JOHOR, Malaysia (UCAN) -- Brunei's one Catholic priest says his parishioners are ready for spiritual renewal and the Lumko method of forming Small Christian Communities is what they need.

Father Cornelius Sim, a native of Brunei and currently the only Catholic priest there, told UCA News that the attraction of the Lumko method is that it emphasizes a horizontal approach to theology over a vertical approach.

In a horizontal approach to theology people learn to reach out to their neighbors, which should be the goal of Church activity, Father Sim said.

Without the reaching out, evangelization is a dead end, he said. People are attracted to our Churches because of life witness of members and love expressed between people, which is one way to define community, he said.

"For evangelization to do what it should, it needs to be a community exercise," Father Sim said.

Father Sim talked with UCA News in Johor, Malaysia, while attending a Nov. 9-16 workshop on the Lumko method sponsored by the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences Office of Laity.

The Lumko method is a process for building small, intentional Christian communities. It originated with missioners in South Africa.

Father Sim said Brunei has two settings. "Among the rural people, there is a natural sense of being a community. It is for us to use this natural human structure. There is hope," he said.

Urban areas present a challenge, because people there have no natural awareness of community, Father Sim said. "People are exposed publicly in their work, and they seek privacy when they finish work."

"Individualism is the mindset (in urban areas) ... and the Lumko method can be used to foster community and build emerging leaders," Father Sim said.

Father Sim believes the Lumko techniques are very practical. "We will be able to use these materials immediately, starting to conscientize the existing natural groupings before going on to large scale change," he said.

"These materials are very useful because they allow participation at various levels," he said.

Lumko showed that from the natural groupings leaders will arise, Father Sim said, indicating that he will offer skills training to these people as they are ready for it.

Father Sim said the seminar emphasized the importance of laity and the need for people's full participation in any successful Church program.

"We need lay partners," Father Sim said. The seminar convinced him that laypeople "are not there to help me -- the priest -- do my job, but that (evangelization) is part of their mission," he said.

Another Lumko technique is the "awareness program." The technique teaches that people respond to a planned activity when they are aware of the full plan and not just the small part they play in the activity.

The "awareness program" informs people of the plan as a whole and offers them an opportunity to contribute to it instead of asking only that they follow instructions.

"I have not only overcome the reluctance to use awareness programs," Father Sim explained, "but now I see them as necessary."

Mill Hill Father Ivan Fang, a Brunei native, working in Pakistan since 1985, has been reassigned to Brunei and is expected to arrive soon.

Brunei has about 8,000 Catholics served by three parishes and four Catholic schools. Three religious sisters live at St. Angela's Convent in Seria. Ecclesiastically Brunei is part of the Diocese of Miri. Miri is in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia.

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