UCC’s Latinx Colectivo names first-ever Executive Leadership Team

The United Church of Christ’s Latinx ministries group has a new team of leaders.

The Colectivo de Latinx Ministries announced its “inaugural” Executive Leadership Team in January. It’s the first since the Colectivo was voted at the 2019 General Synod as the successor to the Council for Hispanic Ministries.

The 11 leaders come from eight of the UCC’s 38 Conferences and each of the UCC’s six administrative regions. Their complete profiles are here.

List of members

The Board includes the Colectivo’s five officers:

• Moderator: the Rev. Edwin Pérez Jr. Senior pastor, Manantial de Gracia UCC, West Hartford, Conn.; bridge pastor, The Congregational Church of Naugatuck, Conn.
• Vice-Moderator: the Rev. Yinessa Romero. Hospice chaplain; member, Cathedral of Hope, Dallas.
• Secretary: Maria Vives. Member, Corona (N.Y.) Congregational UCC.
• Treasurer: the Rev. Crystal Silva-McCormick. Pastor, Church of the Savior, Cedar Park, Tex.
• Immediate Past Moderator: the Rev. Linda Jaramillo. Member, Ainsworth UCC, Portland, Ore.

It also includes six members at large:

• Taylor Ramage. Member, First and St. Stephen’s UCC, Baltimore.
• The Rev. Justo Gonzalez II. Member, Plymouth UCC, Grand Rapids, Mich.
• The Rev. Nancy Rosas. Pastor, Pilgrim-St. Luke’s UCC, Buffalo, N.Y.
• The Rev. Elizabeth “Liz” Aguilar. Senior pastor, Community Congregational Church, UCC, Chula Vista, Calif.
• The Rev. Yadi Martínez-Reyna. Associate pastor, New Church / Chiesa Nuova UCC, Dallas.
• Nancy Rosado. Layperson, Orlando, Fla.

The Rev. Jon Gilbert Martinez of Chicago, the Colectivo’s communication consultant and pastor of Christ Church UCC, Des Plaines, Ill., works with the committee.

Taking the baton

A nine-member Transition Leadership Team has led the Colectivo since the 2019 Synod granted it “historically underrepresented group” status. The new Executive Leadership Team was elected during a Nov. 13 assembly, or asemblea.

Moderator Pérez expressed the hope that has marked the group’s reorganizing work since then. “My hope for Colectivo is that it achieves what has never been done in the UCC for and with Latinxs and allies,” he said in the group’s January announcement. Vice-Moderator Romero added her hope “that the Holy Spirit empowers the Colectivo to become a pivotal group that promotes and encourages our religious, spiritual, social and cultural roots and values.”

“The Colectivo is ecstatic to introduce its inaugural executive committee,” Martinez said. “We thank the Transitional Team for carrying the ministry this far — empowering, and handing the wand to, a new team.”