The Abiding Community Project

2024: Urban Church Leadership Center: Preparing Young Ministers. Iglesia de Cristo Misionera is a Spanish Pentecostal church affiliated with the Missionary Churches of Christ and CONLICO networks. Operating in New York City and the greater New England region, they aspire to broaden their reach by establishing English-speaking congregations led by young ministers in existing churches. Through Urban Church Leadership Center: Preparing Young Ministers, the grant’s planning phase, they will gain insights into the unique needs of at least twenty churches in engaging with their younger generation. They will seek to understand these churches’ preferred areas of focus, the current approach of ministry towards the next generation (if any), educational necessities, the need for vocational training, and how to create a curriculum that caters to these needs. Furthermore, they will identify committed participants who will engage in a year-long process with the Urban Leadership Center to establish English-speaking churches throughout New York City and the greater New England area by the project’s conclusion.

2025-26: The Abiding Community Project, an initiative of the Urban Christian Leadership Center (UCLC), strengthens long-term capacity for urban pastoral formation through a bilingual, multi-generational model. Rooted in the ministry legacy of Bishop Hector Bonano and Pastor Philip Bonano, whose leadership united Spanish- and English-speaking congregations under one roof, the project embodies UCLC’s mission to equip emerging English-speaking Latino ministers while honoring the rich traditions of the Spanish-speaking Pentecostal church.

The initiative includes strategic planning, advisor recruitment and training, curriculum development, and the creation of a digital Resource Catalog. Milestones will include a Fellowship Dinner, the 2025 Learning Cohort graduation, and the 2026 launch of UCLC’s new Learning Cohort and Implementation Programs.

Expanding beyond its Bronx base, the Abiding Community Project will extend UCLC’s reach to pastors and faith leaders across the greater New England region, including Paterson, NJ, and Philadelphia, PA—strengthening UCLC’s role in cultivating resilient, transformative Latino church leadership in urban contexts.