'Christ's path of healing': PCUSA returns land to Native American tribe in California

[Michie]

A regional body of The Presbyterian Church (USA) has returned a piece of land to a California-based Native American tribe, reportedly the first church in the state to do so.

The PC(USA) Presbytery of San Gabriel donated their La Casa de San Gabriel Community Center to the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, led by the Gabrieleno Tongva Tribal Council under Chief Anthony Morales.

The community center, which opened around 80 years ago to serve the Latino community, has since closed due to a lack of funding and changes in the local demographic.

The land return ceremony was held in August and featured representatives of the mainline Protestant denomination and the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, as well as San Gabriel Mayor Denise Menchaca.

A SGBMI spokesperson told The Christian Post via email this week that the Gabrieleno Tongva have lived in the area "since time immemorial," with their ancestors being "taken from their village locations all across their ancestral territory known as Tovaangar and enslaved at the San Gabriel Mission" during the 1770s.

Continued below.

'Christ's path of healing': PCUSA returns land to Native American tribe in California

A regional body of The Presbyterian Church USA has returned a piece of land to a California-based Native American tribe, reportedly the first church in the state to do so

www.christianpost.com

 

[Danny boy2]

A regional body of The Presbyterian Church (USA) has returned a piece of land to a California-based Native American tribe, reportedly the first church in the state to do so.

The PC(USA) Presbytery of San Gabriel donated their La Casa de San Gabriel Community Center to the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, led by the Gabrieleno Tongva Tribal Council under Chief Anthony Morales.

The community center, which opened around 80 years ago to serve the Latino community, has since closed due to a lack of funding and changes in the local demographic.

The land return ceremony was held in August and featured representatives of the mainline Protestant denomination and the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, as well as San Gabriel Mayor Denise Menchaca.

A SGBMI spokesperson told The Christian Post via email this week that the Gabrieleno Tongva have lived in the area "since time immemorial," with their ancestors being "taken from their village locations all across their ancestral territory known as Tovaangar and enslaved at the San Gabriel Mission" during the 1770s.

Continued below.

'Christ's path of healing': PCUSA returns land to Native American tribe in California

A regional body of The Presbyterian Church USA has returned a piece of land to a California-based Native American tribe, reportedly the first church in the state to do so

www.christianpost.com

 

[Tuur]

A SGBMI spokesperson told The Christian Post via email this week that the Gabrieleno Tongva have lived in the area "since time immemorial," with their ancestors being "taken from their village locations all across their ancestral territory known as Tovaangar and enslaved at the San Gabriel Mission" during the 1770s.

Uh huh.

The reality of the situation is that the Spanish brought in missionaries thinking it would "tame" the locals, but time and again the missionaries ended up siding with the locals against Spanish authorities. Believers, out of their devotion to Christ, often volunteered at missions, much like modern churches are built, cleaned, and maintained by volunteers today. It wasn't the missionaries who convinced the Apalachee in what's now present day SW Georgia / Florida Panhandle to build their chapel on the palisade wall of town with a door through the wall so all could come in and worship. I know about that because that's how the English and Creeks took the town in one of those almost forgotten wars: The door to the chapel was a weak point, and that's how they got though the wall.

What the Presbyterians do with their own is their business. What the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians do with it is theirs. I just hope it doesn't turn out like one former church property I know of. It was sold and the property became a Buddhist temple.

 

[Hvizsgyak]

A regional body of The Presbyterian Church (USA) has returned a piece of land to a California-based Native American tribe, reportedly the first church in the state to do so.

The PC(USA) Presbytery of San Gabriel donated their La Casa de San Gabriel Community Center to the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, led by the Gabrieleno Tongva Tribal Council under Chief Anthony Morales.

The community center, which opened around 80 years ago to serve the Latino community, has since closed due to a lack of funding and changes in the local demographic.

The land return ceremony was held in August and featured representatives of the mainline Protestant denomination and the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, as well as San Gabriel Mayor Denise Menchaca.

A SGBMI spokesperson told The Christian Post via email this week that the Gabrieleno Tongva have lived in the area "since time immemorial," with their ancestors being "taken from their village locations all across their ancestral territory known as Tovaangar and enslaved at the San Gabriel Mission" during the 1770s.

Continued below.

'Christ's path of healing': PCUSA returns land to Native American tribe in California

A regional body of The Presbyterian Church USA has returned a piece of land to a California-based Native American tribe, reportedly the first church in the state to do so

www.christianpost.com

God bless them - a grand gesture on the part of PCUSA .