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Small Christian Communities
Background
Most of these groups started through “At Your Word, Lord”, the Westminster
Diocese programme of renewal. This helped members to share with one another
their understanding and experience of the gospel and other aspects of their
faith. The aim of the Small Christian Communities is to support our mission
statement by growing in faith together, building community and evangelising
by sharing our faith with others.
Small Christian Core Community
The groups are now supported
by the Small Christian Core Community. The roles of this
core group are to maintain details of the Small
Christian Communities, to provide new materials, to plan celebration events,
to provide training and encouragement for leaders, to enable sharing between
groups, to promote the groups in the parish and help them to grow and multiply,
and to liaise with other groups in the parish and diocese.
SCCC Member
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Phone
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Stan Grabecki
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765549
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Mike White
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854596
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Please contact one of the above Small Christian Core Community
members if you would like further details or if you have any feedback from
your Small Christian Community.
What are SCC meetings like?
Groups generally meet regularly
from once a week to once a month, for an hour or two in members’ houses.
Group size varies between about 6 and 12 members. There is no fixed
format for meetings, but most will include a combination of prayer, listening
to the Word of God, sharing our beliefs, reflecting on how we can respond,
and socialising. Some groups use the CaFE video faith exploration courses,
the faith sharing materials from the Prayer Time book or a wide range of
other resources available in the parish. During Advent and Lent some
groups have also followed the Diocesan programs – “Christ Among Us”, “God
is Love”, and “A Holy Nation”. Many parishioners have become more confident
to share their faith with others through witness, actions, ministries and
prayers..
Current Groups:
Anne Green
Jim
Brook
Richard Exact
Pat Williamson
Stan Grabecki
Steve Pickard
Mario D'Andrea Dominic
Watts
Mike Walsh Peter Berners-Lee
Maureen Grabecki Michael Brennan
Eamonn Pugh David Edwards
Sara Nash
How accurate is this list?
Any group may change the day, time, place or frequency of its meeting.
Therefore this list might not be completely up-to-date. For the latest information
contact the person named above
Fancy joining a group?
Many of the groups welcome new members although some may be unable to
do so due to
limitations of meeting space or for other reasons. Check with the contact
person.
Want to start your own group?
For help in starting a group of your own contact one of the Small Christian
Core Community members.
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How it all started
Do you remember what happened in our parish
back in October 2003? Did you get involved in the great diocesan renewal
programme that was At Your Word, Lord? This provided us with opportunities
to revitalise various aspects of our parish life and to renew our personal
Christian lives. The part of the programme that affected most of us was the
setting up of Small Christians Communities or house groups, each with typically
six to ten parishioners meeting weekly for the six weeks of the season during
Lent and autumn to study and share. In its heyday our parish could boast
of up to 26 SCCs with about 200 parishioners taking part.
As the AYWL programme came to an end so the impetus to continue meeting declined
somewhat, but even today in our parish there are many groups that continue
to meet. They come together to share their understanding of Scripture, to
pray, to study Church documents, and to learn from and encourage one another.
Some of the groups use the many excellent audio-video resources (cassettes,
DVDs, CDs) that our parish possesses and makes available to parish groups
and individuals. Mike and Sylvia White look after these resources on behalf
of the parish and would be happy to see them more widely used. They have
even produced a 15-page catalogue of all the resources.
The group we belong to has been meeting on and off for the past seven years.
We continue to follow the themes set by Westminster diocese and use its daily
meditation and group reflection booklets. Outside of the two seasons of Lent
and autumn we decide what we should study. We have particularly been inspired
by many of the CaFE (Catholic Faith Exploration) Videos/DVDs that were developed
in the wake of the popular Alpha programme. These are professionally produced
adult faith formation modules given by world-class Christian religious teachers.
They lend themselves to being studied in a small group environment and provide
in a very digestible form the sort of formation that our bishops have endorsed.
We have also been enriched by Father Raniero Cantalamessa’s course “Drink
from the Wells of the Church”, enlightened by Professor Marcellino D’Ambrosio’s
series on the Early Church Fathers, challenged by J. John’s teaching on the
Ten Commandments, blessed by Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s straightforward
teaching in “Catholics Listening to God”, and edified by so many other gifted
formation leaders.
We would encourage anyone who is not part of a small group to think about
joining an existing one or creating one with some like-minded friends (maybe
parents of small children, retirees, teenagers). The resources are there.
The blessings are many (growth in confidence in sharing faith matters, leadership
opportunities, socialising).
In our group of twelve or so senior citizens we don’t always have the answers
although we do always have the questions. And we never let our ignorance
get in the way of a good discussion! Anyway, we enjoy the companionship.
We think the diocese came up with a winner with small communities.
If you are interested contact:
Stan Grabecki 765549/grabecki@hotmail.com
or
Mike White 854596/whitemw@talktalk.net
Joan and Mario D'Andrea
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