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“The Quiet Revival”: New Immigrants and the Transformation of Christianity in Greater Boston

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Marilynn Johnson
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Abstract

In the years after 1965, a new wave of Asian, Latino, Caribbean, and African immigrants has transformed and revitalized the religious landscape of many U.S. cities. This essay explores the transformation of Christianity in greater Boston, where new immigrants replenished ailing congregations and infused them with new religious and social practices. This de-Europeanization of Christianity was not simply a result of transnational practices but resulted from a collaborative process between immigrants and native-born religious institutions. Both Catholic and Protestant churches experienced this immigrant-based revitalization, but evangelical Protestants have been particularly adept at partnering with newcomers to promote a “quiet revival” of urban Christianity.

Keywords

ImmigrationimmigrantsBostonChristianityCatholicismProtestantismevangelicalism
Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , Summer 2014 , pp. 231 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 2014

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References

Notes

1. New England Centennial Committee of Korean Immigration to the United States, History of Koreans in New England (Seoul: Sun-Hak Press, 2004), 94–5, 112–13; First Presbyterian Church in Brookline, History, http://www.fpcbrookline.org/abouthistory.htm, accessed December 18, 2012.

2. The expansion of religious institutions has hardly been limited to Christian groups. As Diana Eck shows, new Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and other world religions are effecting even more dramatic transformations in the U.S. religious landscape. Eck, Diana, A New Religious America (New York: Harper Collins, 2001);Google Scholar see also her website, The Pluralism Project, http://pluralism.org.

3. For a good analysis of this type of transformation in one Boston neighborhood, see Jackson, Regine O., “After the Exodus: The New Catholics in Boston's Old Ethnic Neighborhoods,” Religion and American Culture 17 (Summer 2007): 191–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. On transnational religion, see Levitt, Peggy, God Needs No Passport (New York: New Press, 2007);Google Scholar on de-Europeanized Christianity, see Warner, R. Steven, “The De-Europeanization of American Christianity,” in A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America, ed. Prothero, Stephen (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 233–55;Google Scholar on adhesive identities, see Fenggang Yang, “American Religion and the Old and the New Immigration,” Religion and American Culture 22 (Winter 2012): 24.

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6. Jackson, “After the Exodus,” 198–200; “St. Leo's Was Spiritual Home for Waves of Dorchester Families,” Dorchester Reporter, March 9, 2006; “Brookline Parish Becomes Refuge for Vietnamese,” Boston Globe, December 16, 1985; “Keeping Faith with Change at St. Peter's in Dorchester,” Boston Globe, October 26, 1992.

7. Parish Visitation Reports for St. Anthony, Somerville (1993, 1999), St. Anthony, Cambridge (1993), and St. Tarcisius (1997), RG III. N Chancellor's Office, Office of Planing and Research, Archdiocese of Boston Archives; Millman, Joel, The Other Americans (New York: Viking, 1997), 224;Google Scholar “Question and Answer with Sister Anne Malone of the African Pastoral Center,” Boston Globe, January 11, 1998; interview with Sister Mary Corripio by author, June 6, 2011. The archdiocese also ran smaller ministries for incoming Irish, Chinese, Cambodians, and Koreans, as well as older ministries for Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Eastern Rite groups.

8. O’Connor, Thomas, Boston Catholics: A History of the Church and Its People (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998), 309;Google Scholar Parish Visitation Reports for St. Anthony, Somerville (1993, 1999) and Most Holy Redeemer (n.d.).

9. “Keeping Faith with Change at St. Peter's in Dorchester”; Parish Visitation Report for St. Peter (1994); Jackson, , “After the Exodus,” 201;Google Scholar Lost Nation Pictures, Scenes from a Parish (DVD, 2009).

10. “Faith in Numbers—East Boston Church Swells with Influx of Latino Immigrants,” Boston Globe, March 18, 2001; Parish Visitation Report for St. Anthony, Somerville (1999); Chai, Karen Jung Won, “Protestant-Catholic-Buddhist: Korean Americans and Religious Adaptation in Greater Boston” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2000), 163–64;Google Scholar Curry, Thomas, “A Korean Catholic Experience: St. Philip Neri Parish in the Archdiocese of Boston,” U.S. Catholic Historian, 18 (Winter 2000): 121.Google Scholar

11. “St. Leo's Was Spiritual Home for Waves of Dorchester Families”; Parish Visitation Report for Most Holy Redeemer (n.d.) (quote).

12. Quote from Jackson, “After the Exodus,” 199–200; Parish Visitation Reports for St. Leo (n.d.), St. Peter (1994), and St. Tarcisius (1997). Catholic immigrant groups differed in the degree to which they patronized the parochial schools. For example, those from Haiti, where there was a weak system of public schooling but a high regard for education, enrolled in large numbers. By contrast, those from Central America were underrepresented, in part because of their low incomes and inability to afford the tuition.

13. “LawTells Vietnamese They’re a Gift,” Boston Globe, December 25, 1985; “Parishes Replenish from Other Shores,” Boston Globe, July 29, 2003; Ray Almieda, “The Church and the People of Cape Verde,” http://www1.umassd.edu/SpecialPrograms/caboverde/cvchurch.html, accessed June 6, 2011; Ospino, Hoffsman, “Latino Catholics in New England,” in Latinos in New England, ed. Torres, Andrés (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006), 209;Google Scholar Parish Visitation Reports for St. Ambrose (1995) and St. Anthony, Somerville (1999). Holiday celebrations took an ecumenical turn in 2008 when Catholics joined Protestants in performing las Posadas around Boston Common to dramatize the plight of immigrants. See “Las Posadas: Biblical Journey Reflects Immigrant Experience,” http://www.ethnicnewz.org/es/las-posadasbiblical-journey-reflects-immigrant-experience, accessed June 14, 2011.

14. Parish Visitation Report for St. Williams (1993), “Parishes Replenish from Other Shores”; “Feast of Ugandan Martyrs Celebrated in Waltham,” Boston Pilot, June 11, 2004; Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC), New England's Book of Acts (Boston: 2007), 2: 57.

15. Ospino, , “Latino Catholics in New England,” 212;Google Scholar Chai, , “Protestant-Catholic-Buddhist,” 123;Google Scholar Parish Visitation Reports for St. Anthony, Somerville (1999) and St. Leo (n.d.).

16. Andrew Downie, “Behind Brazil's Catholic Resurgence,” Time, May 8, 2007; Monte Reel, “Brazil's Priests Use Song and Dance to Stem Catholic Church's Decline,” Washington Post, April 14, 2005; Maurer, Susan A., The Spirit of Enthusiasm (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2010), 4, 58–59;Google Scholar Ospino, , “Latino Catholics in New England,” 212.Google Scholar

17. Chai, “Protestant-Catholic-Buddhist,” 116–17; Parish Visitation Reports for St. Anthony, Somerville (1999) and St. Anthony, Allston (1997); Levitt, , God Needs No Passport, 117.Google Scholar

18. James O’Toole, “Boston's Catholics and Their Bishops,” in O’Connor, Two Centuries of Faith, 254–56.

19. Ospino, , “Latino Catholics in New England,” 213;Google Scholar “Text of Archbishop O’Malley's Speech on Church Finances,” Boston Globe, February 5, 2004; “History of St. Anthony Parish,” in Parish Visitation Report for St. Anthony, Somerville (1993); Charles Radosta, “History of St. Anthony of Padua Parish [Everett],” http://www.parishesonline.com/scripts/hostedsites/org.asp?p¼16&ID¼972, accessed June 9, 2011; Ray Almieda, “The Church and the People of Cape Verde”; “Capuchin Brothers Assume Parish Responsibilities,” Boston Pilot, June 1, 2007.

20. Chai, , “Protestant-Catholic-Buddhist,” 110–11, 117;Google Scholar Ospino, , “Latino Catholics in New England,” 213;Google Scholar “Hispanic Ministry and Theology at BC—Past, Present and Future,” http://libguides.bc.edu/hispanic_ministry, accessed December 3, 2013.

21. Chai, “Protestant-Catholic-Buddhist,” 134–35; Curry, , “A Korean Catholic Experience,” 114, 122;Google Scholar “New Korean Parish Set to Welcome Cardinal O’Malley,” Boston Pilot, December 20, 2013; Jackson, “After the Exodus,” 202–3, “St Leo's Was Spiritual Home for Waves of Dorchester Families.”

22. “Church Closings Alarm Immigrants,” Boston Globe, May 9, 2004; “In Cuts, Archdiocese Is Seen as Sharing Burden,” Boston Globe, May 26, 2004; “10 More Parishes to Close This Year,” Boston Globe, August 6, 2004.

23. Ibid.; “Facing Millions in Repairs, St. Peter's Parish Ponders Future,” Dorchester Reporter, May 4, 2006; Archdiocese of Boston, “Reconfiguration Report, Part II: The Plan of Reconfiguration,” http://www.boston.com/news/specials/parishes/closings, accessed June 21, 2011. For a list of closed and merged parishes, see, http://www.bostoncatholic.org/Parishes-And-People/Content.aspx?id¼12382, accessed June 1, 2011.

24. Parish Visitation Reports for Most Holy Redeemer (n.d.) and St. Angela (1999); Ospino, “Latino Catholics in New England,” 214–15; Mitchell, Rudy, “A Portrait of Boston's Churches,” in EGC, Christianity in Boston (Boston: Emmanuel Gospel Center, 1994), 11–12;Google Scholar interview with Sister Mary Corripio.

25. “Many Latinos Switching to Evangelical Churches,” Boston Globe, June 2, 2005. On the apostolates’ mission, see http://www.catholicculturaldiversity.com, accessed February 3, 2014.

26. Quote from Parish Visitation Report for St. Leo (1993); Ospino, , “Latino Catholics in New England,” 215.Google Scholar One sign of the waning influence of the Hispanic Apostolate was the loss of the auxiliary bishop for Hispanic ministries, a position that remained vacant after Bishop Roberto Gonzáles left for another post in 1999.

27. Rosell, Garth M., The Surprising Work of God: Harold John Ockenga, Billy Graham, and the Rebirth of Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006);Google Scholar Bendroth, Margaret L., Fundamentalists in the City: Conflict and Division in Boston's Churches, 1885–1950 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Mitchell, Rudy, “History of Revivalism in Boston,” Emmanuel Research Review 24 (January–February 2007),Google Scholar http://www.egc.org/sites/egc.org/files/researcharchive/issue_24.htm, accessed June 28, 2011.

28. Muse, Erika, The Evangelical Church in Boston's Chinatown (London: Routledge, 2005), 1–2;Google Scholar Wang, Zhongxin, “History of Chinese Churches in Boston, 1876–1994” (Ph.D. diss., Boston University School of Theology, 2000), 145, 179–80.Google Scholar

29. EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:65; Wang, “A History of Chinese Churches in Boston,” 227–30, 231–45, 260–62.

30. EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:97–100, 122; Chai, , “Protestant-Catholic-Buddhist,” 238;Google Scholar EGC, “The Story of the English Speaking Asian-American Ministries (EM) in Greater Boston” in EGC, Boston's Book of Acts, Multicultural Leadership Consultation, November 9, 2002.

31. EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:6–8, 10.

32. Ibid., 2:9–11; The Boston Church Directory: Millennium Edition (Boston: Emmanuel Gospel Center, 2001), 361–62; “CLJ: A Brief History,” http://leondejuda.org/en/node/7272, accessed June 30, 2011.

33. Védrine, Soliny, “The History of the Haitian Church in Boston: 1969–2002,” Emmanuel Research Review 1 (March 12, 2004),Google Scholar http://www.egc.org/research/issue_1.htm; Gamm, Gerald, Urban Exodus: Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 252–53.Google Scholar

34. EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:12–14, 48–50, 120–21; “Newcomers Lead a Spiritual Revival,” Boston Globe, March 2, 1997; “Many Latinos Switching to Evangelical Churches,” Boston Globe, June 2, 2005.

35. Mitchell, “A Portrait of Boston's Churches”; New England’s Book of Acts, 2:14; 3:35; “Believing in Each Other: Many Churches, Facing Dwindling Membership, Decide to Join Forces,” Boston Globe, December 18, 1999; “Prayer Central: Known for Its Curries and Live Music, One Cambridge Neighborhood Is Home to Nearly 60 Congregations,” Boston Globe, November 4, 2000.

36. EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:38; 3:7–8; “Boston Chinese Evangelical Church: The Newton Campus,” http://www.bcec.net/newton/index.htm, accessed August 3, 2011.

37. EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:25–26 (EGC quote); “Newcomers Lead a Spiritual Revival,” Boston Globe, March 2, 1997 (pastor quote).

38. EGC, New England Book of Acts, 2: 44–50; Ray Almeida, “The Church and the People of Cape Verde”; “Group Quits Episcopal Church over Gay Bishop,” Boston Globe, October 17 2004.

39. EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:32–33; Chai, , “Protestant- Catholic-Buddhist,” 249;Google Scholar Muse, , The Evangelical Church in Boston’s Chinatown, 174;Google Scholar “Many Latinos Switching to Evangelical Churches.”

40. EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:10–11; “Newcomers Lead a Spiritual Revival”; Muse, , The Evangelical Church in Boston's Chinatown, 2;Google Scholar Wang, , “History of Chinese Churches,” 184.Google Scholar

41. Mitchell, , “A Portrait of Boston's Churches”; EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:7;Google Scholar Bob Wells, “Boston Program Helps Hispanic Pastors Build New Foundation for Ministry,” http://faithandleadership.com/programs/spe/articles/200606/hispanic.html, accessed August 4, 2011.

42. For examples of such co-pastorates, see the lists of pastors at EGC's “Boston Church Directory,” http://www.egcbcd.com/index.php. See also, Ann M. Detwiler-Breidenbach, “Language, Gender, and Context in an Immigrant Ministry: New Spaces for the Pastor's Wife,” Sociology of Religion 61 (December 2000): 455–59.

43. ECG, “Haitian Ministries International,” http://www.egc.org/haitianministries, accessed August 5, 2011; Védrine, , “The History of the Haitian Church in Boston”; EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2: 10–11, 52, 59;Google Scholar Antioch Baptist Church, http://www.antiochboston.org/ministries/missions, accessed August 6, 2011.

44. EGC, New England's Book of Acts, 2:17, 39–40; EGC, “The Story of the English Speaking Asian-American Ministries (EM) in Greater Boston”; Wang, “History of Chinese Churches,” 184, 194, 198, 204, 257– 60; Védrine, “The History of the Haitian Church in Boston.”

45. EGC, The Boston Church Directory: Millenium Edition, 324, 326; Archdiocese of Boston, “Suppressed and Merged Parishes,” http://www.bostoncatholic.org/uploadedFiles/BostonCatholicorg/Parishes_And_People/rcab-parishesclosed-welcomingparishes12012011.pdf, accessed January 3, 2013. It is unclear whether the number of immigrants attending Catholic churches in the Boston archdiocese has actually declined, but the closing of numerous parishes, including several that once served local immigrant neighborhoods, is suggestive—especially in comparison to the rapid growth of Protestant immigrant congregations.

46. Among recent works on immigrant religion and Christianity are Ebaugh, Helen Rose and Chafetz, Janet Saltzman, eds., Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations (Walnut Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, 2000);Google Scholar Foley, Michael and Hoge, Dean R., Religion and the New Immigrants: How Faith Communities Form Our NewestCitizens (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Warner, R. Stephen and Wittner, Judith, eds., Gatherings in Diaspora (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998).Google Scholar

47. Examples of Protestant ministries working with immigrants include City View in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the Latino Pastoral Action Center in New York, and Nueva Esperanza in Philadelphia. On Latino Catholic churches and activism, see Dahm, Charles W., Parish Ministry in a Hispanic Community (New York: Paulist Press, 2004);Google Scholar Wilson, Catherine E., The Politics of Latino Faith (New York: New York University Press, 2008);Google Scholar and Heredia, Luisa, “From Prayer to Protest: The Immigrant Rights Movement and the Catholic Church,” in Kim Foss and Bloemraad, Irene, eds., Rallying for Immigrant Rights (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 101–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar