Evangelical Worship Attracts Hispanic Catholics

January 26, 2009

Author: Marti Maguire

Source: The News & Observer

http://www.newsobserver.com/lifestyles/religion/story/1382037.html

Behind its bland, warehouse-like exterior, Comunidad Cristiana Hosanna on Sunday morning is a feast for the senses.

Little girls in white robes and sequined headbands twirl as guitar, keyboard and timbales pound out salsa, merengue and American pop rhythms at rock-concert decibels. The crowd sings along with the robed chorus: "Levanto mis manos" -- "I raise my hands."

The trappings of the religion that dominates the Latin American culture in which these worshippers were raised -- the Roman Catholic rosaries and golden chalices -- give way to shouts and tambourines at this Pentecostal church in Southeast Raleigh. Congregants shake their hips and throw their heads back in praise for more than two hours.

The 14-year-old church is one of the first of its kind in the Triangle -- an evangelical Protestant place of worship made up entirely of Spanish-speakers, mostly immigrants from communities united in their Catholic faith. Since the opening of Comunidad Cristiana Hosanna, dozens of similar churches have popped up in storefronts and rented rooms across the region.

These churches are part of what researchers say is a worldwide shift toward evangelical faiths among Hispanics. Their popularity in the United States also underscores another cultural shift -- that of immigrants taking on that all-American penchant to choose one's own faith.