HARRISON, N.J. -- A New Jersey Methodist church will continue to hold services in English for at least another year following a move to rescind an earlier order they be halted in favor of services in Portuguese to accommodate the largely Brazilian congregation.
According to a news report by The Associated Press, the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church had ordered officials at Davis Memorial United Methodist Church to end the Sunday morning English services. The English-speaking membership at the 149-year-old church has dwindled to about 12 members.
The church serves an area that has a growing Brazilian population and Sunday evening services there have been conducted in Portuguese for about three years. Conference officials ordered the English services to be discontinued by the end of June, but later relented, saying a lay speaker -- who can lead services but cannot give communion -- could continue the English services.
"We know the majority of the people who are going to be served (by the church) are not English-speaking people, (but) we do not feel that the work of the Anglo persons in that congregation has come to an end," the Rev. Lloyd Terrell, area superintendent for the Annual Conference, told The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.
Under a new arrangement, the Brazilian mission will officially become part of the church. English and Portuguese speakers will share posts on the church board.
