Yeast in the Dough: Marginal Ecclesial Communities in Contemporary El Salvador

Abstract

Ecclesial base communities and other marginal ecclesial communities are still an active and significant part of the Roman Catholic church in El Salvador and elsewhere in Latin America. However, instead of being the ‘nucleus’ of their church structures, as in the bishops meeting at Medellín in 1968 put it, these contemporary ecclesial communities identify more strongly with being ‘yeast in the dough,’ a decentralized ferment in a church and a society that is no longer majority-Catholic or even necessarily Christian. This shift is marked among a third generation of such communities in El Salvador by new forms of leadership and sources for theological formation, expanded theological methodologies and mediations for social analysis, and evolving approaches to social praxis updated to the current signs of the times. Ultimately, the marginal ecclesial existence of these communities represents, not a threat, but a gift to the whole church.