Christianity in Houston
[6] John Odin, a bishop arrived in 1841 to help establish it, and in the fall of 1842 the building, in the Second Ward, was fully built.
[9] In 1911 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston brought the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a series of priests intended to minister to the Mexican population of Houston.
[9] Due to an increase in demand in Catholic services, oblates established missions in various Mexican-American neighborhoods.
[13] It originated as an oblate mission in Magnolia Park, on the second floor of the residence of Emilio Aranda.
[16] The number of Black Catholics in Houston increased after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 affected rural areas in the Southern United States.
"[25] St. Faustina Catholic Church, popular with Greater Katy's Venezuelan population, is in proximity to Cinco Ranch.
It previously held its services at Joe Hubenak Elementary School, but in 2017 it moved into its own 1,600-seat building.
[26] The first wave of Vietnamese immigrants to Houston, occurring after the end of the Vietnam War, was mostly Catholic.
[28] Vietnamese Catholic churches in the Houston area as of 2008 include Christ Incarnate Word Parish (Vietnamese: Giáo Xứ Đức Kito Ngôi Lời Nhập Thể), Holy Rosary Parish, Our Lady of Lavang (Giáo Xứ Đức Mẹ Lavang), Our Lady of Lourdes, and Vietnamese Martyrs (Giáo Xứ Các Thánh Tử Đạo Việt Nam).
[28] On August 8, 2008, a bus with Vietnamese Catholics from the Houston area was traveling to a Missouri festival to honor the Virgin Mary and crashed near Sherman in North Texas.
[29] The city has a Polish American church, Our Lady of Czestochowa Roman Catholic Parish in Spring Branch, established in the 1980s.
At the time Polish immigrants who resisted Communist rule in that country arrived in Houston.
That year, Christine Dow, a spokesperson for the church, stated that there were about 500 families who were members, and that the community, since the 1990s, had increased.
In 2001 Reverend Gerald B. Kieschnick, a native of Houston, began his role as the leader of the Missouri Synod Lutherans in the United States.
The denomination's flagship First Presbyterian Church is a conservative congregation that disaffiliated from the larger body in 2016 and affiliated with ECO.
It opened to serve ethnic Koreans in The Woodlands, Conroe, Huntsville, Kingwood, and Spring.
[42] By 1918 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints then commonly known as "Mormons", arrived in Houston.
Today, there are 22 Stakes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that serve the Houston, Texas area.
[45] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Houston includes congregations that speak English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and ASL.
[48] On Saturday April 30, 2011 a new meeting house located on a 7-acre (2.8 ha) site in Sienna Plantation, was scheduled to open.
[43] In 2018 church member Sam Young, from Sugar Land, advocated against bishops meeting one-on-one with children and asking them questions about sexual activity (the law of chastity).
Immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and other countries have added to Houston's Orthodox population.
[52] In 1861 the first Orthodox church in the Houston area, named after Saints Constantine and Helen, was in Galveston.
Immigrants came from the Arab world, Greece, Romania, Russia, Syria, and Antakya in Turkey.
The ceremony to celebrate the completion of its current building was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday October 23–24, 2010.
Every month, a priest from Los Angeles flew to Houston and started a mass in a borrowed Orthodox church or in a private house.
[58] Houston's Ethiopian Orthodox church is the Debre Selam Medhanealem Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church (Amharic: ደብረ ሰላም መድኃኔዓለም የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን Debre Selam MedhaneAlem YeItyopphya Ortodoks Tewahedo Bete Kristiyan; the name approximately means "Sanctuary of Peace and the Savior") in Fondren Southwest.
[59] The Malankara Orthodox Diocese of Southwest America is headquartered in Fort Bend County, Texas, near Beasley.
[65] In December 2010 Reverend Harry Knox, a pro-LGBT activist, became the leader of the Resurrection Metropolitan.
In 2008, pro-LGBT activist Jay Bakker argued that Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church, should speak out in favor of the LGBT community, and invited him to join his group in a picnic.
