Building small groups within the parish : towards a renewed and evangelising community

Abstract

Due to recent changes in society, parishioners seem to have lost a sense of identity, a sense of belonging to their parish community, both among themselves and with those who are on the periphery of the parish. This dissertation seeks to identify what response can be taken at the level of parish communities by focusing on the New Evangelisation within the small communities in the parish. These are formed by a number of people who gather like the primordial cells of an ecclesial structure to live the faith, receive formation, reach out, and evangelise society. In Chapter 1, the dissertation deals with the vision of a parish as a communion of communities. Chapter 2 focuses on building small communities in the parish context; for this purpose, particular models of parish small communities that exist in Europe are examined. The third and concluding chapter carries an analysis of the local context and the challenges and opportunities this presents for building small communities in the Maltese parish. The study concludes that it is feasible for these Small Christian Communities to function in local parishes, that they must be adapted to the particular community and that they must receive support from the diocese.