Small Christian Community Connection

Buena Vista and Small Christian Community Connection

Thirty-three people from across the nation came together in January, 1987, in Buena Vista, Colorado, to share their experience of small Christian community (SCC) with one another. The invitation to gather came from Pastor Ken Leone and parish SCC Coordinator, Barbara Howard of Spirit of Christ Catholic Community Parish in Arvada, Colorado. Sr. Cathy Nerney and Fr. Tom Dowd of RENEW facilitated the week. These 33 people answered an invitation to a one-time gathering that blossomed into a long-term organization with a “beautiful vision”: Buena Vista.

Participants made plans to meet again and invited others to join them. Soon it became clear that that this grass-roots group was growing into a vital presence in our church. It was reaffirmed that the organization’s mission was to form and support small communities based on the four essentials of church: prayer/ritual, service/justice, community/mutuality, and scripture-based witness. Individuals and groups joined Buena Vista and supported the work with donations and their talents.

In January, 1997 a record 300 participants assembled back in Estes Park to celebrate Buena Vista’s 10th anniversary. Fr. Bob Pelton gathered a group of Buena Vista members to attend the Synod for America where they advocated for SCCs as a valid experience of church. In the summer of 2000 a Buena Vista gathering coincided with the national Encuentro to observe the new millennium. Over the years several Buena Vistans participated in international SCC convocations sponsored by LANACC (University of Notre Dame) at the invitation of Fr. Bob Pelton, CSC.

To mark 20 years of the organization’s existence, the 2006 Buena Vista Board of Directors conducted an informal survey among several members, past board members, and noted small community scholars. As a result they boldly proclaimed a new direction for Buena Vista including a name change to help the purpose of the organization be more readily recognized. Now Small Christian Community Connection will take extensive advantage of the internet to serve a wider and more diverse audience with downloadable information while continuing to develop the quality resources and nurture the small Christian community connections folks have learned to rely on Buena Vista to provide. We will also try to promote more Spanish materials for groups as well as translate more of our information. As we make changes to adapt to the 21st century, most of our communication is now via email and the web. If you would like to receive our email newsletter, sign up through This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Please contact us with your questions, ideas, and needs for small Christian communities (SCCs). We would love your input and your help to become the best organization we can be.