When Sunday Mass was celebrated for the first time in the new Catholic parish of Corpus Christi , St George, both presentiment and praise prevailed about the possible fall-out of another parish community in the diocese.

That was last January. Then, 60 people – a combination of well-wishers and would-be parishioners – celebrated with parish priest, Fr Harcourt Blackett, and visiting choir, Chantez . Now, about 40 people gather weekly for Sunday Mass at The Valley Community Centre, St George.

But, numbers are unimportant to Fr Blackett. Building Christian community is.

Christian communities are small groupings of worshippers dotted over a country's landscape. Fr Blackett believes they are, “the way to evangelise the world today.

“We need to employ that methodology more and more, because people are seeking smaller communities.” In fact, he noted, “Pope John Paul II (saw) small Christian communities as one of the agents of evangelisation.”

The new parish is dedicated to the Corpus Christi because of its inception during the Year of the Eucharist, declared by the late Pope John Paul II last October.

It is intended to accommodate Catholics who live in St George and in surrounding areas who may have difficulty accessing other Catholic churches on the island, and who feel the need for building community close to home.

Prior to Corpus Christi , there was no Catholic Mass available in St George. For Catholics there, the nearest options for Sunday Mass were St Patrick's Cathedral or St Dominic's in the southwest, or Our Lady of the Rosary, Verdun, in the east – all roughly a 30-minute drive.

Young Bethany Pile did the first reading at that first Corpus Christi Mass. Her family still faithfully attends Mass there. Photo: Laura Ann Phillips

From June 2002, Sacred Heart parish, St Philip, became the nearest option, possibly a five to 15-minute drive. For those without private transport, however, the options were fewer and harder to access.

Fr Blackett is satisfied that the parish provides a service to Catholics long-starved for a Catholic community in the area, and he is satisfied with the response to the Sunday Mass and the parishioner commitment he has seen.

Other priests who have celebrated Mass there have commented on the healthy community spirit there. Fr Theodore Taylor, OP, celebrated Sunday Mass there several weeks ago and noted that, at Corpus Christi , there were Catholics that he had “never noticed elsewhere”.

A committee of parishioners meets weekly with Fr Blackett, and takes an active role in organising various aspects of the administration of the parish. The parishioners, too, have seen their community slowly building week by week.

“You're really beginning to feel a sense of belonging,” said parishioner, Greta Garnes. “If someone comes for the first time, people welcome them and it seems to be quite genuine. We're at that stage,” she added, proudly, “where people are calling each other.”

It is precisely the community's small size, she suggested, that makes such closeness possible.

“It's not like St Patrick's,” she said, “where you can feel engulfed!”

Interestingly, the parishioners don't seem to mind celebrating Holy Mass in a space that is markedly secular, surrounded by stretches of stark wall broken only by stern posters screaming warnings about HIV/AIDS prevention, and official images of the Prime Minister and Governor General.