Latinos are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, but only 5 percent of all Hispanics attend a mainline Protestant church. The vast majority are Roman Catholic.
For the Episcopal Church, those numbers are an opportunity.
The denomination is seeing fast-growing pockets of new Latino congregants. Episcopal churches in Nevada and Washington, D.C., are seeing considerably higher attendance from Latinos. In Oregon, there were only 150 Latino Episcopalians 20 years ago. Now, there are more than 800.
In my experience, Polish National and sometimes Episcopal churches manage to attract hispanics by fooling them into thinking their churches are Catholic, or just the same. As one whose work is largely among Hispanics, it is somewhat common to have hispanics preparing for marriage, both of whom say they are Catholic since baptism, then one of them brings in a baptism certificate from a PNC or TEC church. Little do they know they must go through RCIA to actually become what they thought they always were.
I knew a local Filipino family who decided to switch from the Catholic to the Episcopal Church because, as the husband told me, they could have all of the ceremony with none of the commitments. I thought that pretty well summed it up.
If following Christ is about ceremony without commitment, then it’s all pointless, isn’t it?
I know several Episcopalians who think it’s perfectly fine to take communion in a Catholic church–they don’t know the difference.
Our diocese and our bishop work quite well with our Hispanic brothers and sisters. The bishop and his family are fluent in Spanish, and we have several Hispanic priests who are in charge of Hispanic congregations. No problems here.
And we are the Diocese of San Joaquin.
“Fooling?” #1. Or simply being what they are and the immigrants think it’s RC? Back in my hometown some friends told me the story of their traditional, Italian, RC immigrant family members when they moved to town. They were illiterate and, when searching for an RC church, they were told to go to the large gothic church on the corner. The only problem was that there were two large churches across the street from each other — St. John’s (Episcopal) and Sacred Heart (RC).
So they attended services at both. St. John’s — traditional music, pipe organ, kneeling to receive Communion. Sacred Heart — folk group, informal liturgical language, standing in lines and receiving Communion at the head of the line. They chose St. John’s and attended for nearly a year sure it was RC until they discovered via an offhand conversation that it was Episcopal. And though they switched to Sacred Heart, they missed St. John’s.
Hispanic RCs seem to be gravitating toward Pentecostal and non-denoms so don’t worry, Fr. J. We’re not sheep-stealing. Younger Hispanics don’t even remember traditional RC practices so few are confusing us for y’all.
When I was interim in Smithfield, NC, we had a large Spanish speaking congregation. Members told me that the local RC church would not baptize the children of Mexican immigrants who had not had a church wedding in Mexico. Many of these folks were married in a civil marriage but not a church wedding or had married in other than an RC church in the US. I asked the local RC priest who said that was the rule. My predecessor, an Anglo who spoke Spanish, had been approached by several Spanish speaking families for baptism and both agreed to the baptism and offered an afternoon Spanish eucharist. As interim, when I could I found a Spanish speaking priest but when I could not I tried to offer the service in Spanish. Since my time the diocese has arranged for a Spanish speaking missioner who rides circuit with 4 congregations.
If TEC hasn’t been successful in wooing and keeping other ethnicities, why would anyone think they are going to do better with our hispanic brethren?
Oh well, time will tell I suppose…