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Consulta Hispana 2014 Forms Hispanic Council

October 29, 2014
Delmy Duran and Pastor Gerry Muller from Eglesia Evangelica in Sunnyside, WA.

Delmy Duran and Pastor Gerry Muller from Eglesia Evangelica in Sunnyside, WA.

Participants in the recent Consulta Hispana 2014 founded a Latino Council which will represent and lead the Hispanic Ministry of the Christian Reformed Church in collaboration with the various denominational agencies and ministries.

The unanimous decision culminated a process that began at the First Consulta Hispana held at Calvin College in June 2013.

Consulta Hispana 2014, involving Hispanic leaders from across the denomination, met at Ebenezer CRC in Berwyn, Ill.

Viviana Cornejo, a member of the Hispanic Catalyst Team that coordinated Consulta Hispana 2014, says members of the new Latino Consejo (Council), a group of nine, will all various regions of the denomination.

Rev. Marco Avila, pastor of The New Horizon in Paterson, New Jersey made the motion to form the Consejo and Sergio Castillo, pastor of a CRC congregation in Quincy, Wash., seconded the motion.

“The vote to form it was unanimous and we prayed with thanks to the Lord for it,” says Cornejo.

The Consejo has met already twice in the areas of education, holistic ministry and advocacy.

Overall, says Cornejo, the “Hispanic ministry wants to have the Council as the leading body, that's why it's so important that it's composed by representatives from all the regions.

“The goal is to strengthen current ministries, to raise new leaders and find ways to do that,  to advocate for the ministries, and to expand the ministry in the CRC,” she says.

The desire of the Council and the Hispanic ministry is to work and collaborate with Home Missions and the other agencies and ministries, says Cornejo, a race relations advocate for the CRC.

As of yet, the council has no chairperson, but it is in the process of discerning how best to go about it and it will meet in January to make a final decision.

The Hispanic Catalyst Team began their report at the recent consultation with a summary of the Consulta 2013, the history, the analysis and decisions.

Following the Hispanic Catalyst Team Report, Dr. Steven Timmermans, executive director of the CRC, gave a few remarks, praising the work of Consulta 2014.

The Consulta Hispana 2014 ended with the closing communion that included prayers of thanksgiving for the work of the Hispanic Catalyst Team for the past three years, as well as for the newly elected Hispanic Council.  

The message given by Rev. Guillermo Serrano, Spanish outreach leader for Back to God Ministries International.