By Lauren Lamb and Aaron Weaver
ATLANTA — Two ministers were honored with the Dr. Emmanuel McCall Racial Justice Trailblazer Award on Thursday during a luncheon hosted by the Pan African Koinonia at the CBF General Assembly in Atlanta.
The McCall Racial Justice Trailblazer Award recognizes CBF individuals and ministries who charter through unequal and unjust areas of life, and initiate proactive resolutions for communities in the form of policies or practices resulting in greater equity, opportunity, impact and outcomes for all. It is named in honor of Dr. Emmanuel McCall, the first African American to serve as CBF moderator and a widely respected pioneer for racial justice and equity in Baptist life.
Agustín Quiles, a Latino faith leader and advocate in Central Florida, and Drew Hill, senior pastor at Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington, Va., were recognized as the 2023 Trailblazer award recipients.
Quiles has served as an organizer and advocate in Florida. His efforts focus primarily on educating and mobilizing evangelical Latino pastors and congregations for racial and criminal justice and immigration reform. For a decade, Quíles has been a pioneer in training Latino/a church leaders in basic advocacy and mobilizing their churches, denominations and institutions to press lawmakers for policy change.
Quiles’ advocacy work includes mobilizing more than 500 Latino evangelical pastors to participant in the march in support of George Floyd and an end to policy violence; partnering with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and mobilizing hundreds of Latino churches in favor of a ballot measure that restored voting rights to 1.4 million Floridians with felony convictions; and initiated and resourced the first-ever Latino evangelical regional justice and advocacy office for the Southeast Fellowship of Hispanic Councils and Evangelicals Organizations in Tallahassee.
Watch a video below to learn more about Quiles and his ministry:
Watch the video below to learn more about Rev. Dr. Drew Hill and his ministry:
Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the luncheon’s keynote address. Watch the video clip below:
Find news, photos and videos from the 2023 CBF General Assembly at http://www.cbf.net/assembly2023
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CBF is a Christian network that helps people put their faith to practice through ministry efforts, global missions and a broad community of support. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.