Ministering in the public square
10-02-2023
For Rev. Carmen Rosario-Riviere and Chaplain Maria Sullivan-Marrero, the church and its resources are launching pads for serving their communities and demonstrating faith in action. On October 19, this year’s Distinguished Alum and Rising Star recipients will be honored at McCormick Day for their focus on ministry in the public square.
2023 Distinguished Alum Rev. Carmen Rosario-Riviere
Rev. Carmen Rosario-Riviere makes no distinction between ministering inside the church and outside its four walls. “We’re called to be involved,” says the 2023 Distinguished Alum, “ministry doesn’t only happen on Sundays, far more of it happens – and is needed – the rest of the week. It’s not enough to be inside singing and listening to the sermon, you must go out and practice.”
Practicing, for Rev. Rosario-Riviere, has meant helping people register to vote, referring individuals to needed social services, and serving on the Monmouth County Social Services Board in New Jersey. “We partnered with the Hispanic Affairs Center and gave workshops on domestic violence,” she adds. “When that organization needed a place to meet, we made our church available. What we learn in church is that we are to visit the sick…feed the hungry…encourage those in the prisons. You don’t do that in church; you do that in your community…that’s the ministry of Jesus.”
The first Hispanic woman to be ordained in the Presbyter of Chicago of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Rev. Rosario-Riviere found two challenges to her vision of ministry. First, back in the 1980s, she was known as the woman ‘padre’ or priest, and second, she was inviting congregations to move outside their comfort zones. She led by example, advocating for her right to equitable compensation based on her education and experience, not her gender. She invited a congregation she was serving to make a small step and engage with the drug rehabilitation center that was next door to the church. “Today, even though I’m no longer there, they are serving food and helping immigrants who are coming to New York City from Texas and Florida,” she reports. “They have a new mindset…they are open to the people around them.”
A former history professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Rev. Rosario-Riviere came to McCormick knowing that she wanted to be more involved in ministry. Her plan was to go back to Puerto Rico and teach at a seminary. “But God’s plan and call was for me to be a pastor,” she says. “McCormick courses addressed my Hispanic context…I could take some of my courses in Spanish…and Spanish-speaking scholars were brought in to speak to the entire seminary.”
While pastoring in New York, Rev. Rosario-Riviere taught Latin American studies at the City University of New York. “Teaching helped to broaden my education and experiences and that was knowledge I could bring back to the church,” says Rev. Rosario-Riviere. “There is no limit to what we can give and what we can receive when we share the gospel, not only in words, but also in our actions in the world around us.”
2023 Rising Star: Chaplain Maria Sullivan-Marrero
“You’re not going to believe me,” said a rape victim between tears. But a calm reply from Chaplain Maria Sullivan-Marrero offered comfort and reassurance, “it’s because I do believe you that I am here.”
People in need and pain often don’t come to church, so the church must go to them, believes Chaplain Maria Sullivan-Marrero, McCormick’s 2023 Rising Star recipient. It’s the reason she moved her crisis support group out of her church and into the offices of the Fairhaven Rape Crisis Center in Highland, Ind. “It’s a faith-based organization,” says Sullivan-Marrero, MAM’20, a certified advocate for sexual assault victims. “We can pray and offer words of encouragement and hope…we are able to connect women to the legal and social services that are needed to heal, restore confidence, and find support to move forward after trauma.”
Sullivan-Marrero has long been engaged in ministries that move outside the church and into the community. The public square is where she puts into practice much of what she learned at McCormick. “One of the things I picked up from McCormick was the importance of creating an open table, a safe space, and a diverse community where anyone could sit and talk without being judged,” she recalls. “I was able to see a much bigger picture by studying with cultures I had been clueless about.”
While a student at McCormick, Sullivan-Marrero, who also earned a certificate in Latin Theology and Urban Ministry from McCormick, volunteered at a rape crisis center, and worked to replicate the same open environment she experienced at McCormick. “I noticed that all the brochures and other literature were written in English,” she says, “How can we reach out to Hispanic people…how can we let them know we are here for them?” Soon she had translated all the literature into Spanish so that it could be available to the area’s growing Hispanic community.
Currently the president of the theological board of the Midwest Region of the Pentecostal Church of God, Sullivan-Marrero is working to ensure that every women’s ministry leader, Sunday school teacher and youth ministry director within the region is trained as mandatory reporters, individuals who have a responsibility to report abuse and neglect to the appropriate social agencies.
“We must be able to understand the importance of helping to keep our communities free from harm,” she stresses. “It is hard for people to bring out their full potential when they have been abused. When we lessen abuse and silence fear, we can give people back their voice…we must be a voice for the voiceless. We may not see the end of all the work we do, but we can be the beginning of change.”
Rev. Carmen Rosario-Riviere
2023 Distinguished Alum
Chaplain Maria Sullivan-Marrero
2023 Rising Star