(RNS) — 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.
“I had so many mixed feelings, and all this personal struggle,” she said.
Yet her commission this summer within the United Methodist Church — a public affirmation of an individual’s divine calling to ministry — represented a turning point.
“This commission was extremely special for me because it was God reassuring me that this was what I was called for,” she said. “All my experience, I can channel it into that ministry.”
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.
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’ changing demographic landscape following years of schism, decline and uncertainty within the denomination.
The Rev. Rosedanny Ortiz, left, sings during a worship service. (Photo courtesy of Ortiz)
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.
“How can we celebrate the diversity of humanity that God created in the first place?” Ortiz asked in an interview. “How, 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?”
“I feel like her story is mine”
In the last few years, the United Methodist Church — the largest mainline Protestant denomination in the United States — has experienced massive restructuring.
While some denominations have split over the ordination of women, the Methodist movement has ordained women since the late 19th century.
Instead, since 2020, the denomination has shed roughly 1 out of every 4 congregations after delegates at the general conference voted to lift a ban on same-sex weddings and LGBTQ+ clergy.
In 2020, there were 6.3 million United Methodists in the United States. Now, estimates are slightly below 5 million — a 21% decline in just half a decade.
Disaffiliating churches have been predominantly white, and …