A letter to all congregations about Multicultural Ministries’ new field staff

To congregations interested in multicultural ministry:

As the churches in your region grow into ministry with multicultural dimensions, are you looking for additional resources to support their efforts? Well, you’ll want to know that the General Assembly Council has approved and funded a field staff program for multicultural ministries to strengthen the multicultural work that governing bodies and congregations are doing already and to encourage more creative ministry in the future. 

The five members of this new field staff team are all experienced professionals, knowledgeable about the dynamics of multicultural congregations. They are committed to achieving the General Assembly goals of becoming a multicultural church and increasing the multicultural membership to truly reflect the make-up of our American communities. Their positions are part-time, since each also has other professional responsibilities. The field staff is working in collaboration with the Office of Multicultural Ministries to provide resources to congregations and governing bodies on request, as well as to support other General Assembly Multicultural Church Growth strategies and programs.

More specifically, you may call on the field staff to provide expertise and impetus for various programs related to multicultural ministries, such as the following:

• Consultation with governing bodies and congregations seeking to be multicultural or starting a multicultural NCD
• Development and strengthening of regional multicultural networks and clusters of churches
• Planning for training workshops and development of presbytery teams

The following are now on board as field staff:

The Rev. Young Lee Hertig, M.A., and Ph.D. (So. California)
The Rev. James Lee (Texas)
Elder Sara J. Parker, M.A., Ph.D. (Virginia)
The Rev. Laura Taylor de Palomino (Illinois)
The Rev. Gustavo Vasquez (New York/New Jersey)

Their professional profiles and individual areas of interest and expertise are included with this letter on a separate page.  

I invite you to make contact with one or more of the field staff and seek ways to involve them in the conversation about multicultural ministries in your region.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Raafat Shehata Girgis
Associate for Multicultural Ministries
General Assembly Council
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
100 Witherspoon St.
Louisville, KY 40202
Tel: (502) 569-5233
Fax (502) 569-8074   

Field Staff for Multicultural Ministries, 2008

The General Assembly Council has designated multicultural ministries as one of the eight objectives of the Presbyterian Church (USA) for 2007 and 2008. In keeping with this objective, the GAC has approved funding for five part-time field staff positions. The individuals who have been contracted to work as the multicultural field staff team are experienced professionals familiar with the dynamics of multicultural organizations and relationships. Each team member brings a wealth of experience, training and expertise to this new endeavor.

The Rev. Dr. Young Lee Hertig is a member of San Gabriel Presbytery and teaches in the Global Studies and Sociology Department at Azusa Pacific University, offering Immigrant L.A., Intercultural Journeys and Human Diversity. She also has taught at Fuller Theological Seminary and United Theological Seminary. Young has worked as a Christian educator and in youth ministries and has completed several courses of graduate study, both in Korea and in the United States. She authored the book Cultural Tug of War: The Korean Immigrant Family and Church in Transition and has written numerous chapters and articles from a Yinist epistemology – taken from Daoism – and integrating theology, culture and psychology. Young is currently researching patterns of leadership in multicultural congregations.
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The Rev. James Hickson Lee serves as the Evangelizing Pastor of New Covenant Fellowship, a multicultural new church development in Austin, Texas, and is a member of Mission Presbytery in the Synod of the Sun. James celebrates the eclectic, unifying and energizing work of the Holy Spirit in his ministry. His life and ministry in the church universal entail serving and worshiping across economic, racial and denominational lines.  James has served as the Director of Racial Ethnic Ministries at Austin Theological Seminary and as the Director of Racial Ethnic Ministries at Grace Presbyterian Church in Plano, Texas. The Rev. Lee currently serves on the African Council for the Synod of the Sun, the Board of Trustees for Mo Ranch and as the President of the Austin Seminary Association. His passions include development of young African-American church leaders.
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Dr. Sara J. Parker co-authored with The Rev. Raafat Girgis, Living the Vision: Becoming a Multicultural Church, published by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She serves as faculty of the Multicultural Institute at Stony Point Center in New York and has presented workshops on communication and culture. Sara completed a Ph.D. in Sociology and taught courses in intercultural communication and culture for several years at the University at Albany, New York, and at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Her multicultural training and experience include 14 years as a mission co-worker with Mayan Indian congregations of the Presbyterian Church of Guatemala. Sara currently serves as an elder at Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., and is presently working on training materials for communication in multicultural contexts.
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The Rev. Laura Taylor de Palomino is a member of Chicago Presbytery and currently serves as designated pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Hanover Park, Illinois. She has provided leadership in numerous bilingual and multicultural settings, including urban community and family ministries in Philadelphia, Pa., and Texas border ministries. In addition to her theological training, Laura has graduate training in public health, cultural studies and Christian education. Laura is fluent in Spanish and served for several years as professor at the Seminario Teológico Presbiteriano de México in Mexico City and the Escuela Bíblica Central in Coyoacán, Mèxico. She has authored and translated works in both English and Spanish and since returning to the United States, has presented numerous workshops on leadership development for Hispanic Presbyterian congregations.
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The Rev. Gustavo Vasquez is a member of the Latino Ministries Team of Presbytery of the Palisades and pastor of the Iglesia Presbiteriana Metodista Unida in West New York, N.J. Gustavo is a native of Caracas, Venezuela, and is fluent in English, French and Portuguese, as well as his native Spanish. He has completed graduate studies in international relations and also organizational communication at universities in Venezuela and theological studies at McCormick Seminary. A world-traveling communicator, Gustavo focuses on the multicultural and ecumenical relations in the church. He served as Regional Secretary (Latin American and Caribbean area) of the World Student Christian Federation and has participated over the years in numerous multicultural and ecumenical events. Gustavo is deeply committed to the mission of the church, not as an exotic kind of mission, but rather as being directly connected to the multicultural and diverse society in which we live.
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