page_title: Religion in Metro Detroit
section_title: History of Christianity
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Metro Detroit / Christianity / History of Christianity
caption_attribution_description: English: Saints Peter and Paul Church, MI
context_page_description: Metro Detroit includes Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and other groups.
context_section_description: The first church founded in the city was Ste. Anne de Detroit Catholic Church, which opened in 1701. The current Sts. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church building opened in what is now Downtown Detroit in 1848; it is the oldest church building in Detroit that is still standing today. The current Christ Church of Detroit facility was built in what is now Downtown Detroit in 1863; it is the oldest Protestant church in Michigan that is still at its original site. The current St. Anne opened in 1886.
  Mexicans and Mexican Americans began attending Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Mexicantown in 1955. In 1955 the Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana ("First Baptist Mexican Church") opened and its membership was 200 families by 1960. The same congregation established a branch of the Lincoln Park Baptist Church, the Primera Iglesia Bautista del Sur (First Baptist Church of the South) that year. By 1960, the Holy Redeemer Elementary School had 200 Mexicans out of its 1,200 students. By 1961 the Holy Redemer church had established a Spanish language mass and it had 500 Mexican church worshipers.
  As of the 1950s and 1960s other churches frequented by Mexican Americans and Mexicans included All Saints Church, Holy Cross Church in Delray, Most Holy Trinity, St. Anne's, St. Anthony, St. Boniface, St. Leo, and St. Vincent.
  In the 1964-1965 school year, there were 360 schools operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, with about 110 grade schools in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park and 55 high schools in those three cities. There were a total of 203,000 students in the Catholic schools. The Catholic school population has decreased due to the increase of charter schools, increasing tuition at Catholic schools, the small number of African-American Catholics, White Catholics moving to suburbs, and the decreased number of teaching nuns.
  Religious TV program Jack Van Impe Ministries is broadcast from Rochester Hills.
caption: Sts. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church, the oldest church building in Detroit
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