It has been five years since Saint Matthew's began a regularly scheduled Sunday service in Spanish. Today I still don't know exactly what to call this pastoral work among our Spanish-speaking people. I don't want to call it outreach, because it will imply that we are serving and reaching out to outsiders and not members of our own congregation and church. I don't want to say it is our Spanish congregation, because I truly believe that Saint Matthew's is called to be one congregation and not two, three, or four. Maybe Spanish service is a good name, even though the word 'Spanish' can by itself entail a second category social status in our society. I am not saying this is part of Saint Matthews' reality; however, it is very much part of our social system where, on many occasions, Spanish-speaking people are represented through prejudicial images as poor, perhaps illiterate people at the margins of our society. Therefore, and unfortunately, the language of great writers such as Cervantes, Neruda, Lorca, Heredia, and Martí, through the very prejudicial system, also becomes the language of the 'poor.' Whatever, the reality might be, God calls us as a church to greet all and to care for all, including all, excluding none, and this is precisely what Saint Matthew's has been doing for the last five years. Saint Matthew's has incorporated, welcomed, and accepted our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters in Christ as they are.
In the meantime, I know that many parishioners at Saint Matthew's can experience these differing points of view as well as the richness the Spanish service brings to our already diverse liturgical reality at Saint Matthew's. I also see how parallel and unbinding this reality can be when language, socio-economic, cultural and religious barriers emerge. However, it is very enriching, loving, caring, humbling and powerful to take a close look at the many English-speaking volunteers who have had the courage and Christian love to get closer to the Spanish service's reality by serving and helping every Sunday.
As a Hispanic Associate Rector at Saint Matthew's, I see myself as part of one church. Mostly everyone knows who I am, and I also know most people at Saint Matthew's can get along with me just fine. Yet, it is very hard sometimes to be and act among very different realities. You need to be ready to change gears from one reality to the other. Nevertheless, I believe that knowing Saint Matthew's at its core is of seminal importance for our future growth as One Church, preaching Christ's Gospel to all people, cultures, and languages. In order to experience this, we should know what's going on at all of our four services on Sundays. I invite you, whether or not you speak Spanish, to get closer to the 12:30 (perhaps 12:45) service and see what's happening. I also invite you to come to a quinceañera, or any other religious celebration of Latino roots. These celebrations are also part of the church you attend as well as of the Southwestern cultural history for centuries.
In these past five years many wonderful things have happened in our Spanish service. We have had a weekend average attendance of 104 congregants. Weekend average attendance includes services performed on Saturdays. Sometimes they can be as many as two or three on any given Saturday. In all, 264 children and adults have been baptized, 32 quinceañeras have been celebrated as well as 60 confirmations and receptions. Also, 72 primeras comuniones have been celebrated. These first communions are done in what I call Anglican or Episcopalian style. The children come for a year to Sunday School and take communion every Sunday as any baptized Christian; however, they dress in white gowns for this very special day in which they have a big party which is called 'First Communion.' This day is usually the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, December 12, or Christmas Eve.
These religious statistics are great, but there are many other realities regarding Latino people in Arizona I wish could be changed over the years. The biggest challenge I see among the great majority of Latino people is a lack of college education. I also believe the church should do something regarding this issue, even though I don't know for sure what can be done. In many cases intelligent Latino and Latina students fall into the cracks due to the lack of documentation, or perhaps financial resources if the said documentation doesn't exist. I strongly believe that in order to break the above mentioned barriers between these two cultures, education is the key. If we as a church do something about education with our Latino people, everyone will greatly benefit in the long run.
Finally, I would like to invite you to our fifth anniversary fiesta, which will take place on Sunday, September 25, 2005, at 5:00 PM in our Parish Hall. I would also like to thank all the people at Saint Matthew's who have made possible for the last five years this service for Spanish language speakers.
WELCOMING OUR SPANISH SPEAKING FAMILIES
By Luisa Bonillas
"Muy buenas tardes," "Bienvenidos," "Que gusto verlos" these are phrases that describe my ministry at Saint Matthew's. I believe everyone needs to feel welcome and I have taken it upon myself to welcome everyone attending the Spanish service at Saint Matthew's. Having been raised in a Mexican household along the Southern Arizona border, I am blessed to be bilingual. I often feel torn here at Saint Matthew's. After attending only the 12:30 p.m. service for a couple of years, and after rummaging through recycled bulletins in the back of the church for the announcements handed out during the earlier services, my family and I decided to integrate ourselves into the English-speaking congregation. We now help at the 12:30 p.m. service on a regular basis but attend the 11 a.m. service as a family. Even as we celebrate our fifth-anniversary of Spanish-speaking Ministry at Saint Matthew's, we face a number of challenges. I would like to thank those of you who volunteer your time at the Spanish-speaking service. We do not have a large core group of parishioners and have not been able to establish a choir or Lay Eucharistic Ministry. Your help is greatly appreciated. We have been able to attract a large number of Spanish-speaking families whose bilingual children regularly attend Sunday School during the 12:30 p.m. service. We are trying to integrate some of our older students into the Youth Group at Saint Matthew's.
Working as Communications Assistant at Saint Matthew's has allowed me to meet and assist more of the Spanish-speaking community that surrounds the church. They often hear through the grapevine that baptisms and quinceañeras are available here on Saturdays. Because many are displaced and are recent immigrants, they remain afraid of fully integrating themselves into American society. We are blessed to have them coming to Saint Matthew's for services. Let's inform ourselves of the plight many of our Spanish-speaking service members are experiencing. They are hardworking people, but are often unrepresented in the decision-making process on a state and national level; you can be supportive by taking a stand in supporting changes in immigration legislation. We invite you to attend the Celebration Potluck on Sunday, September 25th at 5:00 p.m. Please come meet our parishioners from the Spanish-speaking service.
