[Magdalen] Decline of U.S Christianity

[Jim Guthrie]

From: Jay Weigel
>at 5 pm on Sundays. Now the Hispanic congregation of San Patricio is bigger
>than St. Patrick's Anglo congregation. There are some members of St.
>Patrick's who interact with the Hispanic congregation: they teach English,

This is something of a conundrum  for them. The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops 
has recognized that the only thing standing between membership decline similar 
to the mainline Protestants is the Hispanic influx. They "officially" support 
comprehensive immigration reform --but the more conservative elements (who see 
political alliances with conservative evangelicals on matters like abortion and 
same-sex marriage)  restrain the Bishops from pushing too hard on the matter. 
Some reports out of Washington seem to say that although they officially 
proclaim their support, their lobbyists  who should reflect the Bishops' 
stance -- not so much.

There are some TEC parishes that do this, with mixed results. St Paul's 
Paterson -- last time I was there -- had Spanish Eucharists, but also read some 
lessons and other parts of the Principal Sunday Morning Eucharist in Spanish 
(English in the Bulletin).

Of course,  we also get into the problem of what is the "Principal" Liturgy. 
Calling the Sunday morning extravaganza the "Principal" Liturgy makes the 
afternoon Spanish congregation  Second Class.

That's one of the reasons I support the more inclusive approach of using 
"Principal" to mean "First" as in whatever liturgy is first on Sunday is the 
"Primary" Liturgy (8 o'clockers tend to like the concept for the wrong reason 
<g>).

When I first got to Bay Ridge, it bothered me that aside from our morning 
Eucharist, there were services by "renter/s" in three other languages (Korean, 
Mandarin and Syriac) later in the day.   Why not make them Episcopalians? Well, 
the dragon ladies were adamant: "They're not like us!" They need to stick to 
their own churches!"

Well, **sorry** --  an ever-decreasing number of people in the community 
were/are women in their 80s. And persuading people "like us" to become 
Episcopalians at that age  is not a long-term evangelical strategy.  But I had 
already been elected to vestry when I told them this <g>.

Cheers,
Jim