Ordination of Hispanic UCC pastors lifts up ONA, 'new understanding'

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Ordination of Hispanic UCC pastors lifts up ONA, 'new understanding'

> Written by Jeff Woodard
> May 24, 2011
> []

ONA relevance and the culmination of a personal
theological transformation took bold steps
forward May 22 as the UCC ordained two Hispanic
pastors to serve primarily Spanish-speaking congregations.

A staunch advocate for social-justice issues ?
including the UCC's Open and Affirming (ONA)
position ? the Rev. Jose Claudio was ordained as
pastor of
<http://www.ucc.org/news/http://www.pslucc.org/index.php?option=com_conte 
nt&view=article&id=165:iglesia-hispana-hispanic-ministry&catid=91:igl 
esia-hispana-hispanic-ministry&Itemid=148>Iglesia
Unide De Cristo El Nuevo Camino in Buffalo, N.Y.

Meanwhile, at

<http://www.ucc.org/news/http://www.unitedchurch.org/>United
Church of Chapel Hill (N.C.) UCC, the Rev. David
Mateo's
<http://www.ucc.org/news/http://www.unitedchurch.org/iglesia-unida>ordinati on
and installation marked a major personal
reshaping of his once-Southern Baptist perspective.

Claudio's ordination, held in El Nuevo Camino's
mother church,
<http://www.ucc.org/news/http://www.pslucc.org/>Pilgrim-St.
Luke's UCC, was attended by 130 people and helped
set in motion El Nuevo Camino's intention to become ONA.

"In my research in talking to LGBT family

members, I noticed there was a lot of pain from
people who wanted to be in a church, but they
felt they were rejected and marginalized," said
Claudio, a 2010 graduate of Colgate Rochester
Crozier Divinity School. "When I heard that, I
said, 'Wow, this can't be happening in the Hispanic churches.' "

A second research project centered on pastors
proved equally demoralizing, said Claudio.

"One night I was dreaming that I was preaching in
the pulpit, and I saw people coming in with
chains on their feet and handcuffs," explaining
the origins of his call to ministry. "One man
came into the church, sat in the front pew, and I
could see the handcuffs falling off and the
chains breaking off, and hear the noise of the chains hitting the floor."

Soon, Claudio began to gather Spanish-speaking
Christians in home meetings. By last September ?
with encouragement from Pilgrim-St. Luke's
pastor, the Rev. Bruce McKay ? Claudio led El
Nueva Camino in its first formal service at
Pilgrim-St. Luke's. Twelve people showed up.
"Right now, we have 25 to 30 people at a service," said Claudio.

Among his three children and seven grandchildren,
none is LGBT, said Claudio. "But I would like to
treat this community with dignity and respect,
and provide a welcoming environment. Pastors say,
'We receive everyone.' Well, yes, it's one thing
to receive everyone, but another thing to let them be who they are."

In addition to pursuing ONA standing, Claudio
emphasized that his church extends welcome to all
cultures; advocates for social justice for all;
and provides leadership that varies widely from
the "tyrannic" style of many Hispanic churches.

"We're creating an elbow-to-elbow relationship
where we can work together," he said. "I do not
lose authority as a pastor, but we are
ministering with everyone at the same level."

Claudio grew up in Puerto Rico with eight

brothers and four sisters. Raised in the Roman
Catholic tradition, he attended a United
Methodist Church at age 18. In 1981, he brought
his family to the United States and worked on a
vineyard in Pennsylvania. He helped the Rev.
Alberto Pons organize San Juan UMC, the only
Hispanic church in that part of the state, and
served as its pastor from 2000-2007.

As for Mateo, he frames his ordination as "a
blessing, a challenge and a new discovery."

"I've been receiving a lot of blessings from
wonderful individuals who have showed me, by real
and sincere actions, that radical hospitality,
social justice and unconditional love is the way the Kingdom of God works."

Coming from a "closed and fundamentalist

tradition," Mateo said he gradually realized that
his gospel was hurting others. "I was using the
Bible as an oppressive instrument, and my
preaching not only was exclusivist, but charged
with intolerance and condemnatory ideas.

"Were my intentions to hurt others? Absolutely
not," said Mateo, currently concluding studies at
Lancaster (Pa.) Theological Seminary. "But I
noticed that something was wrong in the way I was
approaching God, the Bible and my community.
Since those critical moments of theological
reflection, I began a new understanding of what
to be Christian is all about without denying my spiritual journey.

> "This ordination step not only represents a
> decision to devote myself to a particular
> denomination or theological vision, but to the
> people, the poor and those for whom the Kingdom of God was given."