NOTE: Ideally this is a lectionary based and family based gathering/meeting. SCC members meet every week in one of their homes. Normally it is a Bible Service. Occasionally there is a pastoral/business meeting. It is not necessary for all the steps to be used in each gathering/meeting.

1. Opening prayer or song.  

2. Brief reports on the members' lives during the past week (called a "touchdown period"). Includes a report on the SCC's actions/tasks (community response) carried out during the previous week.

3. Brief introduction of the liturgical theme.

4. Read the Gospel of the following Sunday (first time).

5. Mention a word, phrase or image in the Gospel that strikes you the most.  

6. Read the Gospel of the following Sunday (second time).

7. Silence. Listening to what God is saying/what God wants to tell us.

8. Bible Sharing/Bible Reflection/Bible - Life Connections. Connect, relate and apply the Bible (Gospel) to our daily lives and experience.

9. Prayers of the Faithful (General Intercessions).

10. Collection.

11. Choose a concrete practical action/task (community response) to be carried out during the next week. Ideally it is connected to/flows from the Gospel text. Examples: visiting the sick, visiting members who rarely come to the SCC, helping needy people.

12. Closing prayer or song. 

13. Exchange a Sign of Peace.

NOTE: For a complete description in English see: A Fifth Gospel: The Experience of Black Christian Values. Joseph G. Healey. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981 and London: SCM Press, 1981. In Swahili see: Kuishi Injili ("Living the Gospel"). Joseph G. Healey. Peramiho: Benedictine Publications Ndanda-Peramiho, 2006. Also available in articles in African Christian Studies (CUEA) and Hekima Review (Hekima College).

Updated: 10 May, 2010

Father Joseph Healey, M.M is a Maryknoll missionary priest who teaches a course on "Small Christian Communities as a New Model of Church in Africa Today" at Hekima College (Jesuit School of Theology – CUEA)) and at Tangaza College (CUEA) in Nairobi, Kenya. He is the co-editor of Small Christian Communities Today: Capturing the New Moment. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2005 and Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 2006.

Rev. Joseph Healey, M.M
Maryknoll Society
P.O. Box 43058
00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it