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Eliot's mission statement guides our inner-city church of 205 members:
Eliot Presbyterian Church is a diverse community of Christian believers, learning about and sharing God's love through Jesus Christ. We invite and welcome all people to worship and serve God with us. We offer hope and healing through prayer and the good news of God's forgiveness. We teach both new and lifelong Christians to love, understand, and obey God.
Our multicultural history: After over a century as a traditional New England congregation, Eliot Presbyterian Church began a multicultural ministry in the 1980s, reaching out to refugees who came to Lowell fleeing Pol Pot. Introduced to Christianity in refugee camps, these weary souls felt safe in a church. They trusted our mission to provide them with friendship, shelter, food, English as a second language and acculturation in addition to a Sunday worship service. Over time, the "strangers" we welcomed established new lives in Lowell and became increasingly involved at Eliot. They formed a choir, singing hymns in Khmer. They were ordained as deacons, taught Sunday school, served on committees and became elders. Three are now PC(USA) leaders at the national level, serving on the Advisory Committee on Southeast Asian Ministries. The Cambodians appreciate learning through worship and participation what it means to be a Christian and how to pass their faith on to their children. They meet on Friday evenings for prayer and support and on Sunday mornings for Bible study. On April 15, 2007, the Rev. Thysan Sam, once a Buddhist monk, ten years a member of Eliot, was ordained at Eliot as a minister of the Word and Sacrament. He is the second Cambodian to become a Presbyterian minister. Cambodians are now one-third of our membership.
In the 1990s, Eliot Church made a conscious decision to reach out to Lowell's next wave of immigrants — Africans from many nations seeking relief from oppressive governments and economic hardship. As our two initial African members spread the word, more came, and we now delight in a large, vibrant group of all ages. The African choir sings one Sunday a month and shows us how to move with the music. Last November, a member from Ghana organized a multi-cultural crew to run Eliot's annual free Thanksgiving dinner for several hundred guests. Africans make up one-third of our membership.
In the early 2000s, a group of Brazilians sought session's approval to hold Sunday evening worship services at Eliot Church. The service is led by a Brazilian under the guidance of our pastor. Although the Brazilians worship separately, in Portuguese, many have joined the church as members and attend our morning service. They share fellowship meals with us and work with us on projects, such as the recent renovation of our multi-purpose room. About 25 Brazilians worship each Sunday evening, and we find many ways to unite with them.
Among our members, we also count families and individuals who immigrated to Lowell from Taiwan, Scotland, Nicaragua, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and Ireland. These, the Brazilians and the "Anglos" make up the remaining one-third of our church. We have no predominant culture. We are one church, not a cluster of fellowships. We serve and reflect the urban melting-pot that is Lowell, Massachusetts. People come to Eliot as individuals, are comforted to find their countrymen here and soon realize that they have a more essential kinship. As we like to say, the world gathers at Eliot from North, South, East and West and finds a home in the family of God.
Makeup of Church Leadership: Our session includes three Africans, three Cambodians, one Brazilian and eight Anglos. The Board of Deacons consists of one African, two Cambodians, one Argentine and five Anglos. As Sunday school teachers for children and youth, we have one African, five Cambodians, one Taiwanese, and three Anglos. We have one Cambodian adult Sunday school teacher and one Anglo. Our pastor is the Rev. Dr. Ted Zaragoza, who has a background in Hispanic ministry. He mentors (the newly ordained!) the Rev. Thysan Sam and Mr. Gerson Roca, a Brazilian who is preparing for ordination.
Challenges: Years ago, when many Cambodian immigrants joined Eliot, our Sunday school classes filled with children who did not speak or read much English. Their presence raised a concern for some parents who feared it would lower the reading level of the classes. In fact, the immigrant children soon mastered English and brought a beautiful gift to Eliot Church from their culture: the example of how siblings can show love and care for each other. Today, our children's nativity pageant boasts a cast of African and Cambodian shepherds and angels and sheep.
The traditions of polity, the requirements of being a session member and attending meetings — these too have presented challenges. Most of our members work two jobs, have families and also go to school to advance themselves. They have no time to serve on committees. Many are not comfortable reading in English, and the Book of Order is difficult for them. Some church agenda items confound them. The need for a safe church policy, for example, and the implications it presents, is bewildering to a family of recent arrivals from a village in Ghana. Many of our practices require thoughtful explanation.
Our building dates from 1876. Along with its glorious space and beautiful painted glass windows come staggering upkeep costs. Many of our members work for minimum wage and have large families to support — children here and relatives in their countries of origin who rely on them. Offerings are not consistent. We are accustomed to being in the red and to dreading the fuel bills that arrive in the winter months.
The current U.S. policy on undocumented immigrants is stressful to those in our church who are here without papers. Some are fearful to leave their apartments and drive to church. Knowing how marginalized they are by the political climate, and having no immigration attorneys in our congregation, we strive to counsel them appropriately and to offer a sense of home and safe haven in our worship community.
Joys: For many years, Eliot Church was very conscious of its cultural diversity and placed much focus on this aspect of our life as a church. We feel the Holy Spirit is gently freeing us from this burden of self-consciousness. In recent years, we find that we are easing into our diversity and relishing the simple activities that make us one.
For example:
We cook together. Eliot has a long tradition of serving meals to the homeless and the lonely. Every few weeks, we prepare a meal together that we serve at the YMCA down the street. Something about chopping and stirring and baking in our kitchen promotes easy dialog and curiosity in each other's cultures. When Eliot serves, guests are treated to such menus as Argentine beef, fried plantains and fufu, stir-fry and eggrolls.
We sing together. We have four music groups — our Cambodian choir, the African choir, a Brazilian praise team and our traditional Inspiration choir, now multigenerational. Last month, when the Cambodian choir sang How Great Thou Art in Khmer, a member from Ghana stepped forward to support their singing with African drumming, the spirit spread as many began to sing the chorus in their own languages. Unselfconsciously, we all praised God together.
We learn together and we pray together. We have an active youth and adult Sunday school program and a Friday evening program on spiritual energy. We have several prayer groups; some started spontaneously by one group but are open to, and attended by, all. Praying in "the language of your mother's heart" is vital to our members. We read scripture and study the Bible in all "our" languages. Different groups set the Communion table with cloths woven or embroidered in their home of origin and serve wearing cultural dress.
We celebrate together. Our growing Cambodian, African and Brazilian families offer us countless joyous opportunities — services of baptism and marriage, showers and feasts honoring special events. Sharing in the preparations and planning are natural exercises in cohesion and draw us together far more effectively than studying workbooks on inclusion. These events are also our most successful outreach strategies. People come to these events as guests and "want more of what they get at Eliot." We realize that although there are all-Cambodian churches and all-African churches in the area, people choose Eliot because they feel at home.
We are blessed with faithful, long-time Anglo members who opened their hearts and their minds to the multicultural mission 20 years ago. How grateful we are for Yankee septuagenarians who dance up and down the aisles at the baptism of an African infant and clap their hands in time to the tambourine accompaniment of a hymn sung in Portuguese. Their vision helped build a new, lively, hopeful tradition in an old New England church.
Eliot Presbyterian Church
273 Summer Street
Lowell, MA 01852
(978) 452-3383
Let us welcome you the next time you are in Lowell. |
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