By Alfonso Aguilar
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 2/19/04)

The Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Virginia is negotiating the purchase of a building to establish the first parish for its Latino congregation in the state.

The $4.2 million building, which belongs to the Baptist Church, is located on Route 50 in Falls Church and could be bought as early as this April.  

"There is a lot of enthusiasm in our Latino congregation," said Pastor Jesús Reyes, a former Mexican Catholic priest who heads the Episcopal San José Mission in Arlington, whose services in Spanish began in 1975.

"For them this project is equal to when they purchased their own homes," said Reyes, who joined this mission in 2002.

One of his assistants, Bolivian Father Roberto Orihuela, also a former Catholic priest, served a few years ago at St. James Parish in Falls Church.

Pastor Reyes could not offer statistics of how many Latinos in Virginia belong to this Protestant church, but the need for more space "for our Latino congregation simply means that we are growing and growing," he said. From a few dozens Latinos in the past, his mission currently has nearly 600 people, mostly Bolivians, attending Sunday Masses.

"We added a second Mass, but we are seeing many more people standing or listening to the Masses from the entrance," said Reyes.

The new church has a seating capacity for 300 people and numerous areas that will accommodate the social, educational and immigration programs of the Spanish San José Mission, one of three operating in Virginia.

"That news means that we as Catholics must work harder to address the needs of our Latino population, otherwise we will continue seeing them dispersing to many churches and sects," said Father Ovidio Pecharromán, director of the diocesan Spanish Apostolate.

"The Episcopalian project is a challenge to all of us," said Father Pecharromán who estimated that two out of five Catholic Latinos annually move to others religious groups.

"I see the news of a Latino Episcopal church with great concern given that nationally our church is not fully responding to the needs of Latinos, and tomorrow could be too late," said Leah Tenorio, director of the Hispanic Office at Good Shepherd Parish in Alexandria.

Tenorio recognized that in the last two years Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde launched very important initiatives to understand and respond to the needs of Latinos in the diocese, "but the problem is that the Church’s rules are very rigid. There should be more flexibility to make Latinos feel that they are welcome to our Church," said Tenorio.

"We don’t see our project as a competition against other churches," emphasized the Episcopal pastor. "The reality is that no one church can respond to the spiritual and social needs of more than 168,000 Latinos that never attend a Mass, although most of them have a Catholic background."

Pastor Reyes believes that traditional churches in the region should work in a more ecumenical spirit and no longer ignore this important segment of the population in Virginia.