wfn.org | Hispanic leaders endorse candidate for bishop

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 13, 1999 News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-32-71BP{422}

NOTE:  Photographs are available with this story.

By Paul McKay*

DALLAS (UMNS) - More than 500 United Methodist clergy and lay leaders who
gathered recently to celebrate Hispanic ministries held a series of creative
worship services, approved numerous political resolutions in plenary
sessions and gave their blessings to a candidate for episcopacy.

Despite complaints from some participants that the National Hispanic
Consultation - only the second meeting of its kind in 20 years - emphasized
politics over evangelism, an endorsement for the candidacy of the Rev.
Minerva G. Carcańo for United Methodist bishop sparked a standing ovation.
The 45-year-old Texan's episcopal aspirations are supported by the Rio
Grande Annual (regional) Conference, of which she is the first ordained
clergywoman.

"Whether we are in New Jersey, Florida or Puerto Rico, when we mention the
name of Minerva, everyone knows who we are talking about," one consultation
participant noted.

Carcańo, of Dallas, is director of the Mexican-American Program at Southern
Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology and a consultation
organizer.

Perkins and the Rio Grande conference were among the sponsors of the
four-day meeting in which Hispanic leaders, representing all United
Methodist jurisdictions in the United States, banded together with
Methodist-affiliated church officials from Puerto Rico, Cuba and other
Latino countries.

Noted speakers among conference leaders included:
*	The Rev. Justo L. González, a retired clergy member of the Rio
Grande conference, Yale-educated scholar and author of several books on
theology and Hispanic ministry.
*	The Rev. Yolanda Pupo-Ortiz, clergy member of the
Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference and associate general secretary of
the General Commission on Religion and Race;
*	The Rev. Saúl Trinidad, clergy member of the Detroit Annual
Conference and a nationally known consultant with the United Methodist
National Plan for Hispanic Ministries.

Bishop Elias Galván (Seattle Area), one of two United Methodist Hispanic
bishops, said the consultation fulfilled the objectives of bringing Hispanic
leaders together to celebrate their past and share ideas for the future.

"I think these kinds of celebrations are very good for Hispanic churches
across the nation," said Galván, who leads the Pacific Northwest Annual
Conference. "I thought it was a very positive experience with a great deal
of celebration. Many of these ministries are isolated and do not have many
opportunities to relate to each other."

Along with Bishop Joel Martínez (Nebraska Area), Galván was an organizer of
the first National Hispanic Consultation held in Los Angeles at a time -
1979 -- when the church had no Hispanic bishops. Martínez led the opening
services at the Dallas consultation, which drew about 525 participants.

Galván said he disagrees with those who took to the microphones in the final
plenary session to criticize the event. Protesters contended the
consultation overemphasized political and social issues at the expense of
instruction on how to keep pace with the growth of the Hispanic church and
how to spread the Gospel.

"There was an attempt to be open and flexible," Galván told the United
Methodist Reporter in response to the criticism. "When you bring together
people from a lot of different places, you're going to get different
perspectives. I think  there was a good mixture of worship services,
workshops and everything  else."

Resolutions, most of which sailed to approval, included a call for repeal of
the 1996 Immigration Act - a federal law described by one participant as
"completely inhumane." Another critic of the law said it classifies innocent
immigrants as criminals.

Participants also agreed on a demand for the release of "political
prisoners" in Puerto Rico and the shutdown of a U.S. Navy training base on
the isle of Vieques in Puerto Rico, where a civilian was killed in April
when bombs from an attack jet went astray.

Another measure that won favor denounces a controversial reorganization
report that has been drafted by the Connectional Process Team. Hispanic
officials contend that the denominationwide structural changes proposed by
the team may result, in the words of one critic, in a church that is
"culturally exclusive."

The Rev. German Acevedo Delgado, a staff member of the New York-based United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries and coordinator of the consultation,
answered those who complained of the political overtones of the event with a
terse statement: "What we have done here is still part of the gospel." 

Because the consultation is not an official body of the church, Acevedo
Delgado said, the resolutions were agreed on "in principle." They will be
forwarded to the unofficial Hispanic caucus, Metodistas Asociados
Representando la Causa de los Hispano-Americans (Methodists Associated to
Represent the Cause of Hispanic Americans, or MARCHA). The resolutions will
be considered at MARCHA's annual assembly in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in
November.

Many of the resolutions will be presented at General Conference, the highest
legislative body of the church, or to official United Methodist agencies,
said the Rev. José Orlando Rivera, executive director of  MARCHA.

"We're going to have a lot of work to do at our assembly; we won't have time
for the beach," he quipped.

Other Latino church leaders attending the gathering included Bishop Juan
Vera Mendez of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico and Bishop Isaias
Gutierrez of the Methodist Church of Chile. Gutierrez is president of the
ecumenical Council of Latin American Evangelical Methodist Churches.

# # #

*McKay is associate editor of United Methodist Reporter.

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