Small Church Community

What is a Small Church Community (SCC)?

  • A group of 8-12 individuals who get together at least twice a month for 1.5 to 2 hours to share their life experiences and to grow in their faith while getting to know group members
  • The main components of SCC are reflection and education, mutual support and caring, prayer and worship, Scripture and service to one another, to the parish and to others
  • Small Church Communities help us discover and honor our own life experiences and to connect to our faith through sharing on the scriptures

Who is Invited to Join A SCC?

  • You are invited! Anyone who would enjoy the benefits of belonging to an SCC such as:
    • Participating in a personal, supportive environment with a sense of belonging
    • Having the opportunity to be listened to in a trusting and non-judgmental atmosphere
    • Sharing your life and faith experiences
    • Deepening your own sense of the connection of life and faith
    • Being able to meet people from the parish
    • Having your ability and talents encouraged and appreciated
    • Feeling supported during trying times and sharing joys during happy times

“I have never considered myself as a very prayerful person. I come to mass mostly every Sunday and when I remember, I try to pray on a regular basis. It was suggested to me that I join one of the small groups formed during the Lenten season This made me uncomfortable because I didn’t feel that I was as involved in my faith as deeply as some other people in the parish. I decided to try it and really enjoyed it. I found that other people in the group also struggled to keep Christ in their daily lives.”

What is the Importance of Joining a SCC in Today’s Culture?

  • Our culture and society today emphasize the need to come to truth through externals such as education, science and logic. With this type of view, individualism thrives as people are concerned mainly with own stories and much less with the common good. In Small Church Community, we familiarize ourselves with the patterns of the Great Story through the scripture. We come to trust what we learn from sharing experiences, and we become able to mediate between the common good and individual rights. Through the use of scripture in an SCC, we recapture a life in which meaning is not created, manufactured or figured out, a life free form rules about perfect order and being right.
  • American Catholics today move more often than in the past, have less stable relationships, experiences less control their lives and are bombarded daily by secular values preached by today’ s consumer-oriented society. The individual can feel isolated and can live their on the surface of experience.
  • Many Catholics no longer expect to be loved in their parish, or to be known or to be prayed for, love being a fundamental value of the Christian life
  • The parish is meant to foster two basic realities: an experience of love and an experience of faith
  • To truly feel loved, one has to be known as a person
  1. Most of us need help from others to learn about our own faith experiences. We all have faith, yet we often don’t trust the faith within us or we don’t know how to recognize and describe our experiences of faith.
  2. Gathering in small groups allows church to become “We” instead of “They.” The more our experiences of faith and love are shared, the more people notice God’s call to be church for one another.

For more information contact 
Stephen Williams, Director of Catechetical Ministry :
call 619-224-2746 or email religioused@sacredheartob.org 

List of  Our Current Small Church Communities

St. Damien Community
Meeting Day & Time: Monday 7pm
Pastoral Facilitator: Sue & Bill Munz
Email: suemunz@gmail.com
Core Member: Frank Barrancotto
Email: fjbarran@aol.com   

O B’lievers Community
Meeting Day & Time: Tuesday 9am
Pastoral Facilitator: Therese Flaningam
Email: tireneflan@yahoo.com
Core Member: Janice Teixeria
Email:teixeira@cox.net

 Alzar
Meeting Day & Time: Wednesday 10:00am
Pastoral Facilitator: Julie Dressler
Email: dresslerjulie@gmail.com
Core Member: Mary Sypkens
Email: marysypkens@gmail.com

St. Joseph Community
Meeting Day & Time: Thursday 6:30pm
Pastoral Facilitator: Pat Katka
Number: 619-222-9648

O Blessed Heart Community
Meeting Day & Time: Friday 7pm
Pastoral Facilitator: Dr. Susan Kaweski
Email: skaweski@pacbell.net