BEC: How it all started and challenges facing it

As the Davao Archdiocese prepares to host the 4th National Assembly of the Basic Ecclesial Community on 11 to 14, 2019, it seems necessary and helpful to know how it all began in the history of the universal Church. And from there to reflect prayerfully on the challenges facing BECs in the Philippines today.

The local history, structure and activities of the Gagmayng Kristohanong Katilingban (Bisaya of BEC) in the DaDiTaMa subregion, has been narrated already in the previous issues of Davao Catholic Herald.

From the perspective of the universal Church we may trace back the history of small groups of Christians gathering together to the experience of the Twelve Apostles and the house churches referred to in the New Testament. The classic definition of such a community can be found in Acts 2:44-47. It says: “And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people”.

The monastic period saw the emergence of cloistered communities of men and women which possessed experiences similar to “many characteristics of the modern basic communities as did many of the small communities and congregations in various Protestant movements” (p. 80, The New Dictionary of Theology, Editors J.A. Komonchak, M. Collins, D.A. Lane, St. Paul Publication, 1987, Wilmington, Delaware).

The Basic Ecclesial Community was popularized in Latin America. This English expression has its origin in the Spanish and Portuguese phrases “comunidades de base” which generally means grassroots community. These are mostly the poor and marginalized people. The word Ecclesial is used to emphasize the adhesion of the community to the Church as institution. The word “Christian” is used but not as often as Ecclesial. So we also have BCC or Basic Christian Community.

In Latin America there are thousands of basic ecclesial communities. Their number is estimated to be more than 200,000, with 100,000 in Brazil alone.

The rise of these grassroots organizations was due to the following factors: the European experience of worker priests and Catholic Action to which many of the Latin American clergy were exposed during their European studies; the impact of Vatican Council II, with its increased emphasis on the role of the laity, on bible reading, on an accessible, meaningful liturgy, and on commitment to action for justice; the conscientization, or consciousness-raising, methods of literacy education pioneered by Paulo Freire in Brazil; unmanageably large parishes and shortage of priests.

The basic community phenomenon analogous to the Latin American models can also be found in Africa, Asia especially in the Philippines, and in Western Europe and North America, especially among the marginated groups of society.

It has been reported that “the experience of the basic christian communities has been the seedbed for the theology of liberation. All the major theologians of liberation have some connection with a basic christian community, and it is that experience, they assert, that provides the ‘praxis’ for the critical reflection that constitutes theology” (p. 81, Idem).

There are different models of BEC depending on their priorities. So there are liturgical (liturgy), liberational (justice), ecological (ecology), educational (education).

There are major challenges facing BECs. There is an urgent need for these communities to know the art and practice of synodality. Included in this concept are the values of prayer, discernment, and dialogue.

Another major challenge is the formation of moral conscience. Due to the unfortunate lack of this we are experiencing the inversion of values: what was right before is now wrong, what was wrong before is now right!

The clear understanding of the result of the research conducted by the De La Salle University on the 50-Year Journey of the BEC will be a great help to understand the situation. This seems to be an important and urgent call for bishops, clergy, formators, catechists, REED teachers and BEC leaders.