(RNS) \u2014 The Rev. Rosedanny Ortiz, a Puerto Rican pastor now based in Texas, felt alone and uncertain about her future in ministry after her United Methodist church closed due to COVID-19 complications and she suffered a stint of mental health crises.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI had so many mixed feelings, and all this personal struggle,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yet her commission this summer within the United Methodist Church \u2014 a public affirmation of an individual\u2019s divine calling to ministry \u2014 represented a turning point.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis commission was extremely special for me because it was God reassuring me that this was what I was called for,\u201d she said. <\/span>\u201cAll my experience, I can channel it into that ministry.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She now serves as lead pastor of Agape Memorial in Dallas, a step up from her former associate pastor role and a pathway to ordination in 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ortiz is one of a handful of Latina United Methodist Church leaders in Texas who are emerging with fresh models for ministry by meeting the demands of Texas\u2019 changing demographic landscape following years of schism, decline and uncertainty within the denomination.<\/p>\n The Rev. Rosedanny Ortiz, left, sings during a worship service. (Photo courtesy of Ortiz)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n For many, their leadership is vital to the survival and flourishing of United Methodist congregations across the state and throughout the nation amid heightened anti-Hispanic sentiment and growing Spanish-speaking populations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHow can we celebrate the diversity of humanity that God created in the first place?\u201d Ortiz asked in an interview.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cHow, as a church, can we embrace it, and how, as a church, can we lean into it so we can educate our community, so we can show, even more, who God is in our midst?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In the last few years, the United Methodist Church \u2014 the largest mainline Protestant denomination in the United States\u00a0\u2014 has experienced massive restructuring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While some denominations have split over the ordination of women, the Methodist movement has ordained women since the late 19th century.<\/p>\n Instead, since 2020, the denomination has shed roughly <\/span>1 out of every 4<\/span><\/a> congregations <\/span>after delegates at the general conference voted to lift a ban on same-sex weddings and LGBTQ+ clergy.<\/p>\n In 2020, there were <\/span>6.3 million<\/span><\/a> United Methodists in the United States. Now, estimates are slightly below 5 million \u2014 a 21% decline in just half a decade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Disaffiliating churches have been <\/span>predominantly white<\/span><\/a>, and a dramatic 71% of disaffiliations have occurred in the <\/span>U.S. South<\/span><\/a>. In Texas, well <\/span>over 400 churches disaffiliated,<\/span><\/a> and the Northwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church lost <\/span>81%<\/span><\/a> of its churches.<\/span><\/p>\n In a state with over 32 million residents, Hispanics are the largest ethnic group in Texas and comprise <\/span>40% of the population<\/span><\/a>. Though they make up only a fraction of national UMC membership, Pamela Hughes, the director of communications for the UMC\u2019s Horizon Texas Conference, is certain that \u201cin Texas, Latinos represent not only the church now, but also the church of the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Leading institutions that cultivate Hispanic and Latino UMC clergy and laypeople agree.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After receiving a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Southern Methodist University\u2019s Perkins School of Theology in Dallas launched the <\/span>Centro de Acompa\u00f1amiento, Solidaridad y Adiestramiento<\/span><\/a> in 2024, which offers laypersons in Dallas, Houston and Plano ministry certificate programs in Spanish to train Hispanic leaders \u201cat a time when they are needed perhaps more than ever.\u201d Twelve students have completed the program and 15 are on track to finish this fall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCASA courses provide an opportunity to think and reflect on responses to injustice and anti-immigrant laws, and develop local action plans to respond to the immediate <\/span>and long-term needs of those who have been impacted by these recent changes,\u201d a representative of the school said over email.<\/span><\/p>\n Perkins has prioritized theological education for Latino leaders since the 1970s with \u201cthe creation of the Mexican American Program and the publication of \u2018<\/span>Apuntes,\u2019<\/span>\u201d the representative added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe training of Hispanic leaders ought to be one of the highest priorities of any seminary that seeks to prepare leaders for the present and the future \u2014 especially for seminaries in the Southwest,\u201d said Bryan P. Stone, Leighton K. Farrell Endowed Dean of Perkins School of Theology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Groups like <\/span>El Plan<\/span><\/a> have been working to help the UMC develop a comprehensive \u201cHispanic\/Latine\u201d ministry for over three decades.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n El Plan Executive Director the Rev. Lydia Mu\u00f1oz said that the denomination has historically attempted to import monolithic ministry models from Latin American countries that do not tend to the particulars of being \u201cLatine\u201d in the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Latina leaders are at the forefront of helping the denomination address persistent gaps in its approach to ministry, including the failure to recognize the \u201cbicultural, multi-ethnic realities\u201d that young adults and families face, Mu\u00f1oz said in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n The Rev. Martha Valencia, bottom right, with other attendees during an annual Horizon Texas Conference Latino Women\u2019s Retreat. (Photo courtesy of Valencia)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Rev. Martha Valencia, who has been a pastor at Elmwood-El Buen Samaritano UMC outside of Dallas for nine years, said that growing up on \u201cthe hyphen\u201d of being Mexican-American has been integral to her ministry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a challenge for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI, at times, didn\u2019t feel Mexican enough for the Mexicans \u2026 and I didn\u2019t feel American enough for the Americans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut the thing that challenged me most when I was growing up \u2026 has now become my superpower,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing on the \u2018hyphen\u2019 has provided me with skills and a voice and cultural intelligence that I didn\u2019t see then, but I see now and can use specifically to empower other women in my circles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Pastor Isabel <\/span>M\u00e1rquez, who currently serves at Oak Lawn United Methodist in Dallas, said her life and ministry \u201c<\/span>has been surrounded by working with migrants.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One of her ministry goals is to build \u201csafe passage for people that are navigating the immigration systems here\u201d and walk alongside individuals as they wade through that uncertainty, she said in an interview.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n M\u00e1rquez draws inspiration from the biblical story of Esther.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a migrant, she\u2019s with family, she\u2019s in these lands that are not hers, and she\u2019s afraid,\u201d M\u00e1rquez said. \u201cBut also, she was encouraged by the people who saw her gifts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI feel like her story is mine,\u201d she added.<\/span><\/p>\n Serving as a role model for other women is especially powerful for Latina leaders who come from communities where women cannot be ordained or hold leadership positions. <\/span>Hispanic Catholics are now the single largest religious bloc<\/a> in Texas, at about 20% of those with a religious affiliation, <\/span>and within the tradition, women cannot become ordained priests. Meanwhile, Protestant denominations have\u00a0expanded their Spanish-language outreach, and the share of U.S. Latinos identifying as Protestant has\u00a0risen<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in recent years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Rev. Julia Puac-Romero, right, smiles during the Ordination and Commissioning Service at the Horizon Texas Annual Conference, Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Wichita Falls, Texas. (Photo courtesy of the Horizon Texas Conference of the UMC)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n It was difficult for the Rev. Julia Puac-Romero, a campus minister at the Wesley Foundation, to tell her Catholic family about her role in the United Methodist ministry. \u201cWomen don\u2019t lead in the Catholic Church at this level,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAt first they were not comfortable with it,\u201d she said, but after she sent videos of the bishop commissioning her in Spanish, they responded with praise and affirmation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s been beautiful, in that sense, but as a Latina in this ministry world, sometimes it is still very hard to make that space happen,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Valencia, the pastor at Elmwood-El Buen Samaritano, grew up Pentecostal, which she said is a denomination that does not always encourage female leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI thankfully grew up in a church that did support women in the pulpit, but I know that\u2019s not the case for everyone,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I came into the United Methodist Church, being a woman and being Hispanic\/Latino, I didn\u2019t know what challenges I would face, and ultimately, I discovered that people were very supportive \u2014 both men and women \u2014 of my call to ministry,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Women make up <\/span>over 30%<\/span><\/a> of United Methodist clergy. Mu\u00f1oz of El Plan said that women who achieve leadership positions often remark that they once didn\u2019t know it was possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the United Methodist Church, women have not only been present but instrumental figures, comprising the majority of remaining leadership in the years following schism and disaffiliation, Mu\u00f1oz said. A large proportion of disaffiliated UMC churches were led by male pastors<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt goes in part with history, right?\u201d she said. \u201cThese women have always carried communities, and have always carried the church\u2026\u00a0<\/span>The daughters of Eve have been shaped to cause change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Though the UMC tradition has provided pathways for women that the Catholic church has not, Mu\u00f1oz said that there is a different \u201cclarity of the Pope, particularly around issues of justice, around immigrants \u2026 that has resonated with a lot of Latinos and Latino young people.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The United Methodist Church, on the other hand, has historically released \u201cnebulous statements about what\u2019s happening in the world,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today\u2019s Latina United Methodist leaders are not shying away from the variety of issues impacting their congregations, especially immigration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Puac-Romero, the campus minister, leans into \u201cmujerista theology,\u201d a form of liberation theology that is \u201cbased on the reflections of immigrant Latinas,\u201d she said. For her, talking about the \u201cgrace of Christ\u201d means you have to also talk about justice and immigration rights.<\/span><\/p>\n When her students asked for help with an on-campus information table about immigration, Puac-Romero turned to faith.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt is possible to both have the same kind of justice that Jesus had when he\u2019s flipping tables,\u201d she said, referring to a story in the New Testament often cited as a righteous form of protest, \u201cand also be able to do it in a loving and compassionate way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Rev. Rosedanny Ortiz speaks to an elementary school class about her job in ministry. (Photo courtesy of Ortiz)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ortiz, the lead\u00a0pastor at Agape Memorial, tries \u201cto preach hope in the midst of all the turmoil that we live in right now, especially toward the Hispanic community,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are suffering, we are dying,\u201d she said. \u201cWe came to the United States because we wanted something better, and then they\u2019re taking us back to that place where we flew in the first place.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Still, Ortiz says the gospel is one of hope. \u201cThe bad things are still, unfortunately, happening, and sometimes are out of our control, but still, God listens to us,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n The emerging Latina leaders also recognize that Christian theology and Scripture have also grounded defenses to the obstacles they continue to face. Several Protestant pastors and clergy have been at the forefront of <\/span>support for ICE raids<\/span><\/a>. Yet for figures like Valencia, ministry leaders are called to \u201chelp people (let) their guard down, reauthor myths, reauthor prejudices.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are all part of the body of Christ,\u201d Valencia said. \u201cThe foundation is love, love of God and love of neighbor \u2026 everything else comes down to that,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/webRNS-Latina-UMC3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cI feel like her story is mine\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n\u201cThe daughters of Eve have been shaped to cause change\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n
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