This morning I watched a program on EWTN called, “Where God Weeps,” which focuses each week on a different part of the world where God is working to grow the church. Where God Weeps – A weekly catholic TV programm I’m not sure when the program I watched today was recorded, but it was an interview of Sister Christin Joseph of India.
She described traveling into the interior mountainous jungle to reach a group of Christians who had been attacked and dispossessed of their homes and churches in 2008, and also more recently. A Hindu politician had been assassinated, and the Christians were blamed, so their neighbors (all Hindus) had turned against them and stood by as the followers of that leader destroyed their homes. These people were already of the lowest caste, yet as Christians, there is no caste system for them. Each one is equal.
She described terrible deprivation such as several thousand people using 10 toilets, and the horrible sanitation in the camp. Also, her religious order/church had contributed a tent which was housing 23 families with hardly room to sit down. But she found her own faith strengthened by their faith and refusal to reject Christ as demanded by the Hindus. They didn't ask her for anything like food or clothing, only that she go back and tell other Christians about the importance of taking care of their own neighborhood churches and to pray from them. “Stand by us,” and “Pray for us,” is what she heard.
She then went on to describe for the host the SCC, Small Christian Community movement (now world wide having been started about 40 years ago). These are house churches which care for the neighborhood and use a leadership style called “servant leaders.” The foundational unit is called BEC, Basic Ecclesial Community, and that begins in the home. I found a YouTube channel that Sr. Christin Joseph uses to do training sessions for the leaders of these small communities. It sounds very much like our UALC SALT groups, Sharing and Learning Together (or Serving and Living Together) Ours (10 people, 9 in the Columbus area and one in Florida) is currently meeting on Zoom, but from her videos listed here (both of which deal with being church in the time of Covid) her groups are meeting in person and using video material for instruction.
Here are two of her training videos. The sound isn’t the best quality, and sometimes they are English with Hindi subtitles, and sometime Hindi with English subtitles. She finds YouTube film to use.
https://youtu.be/EdBTeVWKN_w Life after the pandemic; the neighborhood church
https://youtu.be/lPbPCPVarjA Church on the move. What is a BEC? How do these communities work during the pandemic?
A few years ago, our SALT group used Rod Dreher’s "Benedict Option" on intentional communities for the post-modern church, and he has a new book "Live not by Lies" which addresses a culture that actually attacks the Christian. Might be useful for understanding what the lowest caste in India is going through.
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