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Cortes Elected President of the New Jersey Conference at 38th Constituency
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NEW JERSEY CONSTITUENCY RESULTS - Yesterday, at the 38th Regular
Constituency Session of the New Jersey Conference, delegates elected José
Cortes to serve as president for the next five years. Cortes, who has
served the conference for 20 years as a pastor, departmental director,
and, most recently, executive secretary, was welcomed to office with a
standing ovation. “I would love for this to be my last assignment, not
because I want to serve for many years, but because I want Jesus to come
and take us to be with Him forever and ever,” he announced drawing a
chorus of “Amens!”
The ovation was then directed at retiring president LeRoy Finck, who
has led the conference since 1996. “The driving force in my tenure has
been Jesus’ prayer in Matthew, ‘that we may all be one,’” Finck
noted. He said he wanted to be remembered for improving the
conference’s finances, growing churches and schools, getting a new
conference office building, and being a unifying agent among New
Jersey’s diverse membership, which recently crossed the 12,000
mark. At the request of Cortes, Finck will serve his last few months
before retirement as executive secretary, after which time the newly
elected executive committee will permanently fill the position.
Jim Greene, who joined the administrative team as treasurer last year
was re-elected, as was youth and Pathfinder director Laffit Cortes (no
relation). Leonel Pottinger, a pastor, was elected to serve as
ministerial director, but the position of education superintendent was
referred to the executive committee.
The daylong quadrennial session, convened at the Robbinsville church,
outside Trenton, N.J., drew 305 delegates who were engaged from the
morning devotional to the closing prayer of dedication. The session
ended with the singing of the “Hallelujah Chorus” in Portuguese by
Newark’s Luzo-Brazilian church choir and a balloon release.
See photos from this event at www.columbiaunion.org tomorrow, and read
more of this story in your November Visitor.
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