The Translation of the Parish across Borders and Cultures

Any collection of papers on the Eucharist – which is the foundation of the Church – would not be complete if we did not look at the actual communities that celebrate. Those communities, our parishes, are ‘the cells of worship life’ and it is in them that we discover the “catholic” – the completeness – in our experience that allows to understand the wider church but that the diocese or the oikumene. So if there is to be eucharistic sharing, it requires us to think about this reality: the parish and how people relate within it. This essay is a contribution to this reflection and calls us to recognise that while theologians “think global,” Christians “act local.” – Thomas O’Loughlin.