wfn.org | [ENS] Hmong community breathes new life into Minnesota parish

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service

June 2, 2005 - Thursday Thesis: Meeting People of Purpose

Hmong community breathes new life into Minnesota parish

by Daphne Mack

[Episcopal News Service] A revival is taking place in a small parish in
Minnesota that six years prior faced the possibility of closure.
Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in St. Paul was an aging congregation
that
fit the profile of an urban congregation shrinking due to economic
changes,
said the Rev. William Bulson, vicar. However, the emergence of the Hmong
community has brought renewal.

Hmong people, who came originally from the borders of Laos and Cambodia
in
the region of Southeast Asia, arrived in Minnesota after the Vietnam
War.
Their ensuing Asian American culture is now a blend of languages and
cultural traditions.

Bulson, who has led the parish since 2000, said Holy Apostles was
averaging
50-55 people per Sunday, and although attendance would increase in
spurts
with a "multicultural feel," there was no permanence.

"Over time we began to get more African families [and] there were
Spanish
speaking families here that were longtime members," he said. "There was
also
an Ojibway family that had been coming here for about six years and a
few
Filipino families started attending."

Congregation reborn

Bulson said when Canon Susan Moss, metro missioner in the Diocese of
Minnesota, introduced him to her longtime friend Sy Vang, Holy Apostle's
rebirth began.

"Sy Vang shared with me the difficulties her congregation was having
with
their replacement priest since their beloved priest, an Anglo priest who
was
fluent in Hmong, and had been with them for 15 years, died tragically
and
unexpectedly," he said.  "A group of them [Hmong] were considering
leaving
this congregation."

In the fall and winter of 2004, Bulson and Vang started meeting with
this
group. It was also during this time he said, that some Hmong families
would
attend Holy Apostles and a few even joined, but the "Hmong culture is
like a
lot of traditional cultures in that the larger group works together,
decides
together and acts together."

Bulson said he reiterated that the doors of the church were open to them
and
began to have even more conversations with some of the Hmong leaders.

Tidal wave

In early February 2005, Bulson said the "tidal wave started."

"More and more people had come after their elder said 'I think I'm going
to
go to Holy Apostles,'" Bulson said.

By March, he said their attendance doubled and in April the elders and
other
leaders of the Hmongs handed him a list of 74 families totaling 527
people
who will be joining Holy Apostles.

"Now we average about 150 people on Sundays and on Pentecost Sunday [May
15]
we baptized four Hmong people and had 240 people in attendance even
though
the church seats 170," he said.

The Rev. Dr. Winfred Vergara, missioner of the Episcopal Church Center's
Office of Asian American Ministries, was the celebrant for this service
where he preached in the Hmong language and baptized four Hmong people.

"Today, we stand at the edge of mission in the 21st century when
American
mission is no longer understood to be physically going to the jungles of
Africa, the forests of Latin America or the islands of Asia," Vergara
said
in his sermon. "Rather, mission is simply opening the door of our hearts
and
flinging open the door of our churches to receive the peoples that God
has
brought upon our doorsteps. As we can see today, the Anglo-Europeans are
among us, the Africans are among us, the Latinos are among us, the
Asians
are among us---and pardon the pun, the Hmong are among us. In the
beginning
is the word and the word is 'hospitality."

New faithful

Bulson said a date is being set by Bishop James L. Jelinek of Minnesota,
to
receive the Hmong faithful en masse at St. Mark's Cathedral. Also at the
end
of June, he and a few others will attend the Episcopal Asian American
(EAM)
Consultation in Seattle, WA and will be introduced as the first majority
Hmong congregation in the Episcopal Church.

Bulson said he is currently studying the Hmong language and that Holy
Apostles has begun to integrate the new faithful into positions of
leadership and have assembled a team to translate the Prayer Book.

"You're pretty much left breathless," Bulson said. "It's overwhelming,
it's
beautiful, it's frightening, and it's exciting. The way it probably felt
to
Moses when he was in front of the pillar of fire or the way it might
have
felt at the first Eucharist at the last supper when the disciples were
sharing Christ Body and Blood. Beauty and sense of one's smallness;
sense of
being beloved and provided for."

According to Census 2000, there are 25,000 Hmong residents at St.
Paul's.
However, local Minnesota officials estimate their number to be around
60,000.

-- Daphne Mack is staff writer for Episcopal News Service.

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