Small Christian Communities (SCCs) and
the New Way of Being Maryknoll in Africa

When John Sivalon asked me to present some theological reflections on the new governing style of the District Model of the Africa Region of our Maryknoll Society of Priests and Brothers, I suggested using the specific lens of Small Christian Communities (SCCs). Thus the title I have chosen is "Small Christian Communities (SCCs) and the New Way of Being Maryknoll in Africa." In our newly formed Africa Region our governing style should always be in service to the needs of our Maryknoll personnel and to our mission ministry.

Perhaps you are familiar with the book 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa: An African Church History by John Baur. In the 576 pages Maryknoll is only referred to three times. The main reference is under the section " Small Christian Communities - the Basis of the Local Church in Africa" where Baur states:

The origin of the Small Christian Communities (SCCs) is sometimes wrongly attributed to the Latin American model only and their value solely judged according to their involvement in the fight for social justice. There was also an inspiring model of the small communities of the independent African churches as documented by the East African study of [Marie France] Perrin-Jassy, commissioned by the Maryknoll missionaries (page 459).

Historically Maryknoll has always been in the forefront of SCC Ministry in East Africa. Maryknollers can be justifiably proud that although 1973 and 1976 are considered the official starting points for SCCs in the AMECEA countries, the very beginning of SCCs can be traced back to Nyarombo Parish in Musoma Diocese, Tanzania in 1966 with Perrin-Jassy's research on the social structures and community values of the Luo Ethnic Group. See Marie France Perrin-Jassy, Forming Christian Communities (Kampala: Gaba Pastoral Paper No. 12, 1970) and Basic Community in the African Churches (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1973). It was former Maryknoller Dan Zwack who presented the paper on "Rural Parishes" at the special national "Seminar Study Year" (SSY) in Tanzania in 1969. He worked closely with former Maryknoller Jerry Pavis in Nyarombo Parish. They and another former Maryknoller Frank Murray were the first to articulate the concept and praxis of SCCs that were first called "local Church communities." See the issues of Service Magazine in 1968-1973.

Over the past 25 years Maryknollers have been deeply involved in promoting SCCs in our parishes and apostolic groups, in writing articles and case studies and in the videos of Ukweli Video. As a current example two of the papers in the African Continent Report for the International Small Christian Communities Consultation to take place in Cochabamba, Bolivia in November, 1999 are being written by Maryknollers. The first report is on "The Connection between Small Christian Communities (SCCs) and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in East African Parishes." We all know how important the Adult Catechumenate has been, and still is, in Maryknoll's mission ministry in Africa. The second report is "Health Workers in SCCs: a Source of New Ministries in Eastern Africa" by Lance Nadeau. This is part of the dissertation research and writing Lance is doing on the AIDS Ministry in the Eastlands Deanery, Nairobi, Kenya working closely with Ed Phillips and others. John Mullen is doing similar work with health workers in the SCCs in Bomu Parish in Mombasa, Kenya.

SCCs are often referred to as a "New Way of Being Local Church." What does this mean? Is this expression only jargon or something deeper? The concept of Small Christian Communities developed as a result of putting the ecclesiology of Vatican II into practice. SCCs are the church from below, from the grassroots where small is beautiful. SCCs are the nuclei in an inductive process of church ministry. Pastoral work should start from the SCCs and then go to the outstations, parishes and diocese. The AMECEA Study Conference already back in 1976 stated emphatically: "Systematic formation of Small Christian Communities should be the key pastoral priority in the years to come in Eastern Africa." The accompanying commentary stated that this decision

is a basic commitment, a serious shift in pastoral emphasis. It is deliberately intended to modify deeply our pastoral system, policy and practice...We need to adopt a new system, where the basic units of the church are those smaller communities where the ordinary life of the people takes place. If we want the church to live and function actually as a community, then we must go down to that smaller level at which people live and interact in their daily lives. It is in these smaller communities that the church can express itself in a meaningful Christian communion.

In one article our own Mike Kirwen stresses the importance of this theology of church saying: "The SCC only becomes vital and the nucleus if the theology of church operative in the parish sees it as the foundation of the church, the basic building block of the church, the 'little church.'"

Let me give a concrete example of how SCCs are a "New Way of Being Local Church" from the bottom up in a communitarian model of theology. In February, 1999 I participated in a "Seminar on Missionary Awareness" at the Spiritan Missionary Seminary outside of Arusha, Tanzania. One speaker explained how the pope is the main person responsible for mission in the universal church, the bishop the main person responsible for mission in the diocese, the pastor the main person responsible for mission in the parish and the chairperson the main person responsible for mission in the SCC. At this point I disagreed saying that this pyramid or vertical style of authority, responsibility and decision making is just the opposite of how the SCCs are a new model of church from the bottom up. It is not the chairperson but all the SCC members together who are jointly responsible for mission and different forms of outreach.

Now I move to the parallels with the new governing and living style of the District Model of the Africa Region of our Maryknoll Society of Priests and Brothers. We are evolving a new governing structure from the bottom up. This is not the former structure from the top down where the members depended on the Regional Superior and then the Regional Council to made the decisions. The theological basis is a communitarian and decentralized style of decision making. It is a leadership style that models and invites collaborative participation. Now it is more the responsibility of Maryknollers in their respective districts to take joint action for themselves. If someone gets sick then it is the other district members who take action, not just contacting the Regional Superior and waiting for him to decide everything. On the level of human relationships the districts model themselves on SCCs which are small communities of Christian love and mutual concern. This is truly a "New Way of Being Maryknoll in Africa," a "New Way of Being in Mission as Maryknoll Africa."

We are still evolving this new governing and living style. Over the past four months I have heard many different words and expressions to describe this new style. In alphabetical order: being part of the family of God, brotherhood, caring for one another, communion of communities, community living, fellowship, fraternity, friendship, healthy tension of unity and diversity, individual takes responsibility in the group, joint responsibility, mutual support, special Maryknoll identity, spirit of mutual concern and whole new way of being in mission.

There is a deep theology and spirituality underlying these words and expressions. The ideal is found in the description of the first Small Christian Communities in Chapters 2 and 4 of the Acts of the Apostles: "Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul…They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."

Yet we don't want to romanticize Maryknoll community. Some years ago Jim Noonan as Superior General referred to community as "an ambiguous charism in Maryknoll." One of the main strengths in Africa and throughout the Maryknoll world is that we are self-starting, rugged individualists. But as we get older and fewer we are being challenged and stretched to evolve a new communitarian and collaborative style following the principle of subsidiarity.

So far I have focused mainly on the "inward looking" dimension of the new governing style of the District Model of the Africa Region. There is also the important "outward looking" dimension. Our evolving leadership style should reflect and promote the growth of our mission ministries. Our new governing style should promote Maryknoll's prophetic role in Africa that includes helping the Local Church to be more outward looking and mission-minded even to African missionaries being sent ad gentes. Also as John Sivalon says in an interview in the June, 1999 issue of the Maryknoll Magazine: "The role of missionaries, and of Maryknoll specifically with our unique charism, is to call people to look out from themselves to the world and see how they can respond to that. Our role would be in accompany them in dealing with these situations" (page 20). And as the magazine article states in following paragraph, these situations include "new mission priorities like service to refugees, the urban poor and people with HIV/AIDS."

In this process the Regional Superior, the Regional Council and the annual Regional Assembly play an important role in connecting the districts ("symbols of unity") and helping us to look at the larger picture ("vision"). The theological basis for this dynamic is communion ecclesiology where the Africa Region becomes a "communion of districts" just like in the SCC Model of Church where the parish becomes a "communion of small communities." It is striking that Ecclesia in Africa (The Church in Africa), Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation on the African Synod (published 14 September, 1995), challenges both the districts in the new Africa Region of Maryknoll and the SCCs in Africa in Section No. 89 under "Living (or Vital) Christian Communities: "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."

The practical working out of this new governing style will only take place in our districts at the local level through concrete examples and experiences. This will evolve in dialogue with the other districts and the larger Maryknoll, church, mission and world. As the proverb says, We create the path by walking.

Maryknoll Society of Priests and Brothers
Africa Regional Assembly
Canossa Spirituality Centre
Arusha, Tanzania
17 May, 1999

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