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- The Palermo La Noce Story
This report from Palermo La Noce was written by Greetje van der Veer, pictured above, the local preacher in pastoral service at the Waldensian Methodist Church in the La Noce neighborhood in Palermo, Italy.
The histories of the Methodist and Waldensian churches in the Noce neighborhood of Palermo Noce are very much intertwined. Both the Waldensian Church and the Methodist Church have been active in the city since the 19th century.
In 1956, Pastor Pietro Valdo Panascia came to the Waldensian Church of Palermo, where for the previous 90 years, there had already been a school known as the Istituto Valdese. At the end of the 1950s, the Instituto went through a difficult phase but, beginning in 1959, the dynamic Pastor Panascia revived it – no longer in the church building in Via Spezio, but in the nearby Borgo Vecchio, one of the most neglected and disreputable districts of Palermo. In the same year, an Italian American couple provided a large space of their own as well as a sum of money, with the request to extend the work to the “La Noce” neighborhood, where the couple’s wife had lived in poverty and neglect. This work was also supported with contributions from Germany and Switzerland.
The newsletter of the Centro Diaconale La Noce, Una Voce da Palermo, states that, in addition to the expansion of school activities, its work was tantamount to “a tactical penetration in the La Noce neighborhood, which then was still a stronghold of illiteracy, juvenile delinquency, and the Mafia.” In 1974, the school and the social work ministries moved to the current premises in the La Noce district. Soon thereafter a Waldensian congregation was organized in that new space.
The Methodist congregation was founded in the 1870s in the center of Palermo. During World War I, a beautiful church complete with a school and facilities or social ministry was built. During the years of Fascism, the church was closed, as the Methodist Church depended on an ecclesiastical center abroad, based in England.
In the 1970’s, the church building itself was demolished as a result of speculative urban development. The congregation moved to the premises of the Centro Diaconale, where initially it continued its life as a separate congregation. But little by little, the Methodists and the Waldensians came to share the same rooms and the same communal life, and, in time, they also came to hold their church services together. In the mid-1990s, the two congregations moved to a building next to the Centro Diaconale, where they are still located today. In 2021, the two congregations formally joined and now they continue as a single united congregation.
An experience that undoubtedly contributed to the birth of the Methodist and Waldensian community in the La Noce neighborhood in Palermo was the arrival of migrants from the African continent beginning in the 1980s. The new united parish was, from a practical point of view, the first “laboratory” of the ministry “Essere Chiesa Insieme” (Being Church Together), which seeks to build multi-ethnic and intercultural congregations. Being Church Together works not just to get congregations to welcome immigrants, but to allow themselves to be transformed. The goal is to help build congregations in which each and every person can have an active and integral role in all dimensions of church life, including in church decision making. Being Church Together is a living reality, but also a work in progress – constantly evolving – that requires commitment and effort. This is a process that must be accompanied by prayer and trust in God’s guidance. With this trust the experience of congregational communion can contribute to the daily life of the broader society. If we are capable of fraternal and sororal coexistence, we can then translate this experience into the daily life of the society in which we live.
The long coexistence of the Waldensian and Methodist congregations and the Centro Diaconale has allowed for the development of numerous forms of cooperation. In the early years, the director of the center was also the pastor of the two congregations. Now, the director of the diaconal center is not the same person as the pastor of the church.
The Diaconal Center conducts many activities, not only educational ones. Its work is organized around two main areas: education and social-rehabilitative services. Some of the services offered, alongside the preschool and primary school, include:
Casa dei Mirti, a second-level reception facility for unaccompanied foreign minors;
Casa Vale la Pena, a project carried out in cooperation with the Palermo Office for External Penal Enforcement, providing housing for five people coming from the penal system;
Social housing, a shared living space for vulnerable individuals experiencing temporary housing difficulties;
Agar, a reception service for women who are victims of violence;
Extreme poverty, services, and interventions aimed at combating poverty and social exclusion for people living in conditions of extreme poverty and homelessness;
Meridiana 13, an apartment offering transitional support and a new care intervention for young migrants;
University corridors, a project that provides an accessible and protected pathway for refugee students from third countries who wish to continue their university studies in order to build a dignified future;
Rehabilitation center, a specialized outpatient clinic for people with disabilities;
Volunteer service, with a group of international volunteers primarily involved in educational activities.
Some of the services mentioned are part of the Municipal Reception and Integration System (SAI) for migrants. These services include projects of personal assistance and local integration activated by local authorities.
There are also a guesthouse and a conference center, tools that—through visits and hospitality—promote dialogue between supporters and the Diaconal Center and contribute to the self-financing of activities for minors. All proceeds are in fact allocated to funding educational and social-care activities.
As already highlighted, the community and the Diaconal Center share a long common history, marked by interconnections and collaboration. In conclusion, I would like to mention one particular service carried out jointly.
For a few years now, the church has opened its doors once a week to everyone in the community to facilitate access to various community services including the healthcare system, the government offices that give residence permit and social benefits, and access to Italian language instruction. This help desk is open not only to church members, but to the entire population.
This is a shared commitment of both the Diaconal Center and the Methodist and Waldensian Community of Palermo Noce – within our facilities, but also throughout the city. We often come together for meetings on social issues, particularly on the theme of migration. Each of the two entities follows its own specific path, but there are increasingly many squares and streets – both physical and spiritual – where we meet and where we carry forward together a shared project of living together.
The La Noce congregation is still an intercultural congregation. In recent years, many of its older Italian-background members are no longer able to be active in the congregation due to advancing age and health problems. At present, the majority of the church’s members come from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Cameroon. Many sing in the church choir or participate in the women’s group, the Bible study group, a prayer group, or a catechism class. The church council has six members from migration contexts, two Italian-born members, and the church pastor who is a Dutch European. The worship service is conducted in two languages, Italian and English. Recently, some parts are also offered in French, as the proportion of people from French-speaking countries has grown. Fortunately, there are many songs that can be sung in several languages (Italian, English, French, Twi), which makes the service easier and more accessible. The choir itself is also intercultural. The prayers after the sermon are spoken in all the languages represented, usually by the worshippers themselves. The Palermo La Noce congregation is indeed intercultural, even if this dimension is not immediately apparent, for the church, many participants come from Africa, but—as mentioned above—they have different, sometimes quite different, ways of living their faith.
La Noce is a neighborhood with about 30,000 people in the geographical center of Palermo. Palermo is the capital and largest city on the island of Sicily. There are two Waldensian churches in Palermo. The other is on the Via dello Spezio about a half hour’s walk from the Waldensian Methodist Church in Palermo La Noce.
Greetje van der Veer, the author of this article, is the local preacher in pastoral service at the Waldensian Methodist Church in the La Noce neighborhood in Palermo, Italy.
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