CUBA: Griselda Delgado Del Carpio consecrated as bishop coadjutor
Episcopal News Service. February 9, 2010 [020910-04]
Matthew Davies and Mary Frances Schjonberg
More than 400 people packed into Holy Trinity Cathedral in Havana Feb. 7 to witness the ordination and consecration of the Rev. Griselda Delgado Del Carpio as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Church of Cuba.
Delgado, who was formerly rector of Santa Maria Virgen in Itabo, Cuba, will work with Bishop Miguel Tamayo of the Anglican Church of Uruguay as he completes his work as Cuba's interim bishop. Tamayo has served as interim bishop of Cuba for six years, and plans to retire next fall.
Delgado's appointment was made by the Metropolitan Council of Cuba and announced Jan. 22 by its chair, Anglican Church of Canada Archbishop Fred J. Hiltz. Delgado will become diocesan bishop upon Tamayo's retirement. Her installation is scheduled for Nov. 28.
The Feb. 7 service concluded the church's synod meeting, during which a large number of parishes donated money for Haitian Episcopalians, Archdeacon Paul Feheley, principal secretary to Hiltz, told ENS.
Hiltz preached at the consecration as Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stood alongside simultaneously translating the sermon into Spanish. Jefferts Schori, Hiltz and Bishop John Holder of Barbados, newly elected primate of the West Indies, served as co-consecrators.
The three primates make up the Metropolitan Council that governs the Cuban church in matters of faith and order. It has overseen the church in Cuba since it separated from the Episcopal Church in 1967.
"We believe she [Delgado] will serve the diocese with a deep love," Hiltz said during his sermon. "She will encourage and support all of you in your ministries -- lay and ordained. She will call you to prayer and to good works. She will call you to dream dreams, to see visions, and to hear what the spirit is saying to the church at this time."
Also attending the service were Bishop Julio Holguin and Assisting Bishop William Skilton from the Diocese of the Dominican Republic. Holguin presented Delgado with a pectoral cross.
Delgado's vestments were a gift from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada in memory of Gini Pollesel, who was killed in a car accident on Dec. 27 in Canada. She was the wife of Archdeacon Michael Pollesel, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada, who sustained a concussion and broken ribs in the accident.
Jefferts Schori told ENS that the council was "deeply impressed" with Delgado's responses to questions it had asked a number of candidates about their understanding of episcopal ministry, the challenges and opportunities facing the church in Cuba, and how they would embrace them through their leadership.
During his sermon, Hiltz said Delgado has "a theology of hope grounded in the context of the church local."
"She speaks of the rebuilding of temples throughout Cuba -- the restoration of churches and the growing of congregations through worship and service, through reading biblical texts, celebrating the Eucharist, sharing in prayer for the community and for the world, and then sharing food, providing clothing and distributing medicines as any and all have need," he said. "Here, dear friends, is an expression of the gospel in all its fullness."
Hiltz added that "when the church is in need of new episcopal leadership, our work is not so much that of choosing the one we think should be bishop as discerning the one over whom the Holy Spirit is already hovering, the one on whom she wills to rest for the sake of the gospel in a particular place at a particular time."
Delgado and Tamayo will spend the next few weeks driving from Guantanamo, on the east of the island, to Havana, on the west, stopping at various parishes so that the new bishop coadjutor may get to know the people of the diocese better, Feheley said.
Bolivia-born Delgado "has a lot of insight into the history of the church's witness in Cuban society," Hiltz said in his Jan. 22 announcement, predicting that she "will lead the church in the spirit of compassionate and courageous discipleship."
"She is committed to the ministry of all the baptized and to the principles of diverse and dispersed leadership," Hiltz wrote. "She is well aware of the need to give attention to stewardship of financial resources for maintaining ministry and mission. She recognizes the necessity for strategic planning including both short and long-term goals."
The announcement came five months after Cuba failed for the second time to elect a bishop coadjutor. After 13 inconclusive ballots were cast in September, the choice of a coadjutor fell to the council.
In the week before the consecration, the Metropolitan Council held its annual meeting, which Feheley described as "one of the very best." Among the topics addressed by the council were an ongoing discussion about the possibility of the Episcopal Church of Cuba becoming two separate dioceses and consideration of it rejoining an existing Anglican Communion province.
The Cuban church includes about 40 congregations and some 10,000 Episcopalians.