A COMMITMENT TO NEIGHBOURHOOD Base Ecclesial Communities in Global Perspective.

G. Proctor MPhil 2012 Liverpool Hope University.

The thesis challenges a perceived disconnect between the faith community of Roman  Catholics in the UK and the places and streets where they live. It argues that the  neighbourhood should be the locus both for mission and community. It has a particular  passion for the recent occurrence of city centre apartment living. The thesis firstly examines the global phenomenon of Base Ecclesial Communities in the Catholic tradition from the  South. Starting in Latin America and exploring their unique contribution, it then reviews the  experiences of Africa and Asia, before drawing conclusions from the different contexts. The  thesis is motivated and inspired by the commitment and insights of the faith communities of  the South and finds enthusiastic dialogue partners in the West, not from religious but from  secular sources. Together they interrogate the Church at home about the opportunity  presented by the world of atomised and anonymous urban residents, to model for them an  alternative reality of a humanised city built around a communitarian vision.