A Study- Pentacostals in the United States
Pentecostals in the United States
America is a land of immigrants. The United States Immigration and Nationality act of 1965 is one of the most important laws enacted by the US Congress in the last 50 years. This resulted in a fundamental change in the cultural and religious environment in the US.
Keralite Pentecostals have been in the United States for more than four decade now. The first direct contact to the United States took place in 1947 when Pastors A. C. Samuel and C. Kunjummen of the Assemblies of God came to the US.5 In January 1948, Pastor P. J. Thomas came to Wheaton College in Chicago for graduate studies. Later, in May of the same year, Pastors K. E. Abraham and K. C. Cherian arrived in the US during their third missionary trip to the West.6 Pastor P. J. Thomas returned to India in 1952. It is reported that about 300 to 400 young men came to study in American Bible schools because of him.7
Nearly all of the Keralite Pentecostals who reached North America in the early 1960s came as students in Bible schools. With the signing of the Immigration Act of 1965 by President John F. Kennedy, it became possible for professionals to immigrate in search of jobs. Nurses from India started gaining entry into US in the 1970s and early 1980s through the category of ‘members of professionals’. The Keralite Christian community in Dallas grew from 75 to 620 in the six-year period from 1973-78 out of which nurses accounted for half the employed adults. .8
A major shift took place in immigration patterns during the late 1980s when the majority of immigrants arrived using the family unification provision in the law rather than through employment. Out of the 45,000 plus persons of Keralite origin admitted to the United States in 1991, more than 35,000 were sponsored by members of their families who were either permanent residents or citizens of the US.9
Keralite Pentecostal Congregations in North America
Pentecostals are allegedly the fastest growing religious group among Keralite immigrants in North America. They are reported to be among the best-educated and most wealthy members of the Keralite Pentecostal community in America. In a 1993 survey, conducted by Professor Williams, about thirty six percent of the Keralite Pentecostals hold graduate degrees and another 30 percent have a college degree.10 Five of the eight people in the total survey who reported their family income above $250,000 are Pentecostals.
As the Keralite Pentecostals, particularly Pentecostals began increasing in number, prayer meetings started among them. . The first such meeting was started in October 1967 by the late Pastor C. M. Varughese at the Nurses Cottage Auditorium in Newark, New Jersey. About 40 people attended those meetings that continued until 1970.
In the meantime, Keralite Pentecostals in New York City desired to establish a Keralite church of their own, a place of common identity and style. On February 8, 1968, India Christian Assembly, the first Indian (Primarily Keralite) Pentecostal church in the United States, was formed in New York. Rev. Achoy Mathews was the first pastor. They organized their first convention in 1968 with Rev. K. E. Abraham and Rev. George Varghese as the guest speakers from India.11
Currently there are about 42 Keralite Pentecostal churches in New York with a combined membership of about 5,000 people, the largest number of Keralite Pentecostals in the United States. This is followed by Texas with about 3,000 people in the cities of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. At present, the largest Keralite Pentecostal congregation in North America is the IPC Hebron church in Dallas, Texas.
The first Keralite Pentecostal church in New Jersey began in 1971. The first one in Philadelphia started in 1974.
There have been Keralite Pentecostal fellowships in Boston (Massachusetts) since 1981. Connecticut has two Keralite Pentecostal churches, one in Danbury and the other in Bridgeport.
International Pentecostal Assembly, established in 1972, was the first Keralite Pentecostal church in Illinois. Currently there are eight churches and about 500 believers in the Chicago area. Michigan has had Keralite Pentecostal fellowships since 1974About 100 families living in Pontiac and the adjoining suburbs of Detroit currently worship in eight different Keralite Pentecostal churches.
There are only a few Keralite Pentecostal churches in the western states of the United States. There is one fellowship in Colorado. Although there are about 50 Pentecostal families of Keralite origin in Seattle, Washington, half of them attend local non-Keralite churches. Three churches have been established there in recent years. Of the six churches in California, three of them are in Los Angeles and the others are in San Jose.
The first church in Oklahoma began in Oklahoma City in 1971. Currently there are 13 churches in Oklahoma State. Tennessee has 4 Keralite Pentecostal churches. There are 3 churches in Atlanta, Georgia, and one each in North Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D. C.
Keralite Pentecostal churches in Florida are mainly in the Miami-Hollywood area and in the central Florida cities of Orlando and Lakeland. The first such fellowship began in 1977. Currently there are several churches and about 175 families attending these churches.
