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    Hispanic Churches Add English Services

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    In some cases, the greater English emphasis has contributed to a growing phenomenon: evangelical Protestant megachurches drawing crowds in the thousands that aren’t white and suburban, but Hispanic and anchored in the inner city.

    Hispanic churches are part of the United States’ long tradition of religious congregations bonded by common ethnicity or language. While Italian and Irish Catholic parishes and other examples have largely faded from view, Hispanic churches are poised to endure thanks to high birth rates, close proximity to Latin America and the sheer numbers of people seeking a better life here.

    “The precedent churches are setting by preserving the Spanish language while breaking down ethnic differences and encouraging the use of English is really at the vanguard of where the United States is heading,” said Anthony Stevens-Arroyo, a Brooklyn College professor emeritus and co-author of “Recognizing the Latino Resurgence in American Religion.”

    “The definition of the United States as a great white Protestant nation is really up for grabs, and churches are doing an excellent job of preserving people’s identity and at the same time helping them function in contemporary society.”

    The glue — the thing that allows churches like the Carpenter’s House to flourish as a multiethnic mosaic of Mexicans, Hondurans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Colombians — has been the Spanish language. Yet as the children of immigrants grow up, churches are recognizing that it’s either bolster Spanish with English or give up on the future.

    A survey earlier this year by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 77 percent of first-generation, churchgoing Hispanics in the United States choose churches with Hispanic clergy, Spanish-language services and a mostly Hispanic congregation. But as Hispanics become more established in this country, the hold loosens: 53 percent of second-generation Latinos attend ethnic congregations, while the numbers drop to 42 percent for the third generation and higher.

    You can read much more here… Source:  Forbes.com

    Thanks, Dave, for the link…

    On Sundays at La Casa del Carpintero, or the Carpenter's House, they've raised twin yellow banners for churchgoers that read "Welcome" and "Bienvenidos." As a complement to the regular 11:30 a.m. Spanish service at the independent Pentecostal church, where they've worshipped Papi for years, there's now a 9:30 a.m. English one where the faithful praise God the Father. While churches from every imaginable tradition have been adding Spanish services to meet the needs of new immigrants, an increasing number of Hispanic ethnic congregations are going the other way — starting English services. It's an effort to meet the demands of second- and third-generation Hispanics, keep families together and reach non-Latinos...

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    1. John G on Tue, August 28, 2007

      We have found this to be a significant issue for ethnic churches in Australia. Ethnic churches tend to be more effective at reaching first generation immigrants, but their children want to speak English. We have found that a good way of dealing with this is for one or more ethnic congregations to merge with an English-speaking church (with similar ecclesiology). Parents attend services in their own languages, but children all meet together. This also provides great opportunities for English-speaking churches to become multi-ethnic and more outwardly focussed.

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