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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to send your inquiries.  We'll try our best to accommodate your questions.

 01  What is BEC?

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BEC means "Basic Ecclesial Communities".  It is the every essence of "being Church".  Taking off from the words of Jesus, "Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.  As a living Church, it lives out Christian ideals like worshiping, praying, learning, loving, sharing, and serving.  The parish is so organized as to create communities of disciples starting from the center (parish community), to its zones or sub-parishes (pamayanans), smaller BEC units called "kawans" or "sheepfold" and "buklurans" (groups).  The smallest unit of being Church is the family.  Thus, the parish is a communion of families as well as a communion of communities.

 

 

 02  Can a parish exist without BEC?

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It depends on the meaning of a parish.  Canonically, the smallest unit of the Church is a parish.  But pastorally, in order to reach out to all people and proclaim the Good News of salvation, it would be recommend to divide the parish into manageable levels (subparishes and BEC units like "kawans" and "buklurans") so that the Good News may reach the concrete individual the make up the Church.

 

 

 

 03  Is BEC an organization?

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BEC is NOT an organization in competition for any mandated organization.  It is a "way of being Church".  It lives out an orientation that all Christians that make up the Body of Christ and in communion with Him and with one another, living out Christ's will on earth.  However, there is a "BEC secretariat", a body tasked to plan and implement programs for organizing, maintaining, and sustaining BEC programs in the parish.  But all persons living in local communities belong to BEC.

 

 

 

 04  What is the relationship between BEC and the PPC?

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The BEC is tasked with organizing communities in Basic Ecclesial Communities while the Parish Pastoral Council is tasked to create pastoral programs to be lived by the communities.  Whatever services the PPC are offering should be the same set of services given to the BECs, for example, the presence of Family and Life Ministers, Social Services, and Youth ministers in the BEC levels.  Being "church" should not only be experienced in the center, but also in the peripheries of society.

 

 

 

 05  Is the BEC only for poor communities?

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BEC is not only for poor communities but any community of economic status.  As long as people of goodwill gather in the Lord's name, whether they are rich or poor, they are bound to set up living ecclesial communities in their localities.

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