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2 cultures in 1 building---at the CROSSROADS so to speak.

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vanlee
Jun 06 2005
10:33 am

My dad attended Salem Evangelical Free Church when a child. A Logan Square, Chicago church that was once Norwegian speaking, with large buildings across the road for newer Norwegian immigrants.

At some point, they dropped the Norwegian language (I think in the 70’s) . At some later point, they also shared the building with the newer Hispanic neighbors.

When I last visited in the late 1980’s, the “Anglos” technically not Anglo Saxon but Scandinavian, close but not the same… were the smaller congregation of the 2 sharing the building. The church, tho in a big Latin gang area at least then, had no graffiti (It’s work in the community apparently got the respect of the gangs).

The former property down the street of this once wealthy church had been donated for a neighborhood park. The large buildings which had once provided temporary housing for newer Norwegian immigrants now held some elderly who needed housing. Thus the church still served God and the immediate neighbors…How they did all their cultural transitions, I do not know. Would be great to talk to some longtime church leaderss, both Norwegian American & Hispanic, & get insights.
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And the church down the block had been closed some time earlier because it apparently did not adapt to the changing neighborhood.

I hope & pray your church works out whatever transcultural issues it needs to address.