wfn.org | A 77- year commitment is still going strong

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Note #5982 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

25-June-2000
GA00037

	A 77-year commitment is still going strong							
	by Edmund Doogue

LONG BEACH, June 25–Elder and deacon, Julia Tapia, of El Redentor Church, in
Oviedo, Fla., is happy to describe her lifetime commitment to the
Presbyterian Church, but on one non-negotiable condition: "It's by the glory
of God, and his mystery, you have to write that," Tapia said.

	"I became Presbyterian in my mother's womb," said Tapia, who spent most of
her life in Puerto Rico and moved to Florida six years ago for family
reasons. Her mother, who was Puerto Rico's oldest Presbyterian when she died
in 1982 at the age of 91, taught her to "love God first, and the church
second".

	Tapia has followed her mother's advice to the letter. Interviewed as she
attended her fifth General Assembly, held in Long Beach, Calif., this week,
Tapia, a commissioner for Central Florida Presbytery, said she had worked
for the church "on almost every committee, at presbytery, synod and General
Assembly level". At the age of 77, Tapia, mother of two, grandmother of
three and great-grandmother of one, is moderator of deacons in her
congregation, a post she accepted, she said,  because God asked her.

	Her Hispanic-speaking congregation in Oviedo is, she believes, the
fastest-growing in Florida. It began 15 years ago with 30 worshippers and
now has about 400, with members from throughout South America and from every
town in Puerto Rico.

	 "We receive people with open hands, no matter where you come from," said
Tapia. "If you go there once, you feel like you've been a member always. We
have a pastor, the Rev. Hector Rodriguez, who is very expressive with
people. He visits us too, and we like that. Everybody in the church has
something to do for the church, at least if they want to. We have ministry
to elders, we have deacons, a club for people 55 and up, a youth club, a
men's association, a women's association and a children's church."

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