Newcomers re-energizing the role of religion for Lynners

LYNN – The face of faith in Lynn is changing with newcomers coming to the city from halfway around the world to set up ministries in churches where immigrants worshiped more than 150 years ago.Pentecostal and Evangelical congregations now pray in churches where local Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians once gathered. Pulpits where pastors once preached in English are now places where ministers engage the faithful in Creole and Spanish.As a boy, Rev. Eric Nelson, pastor of Washington Street Baptist Church, attended services in Swedish and ministered for years to an English-speaking congregation. His current congregation of 75 to 80 people includes Caribbean islanders and Liberians.”Church,” said long-time Washington Street Baptist congregation member Paula Cole, “is about relationships.”Through their involvement with the Greater Lynn Council of Churches, Nelson and Cole have seen the tide of worship in Lynn ebb and flow from congregation member to congregation member, church to church, and denomination to denomination.Once built by faithful from their nations of origin, Lynn’s Catholic churches underwent transformations that saw St. Michael’s close; St. Jean-Baptiste and St. Francis become a housing site and a child care center, respectively, and St. Patrick’s transformed into the home of Greater Bethlehem Temple Pentecostal, where Nelson said the “spirit of celebration” fills the formerly-closed Light Street church.St. Mary’s and St. Pius churches celebrate 150th and centennial anniversaries this year while Sacred Heart and Holy Family survive in West Lynn and East Lynn. Longtime St. Joseph’s parishioner Jimmy Gonzalez said more than 800 people attend Mass in the Union Street church on Sundays.”Most are Guatemalan and Salvadoran,” he said.Lynn’s six United Methodist churches have undergone a transformation, Nelson said, that has seen Grace United Methodist continue services on Broadway while other churches became homes to new congregations or were torn down.A mosque provides worship space on Essex Street and a Buddhist temple sustains Cambodian faithful on Chestnut Street. Temple Ahabat Sholom holds services in East Lynn while two former Jewish houses of worship have been acquired by newer congregations.”Let’s not forget the Seventh-Day Adventist churches that have come to Lynn in the past 10 years,” Nelson said.When two small congregations – one Haitian, the other Spanish-speaking – needed a home, Nelson said Washington Street Baptist’s congregation provided one until the former Essex Street Baptist Church became the Haitian church’s new home and the Congregational Church on Lynnfield Street became Candelero de Dios’ new church.”The congregation got so small they said Candelero could have the building for a dollar,” Nelson said.Once a worship place for Scottish-speaking Presbyterians, a former church on Franklin Street is now home to Iglesia Cristiana Torrente de Cedron.”The pastor told me a year ago they are looking for a bigger space,” Nelson said.While Washington Street has sent small flocks out to other churches, First Baptist Church has welcomed new congregations into its big building on North Common Street, where worshipers first practiced their faith in 1816.Deacon Dexter Bishop said 250 people worship seven days a week in First Baptist. That was not always the case.”Like a lot of old churches, we shrunk down and could have either gone out of business or changed,” he said.First Baptist welcomed in Haitian worshipers 20 years ago and the church is now home to three other congregations: La Iglesia Cristiana el Siloe, New Galilee Full Gospel Worship Center and Karen Baptist Church – a congregation of 30 Burmese Baptists who came to the United States in 2006.”We came for freedom,” Rev. Lin Coin said Friday.Rev. Annie L. Belmer, a former Boston pastor and youth worker, opened New Galilee in First Baptist’s “old ladies’ powder room” a year ago. She preaches on Sunday at noon and holds music classes for young people on Sa