The first ‘Bombay Priests Synod’ in 1980 decided to start these communities. Every Parish in the Archdiocese was divided into Small Christian Communities. By 1986 twenty-six parishes started these. Our Lady of Victories started the Small Christian communities in the year 1992. Our Parish functions through 18 Communities… The SCCs make efforts at “building bridges of understanding and common action with people of all faith and culture”.
Our parish work with the Vision statement “To make our parish family – A vibrant and Holistic Community Rooted in Christ that feels loves, cares and serves. Each community has a Core Group consisting of a Coordinator and several Animators depending on the size of the community, together with a Priest and Sister. The coordinators form a part of the Parish Pastoral Council.
After the monthly Parish Pastoral Council meeting, the Core Group meeting takes place in each community, starting with bible sharing, the reading of the Minutes of the PPC meeting and a discussion on action to be taken. The Animators are
expected to have a meeting of their Cluster Families and follow the same procedure.
Feedback from the Core Group and community is brought back to the next PPC meeting. This procedure helps the entire Parish to be a Communion of Communities. The SCC Coordinators prepare quarterly reports of the activities conducted in the community and submit to head coordinator. The individual reports and a collated report are sent to the Archdiocesan SCC Office. The Steering Committee is the operational arm of the SCC Project in the Parish.
The role of the Steering Committee is to guide the progress of the movement and it meets at regular interval. If the PPC is ‘the heart of the Parish’ the Steering Committee is ‘the heart of the heart, the core of the Parish.’