The Ordination of Rev. Luis-Alfredo Cartagena-Zayas

This beautiful service -- held on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010 -- celebrated the ordination of Rev. Luis-Alfredo Cartagena in the Christian ministry. We are blessed to have him (and his wonderful wife, Rev. Dr. Evelyn DeJesus-Cartagena) as part of our ministry team.

Rev. Luis-Alfredo's story is a remarkable one, and I am proud to share it with you now.

Luis-Alfredo was born in the St Luke’s Parish located in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, where he lived with his mother, Carmen Zayas and father, Luis A. Cartagena. He is the youngest of five siblings. He has three sisters (Carmen María Parker, Anita Lorraine Parker, Franscisca Cartagena) and a brother (Thomas Andrew Parker). Luis-Alfredo has five sons - two from previous relationships (Anthony and Emilio-Manuel) and three sons (Radamés, Eliasit and Edilberto) with his beloved wife of twenty-four years, Rev. Dr. Evelyn De Jesús. He also has two lovely daughters-in-law, Fabiola and Leslie, who blessed him with three grandchildren - Byron Israel, Benjamin-Gabriel and Isabelle.

Luis-Alfredo received a certificate in filmmaking in 1969 from the New York School of Photography Film Division. Shortly thereafter, he became a member of the independent film collective New York Newsreel where he contributed his talent as a photographer and editor in the making and distribution of social justice documentaries on subjects such as ending the Viet Nam War, Middle East peace, workers rights and prison reform, racial and gender equality, and ending US imperialism.

Upon leaving Newsreel to work as a freelance photographer, Luis-Alfredo’s life was to change significantly. It was during this time that he began to abuse drugs and eventually found himself homeless and surviving on the streets of the Bronx. Tired and desperate one day, he wandered into the drug maintenance program at Lincoln Hospital where he found acquaintances from his film making days from the Young Lord’s Party (YLP) serving as staff. They provided assistance and support, and were instrumental in his beginning the road of recovery. It was then that Luis-Alfredo began to work for YLP’s Committee to Defend the Community located two streets west from the tenement where he was born. He was responsible for assisting community residents to organize rent strikes of slum tenements in the area.

In 1973, Luis-Alfredo received his GED and enrolled at The Borough of Manhattan Community College/City University of New York. He continued his studies at the New School of Social Research concentrating on history and languages. His studies were interrupted when his beloved wife underwent liver transplant surgery. After this hiatus, he enrolled in the Workers Education Center at City College/CUNY where he received his B.A. Magna Cum Laude in Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts concentrating in Holocaust History and Comparative Literature.

Upon graduation, he entered New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) where he received a Masters in Divinity and was awarded the seminary’s President’s Award in Ministry. He is in the process of continued study for a Masters in Urban Studies at Queens College/CUNY. Luis-Alfredo has worked for the past 28 years at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, where he is a Senior College Laboratory Technician and Director of the Modern Languages Language Laboratory.

In 2002 Luis-Alfredo was seriously incapacitated when his spine collapsed and doctors’ prognosis was he would be paralyzed from the waist down. After the insertion of a titanium bar to replace the scattered portion of his spine, and through Christ’s miraculous mercy, doctors informed him he would have movement below the waist but would remain in a body brace and require a walker for the remainder of his life. One evening while recuperating at home, his son, Radamés, and daughter-in-law, Fabiola, invited him to attend a three day Encounter with Christ in the mountains of Nyack, NY that was being conducted by Sinai Christian Church of Bushwick, Brooklyn. It was at one Encounter session, in the presence of believers and non-believers, as session leaders prayed and laid hands on him that Christ healed him. From this point forward, Luis-Alfredo wholeheartedly began to search for Christ’s purpose in healing him. Christ called Luis-Alfredo approximately three and a half months later.

Luis-Alfredo then began the study to be a chaplain at United Chaplains State of New York, Inc.; he took these courses on weekends, worked full time, and took college courses on week nights. The focus of his studies, acquisition of knowledge, and talents was in the service of the LORD and the marginalized. Upon graduating as a chaplain along with his wife, Rev. Dr. Evelyn De Jesús-Cartagena, they founded Cappella Prison Ministry (CPM). CPM transformed from a ministry visiting correctional facilities to one that Christ has expanded to the Federal Detention Centers of undocumented people and to the service of homeless individuals abandoned on the streets of New York’s five boroughs.

In 2006, Luis-Alfredo entered New York Theological Seminary (NYTS). In his second year at NYTS, he began to work in Supervised Ministry at the Ecology of Learning (EOL), a research based action center. Under the guidance of its founder, the late Dr. Lowell W. Livezey and under the supervision of its Director of Administration and Development, Ms. Shirvahna Gobin, MPA, Luis-Alfredo was blessed with the opportunity to engage in the work of a network of scholars, seminary students, clergy, and community leaders in metropolitan New York, committed to provide education and events designed to engage, enrich and empower communities of faith, neighborhoods, government and private agencies. It was at one such event that seminary President Dr. Dale T. Irvin introduced him to Rev. Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson.

In his final year of Supervised Ministry, Luis-Alfredo accepted the invitation of Pastor Jackson and the congregation of Park Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to serve as a Ministerial Intern. Under the leadership of Pastor Jackson, the spiritual guidance of a team devoted to my care (Melissa Little, Stephen Crumb, and Richard Sturm), the direct supervision of the Rev. Monte Hillis, and the blessings of Christ, he successfully completed the internship. Upon completion of seminary, a call was extended by The Park to serve as Pastoral Associate; he continues to serve in that capacity.

Upon completion of his Masters in Urban Studies, he intends to pursue his PhD in Postcolonial Theological Studies and, with the aid of Christ and the direction of the Holy Spirit, continue to serve and empower the marginalized community and the community of faith, through his educational and ministerial work.