Gringo Church Blues

The Episcopal Church (used to be PECUSA) is the quintessential Gringo Church -- starchy, white, upperclass, and LIBERAL. So Liberal, it looks like they will soon change their name to T(LGBTQ)C.

Hispanics (who are the growing ethnos in the US), on the other hand, are emotional, brown, middle-to-underclass, conservative, and family oriented.

In the last 40 years, a great number of Hispanics have deserted the rigidities of Rome (divorce, birth control, refusal of sacraments to non-parish members . . .) for the Gringo Church, who seemed to have a sense of sacrament and fervor. Fundamentalist Protestants have also made inroads into their traditionally Roman ranks.

Then, too, they are not enamored of the whole LGBTQ scene, and its often shrill apologists/practitioners. My sources in the Mission District of San Francisco and the barrios of the East Bay tell me that there is an increasing sense of hurt among the Episcopalian Hispanic community, just as there was/is among those still "at home with Rome".

St. Gregory the Great, 'round about 600 AD, said that the job of the Church and its bishops is to be "Servants of the Servants of God". While it is also necessary for the Church to speak truth to those in power, and fight the habits of evil and sloth that we are heir to as children of Adam and Eve, we should also be understanding and working WITH the cultures of the people we serve.

For those who cannot manage that, the blues are going to get deeper, and the defections larger.