(left to right) Mario Bolivar, teaching elder commissioner; Miguel Rosa Morales, member of the Stated Clerk Nominating Committee; Gloria Lozada, ruling elder commissioner; Sonia Suárez-Cualia, moderator of the Christian Formation Committee; Gismar Pérez Cruz, Young Adult Advisory Delegate; and Danny Morales, teaching elder commissioner. Photos by Rich Copley, Kristen Gaydos, and Randy Hobson.
Members of the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee and others were celebrating this week the passage of RSG-05, a resolution addressing diversity, equity, inclusion and the realities of Hispanic Latino-a-é ministry.
The resolution, approved by commissioners to the 226th General Assembly Monday by a 373-31 margin, calls for a re-imagining of Hispanic Latino ministry in the PC(USA) in these ways:
- Directing the Presbyterian Mission Agency and Office of General Assembly (and/or their successor agency) to host and fund an in-person gathering in the first half of 2026. This discernment gathering will form the foundation for the development of new programs and initiatives to equip Latino-a-é leadership and congregations to respond to unique challenges and opportunities.
- Directing PMA and OGA to allocate up to $120,000 in 2025 and up to $60,000 in 2026 to implement the results of the re-imagining and discernment gathering.
- Directing PMA and OGA to collaborate with those attending the gathering to help introduce the program across the PC(USA).
- Encouraging mid councils to identify bilingual liaisons to attend training sessions and webinars to learn the new program and become facilitators and advocates of the new program in their mid council.
- Directing the Unification Commission to identify and allocate sufficient resources in 2026 to ensure robust support to Latino-a- é leadership and congregations in the new agency.
The resolution also directs the Committee on Theological Education to convene a consultation with the Hispanic Latino Caucus to explore effective ways of providing theological education and pastoral training for pastoral leaders in Hispanic Latina congregations and communities. It directs the PMA to intentionally incorporate the Hispanic historical experience within the framework of the Center for the Repair of Historic Harms. It also encourages mid councils to develop structures, policies and practices needed to intentionally build the relationships among churches necessary to allow the PC(USA) to thrive in the current demographic and cultural realities of the United States.
The Rev. Carmen M. Rosario, who chairs REAC, is a member of the PMA Board and is co-moderator of the National Hispanic Presbyterian Caucus, told the assembly on Monday that Hispanic, Latino-a-é and Spanish-speaking people “are Presbyterians who continue to believe that a more just world is possible and that the church always continues to be reformed by God.”
“In spite of this,” she said, “we bring a story of pain, struggle and injustices that require exposure, attention, care and reparation.”
The resolution “is the result of the effort, compromise and labor of a diverse group of people who came together to explore ways by which Hispanic/Latino-a-é Presbyterian ministry would serve the needs” of communities in the United States and Puerto Rico.
“No one program fits all,” Rosario said. “In our Hispanic Latino-a-é faith communities, each mission context may be unique.” The resolution “allows us to bring together leadership representing our diverse backgrounds and walks of life to learn and be empowered to advocate and support the movement of Re-imagining Hispanic Latino-a-é ministries in their own regions.”
“Friends, we are committed to engage in a process of re-imagining, re-envisioning and rebuilding Latino-a-é Hispanic ministry in the PC(USA),” Rosario said.