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On Sunday afternoons, Eliana Velasquez's voice carries out from Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal's storefront church into the parking lot of the Rosecroft Shopping Center in Temple Hills.

The 32-year-old song leader, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1995 from Peru and lives in Hyattsville, is among several dozen Spanish speakers who travel each week from around Prince George's County to Union Bethel, a predominantly African-American church that first opened its doors in August to the county's growing Hispanic community.

"She is very happy," translated the Rev. Filiberto E. Romero, a Hyattsville minister who leads the Spanish services. "Now she finds more people to listen to the gospel."

Union Bethel, which also has a location in Brandywine, hands its Temple Hills building over to Romero, who leads prayers and songs entirely in Spanish during a Sunday service. Romero said that there are Hispanic churches in the area, but Union Bethel is one of the only African-American churches in south county he knows of that is trying to integrate Hispanics — most of whom are immigrants — into its congregation.

The Rev. Anthony Young, a minister with Union Bethel, said the idea for Spanish language services sprang from changes he began noticing last year around the shopping center.

About a year ago, he said, a Jumbo Food International — which stocks products from around the world — opened several doors down from the church. When a sign appeared in another storefront advertising a peluqueria, Spanish for "barbershop," Young said he and Union Bethel's Rev. Harry L. Seawright decided to reach out to their new neighbors.

In addition to the Spanish language services, Hispanic congregants are invited to church events and can use church resources, from counseling to home buying workshops.

"We're trying to be real about our religion," Young said. "How can you say you're a church if you don't keep your doors open to everyone?"

The Hispanic immigrant population in Prince George's County has grown steadily over the last five years. As of 2008, immigrants of all nationalities made up around 18.5 percent of the total population in the county, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In 2003, immigrants were less than 14 percent of the county.

Romero, who is also a chaplain with the county corrections department, said most of the Hispanic worshippers coming to Union Bethel are immigrants from a variety of Latin American countries, including El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama.

Young said he and the other ministers are aware of the national debate about immigration, but they are not worried about whether their parishioners are in the U.S. legally.

"Our policy is, they're coming for worship, so we're really not asking those questions," he said.

One of the regular attendees at Union Bethel's Spanish language services, Jorge Luna, 34, emigrated from El Salvador in 1997 and works construction jobs around the region. Luna, who speaks English and Spanish, lives in Hyattsville but travels to Temple Hills for the Spanish language services.

"For an English-speaking church, for me it's the first time [I've] seen this," he said.

The search for jobs and affordable housing is leading immigrants into the suburbs, said Audrey Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies immigration.

South county is a new destination for immigrants, she said, which means there are less services and resources available to them in Spanish, especially when compared to longer-standing immigrant communities in Montgomery County or Fairfax, Va.

Racial conflict can also be an issue when Hispanics move into a mostly African-American community like Temple Hills, Young said, but neither he nor Romero said they sensed tension.

However, Young added that religious institutions are "the last frontier" when it comes to integration.

"People are comfortable in their worship and that's where discrimination can still happen," he said. "We're doing something a lot of other people aren't considering."

E-mail Zoe Tillman at ztillman@gazette.net.