BASIC ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES

WHAT ARE BECs?

"Basic Ecclesial Communities" are a phenomenon of the early 1960s, and they
inaugurated a return to the grass-roots communities of the early Christian era. The
Brazilian liberation theologian, Leonardo Boff, has even entitled one of his books
“Ecclesio-genesis: Base Communities Reinvent the Church” (de Souza, 1991).

Also known as Basic Christian Communities, BECs are a type of church within the
Church.  They are small groups of Christians who meet together to study the Word, to
worship and act for justice, peace and social transformation.

HISTORY OF BECs:
BECs developed over time in response to the specific needs in Latin America and
evolved organically over time.  

In The Cambridge Companion to Liberation Theology Andrew Dawson divides the

history of BECs into four main periods.

Pre 1962:
 The Roman Catholic Church structure requires priests to perform sacraments like
Mass (communion) and Baptism and hear confessions.
 A shortage of priests meant that one priest was often responsible for many
parishes, which would go for weeks, sometimes months without seeing a priest.
 As a temporary measure 'lay catechists' (non-ordained teachers) were trained to
lead a 'priest-less mass'.  These leaders could distribute pre-consecrated bread
and wine and read pre-prepared material.  In 1954 the first 372 lay catechists
were trained.
 This was seen as a temporary measure and was known as the “Rossi
Experiment”.1

Lay catechists could be 'an efficient and practical means of defending the faith.'
However, 'the popular catechists reads and does not speak.   He is a reader, not a
preacher nor an improvisor.' Rossi (quoted in Dawson).

1962-1968:
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In 1956 Bishop Agnelo Rossi while visiting the neighborhood of northeastern Brazil, was confronted by a woman
about the Protestant churches in their area, led by leaders who have no seminary training, filled and meeting
several times a week while the Roman Catholic Church is closed because of the unavailability of a priest. He
decided to train lay catechists to build simple meeting centers, catechize, and to conduct religious services.

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Between 1962-1965 bishops from across the world met at a conference known as the
second Vatican Council.  They discussed a huge range of topics relating to the role of the
Church in the modern world and debated methods of renewing the Catholic faith.  Some
of these topics were particularly relevant for the development of liberation theology.
For example, at Vatican II it was agreed:
 The laity should have greater involvement in the Church.
 The Church must be more accessible.
 The Church should be actively concerned in social issues.

'Now the laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in
those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the
earth.'
'...they have the capacity to assume from the Hierarchy certain ecclesiastical functions...'

This gave the lay catechists and BECs of Latin America a certain degree of formal
recognition.

1969-1974:
Political unrest during this period led to an increasing reliance on BECs as a stable
organisation within a turbulent society.  In 1964 a military coup had overthrown
President Joao Goulart and established an undemocratic nationalistic military
government.  They directed rapid economic growth in some sectors which benefited the
richest 10% of the society but which did nothing at all to help the poor masses.  The
military government opposed all opposition (especially any hints of communism),
silenced dissenters and 'disappeared' politically vocal opponents.  
 BECs provided an opportunity for people to engage in practical action. They
began to increasingly focus on social problems and to integrate concern with
spiritual well-being and physical well-being.
 BECs became more independent from the mainstream Catholic Church.
 Theologians like Boff, Gutierrez and Sobrino embraced the BEC as a true
reflection of how the Church should function.

1975-Present:
During the 1970s the BECs had their first national meeting.  The theological ideas and
methods used in BECs were beginning to gain official recognition through the published
work of liberation theologians like Leonardo Boff. In 1985 the military government in
Brazil was ended and democracy restored.  However, poverty and inequality remained
and BECs continued to combine traditional Christian concern about soul with more
practical concerns about body.

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CEB style groups have also been founded in other areas of the world, notably in the
Philippines where the CEB model has proved very popular.

ORGANISATION, PURPOSE AND THEOLOGY:

BECs were not intended to be totally independent forms of Church.  They function more
as a church within a Church.  They see themselves as being within the body of the
Roman Catholic Church and one parish church might have more than one CEB attached
to it.  

The number of people in a CEB can vary, but in order for it to function as an effective
community it must be relatively small (10-50 people).

The key differences between BECs and other forms of Church community are:
 The structure (organisation)
 The focus on social concerns (purpose)
 The way of reading the bible (theology)

Structure:
In order to consider what was distinctive about BECs one must first consider the
structure of the Roman Catholic Church as a whole.
 The Roman Catholic Church has a hierarchical structure.  At the top is the Pope,
God's chosen representative on earth.  Below the Pope are the Bishops and
below them the Priests.  The Catholic Church teaches that priests and bishops
have authority because the apostolic authority of Jesus' original disciples has
been passed down by the process of apostolic succession.  The priest is viewed
as a mediator between God and man.  As mediator the priest presents the
peoples' prayers to God and represents God to the people.  
 Within the Catholic Church sacraments are believed to be a way of receiving
God's grace.  The sacraments (Mass, Communion, Baptism, Confession, Marriage,
Ordination, Last Rites) must be performed by a priest because a sacrament is 'an
outward sign of an inward grace'. That is to say it is something God does and
therefore it is essential to have an ordained priest to stand in for God.  
 It could be said that the laity are passive consumers of religion within the
traditional Church structure. They receive their religion from the priest and they
receive their theology from the Church’s professional theologians. Traditionally
Catholic children have been taught to recite their catechism which is a set of
learned responses to specific questions. In this way the Church has controlled
how the Christian message is to be interpreted.

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Unlike the mainstream Church, BECs did not have a hierarchical structure.  In many BECs
- at least initially - the priest would often be absent and the lay catechist would lead
proceedings.  Although in the beginning the lay teacher was supposed to be a 'reader'
rather than an innovator as time went on lay catechists increasingly began to interpret
things for themselves and encourage other members of the group to do likewise.  The
lay catechist would be a local person often chosen for their natural leadership skills and
for their commitment to the community.  

BECs reflected the idea that a 'church' is a community of people who meet together to
worship God and to do his will.  It does not need an official hierarchical structure and
nor does it need people to be specifically ordained to fulfil a priestly role. This can be
described as a functional view of the church (i.e. a church is something that functions as
a church). There is some biblical backing for this view.  In Matthew's Gospel Jesus
suggests that all that is needed is for people to meet together in his name.  'For where
two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.' (Matthew 18:20)

In his letter to the Church in Corinth Paul sets out some principles for orderly worship
that seem to imply that anyone could take a lead role in worship by praying or
prophesying. He describes these things as 'gifts of the Spirit' (i.e. the Holy Spirit).  It
seems that in the Church at Corinth worship was not lead by an official priest but
consisted of lots of different people contributing.

'What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has
a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything
must be done so that the church may be built up. If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or
at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is
no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to
God. (1 Corinthians 14:26-32)

The emergence of BCCs is seen as a challenge to the traditional structures of "authority"

within the Church, because it cannot promote "democratization" by retaining its
"theocratic, divine-sanctioned, top-down" model of authority that has been discarded in
most modern societies and is in the process of being discarded wherever it still survives.
(Gustavo Gutierrez)

You could also say that BECs reflect the Marxist principle of 'owning the means of
production'.
In some respects BECs reflect a view of church that has is more similar to non-
conformist Protestant Churches (who have a minister rather than a 'priest') than
traditional Roman Catholic views.  However, it is important to remember that they were

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not entirely independent, but viewed themselves as groups within the Roman Catholic
Church (although this did not prevent them from criticising the mainstream Church).

Purpose:
As we have seen, BECs began as an emergency measure to cope with the shortage of
priests by providing communities with a way of worshipping without a priest.  However,
as time went on the purpose shifted.

Leonardo Boff had criticised the established church for being in a state of 'institutional
fossilisation'. He felt that it had become immovable, set in stone and unable to respond
to the needs of the people. As the Latin American Bishops had set out at Medellin, the
burning need for people in Latin America was social justice and a type of Christianity
that provided practical help rather than esoteric learning.

'The Latin American bishops cannot remain indifferent in the face of tremendous social
injustices existent in Latin America, which keep the majority of our people in dismal
poverty.' 'We believe that the Latin American Episcopate cannot avoid assuming very
concrete responsibility; because to create a just social order is an eminently Christian
task.' Medellin Document

BECs came to be the place where this social concern could be put into practice. For
many liberation theologians orthopraxis (right action) was much more important than
orthodoxy (right belief).

'BECs were praxis of mission driven...The starting point was not "what is the nature of
the true church" but "what is the mission of the true church"...The BECs were an
example of a small group within the wider church for whom mission was the primary
purpose of their existence.'
Dr Paul Davis Base ecclesial communities in contemporary perspective.

Liberation theologians would argue that the emphasis on social action follows Jesus'
teaching. He seems to have been critical of people who were outwardly religious but
who did not put those beliefs into practice.

'Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the
Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat...do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they
preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders,
but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.' Matthew 23:1-5

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Liberation theologians would argue that true Christian faith should lead to action. If a
Christian truly follows Jesus' command to 'love your neighbour as yourself' then they
would not ignore the poverty and suffering of their neighbours.

One particular example of orthopraxis is given by Elizabeth Williams in her article on

Liberation Theology and its influence in Latin America.

'An example of progressive social change initiated by the BECs is in Nova Iguacu. A
health program began there to try to organize the population in order to remedy
widespread malnutrition, open sewers, and other health hazards. Courses were offered
by the area's diocese and four secular doctors that went directly to the poor. The
population discussed all the problems they faced, not just health issues; simultaneously
the people began organizing BECs to address these needs.  These concrete efforts
emphasized the needs of the local population rather than theoretical discussion.   It was
liberation theology in praxis. The neighborhood health courses spread to other BECs in
Nova Iguacu and soon it became a mass movement, though still concerned with the
local population's needs.'
Elizabeth Williams Liberation Theology and Its Role in Latin America (Article in The
Monitor: Journal of International Studies).

Theology:
Liberation theology was distinctive both in its methods and in the content of its
theology.

Methods:
 Everyone could interpret the Bible (contrast to the idea of having a priest tell the
congregation how a passage should be interpreted).
 The stories were consciously interpreted in the light of experience. Liberation
theologians looked for a correspondence of terms (parallels) between the Biblical
stories and the present situation.  Juan Luis Segundo adapted Schleiermacher's
hermeneutic circle to demonstrate how the Bible needed to be reinterpreted for
the specific context of the people to keep it relevant.
 Theology has a pastoral basis rather than a university/seminary basis.

Content:
 Emphasis on the social content of Jesus' message.  Jesus as a social revolutionary
who criticised the elite and sided with the poor.
 Significance of stories like Exodus and the book of Revelation which offer a
message of hope for the future.
 'Here and now' interpretations of concepts like the Kingdom of God.

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RELATIONSHIP TO THE CHURCH:
BECs existed within the mainstream Church and yet had a certain degree of
independence from it.  This meant that they often had a somewhat awkward
relationship with the Church authorities.  Members of BECs were quite happy to criticise
the Roman Catholic institution.

The colonial Church in the Third world (the image and likeness of the metropolitan
Church) has built a solid material basis for itself by having landed property and buildings
and other sources of regular income. The price to pay for this is dependence on the
dominant classes, whose help is indispensable for the maintenance of and
augmentation of the Church's patrimony. Of course the poor were never neglected:
they had the sacraments, processions and alms. These were meant to console and
confirm them in their natural fatalism. Compared with this situation, the BECs foster
critical relationships and do not allow themselves to be used for maintaining the
stability and progress of some classes and of the government that ensures this. It is up
to the official Church to support the poor prophetically, abandoning its strong position
and temporal power. (de Souza)

Meanwhile, Pope John Paul II was very concerned that the BECs (and liberation theology
in general) were too influenced by Marxist thought. One particularly significant issue
was the question of whether BECs represented an authentic form of Church.

The case for BECs:

Theologically it can be argued that the structure of BECs was similar to the structure and
form of the Early Church in the first centuries after Jesus.  
 The early Church met as a house Church in the houses of the richer patrons.
 The early Christians faced persecution and danger much like the members of the
BECs who sometimes became targets due to their outspoken social message.
 The members of the early Church had an active social concern 'Now the whole
group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed
private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in
common.'   (Acts 5:32)
 Jesus said 'For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.'
(Matthew 18:20) which means that priests and special buildings are unnecessary.
 Paul's letter to the Church at Corinth (see above) suggested that everyone
contributed to worship in whatever way they felt that they could.

The case against BECs:

However, it could be argued that BECs are not authentic forms of Church because:

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  They downplay the significance of the sacraments (which the Catholic Church has
traditionally taught are an essential way of receiving God's grace and thus are
necessary for salvation).
 They sideline the role of priests (which Roman Catholics have traditionally
believed to be essential as mediators between God and man).
 They criticise the mainstream Church thus challenging the authority held by the
papacy and the priesthood via apostolic succession.
 They focus on secular concerns when the Church's role should be concerned with
soul rather than body.  
 They are too closely aligned with Marxism (an atheist system).
 They tolerate or even promote the use of violence for the greater good.

Liberation theologians might respond to this by arguing that they do not reject the
authority of the Roman Catholic Church, they work within it.  Likewise, they do not
ignore the traditional spiritual elements of the Christian message they just combine
these with a more central social concern. They might point out that the mainstream
Church has also has always been concerned with poverty, however, the Church has
traditionally tried to help the poor without addressing the underlying conditions that
cause poverty.  In other words, liberation theology is not doing anything radically
different; it is just trying a different approach.

REFFERENCES:
de Souza, Teotonio R. , S.J. “BASIC CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES :From Roman Catholicism
back to Early Church Catholicism” Theology Annual vol. 12 1990-1991 p.181-201

Hartch, Todd. “THE REBIRTH OF LATIN AMERICAN CHRISTIANTY” Oxford University

Press, New York, 2014