English-language worship and Bible study is offered on Sunday
mornings and Spanish worship and Bible study is offered on Saturday nights and Monday mornings. Four times a year the youth group leads a service with lessons and prayers in both languages. Experimenting with dual-language services, Bañales found that
preaching the same message to two cultures—one almost entirely retired and the other in the middle of child-rearing—made her sermons “too general” to benefit anyone. Bañales said she is working to build up “a daily congregational life
that lifts up one another to continue growing and multiplying each other in our spiritual life and our numbers and, of course, with our generosity. It’s a lot of work, but it can be done.”
Reclaiming a lost language The story is different for American Indians. “English was forced on us,” said Prairie Rose Seminole, ELCA program director for American
Five-year-old Marleen Campbell receives communion from Verna Eriks while Jian Hua, a pastor of Grace Chinese looks on.
Indian and Alaska Native ministries. In North Carolina there
are more than 15,000 enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, yet fewer than 200 are fluent in the Cherokee language. Young people who participate in the Kituwah Preservation & Education Program are leading the effort to revive the language of their parents and grandparents. At Church of the Living Waters,
Franklin, N.C., 90 percent of members are Cherokee. “One 13-year-old girl will pray in Cherokee during our Wednesday night meal and service,” said Jack Russell, pastor. “The two older men who are fluent speakers lift their prayers during the Sunday service.” Before the liturgy begins,
Russell leads a traditional cleansing ritual and a Cherokee morning song, accompanied by a hand drum. A traditional Cherokee prayer follows in English “because most of our congregation is not fluent in Cherokee.” For the Gospel acclamation,
the church uses the “Hallelujah” chant in Muskogee Creek found in With One Voice (609), a language spoken by a handful of Living Waters members. During the offer- tory, everyone sings the first verse of “Amazing Grace” in Cherokee. Russell wants worshipers to
know it’s OK to use the Cherokee language in church. “You have to be respectful of language that was almost lost,” he said. “Pentecost for me is the
highlight of the festivals,” Russell said. “In my humble mind and my thinking, it means that my ancestors were probably there listening to the preaching in their own language.”
Basye is a freelance writer living in the Pacific Northwest.
CONGREGATIONAL LIFE •
LIVINGLUTHERAN.ORG 35
Photo: Pinehurst Photography
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