Holy Trinity in West Orange is celebrating the first anniversary of its Spanish language service. The service, which has been held at 12:30 PM each Sunday since September 21, 2014, serves the worship needs of a growing Hispanic community in the West Orange area.
For the Rev. Miguel Hernandez, who became Priest-in-Charge in March of 2014, it was a leap of faith. With the help of social media and flyers, the introduction of the service was advertised.
The first service began with only three persons and has now grown to as many as 21 attending. This outreach to the Hispanic community has also led to the start of ESL classes at Holy Trinity and the hosting of the Hispanic Foundation of West Orange, a recently formed organization to promote issues affecting the Hispanic community.
The Rev. Hernandez is working to integrate the membership and activities of the Spanish service into the mainstream activities of Holy Trinity, and to create a template for introducing Spanish language services in the diocese.
