Welcome our Hispanic Ministry
Grace Church has a vital Hispanic Congregation. We worship in Spanish each Sunday at 12:15 p.m.
Weekly services in Spanish resumed at 12:15 p.m. in August 2006. Many members of our
Hispanic congregation have returned to the City. With a large number of new
Spanish-speaking persons now live in the New Orleans area since the storm,
active outreach is being pursued. It is hoped that a native Spanish-speaking
clergyperson will be secured in the near future. In the meantime, Fr.
Richard Banks celebrates the Eucharist and the homily is done by a licensed
lay preacher. On the second Sunday of the month Fr.
Prospero Mesa usually presides and preaches. On occasion the Rector
presides at this service.
The History of our Hispanic
Ministry
In the 1960's, Grace Episcopal Church recognized the need for Spanish speaking people to celebrate mass in their native language. Services in Spanish were begun on December 4, 1966 by the Rev'd Robert McGinnis, then curate of Grace Church. After his departure, services were held intermittently. The neighborhood had grown increasingly Spanish-speaking and the people longed for the warmth of a community of fellow immigrants. In 1979 Grace Church called The Rev'd Leo Frade (later Bishop of Honduras and now Bishop of Southeast Florida) as the Hispanic minister and a congregation with a separate Sunday service was formed. Serving the congregation in the 1980s and intermittently thereafter was The Rev'd Prospero Mesa, who came to New Orleans from Cuba in 1980 through the God's Mercy Mission. A weekly Spanish Service was held at Grace Church until the end of 2002. Some of our Hispanic community had assimilated into the larger congregation. In March 2004, the Diocese of Louisiana made available a generous grant for the revival of an Hispanic Ministry at Grace Church. The Rev'd Mercedes Julián arrived from the Dominican Republic and we returned to weekly services in Spanish and a full range on ministries to persons in the Latino community. Some of the former congregation returned, and many new faces are now active members of the congregation.
The Rev'd Mercedes Julián served as the priest for over a year. Mother Mercedes was joined by her son Samuel and daughter Paloma. They left just prior to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 to lead an Hispanic congregation in South Carolina. Her legacy continued in the intervening 11 months, in spite of the tragedies endured by many in our Spanish-speaking congregation, when in August 2006 weekly services were restored. Until Katrina, services in Spanish were at 12:15 p.m. on Sundays and at 6:00 p.m. on Fridays. In the first 11 months after the storm, the Hispanic congregation has worshiped with the rest of the Grace community, at 10 a.m. Sunday. On the second Sunday of the month, there was a Spanish service at 12:15 p.m. with Fr. Porspero Mesa presiding.
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