Filipino pastor heads VA church

February 25, 2008  --  Got something to say?
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VIRGINIA BEACH Were challenging our church to go, glow and grow! announced the Rev. Jeremias M. Lagahit, the Philippines-born minister whos led the Filipino American church in Virginia Beach since 2006. He advertises his church as a Protestant worship service for a mostly Filipino congregation.

The congregation is one of a handful of Filipino Protestant churches serving South Hampton Roads estimated 24,000 Filipinos, most of whom are Catholic, the Virginia Pilot newspaper said. A strong Catholic streak also runs through the local Filipino community. Virginia Beach has several Catholic parishes with many Filipino members. Lagahit, 46, grew up in a United Church of Christ household on Mindanao, an island in southern Philippines. His father was a farmer and lay evangelist, and each morning, My mom woke us with Christian songs and hymns.

The Pilot said Lagahit became a minister after earning a theology bachelors degree from Silliman University (also started by a Protestant missionary) on Visayan island in 1986, serving churches in the Philippines. He earned a divinity graduate degree at Silliman in 1997. In 2003, he accepted a call by a Filipino UCC church in San Diego to be its pastor.

In 2006, he came to Faith Christian Fellowship as pastor at a time when its congregation had dwindled to less than a dozen. About the same time, the church moved from Newport News to Virginia Beach to tap the Southsides bigger Filipino community. The UCC has about 20 Filipino congregations in the United States.

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