A Brief Guide for Engaging in Bilingual Worship
This blog was written for Church of the Cross in Austin before they celebrated their first bilingual service Sunday, March 13th 2022, during the season of Lent. Church of the Cross is situated in North East Austin, a historically Latino area of a city which is overall approximately 30% Latino.
Why do a bilingual service in a primarily White church? How can we do a bilingual service well and with integrity?
Speaking and using someone else’s language, especially in contexts of privilege is tricky! Even more so where there is a long history of racism. If not done carefully and in a humble way it can unintentionally turn into something that furthers pain. However, if done well, it can be a powerful, mutually healing and transformative action. Let’s not be dissuaded by the complexity or discomfort from a humble engagement that can lead to the kind of tremendous blessing that comes from coming under a different culture.
Let’s start with the first question: Why do a bilingual service in a primarily White church?
1. To practice a sacramental solidarity: a kind of embodied participation in and with the global and local Latino Church. It’s a small taste of the reality of God’s multiethnic and multilingual kingdom.
Spanish is the oldest European language spoken in our state and the second largest language group in Austin and Texas. We are part of the same body as our neighbors across the street at Roca Eterna (a Latino Pentecostal church), the Anglican Church in Chile (where I, Jonathan, was baptized), Spanish speakers at our sister church Hope Community Church and our ministry partners in Guatemala at Potter’s House. We also have Latinos within our COTC family whom we seek to honor and bless by coming under and learning from. There are particular gifts the Latino church brings which we want to receive! God is at work in and through this part of our family and we want to be a part of that.
Then secondly: How can we at COTC do a bilingual service well and with integrity?
1. We begin with humble repentance. We lament the history of racism in the broader church and in the city of Austin. And we lament the ongoing historical oppression of Latinos in Texas. For example, Mexican Americans experienced both de facto and dejure segregation well into the 20th century and Spanish language bans were common in schools and other public institutions. While not always, the church in Texas has often been complicit. Lord, have mercy. We acknowledge that even the land we are living on was once a part of Mexico, lost to war with the United States (La Invasión Estadounidense) in the mid-19th century, and has a long history of Latino and Indigenous presence.
2. We choose to step into discomfort. It’s difficult to speak another language! Let’s do it as an act of humility and service. It’s a good spiritual discipline for those of us with privilege to experience this kind of discomfort - especially in Lent. What if taking Spanish lessons or learning to say the Lord’s prayer in Spanish was your families’ Lenten discipline this year? Let the discomfort remind us of what immigrants and people of color experience every day of their lives.
3. We seek to be led by Latina/os and native Spanish speakers as much as possible and ensure they are part of the process in meaningful ways.
4. We intentionally move beyond symbolic actions. How can our symbolic actions be followed by more long-term sacrificial actions and real relationships? Sacramental solidarity should lead us to a deeper commitment and further engagement. May our worship lead us to seek real transformation of the broken systems in the world around us. How can we as COTC and you individually and/or as a family take a next step to get to know the Latino community here in Austin that’s been here for centuries? We’ll be sharing some practical ideas and opportunities that COTC will be working on such as a border learning trip and refugee welcome teams.
God is a multilingual God who through Jesus entered the beautiful and messy world of race and culture. Adoremos juntos a este Dios! Let us worship this God together partnering with and learning from Latino hermanas and hermanos.
Rev. Jonathan Kindberg and Dr. Aida Isela Ramos
Jonathan was born in Perú, was baptized and grew up in the Anglican Church in Chile and served in the Latino community in Chicago for 12+ years. He now lives in Austin, TX and is a Diaspora Mobilizer for the Diaspora Network within C4SO in partnership with the Rev. 7:9 initiative.
Aida was born in Oklahoma City to a Mexican immigrant mother, who came to the U.S. to make a better life. She grew up in El Paso, Texas and is fiercely proud of it. A sociologist, Aida researches and writes about the intersection of Latino identity and faith. She’s currently a member at Church of the Cross in Austin. Starting in the fall, she will be the Dean of the College of Education and Social & Behavioral Sciences at John Brown University (Siloam Springs, AR).