The Balance Between Old and New
The Angelica Lutheran Church endures a daily struggle between keeping true to its rich in history and tradition, while still adjusting to modern times.
The church dates back even further than its nearly century-old brick walls. In 1888, local Swedish immigrants organized a Lutheran congregation, which moved around several times before solidifying its location at the corner of South Burlington Avenue and 14th Street in 1925. You can still see Swedish influence in the area, especially through the architecture on Alvarado Terrace, where European style homes still stand today.
The Swedish community flourished at Angelica Lutheran until around the 1950s. This is when, Senior Pastor Carlos Paiva says, language and culture divisions arose and many of the church’s original members moved north to the Hollywood area.
As Pico Union’s demographics changed, so did the church’s. As more Central Americans immigrated to the area in the 70s and through the 80s, the church’s needs changed, and that is when the first bilingual pastor at Angelica Lutheran was hired- Reverend Carlos Paiva.
Pico Union’s socioeconomic status as an extremely low-income neighborhood tends to make the church an even more central part of life. According to The Los Angeles Times, the median annual income for a family in Pico Union is $26,424.
Y“They are very hardworking, very talented people, but their salary isn’t really adjusting to the reality of the situation,” says Reverend Paiva.
Paiva’s passion for helping is evident. He sees his role as not only a leader in the church, but as a leader for the entire Pico Union community.
He says, “You can just sit in the poor community and do nothing, but at the end the result will be really negative of you. If you don’t put your hands in the community you almost need to prepare for your funeral in advance.”
Ever since the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, Angelica Lutheran Church, with the leadership of Paiva, has upheld a food distribution program. Twice a month the church opens up its doors for residents of Pico Union to come and collect food that they otherwise would not have, regardless if they are church attendees or not.
Paiva says, “It’s a constant juggle situation for these people. Pay rent or put food on the table, pay rent or put clothes on their bodies, pay rent or invest in education. What we do is not enormous, but we give what we can.”
With a low-income area, comes extremely underfunded public schooling. The schools in Pico Union, several years ago, had to cut funding for its art and music programs. So consequently, the church began The Angelica Center for Arts and Music, where 150 children come to interact with and study the arts Monday through Thursday from 3-6:30pm. Dancing, singing and theatre classes are offered as well as courses in piano, guitar, drums and recorder.
“Five years ago a five-year-old girl came to the program and didn’t know how to play and now she’s very good and plays piano at the Disney Music Hall,” says Jose Grande, maintenance worker at the church.
Paiva says that while gang and drug violence in Pico Union has diminished in recent years, the situation is far from gone. Two prevalent gangs in the area make Pico Union a dangerous place to be out at night. Just last month, in August of 2016, somebody was murdered in the park directly adjacent to the church.
Jasmik Baez, a 24-year-old member of the church her entire life, said, “It’s just those things that you have to take into consideration. Kids play out there, I sometimes go on runs there, it’s not safe and so we try and make this a safe space for people to come."
That means that in addition to Sunday's typical worship, the church holds biweekly family nights where families eat, pray, learn and even play games together. Upholding programs for both the neighborhood’s adults and youth is so important; it gets them away from potential violence and instead, dedicates their time to something positive.
Today, Pico Union is a community of immigrants from all corners of the world: Mexico, Central America, Cuba and Korea. With the goal of making all members of this multicultural community feel welcomed, the church offers services in four different languages: Spanish, English, Korean and Kanjobal, an indigenous dialect similar to Spanish and oftentimes spoken in Guatemala and some parts of Mexico.
Senior Pastor Paiva offers English services at 8am, but says that attendance at Spanish services is four times bigger. He says, “My hope is that the second generation here in America, the bilinguals, will want to start worshipping in English.”
Jasmik believes that inclusion is one of the church’s main goals.
“We always try to find ways to incorporate the rest of the community who isn’t part of the church, just to really look at our surroundings and how we can make them better,”she says.
While growth within and around the neighborhood allows room for new members, cultures and traditions, the church on South Burlington Avenue still upholds some of its oldest traditions.
On Christmas day, at 7 a.m, a special Swedish service is held at Angelica Lutheran, known as Julotta. Every year the now third generation of the church’s original founders come to celebrate the holy day. Jose Grande says that attendance at the Julotta service has diminished over the years, but that last Christmas around 30 family members of the church’s original founders participated in the long-standing tradition.
Pico Union: A Brief History