Flushing Church Accommodates Diverse Parishioners

April 6, 2002

Source: Newsday

On April 6, 2002, Newsday featured an article on St. George's Episcopal Church in Flushing, Queens "has adapted as its membership has changed... through the centuries... From its early years, [the Church] served a diverse group of immigrants that included French Huguenots, Irish Catholics, German Protestants and Dutch Reformers - opened its doors to more newcomers, among them emigrants from the Caribbean and the West Indies; African-Americans from Harlem, who began settling in Flushing in the 1950s; Chinese emigrants, who arrived in the 1980s; and Hispanics, who came in the 1990s. Now, the groups are evenly divided... To accommodate everyone, the church, which has 500 members, holds services in English, Spanish and Chinese and conducts classes in the three languages as well. About a dozen times a year, trilingual services are held to bring everyone together. In addition, all three groups work together on special projects, including the plans for the tercentenary... Parishioners say that having members from different cultures has been enlightening and educational. Some... attend different services occasionally, even though they don't speak the other language.. 'We have the most diverse church members one can find in New York and perhaps the entire United States,' says Joseph Ang, church warden of St. George's, adding that there are members from Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Hong Kong and China."