater attention to this fact and that
passing on of faith is a community task and the hierarchy has a definite
role to help the community to fulfill that responsibility in communion
with the whole Church. If we over-emphasize the role of hierarchy
and underplay the role of the community, it will affect the Church as
a whole and her ability to live and pass on faith. What is needed and
important for the future Church is to acknowledge and strengthen this
sense of faith the believing community has. The task of the minister
of the community is precisely to train, guide and affirm the sense
of faith the people live and share. “Then they shall be children no
longer, tossed one way and another and carried along by every wind
of doctrine, at the mercy of all tricks men play and their cleverness
517 LG 12.
518 Ibid. 35.
519 Whitehead 165.
in practicing deceit”(Eph.4:14). They will gradually come to possess

a ‘seasoned sense of faith’. It can be that they fail at times; but still will
possess that seasoned sense of faith in their community living and
have the intuitive sense to discern its veracity. Thus, the community
matures in the stewardship of the Lord – to hold faith as a value in
its living and pass it on to the next generation faithfully.520 “Mature
communities of faith guard against false feelings and unchristian
instincts. It is the maturity of their seasoned sense of Christian faith
that allows this community of the faithful to “at once feel” that a certain
decision or development is inappropriate. To stay with Cardinal
Newman’s image of a bodily instinct, the sense of the faithful allows
this part of the Body of Christ to sense foreign matter, to recognize
the effects of harmful elements that may have gotten into the system.
Such a seasoned instinct would recognize and reject both humanistic
fads and fundamentalistic biases that attempt to pass as Christian
instinct.”521 It is such a sense of the faith of the believing community
which gives the community its own identity and concretized sense of
vocation and mission and how they are to conduct themselves and to
challenge the society and the world.522
This collective sense of faith needs regular formation and
guidance. This sense of faith lived in their lives and celebrated in their
liturgies, is the subject of constant formation and practical decisions.
It is not a mere passive assent to doctrines.523 What we find is that the
SCCs are sure ways to lead people to such a strong and mature sense
of faith as we see in many examples. One such example is given below.
In the archdiocese of Nagpur, the small parish of Jaitala with
40 families, started 6 SCC units. In one of the SCC units during the
discussions at the 6th step of the Gospel Sharing, they were discussing
the task they are to undertake. Someone in the group spoke about the
child of a Catholic widow who could not be sent to school because
of her poverty. They decided to make a collection to help her to send
the child to school. As this was in progress, a Hindu poor widow in
520 Ibid. 162.

521 Ibid. 164.
522 Ibid. 166.
523 Ibid. 166.

the same neighbourhood complained to the Catholic widow that her

son is admitted in the hospital and she needs help urgently to pay
the medical bills. This issue was brought into the next SCC meeting.
The meeting said unanimously that the help will be given to the
Catholic lady since she is a member of the community and she will
get preference over the Hindu. But the Catholic lady spoke up: “You
see, my son will not die if he does not go to school; but if we don’t help
that Hindu widow, she might loose her son. I feel for her and I do not
mind that you give that money collected to her to pay the medical bills
of her son.” At this, the whole body was moved and they decided to
give the money to the Hindu widow. This is indeed a seasoned sense
of faith that community has developed through SCCs and this is the
sense of faith every community needs to possess and live in their
neighbourhoods if the Church is to be a living faith community.
Each SCC, parish, diocese must work on its own ‘lived sense of
faith’, purify it, build it and bring it to fruition and service. Such a
sense of faith of the community and its vocation in the local context
can withstand trials and conflicts and grow through it purifying and
strengthening itself constantly.524 But when a group of believers living
the neighbourhoods do not share such a seasoned sense of faith it is
impossible for a parish to possess such a mature sense of faith.
This sense of faith gives a community power to act prophetically
even if its leaders or others oppose it. Obviously such a state of living
faith needs good formation, guidance and support525. Many leaders in
the Church seem to be fearful of such a situation where people become
assertive and decisive in living their faith. This is often a sign of lack
of a lived sense of faith in such leaders and or the leader seeing his/
her faith separate from that of the community and his/her life being
isolated from the life of the people.
The Brother/Sisterhood of all in the One God who is Father of all

The Church in Asia will have to be a communion of communities
where laity, clergy and religious recognize and accept each other as
sisters and brothers.526
524 Ibid. 168.

525 Ibid. 167.
526 Bandung Statement, no.8.1.1.
Jesus has spoken very clearly that our God is a Father full of
compassion for all human beings and plans to save all in and through
Jesus(Jn.3:16-17). This truth must be experienced by people in the
world through the Christian community which is the Sacrament of
God’s love.527 The invitation of Gospel to the brother/sisterhood of all
the people is the proof and sign of this Fatherhood of God.528 Through
Gospel Sharing the SCCs help the Christian community to become
sisters and brothers in the Lord;529 their relationship is not based
Church roles. The SCCs help the clergy, religious and laity to involve
in a dialogue of life,530 fostering mutual respect and fellowship. This
is the way Jesus treated his disciples (Lk.8:21, Jn.15:14) and exhorted
his disciples to relate to one other (Mt.23:8-10). This is the spirit of
brotherhood which motivated the first Christians to share everything
together (Act.2:44-45). St. Paul instructs his successor Timothy,
a bishop, that he should exhort elderly men as though they are his
fathers, older women as mothers and to treat younger men/women as
brothers/sisters ..(1 Tim.5:1-2). The clergy are brothers to the whole
community, members of the one Body of Christ.531 The language or
cultural differences which divide people must be transformed into
constructive and mutually enriching forces, gathering all nations
and peoples into one in Jesus (Col.3:11). The different service roles
believers take up are for building up the Body of Christ (Eph.4:11-12);
it does not and should not change the fraternal/sisterly way of accepting
and relating to one another. This fraternal/sisterly relationship is
the foundation of a Christian community and the sign of the active
presence of the Spirit among them. It is not enough to talk about the
Father/Motherhood of God. The example of Jesus challenges us to
live it and witness to it in our attitudes to one another. To be Church
means to live the intimate love and sharing which characterizes the
Trinity and this can be experienced more in a tangible way in small
communities,532 than in large anonymous communities. Vatican II
527 LG 1.
528 Florez 101.
530 EA 25.
531 PO 9.
532 O’Halloran, J., Small Christian Communities, Vision and Practicalities, Dublin 2012, 17.

confirms that there is a common dignity of all the members of the

Church and that all vocations are equal in importance in building the
Body of Christ533. The frequent gatherings of a parish community
must be to confirm this common dignity of all the believers and to
strengthen the brotherhood of all people and to work together for a
more just world. This is just not possible through a mere ritualistic
performance of the Sunday Liturgy. The SCC is the platform to build
such a brother/sisterhood and it is capable of overcoming divisions and
brokenness within itself based on human tendencies and root itself on
the love of the Gospel.534 Pope John Paul II states that pastors ought
to foster small ecclesial communities which are “living” communities
of faith where the faithful can listen to the Word and respond to it
in loving service of one another. This is an effective way to foster
authentic communion among the faithful in parishes.535
Such quest for solidarity and human fellowship is visible in different
life situations of today – in organized efforts for justice, peace, harmony
and in various levels of dialogue.536 Increasingly the world moves
towards democratic politics giving people dignity, respect and equal
opportunity for growth and service. The many human organizations
across the world promoting justice, harmony, solidarity, environment,
etc give ample evidence to this human quest and they transcend all
cultural, religious, political or other divisive tendencies in society and
the Church too join hands with them in creating a more just human
order based on Gospel.537 The SCCs are only adding strength to this
human process rooted in the God-experience of the people of these
times and affirming the validity and relevance of the Gospel even in
these times for all the people. Thousands of SCCs testify to this fact.
One of the most obvious and common fruits of SCCs is people of
different walks of life, growing in the spirit if brother/sisterhood in
the Lord, in spite of cultural and status differences, as the Mallipara
parish community testifies.
533 LG 32; Canon 208.

534 RM 51.
535 CL 26.
536 IL 25, FABC Bandung, Statement, no.2.
537 EA 24.
A parish priest reports: “While I was in Malippara, a parish in the

diocese of Kothamangalam, Kerala, I was with one SCC group doing
the Gospel Sharing. One man in the group shared that though not
very rich, God had given him enough wealth; but he felt that he was
not sharing that with his neighbours who are poor. In that meeting
itself at the 6th step he suggested that the SCC build a house for the
abandoned poor couples. After some discussion, everyone accepted
his suggestion and planned to build a house. Within one year, with the
help of neighbouring SCCs, they built three houses and gave two to
poor Christian couples and the 3rd one to a Hindu couple. And the 13
SCC units in turn took the responsibility to take care of them. Even in
this 3rd year everything is going on well there. Even the non-Christians
in the neighbourhood participated in building the houses and in
taking care of the inmates.
Word-centred Communities
They are called together by the Word of the God which, regarded
as a quasi-sacramental presence of the Risen Lord, leads them to form
Small Christian Communities (e.g. neighbourhood groups, Basic
Ecclesial Communities and covenant communities). There they pray
and share together the Gospel of Jesus, living it in their daily lives as
they support one another and work together, united as they are “in one
mind and heart”538.
So often we hear people say that they read the Bible or they discuss it
in their community, etc. In the New Way of Being Church, as the Asian
bishops tell us, it is not a question of a group of Christians reading the
Word, but it is the Word which calls them together.539 The initiative
comes from above. “You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed
you to go and bear fruit, the kind of fruit that endures”(Jn.16:16).
Gospel is essentially and invitation from Jesus Christ to embrace the
Father/Motherhood of God, making us all brothers and sisters.540 This
means the believers accept this call lovingly and respond to the Word
faithfully. It calls for an attitude of reverence, surrender, obedience and
faithfulness from all believers, be they clergy, laity or religious. The
538 FABC Bandung Statement, no. 8.1.1.
539 Ibid. 8.1.1.
540 Florez 101.

Church as a community always venerated the Sacred Scriptures as she

venerated the Eucharist.541 This veneration, which is communal, is
not a pious feeling, but a collective commitment to live by the Word.
The priest or Sister is not outside this circle, but inside and part of
the community and whatever transformation is effected by the Word,
affects the priest/sister or leader. The transformation called by the
Word is all-inclusive and not merely for one section of the community.
There is a problem in the way conversion or growth is understood in
communities. Often the priest or leader tries to change others or sees
his/her conversion/growth outside or apart from the community. The
seminary staff tries to prepare the seminarians without including them
in the growth process. This is an unchristian approach. Scriptures tell
us that Jesus, even though he was God, did not count his equality
with God as something he must cling on to, but emptied himself and
became human and obedient unto death (Phil.2:5-8). The Kingdom
vision affected the Son of God and it transformed him according to
his Father’s will. This is the way all conversions happen; it affects and
transforms all. The Word read, affects all and invites all to respond
both collectively and individually in the given situation. If one section
of the community refuses to be part of this transformative process,
it has a stifling effect on the growth of the others. Often conversion
is understood purely in a personal sense; each individual is expected
to respond to the call of God and read the Word personally making
it a private exercise. A lot of sermons given in the Church emphasize
personal fidelity of the believers to the Word, but not so much
communal fidelity. But Bible asks for collective (communal) fidelity
(Ex. 19:4-6), which means also collective accountability. God wills to
make us holy and save us not as isolated individuals, but by making
us into a single people.542 The SCCs do Gospel Sharing precisely for
this reason. They reflect together and share the experience of the
Word in their lives and try to respond to it collectively. This is the way
the community will build itself on strong foundations (Mt.7:24-25,
acts.20:32). This is the way the servant of God equips and prepares
him/herself for the service of the Kingdom (2 Tim.3:17).As Vatican
II teaches, the nourishment of the Word enlightens the minds,
541 DV 21.
542 LG 9.
strengthens the will and fires the hearts of human beings with the love
of God.543 Rootedness in and collective fidelity to the Word are two
fundamental aspects of Christian holiness.
In Brazil members of SCCs said that before SCCs were started
Bible was always on the side of those who taught, gave orders and
handed out the pay; but with the SCCs, Bible came to the side of those
who are being taught, ordered and paid.544 This indicates the fact that
mere reading of the Word as an intellectual exercise is not enough; the
Word must be placed in the life situations of the community and the
community must listen to the Spirit and be willing to act in accordance
with the direction of the Spirit. The Farmers who sat in BCC meetings
spoke of the Bible of life which is their own lives, full of efforts to live
the Gospel.545 The centrality of the Word is not only in SCCs, but it
is the nature of all Christian community gatherings. Preaching the
Kingdom message means the People living the teachings of Jesus.546
SCCs make this truth come true.
The SCCs help in fostering an authentic sense of discipleship, a
genuine spirit of communion and of loving service among the faithful
through listening and responding to the Word.547 Seeing the Word
of God merely in the Bible is not helpful. It is always placed and
understood in a given context.548 This necessitates that all the faithful
must meet around the Word and surrender themselves to this call of
the Word. SCCs can help the community to be transformed in this way
to become ‘a-Jesus-community-in-mission’ in their neighbourhood.
When that happens many things change and transform in the
community the Kingdom way, the way the Spirit of God wants things
in the community and beyond it.
Many SCCs testify to this inner transformation that the Word
brings to their lives. In the diocese of Dumka, SCCs were started in a
parish and they were introduced to Gospel Sharing. In the beginning
543 DV 23.
544 Mesters, C., Defenseless Flower, A New Reading of the Bible, New York, 7.
545 Ibid 9.
546 Lombardi, R., Church and Kingdom of God, Manila, 110.
547 CL 26.
548 O’Halloran 43.

no one had the courage to share their personal experiences with the
others. One day as they gathered in the evening for the Gospel Sharing
at the 5th step one person took courage and shared something about
his family. This touched the others and another picked up courage
to share, then another and another…. the sharing went on. All the
participants wanted to share. The SCC meeting which started at 7.00
in the evening ended at 7.00 in the morning the next day. No one said
that I am tired or I wanted to go home. From that day, that community
was not more the same. They were transformed into a community
of love. So much of love and concern for one another was visible in
their lives since then. They were Catholics for years before, but always
understood it as a matter of few duties and obligations, not a call to
love and to serve. The Gospel Sharing in the SCCs led to such a great
transformation in their lives. Indeed ‘the Word of God is alive and
active and a double-edged sword which can cut through all the way to
where the soul and spirit meet’ (Heb.4:12).
A Participative Church in the Kingdom Way

The Asian Church is a participatory Church in which the gifts and
charisms that the Holy Spirit gives to all the faithful - lay, religious and
cleric alike – are recognized and activated so that the Church may be
built up and its mission realized’549.
The sense of participation has to be understood in the Kingdom
vision of God. In the Kingdom vision all are equals and partners, sisters
and brothers. There are no Jews or Greeks, not slaves or free men, no
great and small; all are one in Jesus (Col.3:11). The early community
worked together as partners for the mission of the Church. In his
letter to the Romans chapter 16 we hear St. Paul referring to many lay
people as his co-workers/partners. The Church (community) by its
nature is missionary550 and the Church exists in order to evangelize551.
Pope John Paul II states that the lay people are “co-responsible” with
the clergy for the mission of the Church552. Pope Paul VI said that

550 AG 2.
551 EN 14.
552 CL Chapter III.
it is unthinkable that a person accept the Word of God and not

witness to it and proclaim it in his/her turn553. If the lay people are
co-responsible for the mission of the Church they must be trained for
it with similar emphasis given for the training of the clergy/religious.
The clergy must respect the freedom of all in the community, listen to
the laity, support and foster their initiatives and charisms.554 Indeed,
the task of ‘Being Church’ in a particular locality is the mission of
the Christians living there. They need to understand what it means
“To Be Church” in their neighbourhood. They need to be empowered
to stand up to the challenges of the Gospel there and be motivated
to offer their gifts, resources and charisms generously for service of
God’s people there. Their leaders need to be trained well to animate
and support the community as they try to discern together the will
of God for them here and now. Without such a commitment to the
Gospel in the neighbourhood their faith and their Sunday liturgies
have no meaning.
Mission at any level of the Church cannot be seen apart from
communion; they are inseparably connected. “They interpenetrate
and mutually imply each other so that communion represents both
the source and fruit of mission. Communion gives rise to mission
and mission is accomplished in communion.”555 If this profound
connection between communion and mission is to be understood
and lived fully the Church must find a structure and method to
acknowledge, develop and use the charisms and gifts of all the
members of the community for her own growth and service. SCCs is
an effective means to promote such a communion and participation
and a genuine force of evangelization.556
As the Asian Bishops said, this new vision leads to a pastoral
imperative of re-visioning and re-planning formation process, with
particular attention being given to cultural values and structural
factors.557 If this sense of co-responsibility is to be lived, the parish
553 Ibid. 24.

554 PO 9.
555 EA 24.
556 Ibid. 25.
557 Bandung Statement 7.1, A.6.

structure and leadership must be re-visualized. Clergy and laity must

be formed for such a meaningful and mutually respectful collaboration.
God’s enduring presence cannot be the privilege of one section of
the Church. It is God’s gift to the whole Church.558 Ministry is even
now ‘uni-directional’, hierarchical, often causing passivity in the faith
of the people. The radical mutuality and oneness demanded by Gospel
mandates that we recognize the multi-dimensional quality of Christian
ministry.559 Although Vatican II acknowledges that all vocations are
equal in importance in building up the Body of Christ560 in actual
practice this does not seem to be so. A charismatically rich ecclesiology
makes it very difficult to precisely demarcate the distinct frontiers of
various apostolic calls and their responses,561 and makes all part of
the Body of Christ and co-responsible in the missionary mandate of
the Church. That part of the mission which each community must
accomplish in living out their faith in their neighbourhood cannot
be fulfilled by any expert or missionary from some foreign land. It is
the baptismal responsibility of those Christians who live there. The
role of missionaries and Church leaders is to empower them. Some
years back, when Fr. Aruldas was murdered in Baleshwar diocese in
Orissa, he was celebrating the harvest feast with the community of 16
new convert families in a village, 14 kms. interior, accessible only by
foot. His murder led to a law and order problem. The district collector
requested the bishop not to send any priest or sister to that place until
they give further orders since he was not in a position to provide
protection to them. No priest or Sister went to that place for more
than 8 months. After 8 months one priest took courage to visit that
village. What he saw there surprised him and deepened his faith. The
16 families, though very poor and new in faith, re-constructed the
chapel burnt down by the enemies of the Church and prayed there
every day asking the Lord to protect them since they had no one else.
They grew in faith as a community and were ready to carry on the
mission of the Church there even though no priest or Sister was there.
558 Whitehead 168.

559 Ibid. 167.
560 LG 32.
561 “In the Union to Evangelize”, the final document of the 17th General Assembly of the
Pallottine Fathers, Rome, 1992, no.12. b).
Though there is a lot of talk going on in the Church about co-respon-

sibility of all the faithful, we have not always gauged effectively its full
import nor have we made enough efforts to re-visualize and re-structure
the diocese and parishes to empower all to act in a co-responsible and
interdependent way. Pope John Paul II says that SCCs decentralize and
organize the parish so as to make them a leaven of Christian life and of
commitment to the transformation of the society.562 The Latin Bishops’
Conference of India affirmed that SCCs ensure a participatory, active,
vibrant and evangelizing church.563 That precisely is what should be
visualized in and through SCCs in all dioceses. SCCs have proven
to be very good and effective instruments of fostering this spirit of
co-responsibility in parish communities.
Becoming Prophetic Communities

‘It (the Asian Church) is a leaven of transformation in this world
and serves as a prophetic sign daring to point this world to the ineffable
Kingdom that is yet fully to come’564.
Gospel builds and empowers communities and individuals
in prophetic roles demanded by Gospel in the given situation.
It is impossible to be faithful to Jesus and not be prophetic. In the
Kingdom vision of God the most important fruit of love is justice.
The joys, pains and agonies of men and women of our times are the
joys, pains and agonies of the followers of Christ565. What God wants
is not burnt offerings, loud music, festivals and assemblies, but justice
and loving service (Is.1:11-17). The final judgment will be based on
the Kingdom-sense of justice flowing from love. ‘I was hungry, you fed
me; I was thirsty .. Whenever you did it to the least of these, you did it
to me…’ (Mt.25:35-40).
The call of Baptism and Confirmation extended to all, intrinsically
means a call to holiness, to authentic discipleship and to evangelical
radicalism.566 “Consecrated life as a basic charism, does not exhaust
562 RM 51.
563 CCBI 2001, Laity in a Participatory Church, no.3.
564 Bandung Statement, 8.1.4.
565 GS 1.
566 In the Union to Evangelize, no.13, a).

all possibilities of evangelical radicalism, of prophecy, or prophetic

abnormality which Christian existence might require. It is enough to
think of those persons sometimes, married or belonging to the secular
lay state, who have received a prophetic gift or a gift of evangelical
radicalism as much in their style of life as in their mission. There are
families that live in community, sharing all their goods in common,
or families in itinerant or secular missions who risk their lives on the
missionary frontiers.”567 We cannot reserve evangelical radicalism or
the gift of prophecy to a section of the faithful. It is the Spirit who gives
his gifts freely to those whom he wishes, but for the common good (1
Cor.12:4-11). Jesus Christ the Great Prophet continues his prophetic
ministry, not only through hierarchy, but also through the lay
faithful568. The lay people are “powerful proclaimers of faith in things
to be hoped for when they courageously join to their profession of faith
a life springing from faith”.569 “When it comes to prophecy, there is no
institutional division between those who speak God’s Word and those
to whom they speak. The prophetic Church is the Whole Church, the
entire People of God and the total Body of Christ in communion. That
entire Church is summoned to be in communion both prophetic and
tester of prophets according to the established rules.”570 Communities
and their leaders must realize that such a radical and prophetic voice,
though often disturbing and painful, is a sign of the active presence of
the Spirit and as such they should guide and foster it, not manipulate
or destroy it. Jesus lamented that Jerusalem was a killer of prophets
and refused to heed to his prophetic voice (Mt.23:37). So also every
community can be a nurturer of the prophetic voice in the community
or its killer. A community of disciples has a prophetic role in guiding
the people in the paths of the Kingdom. Without such prophetic voice
they are not often capable of the radical sense of the mission of the
Church and of becoming a leaven of transformation in the society in
which they are placed. SCCs help the community to become radical
and prophetic in a genuine Christian sense.
567 Ibid. no.12, a).

568 LG 12, 35.
569 Ibid.
570
Lawler, M. / Shanahan, T., Church a Spirited Communion, The Liturgical Press,
Minnesota, 27.
Just to cite and example, listen to the report of the animator of Dera
SCC from Talcher parish in Sambalpur diocese. “Once we were having
the SCC meeting. As we were about to finalize our action plan for
the week (at the 6th step of Gospel Sharing), a person from the group
informed us that there was a Muslim boy, Mohamed by name, aged
18, who was beaten up by thieves. His cycle was stolen and his legs
fractured. The injury was so serious that in the absence of immediate
medical care his leg would have to be amputated. The family was
financially unable to provide this care.
We all discussed in our SCC group whether we should help a
non-Catholic and non-Christian. After some discussion the members
reached the conclusion that Christ came to save all and therefore we
should help this Muslim boy. Immediately a collection from every
family was taken and the members also approached neighbouring
SCCs for help. Mohammed was admitted in the Nehru Memorial
Shatabdi Hospital at Talcher. His fracture was very serious and the
doctor advised to amputate his leg. But we all requested the doctor
to save his leg at any cost. Members of all our SCC units began to
pray for Mohammed. The doctors and nurses were surprised at this
act of charity and some even attributed a false motive (as an attempt
to convert the family to catholic faith) to our act of charity and
criticized us. But this did not discourage us as we were united and had
the support of the community. All were firm in the decision to help.
Mohammed was discharged after 100 days of hospitalization and now
he is able to walk. Our community was very happy that the Lord had
done this great service through us.”
Non-dominating Leadership
The Vatican II states that the bishop with his clergy has the
task of shepherding the flock’571. This understanding is a significant
change from how Church leadership was understood in Pre-Vatican
II era. Bishops and priests are pastors continuing the ‘shepherding’
or ‘caring’ function of Jesus 572. It is not a dominating role nor is it a
‘one-man’s-show’.
571 LG 20.
572 Ibid. 21, IL 35.

Not enough reflection has been done to help Church leaders to

understand the full significance of this shift in leadership since Vatican
II and its import in pastoral ministry. Many among the clergy and laity
still see priesthood as a cultic function to perform religious rituals for
its own sake and not towards the realization of the Kingdom vision.
Pastoral care is interpreted as administering Sacraments, often in a
passive way. There is no doubt that celebrating the Sacraments with the
community is an important aspect of the pastoral care. But it involves
also enabling and empowering people to take up their responsibility
as evangelists and prophetic witnesses to the Gospel wherever they are
present. There can not be a non-servant Christian anywhere in the
world. The leaders must make sure that they see not only themselves
as missionaries, but the whole community. Though Vatican II affirms
this, majority of the community still considers the priests and religious
as missionaries and missionary work is understood as conversion
activities undertaken in some distant land among people of other faith.
Those who exercise leadership in the Church need to learn
to function in a co-responsible way. The nature of the Vatican II
ecclesiology is one of communion573 and it is reflected in the ‘collegiality
in structure and order’, and ‘co-responsibility’ in its functional
style.574 The collegiality of the bishops, the various commissions and
committees in the dioceses/parishes, Pastoral Councils of dioceses
and parishes are all signs of this new Church of communion. It calls
for a community way of organizing things and functioning in the
Church. The task of building the Body of Christ must be organized
with the cooperation of all the believers, each member of the Body
functioning as it should (Eph.4:16). The bishops are united with his
priests as his collaborators575 and maintain a fraternal relationship
among them, consulting and dialoguing with one another in order to
make pastoral ministry effective.576 This collegiality reveals the variety
and universality of the People of God and at the same time the unity
of the flock of Christ.577 After Vatican II, new forms of responsible
573 LG 7.
574 Ibid 22.
575 IL 86.
576 PO 7.
577 LG 23.
lay participation developed in the Church.578 The pastors must arouse

the ardent cooperation of all the faithful in the fulfillment of the
missionary task of the Church.579 The pastors should know that they
are not ordained by Christ to take upon themselves alone the entire
salvific mission of the Church towards the world. On the contrary they
must understand that it is their noble duty to shepherd the flock and
to recognize and activate the ministries and charisms of all the faithful
so that with one mind, all may cooperate in this common undertaking
according to their proper roles.580 Theologically it is more sound
to speak of a team of animators rather than a solitary leader since
it witnesses to the fundamental communitarian nature of Church,
preventing someone to speak of possessive expressions of ‘my Church/
diocese’ rather than servant expressions like ‘our community’ or ‘the
community which I serve’.581 The common priesthood of Christians is
a genuine participation in the priesthood of Christ and it is an essential
aspect of the new People of God. It implies that they are chosen by
God as a bridge with mankind which involves every believer inserted
into this People.582 Hence empowering all the believers to use their
talents for the building up of the community in the Kingdom vision
and providing platforms for all to serve the community are the tasks
of the new Church leadership. The pastor is not a mere functionary,
providing a few services; his ministry is integral care of the faithful. 583
If all the tasks of community building are around the Church building
and in performing rituals, then there is not much the priest can share
with his people. But if the task of the community is understood as
witnessing to the Gospel everywhere and preparing and strengthening
communities to renew the society in which they live the Kingdom
way, then we can see the importance of family, neighbourhood
community and the need for people to meet in their neighbourhood
so that they can discern together will of God and find ways to act
578 IL 94.
579 Ibid.
580 Ibid 30.
581 O’Halloran 81; Lawler 95.
582 The Congregation of Clergy, “The Priest Pastor and Leader of the Parish community”,
6.
583 Ibid. 22.

together. The ministerial function of the priest is a service within

the ecclesial communion and demands respect for the roles of laity
and religious and nurturing them in the spirit of communion.584 The
pastor ought to acknowledge and promote the various ministries and
roles and offices proper to the laity, especially their role in sanctifying
the secular reality and witnessing to the Gospel in the world.585 In
exercising their role the pastors should remember that they should
have the edification of their flock in truth and holiness, remembering
that he who is first is the last and servant of all.586
Pastors and leaders are also human beings and in need of the
community. Their growth as leaders is also linked to their relationship
with the community and their commitment to collaboration. They
cannot grow apart from the community. The task of evangelization
requires personal sanctity of both the pastors and the faithful, fervent
apostolic spirit in both according to the demands and challenges of
their specific states of life.587 The ecclesiology of communion makes
the life and ministry of the priest deeply inter-woven with the life and
ministry of his community.588 “The presbyters are brothers and among
brothers with all those who have been reborn at the baptismal font. They
are members of the one and same body of Christ whose upbuilding
is entrusted to all.”589 This brotherhood implies certain mutuality in
maturing of faith and of fruitful ministry. Those ministers and leaders
who engage in ministry wholeheartedly change in the process – their
ministry and relationship with the community undergoes a gradual
transformation.590 Everyone is a ‘wounded healer’ – needing the
community since one is also wounded and at the same time involved
in the healing process of the community.591 Pastoral care involves
healing the community and its members; at the same time the leaders
and pastors themselves must recognize their ‘woundedness’ and their
584 Ibid. 16, 18.

585 Ibid. 22, 24.
586 LG 27, IL 78, PO 9.
587 The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community, 2002, no.4.
588 PO 12.
589 PO 9.
590 Rademacher 95.
591 Ibid. 109, Whitehead 167.
need of the community to be healed and carry on the ministry. Let us

not forget that the Church which preaches redemption, forgiveness,
compassion and healing of Christ, itself stands in need of the same
graces.592
The SCCs is capable of building and strengthening such a servant
and team spirit in community leadership and mutuality which in turn
empowers the charisms and talents of all the faithful. Some testimonies
of priests will help in clarifying this.
Fr. Gregory Kootickal, the pastor of Mahaeshmunda parish in
Bhagalpur diocese narrates his experiences in the old way of being
Church and in the new way. He is a priest for 38 years. Of this, he lived
32 years in the old way. He was known to be a builder. Wherever he
went he built something – a school, boarding, Church, parish hall, etc.
When he went to a Church he always looked for something to be built.
When people came, he met them just for formality and did what is just
necessary, that too, as he thought right. No one could challenge that.
He visited villages very rarely as he had no time. In Maheshmunda
parish he was introduced to SCCs and he got into it like a reluctant
Messiah. He says that the last 6 years of his ministry in this parish was
building people through SCCs and he has not built any building here.
As he says, compared to this 6 years experiences of building people,
his 32 years was a waste. During these 6 years he converted the passive,
disinterested community into a very active, and committed believers
through formation of 12 SCCs. SCCs have given them, as they told
me, a new sense of Church and faith. They work together now to make
the Church visible to the world. They said that earlier, the villagers of
other faith looked down on Christians; now they treat us with respect
and look up to us for solving their problems in life. Earlier they felt bad
to say that they were Christians; now they say it with pride. There is no
doubt that co-responsible way of functioning demanded change in all
and in the way the parish is organized.
In the parish of Killarkandom, Kothamangalam diocese, Kerala,
after the SCCs were started, all the decisions in the parish are taken
in consultation with the SCC animators. This is a new way of working
with the priests in the spirit of Vatican II where church is the people
592 Rademacher 109.

of God. Earlier all the decisions were made by the priest alone. And all
thought that it was the way for a parish to function. But now the priests
ask the people about all major decisions in the parish. E.g. how shall
we conduct annual retreat in our parish this year? SCC leaders discuss
it with their people in SCCs and report back to the parish priest. Thus
they are able to make enriched decisions and have greater partici-
pation of people. When the parish feast is to be celebrated, the parish
priest ask the SCC leaders to discuss it in the SCCs first. Then the
animators sit with the priest and make the feast-day plan. The result
of this planning is that all the people in the parish feel responsible
with the priest for whatever happens in the parish and they cooperate
totally in all what is to be done.
A New Spirituality
The Asian bishops give us the following understanding of the new
sense of spirituality the Asian Church needs.
A Mission-oriented Spirituality
“At the centre of this new way of being Church is the action of the
Spirit of Jesus, guiding and directing individual believers as well
as the whole community to live a life that is Spirit filled - that is,
to live an authentic spirituality. It is nothing more and nothing less
than a following of Jesus-in-mission, an authentic discipleship in
the context of Asia.”593
Fidelity to Jesus is not just knowing doctrines nor is it mere
following of rituals. Holiness is more than just reciting prayers.
Authentic discipleship involves appropriately belonging to the Body
of Christ and doing one’s role in making the whole Body function as
it should (Eph.4:16). God’s will is that we become holy not as isolated
individuals without any mutual bond, but by forming us into a single
people.594 The SCCs aim at a spirituality which activates all the
faithful to understand and share in the mission of the community
in a very concrete way making the Church alive and present in the
neighbourhoods where Christians live. Being Church implies strong
593 Bandung Statement, 9.1.

594 LG 9.
Christian bonding with one another and loving service. Although

the paths in life and activities may be different, all have to strive to
the same holiness under the guidance of the same Spirit, following
Christ in their own paths of life.595 In SCCs people come together
for prayer, catechesis, Scripture reading and discussion on human
and ecclesial problems with a view to common commitment.596 Faith
without action is dead (James.2:17). In SCCs the believers actualize
the teachings of Jesus together in loving service,597 just as the Son
of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life
as a ransom for many (Mt.20:28). That the Church is pilgrim and
missionary in her nature,598 is made visible in the life and activities
of SCCs. The entire People of God is called to be in solidarity, respect
and love for the entire human family and try to engage all in seeking
solutions to various human problems, making the life-giving and
transforming graces of Jesus available to all humanity.599 The SCC
makes this come true in very concrete ways in the neighbourhood.
It is not possible to understand Christian existence without such
a commitment to participate in the establishment of the Kingdom
vision of Jesus.
An Authentic and Asian Spirituality

“If people are convinced more by witnessing than by teaching,
this is most true of the peoples of Asia whose cultures hold the
contemplative dimension, renunciation, detachment, humility,
simplicity and silence in the highest regard. We would have a
message for Asia only when our Asian sisters and brothers see in
us the marks of God-realized persons. Credibility is the fruit of
authenticity. The sharing of what are our lived spiritual experi
ences is of incalculable necessities and importance in the tasks of
evangelization and integral development.”600
595 LG 41.
596 RM 51.
597 Ponnumuthan, S., The Spirituality of Basic Ecclesial Communities in the Socio-
Religious Context of Trivandrum, Kerala, India, Rom 1996, 35.
598 AG 2.
599 Ibid. 3.
600 Bandung Statement, no.9.2.

Each Believer is called to be a credible witness to his/her faith.

No other person in his/her place fulfill that role where he/she is. The
Asian Church has to re-discover the Asian countenance of
Jesus identifying ways in which the Asian cultures grasp the
saving significance of the mystery of Christ and how the Church
makes it available to them.601 The living presence of Jesus is concretely
experienced in relationships of people within the Church and beyond
it.602 This is why SCCs are so important. Christians living in a certain
neighbourhood necessarily interact with people of different cultures
and religions. Who they are there and how they allow the Gospel to
transform their interaction will make Jesus a living person in them
and among them. Only they can make the Asian countenance of Jesus
shine upon all those who live there and make his saving grace visible.
An Integrative Spirituality
‘Our spirituality has, therefore, to integrate every aspect of
Christian life: liturgy, prayer, community living, solidarity with all
and especially with the poor, evangelization, catechesis, dialogue,
social commitment, etc. There has to be no dichotomy between faith
and life, or between love and action, unless we wish simply to be like
clanging cymbals, noisy and distracting, without depth and direction.
In all things, we need to have a profound sense of the holy, a deep sense
and awareness of God, his presence and mystery.’603
God’s presence pervades the whole of creation. Nothing is without
him and nothing happens without his knowledge. The psalmist
acknowledges that the earth and the heavens have their origin from
God and his presence pervades them deeply (Ps.8). St. Paul says that
the whole creation awaits the liberating grace of Jesus (Rom.8:21).
“The consecration of the world, bringing it to Christ and Christ to it,
is the primary call and challenge to the believer in communion, who
is to be in and for the world under the gracious promptings of the
Holy Spirit.”604 . Genuine spirituality helps us to bring everything to
601 EA 20.
602
Paths of Mission in India Today, Statement on National Consultation on Mission
January 4-9 1994 at Ishvani Kendra, Pune, no.29.
604 Lawler 140.
Christ to be sanctified by him and to bring that Christ-experience to

everything around us. The communion of believers is deeply twined
with the human race and its history.605 “The Church is called and
challenged to be a leaven at the heart of the world and its people.”606
Jesus’ prayer to his Father was not take his disciples out of the world,
but to keep them from the evil one (Jn.17:15). Holistic spirituality is
integrative of all, transforming the whole of humanity and creation
the Kingdom way. “It (holiness) is a movement toward wholeness,
towards integration of body and soul, of matter and spirit, of secular
and sacred, of humankind and the world, of immanent and the
transient, of the self and the other.”607 The SCCs help people in living
such an integrated spirituality bringing everything to God and allow
their whole life to be transformed by the grace of Jesus experienced,
not just in liturgical exercises, but in the whole way of living and
interacting with one another. Integration of faith and life is notable
feature of SCCs.608 Mr. Joseph from Kothamangalam diocese, an SCC
animator, stated that working in the SCCs changed his attitude to his
colleagues in his govt. office where he works. His wife testified that his
attitude to her has changed. He sees in them God and he interacts with
them lovingly as a servant of God’s mission, not as a boss anymore.
The Word is the leaven which helps this integrative process of faith,
life and action.
The Kingdom plan of God is the uninterrupted reign of God
over all, where ‘God will be all in all’ (1 Cor.15:28). It is rooted in
and leading to an ever widening and deepening experience of the
Trinitarian love in the human community.609 Kingdom is present
wherever there is goodness and sense of harmony rooted in justice.610
Hence it includes the individual, the neighbourhood, the society at
large and all of creation. Use of the creation and created goods merely
for profit-making or for one’s own comfort, mindless of the master
plan of the creator for the preservation and survival of the whole of
605 GS 1.
606 Lawler 140.
607 Rademacher 199.
608 O’Hallon 63, 64.
609 Lombardi 79.
610 O’Halloran 28.

creation, is pushing us and the future generation to a death trap. The

whole creation awaits the liberating grace of Jesus to embrace lovingly
the plan God and its fulfillment (Rom.8:21). Hence true and complete
establishment of the Kingdom plan is achieved only when whole of
creation is freed from the powers of evil to follow the path set by God.
By bestowing upon humanity the awesome privilege and responsi-
bility of becoming co-creators and co-preservers with Him, God plans
to effect the total transformation of creation. This is only possible if
they understand the Kingdom plan of God for themselves and for
the whole creation. The whole world is ‘godly’, that is, that it comes
from God alone, pervades his presence and is wholly in his power.611
The Christians have t he awesome responsibility to conscientize the
people about that plan of God. The SCCs are a sufficiently interactive
group and localized enough to search together for such an integrated
spiritual journey.
A Spirituality Rooted in the Word and Church Traditions

‘We require a return to the very source of Christian life, to the
Scriptures, to the living traditions of our Church, to the spiritual
wisdom of our ancestors. And this return would have to be in
dynamic interaction with a pervasive sensitivity to the aspirations
of all, and especially of the poor peoples of Asia.’612
The Church has always venerated the Sacred Scriptures as the
Body of Christ himself613 and as the Word of God is read in the
community it is Jesus himself who speaks to the community in their
concrete situation.614 The Word is the centre of the life of the Christian
community and its mission615. To encounter God through the Word
we will have to learn to relate the Word as “Thou”, not “it”. To place
ourselves before the Word as Thou is to open ourselves to an intimate
relationship with the ‘Word-God’ and it will definitely a transforming
611 D’sa, F. /Padinjarekuttu, I./ Parapally, J. (ed.), The World as a Sacrament, 2.

613 DV 21.
614
Hirmer, O., Gospel Sharing, Its Origin, Description and Theological Concept, Pallottine
Animation Centre Nagpur, 10.
615 Paths of Mission in India today, no.49.
experience.616 We have seen earlier how the Word continuously

transforms and directs the lives of the community and its members
in the Kingdom direction. Gospel Sharing enables the community to
be in direct contact with the Spirit of Jesus and to discern personal
and social situations of daily life in the light of the Gospel and act
together the Kingdom way.617 All the DIIPA lessons have sections
of the Word of God, teaching of the Church, and a step to discuss
its concrete application, helping the members of the community to
reflect together on integrating the Word, the traditions of the Church
and real life situations. In this way the DIIPA methodology aims at a
dynamic interaction between faith and life.
The Anawim Community of Yahweh

“For the spirituality of the new way of being Church is the
spirituality of those who place their complete trust in the Lord, it is
the spirituality of the powerless, of the anawim. Renunciation and
simplicity, compassion for and solidarity with all, and especially
with the poor, meekness and humanity - virtues promoted by
active non-violence, are some of the significant features of the
spirituality we need, and these Gospel values resonate deeply with
the cultures of Asia. It is a spirituality of harmony - it expresses
our intimate communion with God, our docility to his Spirit, our
following of Jesus, as we challenge the disharmonies of our Asian
world. It moves us away from images of exterior organization,
power or mere secular effectiveness to images of simplicity,
humble presence and service.”618
Our mission everywhere is a joyful discovery of and the surren-
dering response to the life-giving, transforming and creative presence
of the Spirit in the world.619 It is a clear indication of our conviction in
the words of Jesus, ‘apart from me you can do nothing’ (Jn.15:5). Only
a community that is humble and docile to the movement of the Spirit
within its historical context can experience such a powerful transforming
616 Rademacher 194.

617 Hirmer 12.
618 Bandung Statement, 9.5.
619 Paths of Mission in India Today, no.25.

grace in their lives.620 Contemplative dimension is an essential element

of all Indian religious communities as much as it is of the Christian
tradition. After interacting with religious leaders from Asia, Holy Father
Pope John Paul II himself affirmed that the future mission of the Church
depends on our ability to lead people to experience the contemplative
dimension of our faith.621 The credibility of the Church will not depend
on our institutional power, rather on how authentic our spirituality is,
on the simplicity of our lifestyle and our deep loving relationships with
all human persons.622 If this is the benchmark of an authentic Christian
spirituality the SCC is the place it should take place and the best means
to attain and foster this spirit in the community. It is the place it should
take place because that is where people live seven days a week and where
that spirituality will be concretely seen. It is the best means to achieve it
because its members are sufficiently small, interactive and committed
to such a spiritual journey.
A spirituality which harmonizes the people of Asia

“Its depth prepares us for ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.
It stirs up in us a faith and hope in the Lord of history, a sense of
wonder at his mighty work, a hunger for the saving message, and
beckons all to share in the ultimate goal of all human striving,
which is the inner life of God.”623
The Church cannot exist anywhere in isolation. As Church
encounters different cultures, she takes in positive elements and
transforms and renews them in the light of the Gospel. This is
an obligatory path of evangelization and those cultures become
expressions of Christian faith.624 The Church in Asia is challenged
to engage herself in a genuine process of rediscovering the Asian
countenance of Jesus, identifying ways in which the Asian cultures
grasp the saving significance of the mystery of Christ and Church.625
620 Ibid. no.26.

621 RM 91.
622 Paths of Mission in India Today, no.64.
623 The Bandung Statement, 9.6.
624 EA 21.
625 EA 20.
SCCs especially become potent places and agents of the inculturation

of the Gospel, making it the Gospel of the people.626 This human
harmony can be sustained and fostered by SCCs In so many different
ways. One such concrete example is the Reconciliation Committee
SCCs have in the archdiocese of Trivandrum. These committees
consists of members from different religious backgrounds and
take care human harmony in the SCC. Another example is that in
Maheshmunda parish of Bhagalpur diocese the villagers come to the
SCC leaders to settle their quarrels since they feel assured that the SCC
leaders are deeply God-fearing people and give just decisions.
By itself then, such spirituality is already a living proclamation of
Jesus, the Lord and Savior, unequivocal in its meaning, powerful and
far-reaching in its impact.”627 This is the sense of spirituality we want
Christian communities to live and foster. There is no doubt that the
SCC is the place and means such spirituality can be nurtured most
effectively.
Conclusion
The emphasis in all our discussions has been the theological
foundations of “A New Way for the Church” in India according to
the DIIPA methodology. It is new, not in the sense that someone
discovered it now, but that we have been gracefully guided by the
Spirit to re-discover the authentic spirit of the Gospel. When the
Bishops of India gave the clarion call, ‘The Church in India will have
to be a Communion of Communities where clergy, religious and laity
are sisters and brothers and all are co-responsible participants in
continuing the mission of Christ in their own places and times’,628 it was
a prophetic challenge to the community and its leaders to re-structure
the Church so as to involve all the faithful in renewing themselves as
evangelizing communities. What the Church is and what it becomes
in real concrete ways and places is to be renewed, in the true fidelity to
the example of Jesus who came to serve and not to be served. It is also
an acknowledgment that SCCs is not another lay association, but it is
a means to implement the Vatican II ecclesiology in a very practical
626 Gnanapiragasam, J. /Wilfred, F. (ed.), Being Church in Asia, Quezon City 1994, 63.
627 Bandung Statement 9.7.
628 CBCI Statement Pune 1992.

and radical way. DIIPA methodology is an effective tool to implement

what the bishops of Asia and more specifically in India have exhorted
us. This is a need of the Church in the third millenium and a moment
of grace for all us.
The Bandung Statement of the FABC gives a fitting conclusion to
this search for a new way of being Church, when it says:
“… the very being and heart of the Church has primacy over
doing. This must be so, for effective doing can only result from
the very depths of the Church’s being and authentic living. The
Church has to become what it really is for the doing to begin, for
the Church in Asia “to act justify, love tenderly, and walk humbly
with your God” (Micah 6:8).”629 Then the Church in Asia can think
of fulfilling that prophetic dream of Isaiah: “On this mountain,
he has destroyed the veil which used to veil all peoples, the pall
enveloping all nations: he has destroyed death forever. Lord
Yahweh was wiped away the tears from every check; he has
taken away his people’s shame everywhere on earth, for Yahweh
has spoken” (Isaiah 25:7-8).”630
629 Bandung statement 10.

630 Ibid.
Small is Big –
The Pastoral Vision behind Small Christian Communities
Christian Hennecke and Dieter Tewes
What are Small Christian Communities? What are Basic Ecclesial

Communities?
People in a European setting who learned about this radical
and exciting ecclesiological perspective frequently struggled at first
to discern the pastoral vision behind what was undoubtedly an
ambitious approach.631 After all, these communities are certainly
not small spiritual groups, even though an assurance of one’s own
piety and living in community are important elements. Neither are
they intended as replacement structures for parishes, even though
Church development is also necessary. And they are definitely not
an opposition movement within the Church, opposing the basic
sacramental character of Church life.
First glimpses
The development and promotion of local churches in South
Africa – Small Christian Communities – has its origins in experiences
on the continents where Catholicism has been growing since the
1960s.632 The focus there was quite simply on the question of how the
immense, almost insurmountable geographical distances between so
many small villages within large church districts could be overcome
and people enabled to experience Church as a living reality. In the
631 See also: Weber, F./ Fuchs, O., Gemeindetheologie interkulturell, Lateinamerika,
Afrika, Asien, Ostfildern 2007; Christian Hennecke (ed.), Kleine Christliche Gemein-
schaften verstehen, Ein Weg, Kirche mit den Menschen zu sein, Würzburg 2011.
632 For the general development of the worldwide Church see: Vellguth, K., Eine neue Art,
Kirche zu sein, Entstehung und Verbreitung der Kleinen Christlichen Gemeinschaften und
des Bibel-Teilens in Afrika und Asien, Freiburg i. Br. 2005.
329
cities, on the other hand, the problem was, and still is, a different one:
if a parish caters for 40,000 Catholics, how can Church be experienced
as a community? Is Church life limited to places that have priests and
religious orders who can serve the parish? Does a church only come
alive when this role is assumed by catechists at least?
Those were the questions asked at the time by Oswald Hirmer and
Fritz Lobinger, two of the founding fathers in the development of this
movement and both men with a typically Bavarian missionary mentality.
They provide the starting points for a development that has its roots in
the great pastoral vision of the Second Vatican Council. When Hirmer
and Lobinger, responding to the renewal it triggered, founded the
Lumko Institute as a pastoral institute of the South African Church, they
needed to confront two tasks which subsequently became intertwined.
Oswald Hirmer was commissioned under a biblical apostolate
and soon endeavoured to find ways in which the poor, and especially
the illiterate, could be given access to Scripture. Fritz Lobinger was
asked to integrate the idea of Basic Ecclesial Communities into the
African cultural context, with Church districts as structures to serve
self-controlled local churches.
Let’s now change location and look at the diocese of Poitiers in
France. Towards the end of a diocesan synod Bishop Albert Rouet
wished to pick up where his predecessor had left off and get to know
his diocese. He was faced with many empty rectories in villages and
was asked a common question that was to become quite famous:
“What’s going to become of us, Bishop?”633 Later, the Bishop and the
community of believers of Poitiers would base their thoughts about
the future on one major orientational focus: enabling the local aspect
of Church life and thus indicating to their brothers and sisters how to
live out their Christian faith and, as a Church, act together as the Body
of the Resurrected Christ.
What may, at first sight, seem like a practical pastoral emergency
programme outside ordinary Catholic European ecclesiality is in fact
an ecclesiological paradigm shift in itself, with a visionary depth that
still remains to be explored.
633 See: Feiter, R./Müller, H., Was wird jetzt aus uns, Herr Bischof?, Ermutigende
Erfahrungen der Gemeindebildung in Poitiers, Ostfildern 2010.

Small is Big 331
A movement in response to the Second Vatican Council

Insights and inspiring ideas from Council movements cannot
simply be ‘implemented’: Councils (and also synods) are often
charismatic moments in the life of the Church. The theological and
ecclesiological ‘blueprint’ that was developed here for the Church was
later reflected in charismatic renewals, and it is precisely this congenial
charismatic movement in response to the Council which is associated
with the appearance of basic communities and the development of
Small Christian Communities.
The impact of spiritual communities and renewal movements
must not be underestimated. Those who have kept a watchful eye on
the emergence of those many and diverse post-Council movements
and their ecclesiology will have noticed that Church communities
which grow along charismatic lines seem to share the same perspective.
On the one hand, a central role is played by the calling received at
baptism and the common priesthood of all believers. On the other
hand, Church life must clearly be based on a deep level of spirituality.
Although such forms of spirituality may appear disparate (and
‘alien’), they are nevertheless rooted in the Gospel and its life-giving
message.634
The development of Small Christian Communities is a related
and equally congenial charismatic response movement which –
thanks perhaps to charismatic members of religious orders – has been
spreading throughout the world at a fast rate.
The Council vision en miniature

The Council developed a prophetic vision of the Church. Above
all and most importantly, it distanced itself from any inappropriate
ecclesiocentricity and did so precisely through profound reflection
on its involvement with God and the world. Here, however, the
hermeneutical key is not the structure, but the existential dimension
of being Church. The starting point appears to be the concept of
participatio, i.e. of partaking and encouraging others to partake. On the
634 See: Christoph Hegge, Rezeption und Charisma, Der theologische und rechtliche
Beitrag Kirchlicher Bewegungen zur Rezeption des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils,

Würzburg 1999.
one hand, this concept is, strictly speaking, Trinitarian and describes
the relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity. Within the
liturgical movement, on the other hand, this concept quickly becomes
the epitome of genuine inner participation by a baptised person
in the life of the triune God Himself. This perspective leads to an
understanding of divine revelation and of Church whereby genuine
fellowship with God invariably also impacts and moulds the life of
the community and of Christians among themselves. The Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church sees the Church as an iconic represen-
tation of the Trinity or, as St. Paul puts it, as the Body of Christ and
as the People of God, wherein all believers receive the same dignity
through baptism. This is the background against which, in the later
phases of the response to the Council, we must understand the concept
of communio. Without the remotest attempt to spiritualise the concept
of Church, the 1985 Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops
described the Church as an existential experience of the community
of the baptised. John Paul II sees his reference to a “spirituality of
communion”635 as an unfolding of this Trinitarian understanding of
participation which, he says, is founded upon God’s own profound
participation in the life of man, where it is expressed most clearly by
the crucified and risen Christ.
This describes a further existential dimension of the concept of
Church, as promoted, in essence, by the Council in its Pastoral Consti-
tution Gaudium et Spes 1: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the
anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in
any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties
of the followers of Christ.” These are blunt and challenging words,
yet they are simply the translation of the Trinitarian and Eucharistic
participation logic, describing our existence within the world, the
ministry of believers, participation and learning about it. This
dimension was formulated equally clearly in Lumen Gentium: “The
Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both
of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole
human race.”636
635 NMI 43.

636
On this response to the Council see: Hennecke, C., Glänzende Aussichten, Wie Kirche
über sich hinauswächst, Münster 2011, 227-246.

Small is Big 333
How can such a breathtaking vision of Church life be born and

how can it grow and gain shape?
The universal movement of Small Christian Communities – which,
in all its different manifestations, has become a pastoral issue in many
dioceses and at many continental synods – does not actually aim to
form small communities but to create a culture of participation, which
has its Trinitarian basis in baptism. So it does not come as a surprise
that quite soon, in the 1960s, the East African dioceses set up a pastoral
programme in which they described local churches and Small Christian
Communities as “the most local incarnation of the One, Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic Church”. South African Christians began to talk about
a ‘new way of being Church’, a phrase which subsequently also gained
ground in Asia. It is quite apparent that this means not just a Church
based on small groups or on networking, but an entire culture of ‘being
Church’, measured against the theological and spiritual understanding
of Church as expressed so profoundly by Vatican II.
A pastoral vision for post-modern Europe

Christianity now finds itself in the position of a minority looking
for new ways in which people can become and remain Christians. This
poses a challenge that goes beyond the inherited faith and beyond the
wider socially defined Church environment. The clearly diminishing
number of priests also obliges us to adopt a new perspective. In the
future, pastoral care will not be able to rely on its familiar care and
service structures (which in themselves, are an anachronism) for it
will be impossible to maintain them without a high level of organi-
sation and intensive financial input. However, it is precisely structural
measures of this nature that may well lead us to the fatal misconception
that, in pastoral terms, we can continue with ‘business as usual’. After
all, ‘we’re still managing somehow’.
If, however, we follow the logic that has characterised developments
over the fifty-year period since Vatican II, we can see an opportunity
for major changes in vision-inspired pastoral care. These comprise,
on the one hand, the organic continuity in the development of local
churches and, on the other, radical further developments arising from
the Trinitarian theology and spirituality in the ecclesiology expressed
in Vatican II.
Quite clearly, therefore, it is not merely a matter of forming

‘small fellowships’ or faith-based friendship groups – although such
groups are bound to emerge from a pastoral development based on
spiritual values. Rather, it means tuning into a pastoral culture that
has its starting point in the shared baptismal dignity of Christians.
In my experience, this is the vital distinctive feature of such a vision-
inspired development of the Church. Crucially, its point of departure is
neither the unquestionable need for restructuring nor any short-term
broadening of pastoral activities to include hitherto unexplored socio-
economic segments of the population. Rather, it involves a genuine
turnaround in the way we think and act in pastoral care. It means
opening up opportunities for baptised Christians, wherever they are,
to flesh out and develop their way of ‘being Church’. This requires
the greatest possible level of participation and it leads to a range of
questions about the development of a local church. For example,
how can the development and life of the local church involve the
largest possible number of Christians and their friends? How can
baptismal dignity and thus the common priesthood of all believers be
strengthened and enhanced? How can the talents and spiritual gifts of
all baptised Christians be brought into play within a given locality? A
local church development of this kind may well lead to a turnaround in
practical Church life that is of truly Copernican proportions. Indeed,
such a perspective makes it possible to take seriously any mature and
growing forms of Christianity in a variety of places and environments
– in other words not just within the ‘local church’ – and to treat them
as part of a spiritual growth dynamic that is focused on sending people
out and serving others. Whereas in the past the local church was seen
as totally central and all other places simply as secondary (and thus
as not really in the right “category”), the centrality of Christ can now
shine forth absolutely anywhere and create a growth dynamic.
This often leads to colourful and diverse patterns of numerous and
highly diverse Church venues which may pose new challenges within
a parish. It may also put a renewed focus on the basic sacramental
structure of the Church. After all, the sacramental presence of the
Lord, which is given to us as we celebrate the Eucharist and in which
we are His Body, now gains shape in the many different places and
contexts where Christians are Church. At the same the sacramental
ministry of a priest acquires a new and deeper theological foundation.

Small is Big 335
Within such a scenario the role of the parish priest as a sacramental

minister who leads, preaches and sanctifies can clearly become an
effective service in bringing about unity in a broad sense.
Although this point cannot be elaborated any further here, it is
worth mentioning that it involves intensive theological work, practical
pastoral care and comprehensive growth in awareness. It is indeed a
‘new way of being Church’ – not by discarding previous experiences
but by carefully heeding the signs of the time.
This strong focus on baptismal dignity and on trusting in the
power of the Holy Spirit, which is so much in evidence among God’s
people, shows very clearly that we are dealing with a fascinating vision
of a new way to inculturate Christianity in Europe, a vision that is well
worth exploring. We are facing new beginnings and a situation that
was understood clearly by the three Wise Men at the crib: small is big.
Vision turns into practical reality, as it is fleshed out and grows

in the process
Universal experience with the vision of the Second Vatican
Council over the past fifty years has shown that, as local churches have
responded practically, God’s Spirit has gradually revealed to them how
immensely this vision has reconfigured the life of the Church and that
it is gradually growing and expanding.
The way to this challenging ‘U-turn’ in Church development
was paved by individual bishops or entire bishops’ conferences. They
aimed to devise a pastoral approach that would open up a way to
the common priesthood of all believers and enable them to develop
their talents and spiritual gifts. Within this wider context of Church
development Christians could become actively involved, spurred on
by the statement of the Council that they were partakers of the priestly,
royal and prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ. They saw that they could
dare to accept responsibilities and take the steps they considered to be
necessary when confronted by a specific pastoral, social or political
emergency. Moreover, in this process, they understood that Christ
Himself was on their side and that His Spirit was giving them strength.
Initially, it may sound somewhat theoretical when the Council says
that every Christian is called, has the gifts to make an essential contri-
bution and can therefore ‘be’ Church. Yet, contrary to many people’s
expectations, this statement did, in fact, turn into reality and became
part of everyday life. The experience then led to new visions, providing
an inkling of God’s plans for His people as they journey through time.
We have been, and still are, challenged to fathom God’s dream – the
dream He has about the Church as His instrument of salvation for
all mankind. It is a dream which we must make our own and which
we must discover in what He says to us through history and in our
specific historical situation, through Scripture, through the Church’s
teachings (especially the Second Vatican Council) and through
prophetic statements by the Pope, bishops, priests and the laity.
What we now know as a tried and tested vision – i.e. the pastoral
approach of Basic Ecclesial Communities and Small Christian
Communities – originally sprang from very small beginnings. In
particular, it has become clear that it is not really possible simply to
decree Small Christian Communities through some pastoral project.
On the contrary, there is a need to gradually raise awareness of people’s
baptismal dignity and of the new quality of participation that goes
with it. Although it was important and indispensable to have some
‘pioneering dreamers’, it was equally obvious that their visions could
not simply be conveyed through teaching and then implemented.
Instead, all Christians needed to be enabled to discover their visions
and appropriate what has proved to be an exciting view of future
Church life. This makes it possible to develop the picture further, as
every Christian who joins in the dream expands the vision and adds
something of what God has revealed to him. As Christians implement
their vision and do so in an error-friendly learning environment,
they begin to realise God’s dream. Moreover, they realise that this
dream is indeed good for mankind, that it is good for the Church
wherever they are and that it fully matches the specific mission they
have received.
Wherever such a culture of ‘being Church’ was given space, where

trust was invested and where participation and baptismal dignity
were gradually discovered and developed, local churches began to
grow in their respective localities. Set against this background of a
turnaround in Church practice and also a turnaround in the general
understanding of ‘being Church’, we can describe the potential of such
Church development in more detail. Conversely, this development

Small is Big 337
allows us to set up an entire catalogue of criteria for an ecclesiality

that is fleshed out with life and which is focused on growth – an
ecclesiality that enables local churches and other venues of Church
life to discover space for growth in their lives as Christians and as
Christian communities.
The sacred character of the Church: What kind of spirituality

allows us to grow?
Any talk about a person’s baptismal calling and the common
priesthood of all believers will remain purely theoretical dogma
for individual Christians unless it matches their own experience.
Following Vatican II many ordinary Christians rediscovered the Bible
as the living Word of God and were thus in a position to undergo that
experience. In Latin America, Asia and Africa mutual inspiration led
to the almost simultaneous emergence of different ways of sharing the
Bible and discussing Scripture. These were not primarily focused on
a critical historical method of exegesis, but they made it possible to
encounter the living Christ in His Word and to experience fellowship
with others who heard the Word and who encouraged each other
through it. This can also happen in Germany – in exactly the same
way637. The following words, spoken by an elderly Catholic religious
instruction teacher (who had grown up and been reared in a Catholic
environment) after attending a Bible-sharing fellowship for the first
time, are symptomatic: “I always used to believe that Christ is risen
because I believed the teaching of the Church. Today, at our Bible-
sharing fellowship, I felt for the first time that Jesus is alive. It was
the first time that I experienced His presence in this fellowship with
people I had never met before, people who read the Word together and
shared with one another what had touched them.”
This encounter with the living Christ is common to people on all
continents (including oppressed women, the illiterate and members
of marginalised castes and ethnic groups). It has enabled them to
dream new dreams and has given them an inkling of what God might
actually be planning for their lives. They have experienced a new sense
637 The reader’s attention is drawn to the initiatives of the German Bible association
Bibelwerk concerning lectio divina, i.e. studying God’s Word together: https://www.
bibelwerk.de/sixcms/media.php/157/ld_einleitung.pdf.
of freedom and of calling, brought about by the living Christ and His
Spirit within them.
It is, indeed, true that Christ speaks to us when we read and hear
God’s Word together. He speaks into each person’s life, and our lives
are impacted by what He says to us through Scripture and through
fellowship.
An essential part of the pastoral vision received by the mothers
and fathers of Small Christian Communities and Basic Ecclesial
Communities increasingly becomes reality through sharing the Bible
and through contact with God in fellowship:
• Christians meet in manageable groups to share the Word and
to experience it as a living reality in their lives.
• They can feel the presence of Christ in their midst through
the Word and through fellowship.
• By sharing the Bible they learn to use their own words in
prayer and to talk to Christ.
• They see that it is Christ who creates fellowship. Their
communities are therefore open to others.
• They understand in their hearts that this experience is
not inconsequential but that it leads to being sent out by
Christ.
Developing such spirituality, as a basic form of ‘being church’,
naturally differs from one Church environment to another. It is
important to appreciate that in the future there will be very different
manifestations of Christian spirituality, depending on the place and
mission of each Christian community: it takes a different form at a
children’s day nursery than, for instance, in a local church or in some
other context where members are sensitive to their surrounding
environment. However, what all these fellowships have in common
is that they proceed in three stages: The first step is to discover
what kind of spiritual practice is already present in people’s lives.
Secondly, it must be asked to what extent growth might be possible –
a question which, thirdly, depends on the extent to which the Gospel
is being heard and lived and the extent to which Church life in a
given locality is impacted by the presence of the resurrected and
living Christ.

Small is Big 339
Becoming Catholic: focus on a specific environment

Whenever Catholics in Germany are asked at seminars and
in lectures what they expect from their Church now and what the
Church of their dreams would look like in future, the first things to be
mentioned are fellowship and a spiritual home. They rank even higher
than ‘Christ in our midst’, ‘experiencing God’ or ‘life in the Spirit’.
Yes, faith in Christ does need to be lived out in community. Right
from the earliest beginnings of the Church there has been this longing
for, and experience of, fellowship in Christ through manageable social
groups. Local churches are meant to be manageable communities,
gathered around Christ in a specific locality and living their lives
for Him. Almost everywhere in the world the organisational Church
structure of a parish covers a variety of local churches. In Germany the
word for a parish – Pfarrgemeinde (literally parish community) – was
coined at a time when there was (still) a good supply of priests and
full-time church workers, which meant that each parish was relatively
small. It arose from the desire to experience Church as fellowship.
Nowadays, however, it is obvious that a parish must be a community of
communities, i.e. of local churches. German is one of the few languages
that has one word for a local church or community – Gemeinde – and a
different word for fellowship: Gemeinschaft. In many languages there
is only one word for a distinction which, in German, is used for both
religious and secular purposes. The English word community and the
Spanish word communidad cover both, denoting the fellowship of
believers and the local church. Community or fellowship, therefore,
needs to be manageable so that people know each another in person.
This, in turn, requires it to be part of an intimate social environment,
a shared and specific social context where relationships can grow. This
is why Small Christian Communities have developed as substructures
of large parishes that are divided into local churches or chapels. Such a
shared and manageable environment is a place where Christians hope
to live in peace with one another and where they long to experience
fellowship. This is where they can have a genuine experience of
togetherness and meet people who will require them as Christians to
accept responsibilities within this intimate social space.
Such a setting poses a challenge, however, since the fellowship of
a community and a spiritual home can easily become exclusive and a
local fellowship can quickly become a closed group. This is a challenge

to us as Catholics. Catholicism is indeed a powerful vision, as it is
a matter of broadening our view to include everyone who has been
baptised and also everyone else within our specific environment. In
Gaudium et Spes the Second Vatican Council clearly formulated the
image of a ‘pastoral community’638 that is sensitive to its environment.
Whereas the focus is very clearly on the social dimension in Catholic
institutions and initiatives – e.g. charitable organisations, hospitals,
old people’s homes and children’s day-care centres – this is an aspect
that clearly needs to be re-learned by social groupings within the
local church. And, in fact, the prospects look good. Since the 1980s,
and particularly in the age of mobility, local engagement within one’s
immediate social environment has taken on a new relevance. This
concern for the people near us now needs to be developed again.639
People’s joys and hopes, sorrows and fears … This is where they
can be tangibly experienced and where we can also experience a
shared feeling of belonging. It is a space for people’s joys and sorrows,
hopes and fears about their own immediate environment and also
about more remote spheres of life and, indeed, the wider political and
global context. Love for one’s neighbour and a fight for justice always
start on a small scale until this dream eventually also embraces peace
and justice on a global scale.
Here, too, the pastoral vision of the mothers and fathers of
Small Christian Communities and of Basic Ecclesial Communities is
beginning to become reality:
• Christians see themselves and their community, which meets
within their environment, as part of that environment.
• As they walk through the streets of their housing estate or
village, they look at it ‘with different eyes’.
638 See also: Sander, H-.J., Nicht verschweigen, Die zerbrechliche Präsenz Gottes,
Regensburg 2003; Wustmans, H., Fragile Orte der Hoffnung in der Pastoral, Von religi-
onsgemeinschaftlichen Abstiegserfahrungen und pastoralgemeinschaftlichen Aufstiegs-
perspektiven, in: ThPQ 158 (2010), 408-416.
639 See also: Hennecke, C./ Samson-Ohlendorf, M., Die Rückkehr der Verantwortung,
Kleine Christliche Gemeinschaften als Kirche in der Kirche, Würzburg 2011; Dörner,
K., Leben und Sterben, wo ich hingehöre. Dritter Sozialraum und neues Hilfssystem,
Flensburg 2008.

Small is Big 341
• They are aware of people’s joys and needs in their

neighbourhood and they share them.
• They take part in the life of the community and accept
responsibilities within it.
• They see and experience their community as a truly local
church.
• By being close to people in their locality and engaging with it,
they work out their mission to be the salt of the earth.
• As they read and share God’s Word, they discover that they
have been sent out precisely into this environment.
Becoming apostolic: the need for a specific mission

Church is not an end in itself, but serves people and builds the
Kingdom of God so that people can experience the Lord in a tangible
way. Christians who share God’s Word with one another in their
communities and then listen to Christ as He speaks to them through
the Word and through their fellowship discover that this is the way
Christ sends them into their environment and then also into wider,
more global contexts. Groups in Germany who decide to start Bible-
sharing fellowships based on the seven steps proposed by the South
African Lumko Institute often find it difficult at first to carry out step
number six, “We search together”, which is about being sent and being
active. Many Germans are used to living out their faith along indivi-
dualistic lines and to seeing it as part of their private, ‘inner’ lives. Or
they try to derive specific instructions from the Bible passages they
read. But it is only by being connected to a certain environment and by
functioning within certain relationships that they begin to understand
God’s plan for themselves, i.e. their mission, as He actually sends them
into their environment so that they can be of benefit to it and fulfil the
tasks which are waiting for them.
Those who understand this will walk through the streets ‘with
different eyes’ and will see the hopes and sorrows of others. It creates
in them the dream or vision of a new world and of a truly local church
that is involved in building God’s Kingdom.
This mission includes both Church and the social context. On
the one hand, there is the local church with all its pastoral issues
and challenges; but, on the other hand, there is also the wider social
context in which the Basic Ecclesial Community or Small Christian

Community functions.
As described in Gaudium et Spes, Christians begin to understand

that, as part of this society, they can be ‘leaven’ within it. Ideas arise
and dreams grow which show how, together with many of their
contemporaries, they can mould this world in their own immediate
environment and also further afield, and that this world can even be
improved, albeit only in very small steps. People who, at one time,
had purely individualistic dreams of a better future for themselves
are discovering that, as Christians, they can only live and experience
a better future together with others. God’s Spirit breaks through
any form of narrowness and prompts us to act for the benefit of
the wider community. And as we act and speak about it together,
we arrive at a joint vision of what our society might become and
how our Church might develop. Ideas arise as to how the Church
can serve the people and what the ‘Kingdom of God’ might mean
for our neighbourhood, for our housing estate and for the Church
as a fellowship of Christians. By accepting responsibility in the
Church and in society, Christians develop a growing vision, thus
appropriating more and more of God’s dream for themselves and for
the people around them.
This goes further than personal commitment. The question here

is how the fellowship of believers can jointly accept the challenge of
their time and of the “holy ground” (Ex 3:5) on which they stand.
In fact, in view of our tendency towards individualism, we need to
re-think the apostolic mission of the entire Church and therefore also
the mission of each local church. Moreover, as we are sent out and
respond to this mission, it becomes obvious what kind of theological
image of the Church is guiding us. It is always the Body of Christ, who
is continually with us, who sends us out and who does so with each
one of us as parts of His Body.
Again, we can see that the pastoral vision of Small Christian

Communities is about a highly practical and existential turnaround in
the entire doctrine of the Church. Conversely, to initiate such growth,
specific resources are required in order to create an awareness among
Christians, so that everybody understands their own mission.

Small is Big 343
Experience in and with Small Christian Communities throughout

the world certainly sheds some very bright light on the pastoral vision
of this Church model:
• By sharing Scripture in fellowship and by becoming aware
of their environment Small Christian Communities discover
their mission to their locality and to its people.
• They serve people – both as neighbours and as a local church.
• They live a missionary lifestyle because, as Christians, they
live with the people in their social context and form relati-
onships with them.
• People with an interest in Christianity are accepted by them
into their fellowship, where they gain first-hand experience
of how Christians live. They come to a new appreciation of
catechesis.
• In this way the members of the community discover their
own talents and spiritual gifts in response to the needs and
anxieties which they perceive among those around them.
• They undergo training that matches their gifts and time
resources and show willingness to take on specific ministries
(e.g. leadership, house visits, leading non-sacramental
worship, bereavement counselling, welfare services, etc).
Becoming Church amidst the diversity of local churches:

living in the spirit of the Eucharist
The Eucharist is the source and climax of all Church life. Church
has its very basis in the Eucharistic mystery and lives in it. But what
does this mean in real terms? What is the image of our Eucharistically
rooted Church in relation to the pastoral vision that lies behind the
practical church life of Small Christian Communities?
The local church and thus the very centre of every parish is the
celebration of the Eucharist. It is through the Eucharist and on its basis
that all Christians live who, by virtue of their baptism, are now rooted
in Christ, so that they form His Body.
The fundamental theological vision of the Church as a network of
local churches must necessarily be Eucharistic in character. After all, it
is all about the Body of Christ – the Church – with a wide diversity of
members that add up to the shape and profile of the Body as a whole.
It is a Eucharistic picture, because the celebration of the Eucharist,

through which the Church grows in all its diversity and as a network
of local churches, has a very clear aim. Local churches are the results
of the Word and the Sacrament and must therefore testify to the reality
of the living and resurrected Lord in the world – and indeed within
the environment where they live, or we might say: where they live
Eucharistically.
This Eucharistic lifestyle is nourished by Scripture on a daily basis.
Whenever and because Small Christian Communities experience the
presence of Jesus and the reality of ‘being Church’ together through
sharing the Bible, their members realise within their local context that,
as a local church, they form part of the wider Church – the parish, the
diocese and the universal Church as a whole. They are Church not just
by themselves, but they experience themselves as Church within the
bigger picture – the ‘One’ Church which manifests itself whenever the
Eucharist is celebrated.
This is a spiritual experience which has been confirmed worldwide.
Wherever small communities and local churches are nourished and
live on the Word in their daily lives, Christians also have a special
longing for the Eucharist. This longing is a profound hope that the
liturgy which is celebrated will nourish each individual and the local
Christian community.
What occurs here is a Eucharistic ecclesiology which multiplies the
various social forms of ‘being Church’, especially within large pastoral
entities. This multiplication, in turn, means that baptised Christians
realise their baptismal dignity and take responsibility for the Body of
Christ and its mission within their own environment. At the same
time, they understand that they form part of something bigger than
themselves, i.e. the Catholic Church – an embeddedness which they
understand not as secondary, but as constitutive and foundational.
Yet this also shows that local churches, in particular, need the
wider context of a parish and the unifying sacramental ministry of the
parish priest. Within this understanding of Church the priest realises
his function as a sacramental ministry to people and as a ministry to
maintain unity.
This ministry of unity means precisely that the priest (and his

Small is Big 345
helpers) have the function of supporting and promoting local churches

in their development and of enabling their growth. The provision of
training and support for those who are responsible at the local level,
their integration into responsible committees at the parish level, the
celebration of the Eucharist, especially on weekdays, the supervision
of local ministries (funeral ministry, catechumenate, catechesis, etc.)
and the mediation of conflicts – all this serves to create a structure of
enablement and empowerment.
After all, conversely, the deepening of local life through the
Eucharist and the Word also leads to the unfolding of gifts and
ministries: spiritual gifts come alive and the life of the local church
blossoms and gains in vibrancy.
The pastoral vision of Small Christian Communities provides the
practical Church framework for the realisation of a new way of ‘being
Church’, so that the parish and its sacramental centre are realised in a
given venue. The dream and vision of successful interaction between
different Church levels – the local church, the parish, the diocese and
the universal Church – can be realised through the activities of those
involved, leading to specific structures which match the social and
cultural conditions in a given place, in a given country and on a given
continent.
Experience in a wide variety of countries within the universal
Church has shown that this always includes the following:
• A network structure between the levels of the community, the
church, the parish and the diocese
• Rules of delegation from ‘below’ and commissioning from
‘above’
• Ministry teams for specific tasks
• A system of initial and further training for leaders and
ministries
• A communication and networking structure in relation to
associations, Church institutions, places with special pastoral
needs, Small Christian Communities and the parish
• Profile of the sacramental dimension of the Church and its
sacramental ministry with a view to ensuring diversification
of the Church as a community of local churches
The Old Testament tells us that if there is no (prophetic) vision,

the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). We can trust that God has already
opened up the future for His people. He keeps giving us new prophetic
visions and He has given us many radically new beginnings through
Church development processes where baptised Christians are taking
Him by His Word and are forming Basic Ecclesial Communities and
Small Christian Communities. This has happened so that all God’s
people can grow – and not perish.
Appendix
Index of authors
Michael Amaladoss SJ, b. 1936, Dr. theol. habil., was Professor of

Systematic Theology at the Vidyajyoti Institute of Religious
Studies in New Delhi, Director at the Institute for Dialogue with
Cultures and Religions in Chennai (India) and President of the
International Association of Mission Studies.
Pablo Richard Guzmán, b. 1939, Dr. theol., is Professor of Exegesis
at the National University of Costa Rica and the Latin American
Biblical University.
Joseph G. Healey, b. 1938, is a member of the Maryknoll Mission
Society (MM) and teaches at the Maryknoll Institute of African
Studies in Nairobi and at the Catholic University of Eastern
Africa. He is a member of the Small Christian Community of St.
Kizito in Nairobi.
Christian Hennecke, b. 1961, Dr. theol., is Regent of the Episcopal
Seminary in Hildesheim. He is also in charge of Missionary
Pastoral Care in the main Pastoral Care Department. For ten years
he has studied the pastoral care approach associated with Small
Christian Communities.
Victor Hernández studied Philosophy and Theology at the Pontifical
University of Mexico. Since 2004 he has been involved in the
Movement for a Better World. He is currently studying for his
doctorate at the International Theological Institute of Puerto Rico
(ITIPRI).
Klaus Krämer, b. 1964, Dr. theol. habil., is President of missio in Aachen
and President of the Missionary Childhood Association. He is
also, inter alia, Chairman of the Catholic Academic Exchange
Service.
349
350 Appendix
Socorro Martínez Maqueo, b. 1944, is a member of the Religious of

the Sacred Heart of Jesus (RSCJ) and is continental spokesperson
of the Small Christian Communities in Latin America and the
Caribbean.
José Ferrari Marins, b. 1932, was a theological adviser at the
conferences of Medellín and Puebla. He currently advises the
Brazilian Bishops’ Conference and is a member of the Theological
Commission of CELAM.
André Kabasele Mukenge, b. 1961, Dr. theol., is Professor of Exegesis at
the Catholic University of the Congo and has been Vice-chancellor
of the University of Our Lady of Kasayi, Kananga (D.R.C.) since
2010.
Nicodème Kalonji Ngoyi, b. 1945, is responsible for the initial and
further training of lay people at the Lindonge Pastoral Centre
in the Archdiocese of Kinshasa. As President of the Diocesan
Commission of the Small Christian Communities he is respon
sible, inter alia, for the publication “Formation Permanente des
membres des CEB”.
Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator SJ, b. 1967, Dr. theol., is Provincial of
the East African province of the Jesuits and teaches at the Hekima
College Jesuit School of Theology in Nairobi.
Estela P. Padilla, b. 1964, Dr. theol., studied Theology and Communi-
cation Sciences in Quezon City. Since 1996 she has given lectures
on pastoral issues and Small Christian Communities and is a
member of the FABC Management Committee for the Building
of Small Christian Communities.
John Mansford Prior SVD, b. 1946, Dr. theol., is a member of the
Society of the Divine Word and has been studying Small Christian
Communities in Indonesia since 1973. He has worked as a
missiologist at St. Paul’s Seminary in Ledalero since 1987.
Pius Rutechura, b. 1956, Dr. theol., was General Secretary of the
Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa
(AMECEA) and is currently Vice-chancellor of the Catholic
University of Eastern Africa (Nairobi).

Index of authors 351
Ludwig Schick, b. 1949, Dr. theol. habil., was Professor of Ecclesi-

astical Law at the Fulda Faculty of Theology. He was Suffragan
Bishop in Fulda and appointed Archbishop of the Archdiocese of
Bamberg in 2002. He is Chairman of the Commission for Interna-
tional Church Affairs of the German Bishops’ Conference.
Barbara Sweet-Hansen, Dr. theol., has taken an active part in the
Movement for a Better World for 38 years and is involved in
projects in Latin America that help individual and groups to
operate independently.
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, b. 1959, Dr. theol. habil., was Professor
of Pastoral Theology and Liturgical Science at the University of
Passau and Suffragan Bishop in Münster. In 2007 he was appointed
Bishop of the Diocese of Limburg.
Dieter Tewes, b. 1955, has been in charge of missionary services /
missio activities in the Diocese of Osnabrück since 1992. In 2004
he was appointed to head the missio project on Spirituality and
Community Development – Small Christian Communities /
Local Church Development in Germany. He is a member and the
coordinator of the National Small Christian Communities Team
in Germany.
Klaus Vellguth, b. 1965, Dr. theol. habil. Dr. phil. Dr. rer. pol., is head
of the Theological Research Department at missio in Aachen,
Professor of Missiology and Director of the Institute of Missiology
(IMW) at the Vallendar College of Philosophy and Theology.
Thomas Vijay, b. 1951, was General Secretary of the Office of Laity of
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and Director of
the Pallottine Animation Center in Nagpur. He has fostered the
building of Small Christian Communities in India since 1990 and
is a member of the AsIPA team. He has given workshops in Asia
and Europe over many years.
Felix Wilfred, b. 1948, Dr. theol., taught at the St. Paul Seminary
in Tiruchirappalli and was subsequently a professor at the
Department for Christian Studies at the University of Madras in
Chennai (India). He is currently Director of the Asian Center of
Cross-Cultural Studies (ACCS) in Chennai.
Index of translators
The articles in this volume were written in English, French, German

and Spanish and have been translated from German to English.
“The Biblical Approach of Basic Ecclesial Communities - Aspects of
their Fundamental Principles” by André Kabasele Mukenge was
translated by Harriet Spence.
“Why Basic Ecclesial Communities?” by Felix Wilfred was translated
by Hugh Beyer.
“Letting the Bible Inspire Pastoral Activity – Small Christian
Communities as universal Church learning opportunities for
Bible-based pastoral activity” by Ludwig Schick was translated by
Alison Andrews.
“Ecclesial Base Communities: A Look Back and a Look Forward” by
Pablo Richard Guzmán was translated by HK-Übersetzungen.
“Small Christian Communities / Basic Ecclesial Communities” by
Nicodème Kalonji Ngoyi was translated by Harriet Spence.
“The Spirituality of the Ecclesial Base Communities” by Victor
Hernández was translated by HK-Übersetzungen.
“Exploring Closeness – Small Christian Communities as hubs of
pastoral care” by Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst was translated by
Hugh Beyer.
“An Ecclesiological Approach to Small Christian Communities – An
ecclesiology that promotes and supports them” by Barbara Sweet-
Hansen was translated by Iain Taylor.
“A New Way of being Church – Ecclesiological reflections on Small
Christian Communities” by Klaus Krämer was translated by
Robert Bryce.
353
354 Appendix
“A Spark Ignites a Flame – Small Christian Communities in Germany”

by Klaus Vellguth was translated by Robert Bryce.
“A ‘Revitalisation’ of Basic Ecclesial Communities” by José Ferrari
Marins was translated by HK-Übersetzungen.
“The Vision of Ministry of the Ecclesial Base Communities in Latin
America and the Caribbean” by Socorro Martínez Maqueo was
translated by HK-Übersetzungen.
“Small is Big – The pastoral vision behind Small Christian
Communities” by Christian Hennecke and Dieter Tewes was
translated by Hugh Beyer.

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SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES

Fresh Stimulus for a Forward-looking Church

Copyright © 2013 by Verlag Herder GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau

Printed by Claretian Publications

It is a member of Claret Publishing Group, a consortium of the publishing houses of the

Cover design by Jayson Elvin E. Guevara

Biblical References and Foundation

Why Basic Ecclesial Communities?.......................................... 15

Letting the Bible Inspire Pastoral Activity –

Ecclesial Base Communities: A Look Back and a

Small Christian Communities and Spirituality

The Spirituality of the Ecclesial Base Communities.............. 67

Towards a Transformative Spirituality in

Ecclesiological Understanding of Small Christian Communities

An Ecclesiological Approach to Small Christian

Ecclesial Dimension of Small Christian Communities......... 153

A New Way of being Church –

Historical Development of Small Christian Communities

A Spark Ignites a Flame –

A ‘Revitalisation’ of Basic Ecclesial Communities.................. 237

Basic Ecclesial Communities in ASIA...................................... 249

The Visions of Ministry of the Small Christian Communities

The Vision of Ministry of the Ecclesial Base

Theological-Pastoral Foundations of DIIPA-Vision for

Small is Big – The pastoral vision

Over a period of several decades Basic Ecclesial Communities /

The articles in the second chapter examine the spirituality of Small

it. Addressing the ecclesiological foundation of the Small Christian

In the fourth chapter the authors trace the historical development

The final chapter is devoted to the visions of ministry of the Small

a “civilization of love.” Writing from a Latin American perspective,

1 Actes de la VIe Assemblée Plénière de l’Episcopat du Congo (20 novembre - 2 décembre

including schools, churches, hospitals and orphanages, and a growing

are encouraged via human intimacy. In short, communities tailored

The Paschal Community or the necessity to live in ecclesial communion

5 Malula, J.A., L’Eglise à l’heure de l’africanité, Kinshasa 1973, 5.

experience of the presence of Jesus Christ. Is this not reminiscent of the

who, overwhelmed by events, fails to see salvation in the Gospel of

of self-sacrifice, symbolised in the Eucharist. This prompts them to

The Post-Paschal Community in the power of the Spirit

depiction of an aspired-to ideal. At all events, the flock of disciples

continue to visit the temple. The secession from the temple

Spirit. However, new responsibilities are also created by dispatching

A Church that radiates light

13 They have a variety of names: Small Christian Communities, Basic Christian

amerika, Mainz 1985, 13.

Council onwards there was a move to rely on certain new structures,

The emergence of a local church

Review 23 (1986) 3, 362-368.

“particular churches”. Basic Ecclesial Communities add a new shape

A Basic Ecclesial Community is an attempt to live out the

In the footsteps of Jesus

to remove poverty. Such window-dressing is an attempt to show that

18 The Planning Commission of India attempted to do so, for instance, in a spirit of

communities as ‘small’, this somehow encapsulates for us the entire

The model of the synagogue

16:19, Colossians 4:15, Philippians 1:2). These experiences of Jesus’

Dialogue, participation and growth

Basic Ecclesial Communities and public life