GETTING SETTLED IN AUSTIN
FAITH IN CENTRAL TEXAS
Moving to a new city and finding a
new spiritual community can be
challenging. Yet it is both exciting and
comforting to find people and places that
are familiar during this exciting adventure of
change. Austin offers a large selection of
churches, synagogues, temples and other
houses of worship to help make the
transition to your new community smoother.
For those who are starting to look for a
spiritual home as well as a physical one,
finding a place to worship in whatever
way is comfortable to you will make
starting your new life that much more
rewarding and help create a deeper
bond with
neighbors.
your new friends and
Contrary to the popular perception that
Austin residents possess a more secular
mindset, according to BestPlaces.net,
“ 44. 47 percent of the people in Austin,
Texas are religious, meaning they affiliate
with a religion.”
The city is also a center of religious
thinking. The Liberal Arts College at the
University of Texas at Austin features its
own Department of Religious Studies,
which is set to expand its program to
covering multiple religious traditions to
include MA and PhD degrees. Other
institutions that offer outstanding religious
studies include the Austin Presbyterian
Theological Seminary, Concordia
Lutheran, Huston-Tillotson, the Episcopal
Theological Seminary of the Southwest,
College and St. Edward’s University and
the Lutheran Seminary Program in the
Southwest. The LDS Church also operates
its own center for faith-based learning,
called the Austin Institute, which serves
multiple institutions, including several of
those mentioned above.
There is a large Protestant Christian
presence in Austin, with Methodist, Baptist,
Episcopal, Anglican, Lutheran and
Presbyterian churches represented
throughout the region. The Eastern
Orthodox Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Non-Denominational Christianity, as well as
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
Unitarian and Unity faiths, are Christian
sects that also find a home in Austin.
The Catholic Church also has a large
following in Austin. A suffragen to the
Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, the
Diocese of Austin resides over 125
parishes in 25 counties across Central
Texas with a population of some
450,000 parishioners, and runs six
306 AUSTIN RELOCATION GUIDE – WINTER 2012 | SPRING 2013
