Hispanic Communities Making Connections

Hispanic Communities Making Connections

The Rev. José Reyes Missioner for Hispanic/Latino Ministries

Let’s rewind time for a moment. I grew up in our diocese and it was a wonderful experience. I have so many fond memories of connecting with youth of other congregations through Bement Camp, Happening, local and international mission trips, and youth group events.

It was inspiring to grow up feeling connected to something bigger than just my church. What was an unattainable goal for one congregation, like a mission trip to Dominican Republic, became possible because we were working together with other congregations. Our diocese has over 50 congregations and what a gift it is to partner with other churches to make those parts of Jesus’ mission that seem so colossal, like “feeding the poor and healing the sick”, a reality.

At the same time, I grew up in the Hispanic congregation at the Cathedral, a congregation that continues to be a loving and vibrant expression of the Episcopal Church. I learned how to play different instruments and lead a choir, how to build Christian education programs for children and adults from the ground up, and how to evangelize in our neighborhood. This congregation formed me in into the person and priest I am today. It was a truly amazing and life-giving experience.

It was also a lonely experience sometimes. For 27 years, we were the only Hispanic congregation in our diocese and sometimes this felt isolating. Because of differences in language, culture, and the general perspective of churches doing things on their own at the time, it was hard to find other churches that would partner with us. If we wanted to have a retreat, a training, an event, or create a ministry, we had to figure it out on our own most of the time. While empowering, at times it seemed like we were reinventing the wheel over and over again.

Worcester community celebrating Tres Reyes.

Photo: José Reyes

Now, let’s fast-forward to Ash Wednesday of this year. As we began the holy season of Lent this year, remembering that our lives are a gift and bending the knee to our God of Love, there were three congregations in our diocese that were worshiping in Spanish. One at the Cathedral celebrating with our Bishop, one in the intimate setting of the home of a parishioner in Worcester, and a third at St. Paul’s in downtown Holyoke.

In the very DNA of the Hispanic Ministries in our diocese, is the bedrock truth that in ministry we are called to work together. In the last year:

• We have held two Three Kings Celebrations, one at All Saints, Worcester where over 120 people from all over the diocese came, and the other at St. Mark’s, Worcester to commemorate the Hispanic congregation in Worcester’s move to St. Mark’s where we invited the whole neighborhood of Main South to participate.

• We have collected food and raised money to help families in need during Thanksgiving.

• We held joint trainings between the three congregations for Lay Eucharist Ministers and Acolytes.

• We celebrated an Advent Music Festival where the choirs of the Hispanic congregations in Worcester and the Cathedral came together and made a joyful noise as we welcomed the Christmas season.

Ministerio Hispano en San Marco at St. Mark's Worcester.

Photo: José Reyes

While it is true that I am your Diocesan Missioner for Hispanic Ministries, at some point I will need to change my title because it makes it seem like I only work with the Hispanic community. The reality is that the work I do isn’t only “Hispanic Ministry”, it is simply ministry and this ministry of reaching out into the neighborhoods where our churches already are to invite new brothers and sisters into the Episcopal Church is only possible because churches in our diocese are working together.

The very reason that there is a new Hispanic congregation in Holyoke is because the members of St. Paul’s and the Cathedral worked together for almost a year to bring it to life.

At St. Michael’s-on-the-Heights in Worcester, we have been working together with Marie’s Mission, their amazing diaper ministry for the city of Worcester.

At St. John’s in Williamstown, we joined in their beautiful festival of Las Posadas, a carnival observing the coming of Christmas that many countries in Latin America celebrate. vanquished death, then the Church can’t die away. There will always be resurrection.

At St. Matthew’s in Worcester, we participated in their joyous Community Dinners.

The Hispanic Ministry in Worcester moved to St. Mark’s parish because we are working together to build a new Community Center for the neighborhood of Main South.

This year, the Episcopal Churches in Worcester, which include the Hispanic Ministry and Walking Together, are leading a bilingual Stations of the Cross throughout the city of Worcester.

Let’s be adventurous. Let’s fast-forward 30 years from now. What will we see? I refuse to believe the pessimistic outlook that the Church will die out. At a time where the Church is supposedly dying, our diocese is building new congregations. If the Church is the Body of Christ and Christ has vanquished death, then the Church can’t die away. There will always be resurrection.

However, I do believe that it will look different from what it is today. Perhaps we will have worship communities that speak a whole host of languages, not just English and Spanish. Perhaps we will become experts in welcoming people of different ethnicities and cultures into the communion of saints. Perhaps our ministries will grow so strong and influential that we will not just be helping those in need, but actually changing the laws and culture that create those disparities in the first place. Perhaps our divisions will grow so small that we will be specialists in reconciliation and unity and we will help heal our divided country. Of course, this all seems improbable, insurmountable, and even impossible. Nevertheless, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” (Philippians 4:13). Working together we can do more than we can ever hope or imagine. ♦