predicando en español - latin@ ministry strategy for kc!!

esta semana, prediqué en español durante la misa de la iglesia episcopal de san pablo en kansas city, kansas.

this week, i preached in spanish during the spanish worship service at st. paul's episcopal in kansas city, kansas.

this was the first sermon i've done in spanish and it has been a long time in the coming for me.  last spring when i was talking with my supervisor about the then-upcoming internship, there was a mention of a latin@ ministry strategy with the episcopal diocese in kansas city.  i was intrigued, to say the least.  well, during lent we kicked off the strategy in full force with a special guest presenter and preacher, father albert cutié.  this has been followed up by weekly spanish eucharist services at st. paul's.

because i am not ordained, but have considerable proficiency in spanish, my supervisor and i have gotten into the rotation to tag-team the service about once a month.  today was the first time for me to preach.  while there are similarities in sermonizing in spanish and english, it is definitely different.  i cannot simply prepare a sermon and translate it to spanish and call it good.  they are different languages and the people who hear them come from distinct contexts as well. 

an additional difficulty for me is that not only do i know spanish and english, but i also know slovak and so if i am speaking in a conversation and am not really focused on the words i'm saying i can oftentimes accidentally slip in a slovak word when i'm intending to speak spanish.  this means that when i preach in spanish, i definitely need a full manuscript.

this is a part of my internship that i was really excited for at the beginning and although it has taken a bit of time to get up and running, i'm really excited that we are now in full swing and am already thinking about what it will mean to preach for pentecost in both a spanish-speaking and an english-speaking context.

i'm not including the manuscript for my sermon here, but if you'd like a copy, let me know and i'm happy to email it to you :)