About 300 Latino Christians walked down Main Street on Sunday in what organizers called a spiritual demonstration meant to share their faith with the broader community.
The 16th annual walk, organized by Familia De Dios church, drew participants from multiple congregations across Suffolk County who processed slowly down Main Street while praying and singing.
“We prepared this activity with the sole purpose that the world, the population of Riverhead, knows the path of truth, knows Jesus Christ,” Familia de Dios church Pastor Daniel Orellana said. “It is not a political march or anything like that. Our desire is for the world to know Jesus Christ.”
The procession began at 10:30 a.m. on McDermott Avenue behind the aquarium, facing Peconic River, and proceeded down Main Street to Familia De Dios church at 400 W. Main St., concluding around 1:30 p.m. Riverhead police closed the street and provided security for the event.
Participating congregations included Fuente de Jacob church in Moriches and other evangelical churches in Riverhead. A group of Latino chaplains and pastors from the General Fraternity of Hispanic Pastors of Suffolk County also joined the march.
“This was not just an activity of Familia De Dios,” Orellana said. “We wanted it to be more open so that people can know that even though we attend different congregations, the body of God is one.”
The walk featured a truck with music leading the procession, dance groups and a brief 15-minute sermon delivered at one of the stops on the corner of Roanoke Ave. Participants carried banners and signs, and stopped to pray for the community, local authorities and police at various locations.
The celebration came as Orellana’s congregation grapples with the detention of a longtime church member, highlighting concerns within the local Latino community about immigration enforcement.
About two months ago, federal agents arrived at a home in Mastic where the congregant lives, according to Orellana. The agents were searching for another person who lived in the house, but when they didn’t find that person, they questioned the church member as he was leaving his home.
“They asked him for papers, and he gave them his [driver’s] license, and that’s how they took him away,” Orellana said.
The detained man, whom Orellana described as a deacon and youth leader, has been a member of Familia De Dios for more than 22 years. He is married with two young children and is someone who was “transformed by God,” Orellana said.
Orellana said he and other church members recently traveled to Pennsylvania to visit the man in detention, describing the experience as deeply painful.
“He’s there as if he were a criminal. We passed through nine doors to be able to see him. Nine. A man who has done absolutely nothing, only the situation of his [immigration] papers,” Orellana said. “A faithful man, dedicated to Jesus, living such a difficult situation.”
The detention has caused “great pain” throughout the congregation, according to Orellana, who said he is troubled by the families in the community who have been separated by similar enforcement actions.
The detained member has a court hearing scheduled for Oct. 3, and the congregation is hoping bail will be granted.
“This is a very difficult situation,” Orellana said. “We are praying to God that he will be reunited with his family again.”
Despite these challenges, the pastor emphasized that Sunday’s march is not political, and completely focused on faith.
Orellana said the event grew from a dream his wife had years ago that seemed impossible at the time. Now that dream is expanding, with other evangelical congregations and groups joining.
“We wanted the world to realize that we are not few,” Orellana said. “The Hispanic Christian people have grown a lot. We are not 20, 30, 50 — we are many, many more.”
Familia De Dios holds weekly Sunday services for about 300 congregants, with additional prayer services on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and ministry programs for youth, women and men on Saturdays.
“Our intention is to present Jesus Christ as our savior,” Orellana said. “If the world understood who Jesus Christ is, there would not be so much death, so much pain, so much uncertainty. Jesus Christ gives peace.”
“It is not a political matter, it is a matter of preaching Jesus Christ as our savior.”
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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