Kingdom Unity Shines as Diverse Churches Join to Meet Local Needs

na multinacional y transnacional que le sirve a sus miembros en Español. Aunque son distintas, ambas iglesias laboran juntas y se complementan para servir, sin distinción, a la comunidad que comparten. Desde sus comienzos, el movimiento humano y la migración han sido parte de la historia de ambas parroquias, cuya misma dirección es 26 Willow Drive. En esta experiencia en común, su misión converge y ambas laboran como un mismo representante y testigo Episcopal. Aunque la iglesia Christ the King y Jesús de Nazaret se diferencian en cómo celebran la liturgia común, ambas tienen un profundo entendimiento de cómo sus diferencias trabajan en conjunto para apoyar la obra del reino. Christ the King se estableció a finales de la década de 1950 para servir un nuevo desarrollo de viviendas de familias suburbanas jóvenes que llegaron a la región debido a la carrera espacial. Jesús de Nazaret fue una de una serie de iglesias misiones establecidas dentro de la diócesis a principios del 2000, sirviendo a inmigrantes Hispanos siguiendo trabajos y oportunidades regionales. Hoy día, cada iglesia sabe cómo, cultural y lingüísticamente, satisfacer su deber de cuidar de la comunidad a la que le sirve. Cada iglesia sabe que su distinción en cuanto a cultura y lenguaje solo existe con el propósito de comunicar efectivamente el evangelio e incorporar nuevas personas al Cuerpo de Cristo. Cada iglesia tiene una porción de responsabilidad compartida para llegar a la comunidad con el corazón y la mente de Cristo. Los nombres de las iglesias sirven como recordatorios efectivos de que no hay un Jesús Latino y un Jesús Blanco. Cada iglesia comprende que Christ the King y Jesús de Nazaret son testigos del mismo Salvador, el que murió en la

cruz para salvar al mundo. Las representaciones de Jesús como soberano tanto como el hijo de un carpintero de Nazaret revelan diferentes aspectos de la naturaleza única de Cristo. De igual manera, la obra del Espíritu Santo en Español en Jesús de Nazaret y en Inglés en Christ the King revelan una imagen más completa de Cristo para la comunidad local. Al alimentar y ocuparse de las ovejas de Cristo a través de la despensa de alimentos Healing Hunger y otros ministerios, ambas iglesias llevan a cabo el papel más amplio de la Iglesia en el mundo y logran fomentar el reino dentro del vecindario Azalea Park.

BY THE REV. JOSÉ RODRÍGUEZ

In Jesus’ high priestly prayer, he showed his followers what kingdom unity looks like: “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:22-23). Within the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, kingdom unity looks a lot like two diverse churches that share a building, an address and a passion for being salt and light in their community. Christ the King Episcopal Church and Iglesia Episcopal Jesús de Nazaret in the Azalea Park neighborhood of Orlando operate the Healing Hunger Food Pantry as a shared ministry. For years the two churches have worked together to address not only food insecurity but health care disparities, employment assistance, housing assistance and other charitable causes. All these needs escalated — along with rapid community changes — after Hurricane Maria. The food pantry represents the largest diocesan multicultural outreach effort addressing needs within the diocese.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many of the burdens families experience, including food insecurity, which many now face for the first time. That gives the Healing Hunger Food Pantry a double burden: to supply food and to reassure people there’s no shame in receiving assistance. Many people don’t realize that most food pantries have to buy their food from larger food banks or pantries. When the force of the pandemic hit, Jesús de Nazaret immediately engaged with members of Congress as well as local officials. As a result, Healing Hunger and all other Orange County food pantries will receive free food from the Second Harvest Food Bank through the end of the year. According to The Episcopal Church, kingdom witness involves helping those in need, and one of the ways to do that involves civic activism. Christ the King is a multicultural church serving its members in English. Jesús de Nazaret is a multinational and transnational Latino church serving its members in Spanish. While distinct, both churches work together and build on each other’s strengths to serve, without distinction, the community they share. Since their earliest days, human movement and migration have been part of the story of both parishes, co-located at 26 Willow Drive. In this shared experience, their missions converge, and both work as one Episcopal witness. While Jesús de Nazaret and Christ the King are differentiated in the ways they celebrate the common liturgy, both churches have a deep understanding of how their differences work together to support kingdom work. Christ the King was established in the late 1950s to serve a new housing development of young suburban families brought to the region by the space race. Jesús de Nazaret was one of a series of mission churches established within the diocese in the early 2000s, serving a migrant Hispanic community that followed regional jobs and opportunities. Today, each church knows how, linguistically and culturally, to best fulfill its duty of care for the

worshipping community it serves. Each church knows that its cultural and language distinctions only exist for the purposes of effectively communicating the gospel and incorporating new people into the body of Christ. And each church owns its portion of a shared responsibility to step out into the community in the heart and mind of Christ. The church names serve as effective reminders that there is not a Latino Jesus and a white Jesus. Each church understands that Christ as King and Jesus from Nazareth bear witness to the same Savior, who hung on the cross to save the world. The portrayals of Jesus as both sovereign and as the son of a carpenter from Nazareth reveal different aspects of Christ’s one nature. Likewise, the work of the Holy Spirit in Spanish at Jesús de Nazaret and in English at Christ the King reveal a more complete image of Christ to the local community. In feeding and tending to Christ’s sheep through the Healing Hunger Food Pantry and other ministries, both churches together fulfill the wider church’s role in the world and advance the kingdom within the Azalea Park neighborhood.