Ep14: Voices of Faith in Hampton Roads

Title: Languaging in Hampton Roads

Episode 14: Voices of Faith in Hampton Roads

Hosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky

Date: March 5, 2025

Length: 48:50

Publication Frequency: Fourth Friday (approx) of each month

In this episode we interview several pastors, all first-generation immigrants, who minister to their flocks in the native language of their country of origin.

The interviews are with Pastor Echo Lin from the Shanghai region of mainland China, who leads services in Mandarin at the more than 100-year-old independent First Chinese Baptist Church in Virginia Beach; Father Joseph Nguyen who ministers to two Catholic Vietnamese congregations, Our Lady of LaVang Catholic Church in Norfolk, and Our Lady of Vietnam Catholic Church in Hampton ; and with Luke Do, Senior Pastor of Peninsula Korean Baptist Church in Newport News.

(We also talked to Pastor Trung Phan, leader of Hope Vietnamese Church in Annandale, Va. Time and geographical constraints meant we weren't able to include his interview; we will run it as bonus material at a future date.)

From our interviews, we learned about the changing role of the church in each community, the importance of language for identity, the generational rifts as assimilation occurs -- and what the future of ethnic-centered churches might be as globalization and technology reduce differences.

We did not address the use of traditional liturgical languages, such as Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, and Koine Greek, all of which are represented in Hampton Roads. Nor did we cover the multiple Spanish-speaking churches, by far the largest segment of non-English services in the region.

Instead, we focused primarily on Asian-led churches that minister to their communities through the use of the vernacular. In talking to ministers at Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese churches we learned not only about immigration patterns in the region, but also the ealier history of colonization and missionary activity. We learned in many cases that faith was secondary to a sense of community and cultural belonging.

Our interest in the topic was sparked by a sign for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Mehane Hiwot Abune Gebre Menfes Kidus, in the Park Place neighborhood of Norfolk . We learned that the Norfolk church, started in 2013, is part of one of the most ancient branches of Christianity, part of the Coptic tradition dating back to 300 AD. Priest Teshome Yohannes Feleke presides over a congregation of 200 drawn from throughout Hampton Roads. Services are in a combination of Ge'ez, the ancient liturgical language, and Amharic, Ethiopia's everyday language that evolved from it. (Plug in the church's name to find beautiful chanting on YouTube.) The church is celebrating its renovation with a grand re-opening on March 14/15.

We also discovered Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Norge, which once held services in Norwegian. Today the language is no longer used, but the church is the proud possessor of a Norwegian Bible donated by Norway's royal family in 1939. We also learned that Norge is actually the name for Norway in Norwegian, a tribute to its original Scandinavian settlers at the turn of the 20th century!

As you can gather, it's a very rich topic and we only scratched the surface of the Babel of languages used in worship in our Hampton Roads region.

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