New Bible will build up ‘Church for all the people of God’

MANILA, Philippines — One of the highlights of the first National Congress of the Clergy, held in Manila in July, was the launch of the Basic Ecclesial Bible by the Philippine Bible Society (PBS) and its partner, the Episcopal Commission for the Biblical Apostolate (ECBA) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

The idea behind the Bible is to help the Church in its pastoral thrust of building up Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs).

“BEC is the new way of being church,” explained Bishop Arturo Bastes, Chairman of ECBA. “It is a church of co-responsibility. The Church is no longer dominated by the clergy… it is for all the people of God, including the laity.”

In the early 1990s, BECs were identified as as an effective way of empowering the poor of the Philippines so that they could take part in the process of social transformation.

The roots of the idea, however, go back as far as 1960, when the first BEC was founded. In the 1970s, while the country was under the Marcos dictatorship, the idea multiplied.

“During martial rule people became stronger in their faith and struggled against injustice and oppression,” Father Oscar Alunday explained to Asia News. “The inspiration of people in small communities was the Word of God, because of the atmosphere of fear.”

In 1991 the CBCP insisted that the BECs be formed in every diocese in the country, a process which is still under way.

In his foreword to the Bible, Bishop Bastes emphasises the importance of the Bible to that process. “Without the Bible,” he writes, “no BEC can be formed and sustained.” Indeed, included in it are sections for BEC Bible-sharing groups. They offer suggested methods of sharing the Gospel on different occasions.