Disciple: Understanding the Iceberg

[Images throughout: Scenes from Latino ministry at Comunidad Amada de Cristo, Winston-Salem, featuring lots of children, youth and cultural celebrations.]

Building relationships with Latino communities

By Christine McTaggart

Over the last several years, Latino communities have been the focal point of a number of conversations and initiatives. Whether it’s the development of a ministry department at The Episcopal Church level or the creation of a staff position at the diocesan level, it is widely recognized that the Latino population is one of the fastest-growing communities.

But when it comes to welcoming Latino communities into established congregations, it is not as simple as offerings or services in Spanish. The Rev. Daniel Pinell, rector of la Iglesia de la Guadalupana, Wilson, and the Rev. Javier Arias, rector of Christ’s Beloved Community/La Comunidad Amada de Cristo, Winston-Salem, sat down with us to talk about what it really means to welcome the Latino community.

Christine McTaggart (CMc): Why is there so much conversation around the Latino community, specifically?

The Rev. Daniel Pinell (DP): I think one of the reasons is because the Latino ministry has seen an exponential growth in the past couple of years. At Comunidad Amada de Cristo, El Buen Pastor [Durham], La Guadalupana, we’ve seen growth in our congregations to the point that we don’t fit in our buildings anymore. I think a lot of people are seeing that growth and the work God is doing in the Latino community through The Episcopal Church, and it’s only natural that people want to be part of this growth.

CMc: What is the source of the growth? Is it people moving into the area? Or perhaps folks migrating from another denomination or faith home? The Latino community is traditionally thought of as being predominantly Catholic.

DP: I think a lot of people in my congregation are coming from the Roman Catholic tradition and looking for a tradition that feels familiar, that feels like home to them. They fall through the cracks of the Roman Catholic tradition for whatever reason; it can be as simple as [the church] asking for too many stringent requirements for a sacrament that they cannot fulfill. But The Episcopal Church has opened a door for them so they can be fully part of the community. We (Episcopalians) consider ourselves part of the Catholic faith, we have it in our creeds, and I think once Latinos understand the Catholic faith is so much more than just the Roman Catholic Church, then they feel more comfortable, more at home.

The Rev. Javier Arias (JA): I agree with Father Daniel. The Latino community is a visible community. People started to come [to Comunidad Amada de Cristo] looking for sacraments, looking for the holy baptisms and first Communion and confirmation. That was it. That’s the key for them. And the reason they are coming is because we are open and ready to receive them. We don’t ask for money. We don’t ask for a two-year training for first Communion or confirmation. We don’t ask for parents to be married to be allowed to baptize kids. So that difference with the Roman Catholic Church starts to bring us new people.

This is the thing that we are seeing and living. We are blessed to have these people coming to our buildings. It means they need our service and feel welcome in our community. They start to identify themselves as Episcopalians, too. Now it’s a problem for us to have too many people—they don’t fit in the building!

CMc: We hear a lot about Latino ministry. What exactly is it?

DP: It’s a very incarnational model of ministry. It goes deeper than just being able to speak the language or being able to say the liturgy in Spanish. Latino ministry encompasses a very strong and complex tradition that goes back many centuries, where community members are with each other from the moment of birth to the moment of death, and through all of the transitions in between. It’s heavy with cultural meaning, and it’s a faith that is fully enculturated in Latinos. It is very important, if you are interested in doing Latino ministry, that you familiarize yourself with the culture because it’s really hard to separate culture from ministry in this sense. It’s so much more than a language.

Rites of passage are so important to Latino culture, and they are inseparable from the church. Celebrations of quinceañeras are a great example of that. It’s not that they’re missing in other cultures, but I think it’s more pronounced in Latino culture.

JA: When you speak of Latino ministry, when you say those words, it’s helping people know that even though they are far away from their own countries, they start to feel they can continue living the traditions and celebrations they used to have in Mexico, Guatemala or Colombia. They can have them here, too. It’s very important for them to feel like the place they are coming to allows them to continue living and practicing their traditions and celebrations.

CMc: We’re talking about Latino ministry in general, and the reality is that Latino culture represents a lot of different places. How does Latino ministry address that? Cultures are not interchangeable.

DP: No, they’re not, but there are still common threads that go through all Latino cultures. There was the thread of being colonized and the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with that. We have a common history of that struggle, and also of finding identity in the church. Being family-centric, I think, is probably true of all Latino cultures. A strong devotion to Mary and the saints is also a common thread. Even though the specific celebrations may vary, there’s enough common threads that we can all unite.

JA: It’s very rich for us to have people from different countries. More than 20 countries speak Spanish. We have, in our church, at least eight or 10 people from different countries. So that brings to us a sense of richness, something good for our church. We have the opportunity to celebrate almost every month a different tradition from different countries. We have many parties, and we involve people in our celebrations. We have different sources of celebrations, and people feel welcome in that way, too.

For us, it’s a blessing to have people from different countries because that brings to us beautiful gifts and awesome traditions.

CMc: What is the greatest misconception about engaging in Latino ministry?

DP: There is a price to pay for inclusion that I think a lot of people are not aware of. We want to include, but there’s a price to pay for inclusion, especially if you’re the majority culture. As the majority culture, you’re used to having your own space, and you’re used to having your own culture be the majority culture. When you allow a minority culture to come in, there’s a dying of self, when you’re willing to put the cultural differences aside and allow things to happen in a different way with a different cultural logic. And that hurts. That is uncomfortable. I don’t think a lot of people are ready for that. A lot of people are surprised by it.

The way I like to envision it is through the analogy of the iceberg. The top of the iceberg is just what you see. It’s the superficial—language, the food we eat, things like that. But underneath that are the cultural values and the myths we tell each other about the origins of culture. On the surface it looks like everything is fine, but if you’re not aware of how deep the iceberg goes, when two icebergs come together, they crash. And usually what happens, the more dominant culture has the bigger iceberg and crushes the minority culture, the little iceberg. So what you have to do is, one, be aware of the iceberg, and two, once you are aware there’s more iceberg below the surface, you have to familiarize yourself with the culture you’re inviting in so that you can give them space to be in your space.

JA: I think for Anglo communities that want to bring Hispanic or Latino ministry in their place, it’s important to know that there is a different model of worship and service and tradition. It doesn’t work to have bilingual services at the very beginning. There needs to be separate services. Start with a complete Spanish service for Latinos, and keep the English service as usual, because when you try to put them together, our Latino people can sometimes feel intimidated. First generations want Spanish, even if second generations want English. So start with a separate Spanish service, and then maybe once a month or for special occasions, have bilingual services with the whole community.

CMc: Can you share an example of something a dominant culture might have to set aside that might prove difficult?

DP: Sure. Children. The way that children behave at church, that’s an easy example. [Latinos] are more comfortable with children running around at church and being a little bit noisy. It doesn’t bother us, but I know in a more Anglo culture, it seems more that children should behave.

JA: We don’t worry about the kids. We have maybe 40 kids in church on Sunday, and it’s no problem to have them running around the Spanish service. It’s okay with us. They are the future of the church, the kids.

DP: I think this is something that other congregations could learn from the Latino community. I read a book not too long ago called Growing Young that did a study of growing congregations, and the main thing they found is that growing congregations prioritize children everywhere. Children are just part of the [Latino] family. There is an openness to have children participate in a lot of things in and outside of the church.

CMc: If you have two congregations or services, how do you ever bring them together to build relationship between them? Or do two icebergs just learn to coexist?

DP: I think what Father Javier said was very wise. The whole iceberg analogy comes from the Rev. Eric Law, an Episcopal priest at the Kaleidoscope Institute, and he says you have to allow people, especially minorities, a safe space to build their iceberg, especially when it has been cracked by the majority culture. Once they feel like they’ve nourished their own iceberg sufficiently, then you can create a space where everyone can, on occasion, come together. A bilingual service would be an example. And then everyone goes back to their own space to rebuild their iceberg, because the coming together always brings tension. You do it slowly so you get used to the tension, especially for the majority culture. You start getting used to the tension and then start feeling more comfortable. He advocates for giving different cultures space apart to nourish themselves, then coming together on occasion to share, and then going through the cycle again.

JA: I think we have to be clear that we are one community with two congregations. It has to be clear when you start a new model in a new church. A second way to integrate together is the vestry has to be bilingual. We need to invite people from both congregations to be part of the vestry. Then that way, the new people, the Latinos, feel embraced and welcomed to make the big decisions for the church. So we keep two services, but we are one community, working and walking in the same direction in the church. Two congregations, one community.

CMc: What else is important to know when welcoming the Latino community?

DP: I think for Anglo and other communities that want to welcome Latinos is to ask themselves why they want to do it because you need a really good why. And it has to be stronger than “because we’re curious,” or “because we need more people in the church.” Those are not good enough reasons. Because, unfortunately, what happens is if you don’t have a strong why, and you realize that you have to pay the price of inclusion I mentioned, and then realize you’re not willing to pay the price, you end up hurting the Latino community. And I don’t think that’s something either community wants.

JA: Giving can also look different. Our people do not have the capacity to give financial support to us right now. They give what they have. We had 200 people in church on Sunday, and our offering was about $400 or $500. Each family gives $3 or $5 every Sunday. They give what they can. They support the church with other kinds of resources, like when we have a party they bring food, they bring soda, they bring water. They share what they have to share.

DP: Right. And they’re very generous, it’s just in different ways. Like Father Javier said, they will bring food, and if something needs to be fixed at the church, they’re the first ones to offer help. But as Father Javier also said, the plate offering is probably not going to be the same as in other congregations, and that’s another difference.

JA: Communities have opened their eyes for opportunities to serve and support Latinos around the diocese. It’s great when we have Anglo people asking for that kind of ministry. The most important thing to open one congregation to another is to have a place, and place is number one, where people start to identify themselves [as a community] and feel welcome as a home.

Christine McTaggart is the communications director for the Diocese of North Carolina.

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• Category: Latino/Hispanic Ministries, North Carolina Disciple