Eyewitness
It’s one other Sunday at San Mateo Episcopal Church in Hyattsville, Maryland. The kids flip their small faces upward and their eyes shine with hope. They elevate their arms to obtain the host, the Physique of Christ, believing the promise: they are going to be cared for on this place. With this act the congregation of San Mateo declares that each one Christians belong to at least one one other.
San Mateo is a thriving parish. It presents 4 Eucharists on a Sunday. Three are in Spanish and one in English, plus a Saturday night service, recorded for broadcast. The church and corridor are thrumming with exercise each day of the week. The congregation counts greater than 500 members. Padre Vidal Rivas, a U.S. citizen born in El Salvador, has shepherded San Mateo since 2011, constructing it up from a shrinking English-only congregation to a busy multilingual and multigenerational neighborhood.
In 2025 the anti-migrant rhetoric after which swift deportation actions of the Trump administration have devastated the congregation. At San Mateo this isn’t taking place on the small display however in actual life. San Mateo is filled with survivors and frightened immigrants.
“Eight congregation members have been kidnapped—taken from the streets, or their properties,” Padre Vidal says. “Held in isolation, in freezing rooms. With little or no meals, hardly any water. After which simply gone. We don’t know the place. My individuals are harmless of crimes. They’re working women and men, cleaners and hospital staff. Farms and factories.” He shakes his head.
He can’t consider his ministry has became this. He escaped the devastating civil warfare in El Salvador, and now he witnesses one other sort of warfare. Padre Vidal and San Mateo are on the entrance strains, caring for immigrants, strategizing the way to maintain his individuals protected, organizing with neighbors, Episcopalians, and others.
“I spend each day pondering, how can I get up and be robust when these round me are terrified? About 80 have simply left and gone again house,” he says. “The choir chief, the girl within the kitchen, two staff within the daycare. Moms have been left with youngsters and no strategy to pay the hire. Victims of human trafficking, who don’t have any sources in any respect, arrive on our doorstep.”
Padre Vidal, and his spouse, Angelita; Deacon Sally; and different members of the congregation are urgent on by way of the concern, constructing the dominion right here and now. Residing daily, listening, ready, making pupusas, distributing meals, fixing the furnace, discovering a strategy to transport a disabled lady to highschool as a result of her mom is simply too afraid to exit.
On the evening earlier than, San Mateo celebrated a vigil earlier than the Feast of Christ the King. Lay individuals have written reflections. One after one other, they learn and supply their religion to all: What it has meant to comply with the King, the Prince of Peace. Satisfaction, belonging, pleasure. The hymns are beautiful, the choir all wearing purple.
The subsequent day is the final Sunday of the church 12 months. There are the same old 30 individuals for the ten a.m. Eucharist (in English). For the midday Eucharist there are a number of hundred parishioners, however that’s down by a minimum of 1 / 4.
“Persons are afraid, afraid to come back to church,” Padre Vidal says. “They watch on-line. Or they’re simply gone, with out saying something.”
English-speaking neighbors come and stand earlier than the locked doorways. They patrol the parking zone.
Deacon Sally accompanies me to the nave. Throughout Holy Communion, 50 youngsters come first. Little face after little face turns towards me: some are shy, some defiant, some hopeful. Tears burn behind my eyes and fall. I attempt to cover them. I used to be first right here nearly a 12 months in the past; I’ve been praying ever since for these beloved individuals.
Then come the adults. Ladies who’ve labored, caring and cleansing. Males who’re in shock, and susceptible. The service carries on. We pray for birthdays and anniversaries, for hopes rising, for fears unfolding. We are saying goodbye to some who’re returning to previous properties this week. We pray for individuals who have disappeared. We hear in regards to the posadas this 12 months: all will happen within the sanctuary of the church buildings.) Then we transfer to a feast within the corridor.
Within the night, I get sick. Cough, chilly, stuffy, headache. I sleep for days in my borrowed mattress within the rectory. The ladies of San Mateo take care of me. They ply me with medication and teas. They bring about me garments for the subsequent stage of my overland pilgrimage. I’m headed to Minnesota.
“You’re going to want this, Reverenda,” they are saying: hats, gloves, socks, an unlimited puffy parka. After three days in my sickbed I make my strategy to the Amtrak station. I’m prepared. However I’m leaving with a shredded coronary heart.
The Rev. Emilie Smith is Visitor Author on Covenant. She is parish priest of St. Barnabas Anglican Church, New Westminster, Canada, and TLC’s Latin America correspondent.
