Author: Aprilfaye T. Manalang (Norfolk State University Norfolk, Virginia)

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ABSTRACT

This research study explores a Filipino-American community that is “mostly Catholic,”† meaning that Filipino members of the Philippine-American Ecumenical Church of the United Church of Christ (PAECUSA-UCC) in Detroit, Michigan, formally affiliate as Catholic, attend Catholic parish on Sunday mornings, but then also actively participate in PAECUSA-UCC, a Protestant congregation, on Sunday afternoons and throughout the week. Drawing from fieldwork completed in Detroit, Michigan, at PAECUSA-UCC, this paper explores the intergenerational impact of religion on second-generation immigrants, Filipino-Americans in this case, and investigates the following questions: What does it mean when a group of people officially affiliate as Catholic but then actively engage in a non-Catholic religious community? What are the implications for official religious affiliation, belief, and belonging? Moreover, what role does religion play on intergenerational immigrant identity? To that end, this paper advances current social scientific understandings of the complex relationship between religious affiliation, culture, and identity in the 21st century.