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Reflection from The Rev. Roberto Maldonado, Latino Missioner of Metro-East
At this moment, I cannot believe it has been almost 9 years since I came to the Diocese of Oregon.
In the month of September 2013, I accepted the call to be the Hispanic Latino Missioner of the Portland Metro-East area and Vicar of the Santa Cruz/Holy Cross Church in Boring.
As part of my work as Missioner, I had the responsibility to assist the churches of the Metro East Convocation who wished to begin exploring the possibility of extending their ministry to Spanish-speaking people. Working with the community of Santa Cruz, we discovered that the majority of the membership lived in Gresham. So we moved and entered a two-year agreement with Saint Aidan's Episcopal Church and began to grow. As the Missioner with the community, we also established La Plaza Comunitaria Encuentro, which focuses, in Spanish, on adult education, from illiteracy to university and GDE, a program that helps with migration and housing issues, also a robotics program for children.
We expanded our liturgical service to the community, service for fifteen-year-olds girls (XV Añeras), baptisms, weddings, etc. Given the increased use of the facilities at St Aidan, we moved again this time to Trinity Lutheran Church, near downtown Gresham.
Despite the pandemic, the ministry continued to expand to the Gresham community, with a food bank aimed at the migrant population; vaccination clinics against Covid-19; adult education; assistance with immigration issues, including the visit of the mobile consulate of Mexico to Santa Cruz/Holy Cross.
Santa Cruz/Holy Cross and Trinity Church work as one entity. We collaborate together to better serve and reach our communities, in their own language, with the use of technology. The reality of being a bilingual community sets us apart at Gresham. Our partnership between the two congregations serve a single ministry to both Anglo and Latino/Hispanic communities.
Now I embark on a new adventure, as Vicar of the Church of San Mateo in National City, CA, in the Diocese of San Diego. My hope is that my work as the Missioner for Latino Ministries in Metro East and its collaboration with my experience with Santa Cruz/Holy Cross community continues to grow in numbers and in service to the Latino/Hispanic community of Gresham and surrounding areas.
I am very pleased that I accepted the call to serve the Diocese of Oregon and the community of Santa Cruz 9 years ago. I am very grateful to the retired Bishop Michael Hanley for the initial opportunity and to Bishop Diana Akiyama for allowing me to continue working for the community and with the community. Thank you to the Community Trinity Church and its pastors for all their help and unconditional support for Santa Cruz/Holy Cross and myself. Thank you to my Santa Cruz community for being so generous and patient with me and my wife, Leticia.
Father Robert Maldonado+
Para ver este artículo en Español, haga clic aquí.
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