Building a Church of communion, participation, and mission

Dec 03, 2021

Fr John Baptist Tran Huu Hanh
The Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia states that laity, above all, are now called to transform society, in collaboration with bishops, clergy and religious. They are to infuse the “mind of Christ” into the mentality, customs, laws, and structures of the secular world they live in.

The laypeople of 21st century Vietnam are yet to play a more active role in church. Likewise, the clergy are only assigning limited tasks for the laity to carry out, and not providing sufficient training for them to become collaborators or sharing responsibilities with them. The influence of Confucianism seems to be held responsible for these shortfalls, as most laypeople hold the clergy in high regard and wait to be told what to do, while the clergy reinforce such attitudes.

In Asian churches today, the Holy Spirit is prompting Christ's disciples to bear witness to unity in local churches. Starting at the parish level, they are to build a participatory Church where bishops, priests, religious and laity are in communion, sharing, cooperating, and assuming co-responsibility in evangelisation.

How can the laity participate actively in church activities?
The laity needs to evolve from being collaborators to accepting real co-responsibility in awareness and church work, thus promoting mature and ardent laypeople.

From other churches’ experiences, it is best to encourage laypeople to form Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs). In Vietnam, all things stimulated by the clergy are considered important, while in BECs, an active part is taken by the laity. BECs are a new way of being church and a new way for the laity to be closely involved in all activities. They gather in small groups, celebrating the Word of God and the Eucharist, heightening their sense of community and apostolate.

BECs also encourage public participation and utilise the skills and charism of each member, thus giving laypeople a sense of belonging to the Church.

The entire Church is sent to proclaim and serve the Kingdom of God, and everyone is duty bound to help build the Church and share the mission of Christ. Parishes are BECs but are too crowded to establish and maintain horizontal relationships to live in authentic communion among members, let alone undertaking the mission together as a community. Parishes also have associations and apostolic groups that could not draw all parishioners, thus failing to meet the needs of a participatory Church.

Ideally, a BEC must be a small community, so members know one another, take care of one another, meet regularly, pray together, share God's Word, and discuss matters. They come to needy people's aid, visit and comfort the sick and elderly, help reconcile troubled families, jointly undertake initiatives to resist social evils, and pay attention to youths' studies and entertainment.

They may take turns serving and leading liturgy during Masses. BECs’ representatives join parishbased pastoral councils to be aware of parish needs and activities. In general, they do the needful to make the Kingdom of God more visible in their neighbourhoods. Each Christian is given a manifestation by the Holy Spirit for the common good. These charisms need to be aroused, encouraged, to build up the Church.

We often place importance on the Church as a hierarchical structure, but the Church is also a charismatic or Spirit structure. It is the Spirit who breathes new life into the Church, that is linked together and alive by the charisms.

Vietnamese people greatly appreciate kindness and indebtedness among them, so when they live far away from their homeland, they often gather in groups of those who are from the same hometown to meet their emotional needs.

BEC communities represent parishes in their areas and express the Church's liveliness. In most parishes, the faithful meet only once a week, without much interaction or exchange with one another. After services, many return home, live alone, and may feel lonely and anonymous in a crowd.

People want to be respected, cared for, share, and make contributions to the common good. BECs are the place these human needs can be satisfied.

In short, BECs are helpful because of the process of returning to the Christian source, reviving the community of Jesus’ disciples in the Gospel and the first community of the faithful in Jerusalem in the Acts of the Apostles — under the influence of the Holy Spirit and the wind of renewal of the Vatican Council II.

BECs encourage members' active participation, utilising the skills and charisms of each person. They are an effective way of bringing faith into people’s lives, to live out the commandments of love, solidarity and sharing.-ucanews.com

--Fr John Baptist Tran Huu Hanh is from the Congregation of the Holy Family based in An Giang province.