Church of Affirmation

We visited the Church of Affirmation in Half Moon Bay California. The congregation, meeting in a converted double-car garage, serves doses of positivity in Spanish to farmworkers and their families. Hiram Guy, who officiates services, offered to explain. “These people are Catholics and feel the heavy hand of guilt. Our service follows the Catholic service, but we emphasize the positive. We leave out the parts about sin and punishment. We sing a lot of Disney songs translated into Spanish. The homily is short and sweet, but we aren’t Polyannas. We know their lives are hard; we want to give them hope. We say, ‘We know your situation will get better; lift up your eyes.’ I’m not ordained, nothing like that, but we don’t ask for tithes. I’m not good with the negative stuff; I just try to be supportive. Support for this practice locally has been generally positive.”