PAN-PACIFIC CHRISTMAS.

Byline: Jessie Mangaliman, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Dec. 25--Tamales and lumpia graced a Christmas dinner table at St. Cyprian Church.

For the Rev. Arthur Yabes, it was more than a culinary fusion of Mexican and Filipino dishes.

"This is what community is about," he said, surveying the mix of about 300 Latinos and Filipinos who crowded the Roman Catholic Church hall and school gym in Sunnyvale on Friday night. "This is the future of the church."

It's not just the future of St. Cyprian. Many churches in the Bay Area, where one in three residents is foreign-born, are facing similar demographic shifts and the challenge of reaching out to their new flocks.

For the past nine days, Latinos and Filipinos at St. Cyprian have separately celebrated a Christmas tradition called la posada in Spanish, and simbang gabi in …