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A new Methodist church in Phoenix is ​​reaching asylum seekers

A new Methodist church in Phoenix is ​​reaching asylum seekers

Matte Jr015 mins

During a service to launch a new Methodist church in downtown Phoenix, Pastor Flor Granillo blessed a chalice and ceramic plate and then offered communion to dozens of young, Spanish-speaking Latino families.

The communion cup and plate had a special meaning. They belonged to Central United Methodist Church, the second oldest Methodist church in Arizona, dating back to 1870. That church’s congregation donated the communion set to Granillo, then closed its doors for good in May, marking its 154th anniversary. -old church at the end.

The fellowship group didn’t just find new life in a new church. The set symbolizes the seismic changes taking place within the United Methodist Church, as once-vibrant English-speaking congregations fade and die and the church seeks ways to stem the decline in membership that other mainline Protestant denominations also face.

Latino immigrants and asylum seekers may provide part of the answer.

Iglesia Aliento aims to reach Spanish-speaking Latinos in the Phoenix area, particularly the recent wave of Latino migrants arriving seeking asylum in the U.S.

During the special service held on October 6th for the official launch of Iglesia Aliento, the wooden pews were packed with around 130 people. Many were families with young children and came from various countries, including Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico.

Families applauded and cheered as church members threw balloons and confetti into the congregation to welcome the newcomers, while a band from the nonprofit Harmony Project played guitars and sang mariachi songs.

During his sermon, Granillo made a comparison between Jesus and migrants who fled persecution in their own countries to seek refuge in the U.S.

“When I think of God as a migrant, as a refugee, whose parents took him from one country to another to protect him from threats because of political persecution, I see a similarity with many of the people who are here today,” Granillo said. in Spanish. “We had to face many difficulties, many challenges to become strangers in a strange land.”

‘Churches are living organisms,’ says United Methodist bishop

Iglesia Aliento began a year ago as a mission of the Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church. The congregation first met on the campus of Central United Methodist Church on Central Avenue north of downtown Phoenix.

But when Central United Methodist Church closed in May, Iglesia Aliento moved to its own building on First Street, south of downtown Phoenix, which had also previously been a United Methodist Church serving Latinos. The brass bell that once hung in the steeple of Central United Methodist Church now greets visitors near the entrance to Iglesia Aliento, where Granillo keeps the communion chalice and plaque in his office.

The launch of Iglesia Aliento comes at a time when the United Methodist Church is losing members, reflecting a decline among other mainline Protestant churches.

Since 2013, the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church, which covers most of Arizona and southern Nevada, has lost more than 13,000 members, falling from 34,851 members in 2013 to 21,538 in 2022, the most recent year for which there are available data.

Church membership in general has been declining for years for several reasons. It accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches moved to online services to help slow the spread of the virus.

Nationally, the United Methodist Church has lost more than 7,600 churches due to divisions over LGBTQ+ rights.

Carlo Rapanut, bishop of the Desert Southwest Conference, said Iglesia Aliento is the only Spanish-speaking congregation in the conference, although there have been others in the past. The new church represents an effort by the United Methodist Church to minister to unreached populations, particularly Latino immigrants and asylum seekers.

“This is a segment (of the population) that is underserved in this area, particularly by the United Methodist Church,” said Rapanut, who helped Granillo serve communion during the Oct. 6 launch service.

The closure of Central United Methodist Church earlier this year and the launch of Iglesia Aliento represent the life cycle of churches, Rapanut said.

“One of the mindsets I’ve tried to introduce into churches is that churches are living organisms,” Rapanut said. “As such, they have a life cycle. They will be born, grow and mature and eventually decline.”

Instead of closure, Rapanut prefers to refer to the end of a church as “faithful completion.”

“What does it mean to faithfully fulfill your mission, close your church, and then relaunch it as a new expression, possibly with new people? That’s what’s happening here,” said Rapanut after the launch service. He was sitting in the Iglesia Aliento sanctuary as families dined on a mix of Latin American foods, including Mexican tacos, Cuban black rice and Colombian arepas.

Pastor of Iglesia Aliento: ‘I am called to reach immigrants’

Sunday, October 6, marked the beginning of Iglesia Aliento with weekly services. Until then, the congregation only met monthly, said Granillo, the pastor.

Born in the city of Chihuahua, Mexico, Granillo, 60, was raised Catholic like many people in Latin America. She worked as a teacher in Mexico before coming to the US in 2002 while on sabbatical. She remained in the US after being offered a job as a dual language teacher in Irving, Texas, near Dallas.

In Texas, Granillo said he began attending nondenominational churches. His youngest son was a freshman in college when he died in a motorcycle accident on his way to work. The tragedy inspired her to apply for a master of divinity degree at Southern Methodist University.

“I didn’t become a pastor. I went to discover more about God,” said Granillo.

After theology school, Granillo trained to become a chaplain at Baylor Hospital, the same hospital where her son died.

In 2022, Granillo accepted a new position with the Desert Southwest Conference to create ministries to reach more people and inspire others to do the same.

After arriving in Phoenix, Granillo worked at the Central United Methodist Church, assisting asylum seekers who federal immigration authorities had just released.

Then, in October 2023, he launched Iglesia Aliento. The name is intended to convey the “breath of God,” Granillo said.

The Church’s vision, Granillo said, is to “embrace” people “with the love of God, transform lives that reflect the example of Jesus Christ, and equip them to make a difference.”

The church began offering Bible studies and other activities aimed at first-generation Latino immigrants, many of whom are asylum seekers. Granillo said much of her time as a pastor is dedicated to helping asylum seekers find housing, food, clothing, jobs and legal assistance. She also helps them enroll their children in schools.

“I am called to reach out to immigrants and help them struggle as they transition to their new country,” Granillo said.

Granillo said that as the families she serves rise up across the U.S., they are invited to help other families who come to the church and also to help at the church with various projects “so we can create a ripple effect.”

Granillo said he rejects the view that the Church’s role in helping immigrants is to give them what “we think they need” because “that disempowers people because we keep them as people in need.”

Instead, “they need to mobilize, they need to be empowered,” Granillo said. “They need to participate in what they receive because they are not empty vessels.”

The immigrants the Church supports bring a lot to the table, she said.

“We walk together. I’m not transforming you,” Granillo said. “We are both transformed.”

The building where Iglesia Aliento is located today has an apartment. It is used to provide housing to one asylum seeker family at a time, Granillo said.

Araceli Torrealba, 25, is an asylum seeker from Venezuela, where an economic, political and humanitarian crisis under the government of President Nicolás Maduro has led millions of people to flee the South American country.

After entering the U.S. in Piedras Negras, Texas, Torrealba flew to Phoenix to reunite with a brother who already lived here. Granillo was at the airport to receive Torrealba and his family. She arrived with her husband, Juan Coroba, 30, and their three young children, Josielis, 9, Arismar, 7, and Mia, 16 months. A fourth child, Dylan, was born in Phoenix six months ago.

Torrealba and his family lived in the church for several months. While there, they swept the floor and did other odd jobs. Granillo helped them find their own apartment, Torrealba said. Torrealba and his family continue to worship at Iglesia Aliento.

For the launch service, Torrealba invited another family from Venezuela to join them.

Franciso Gomez, 38, and his wife, Jennifer Cordero, 37, sat at the table eating lunch after the service with their 8-year-old daughter, Fiorella.

Gomez said the family had just arrived in Phoenix on Aug. 26 after spending six years living in Ecuador. Gomez said they were allowed to come to the U.S. after being accepted as refugees.

Cordero said they had already decided to return to Iglesia Aliento.

“We feel the presence of God here,” she said.

Contact the reporter at [email protected].

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