Philadelphia Pastor Given Dante Venegas Award

Rev. Manny Ortiz, pastor of Spirit and Truth Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Philadelphia, Penn., was this year’s recipient of the Dante Venegas Award.

The award was presented at this year’s Multiethnic Conference, held in conjunction with Synod 2013.

Ortiz was recognized as a trailblazer in cross-cultural ministry for his work in church planting in Chicago and Philadelphia.

Ortiz could not travel to the conference so Pedro Aviles, who was mentored by Ortiz, accepted the award on his behalf. “He has an incredible ability in cross-cultural relationships,” said Aviles. “I am ministering today because of him.”

The Dante Venegas Award was established by the CRC’s office of Race Relations in 2011 to honor those who “demonstrate a passion for multicultural congregations and a commitment to antiracism.”

“You can’t know about diversity in the CRC without knowing about Dante Venegas,” said his wife Jackie.

Venegas was a co-pastor of Madison Square CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich., before he died of cancer in 2007. His wife and Chris Meehan co-authored a book about him titled Dante’s Dance.

“The message of reconciliation is in action tonight,” Jackie Venegas told conference attendees. “As my husband would put it, this is the real deal. God’s people must come together as one.”

For continuous coverage of Synod 2013 including the live webcast, news, video recordings, photos, liveblog, social media links, and more visit www.crcna.org/synod.