Venezuela Elects Soto as Bishop
Episcopal News Service. March 19, 1987 [87060]
CARACAS (DPS, March 19) -- The Rev. Onell A. Soto, Mission Information and Education Officer at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, was elected third bishop of Venezuela at a special convention held here at St. Mary's Cathedral on March 7.
Soto, 54, received the canonical majority of votes on the 13th ballot. The other candidates were the Very Rev. James Harkins, dean of the cathedral, and the Rt. Rev. Hugo Pina, assistant rector of St. Matthew's Church, Houston, and resigned Bishop of Honduras.
Born in Cuba on Nov. 17, 1932, Soto studied at the University of Havana and holds a masters' degree in theology from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. He also attended the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Tex. Soto was ordained deacon in 1964 by the Rt. Rev. George Murray, then Bishop of Alabama, and priest the following year in Bogota by the Rt. Rev. David B. Reed, then Bishop of Colombia and now Bishop of Kentucky.
Soto served as vicar of the Church of St. Nicholas in Qito, Ecuador, from 1965 to 1971, when he was elected executive secretary of Province IX of the Episcopal Church and moved to San Salvador, E1 Salvador. He remained there until 1977, when he was appointed to the Church Center staff.
Soto is the founder of four publications: Rapidas, an ecumenical newsletter and the official publication of the Latin American Council of Churches; Mundo Episcopal, the newsletter of Province IX; World Mission News, a monthly publication of the Mission Information Office in New York; and Anglicanos, a quarterly mission newsletter about the work of the Anglican Communion published in Spanish by the same office.
As Mission Information Officer, Soto had the opportunity to travel to approximately 60 countries around the world, compiling a substantial collection of photographs illustrating the mission of the Anglican Communion. His pictures and stories have appeared in many publications in the United States and abroad.
The bishop-elect and his wife, Nina Ulloa, a Christian educator, were married on July 4, 1960. She is also from Cuba. That year the Sotos arrived in the United States and six years later became U.S. citizens. The Sotos have four grown children and reside in Upper Montclair, N.J., where they are members of the Church of St. James in the Diocese of Newark.
In this new post, he will succeed the Rt. Rev. Haydn Jones, who retired last September after nine years as Bishop of Venezuela. A British citizen, Jones will continue to reside in Caracas.
The Anglican Church in Venezuela, which also includes the island of Curacao, has more than 1,000 communicants served by nine clergy in 11 parishes and missions. Since 1983, the Church in Venezuela has been attached to Province IX as an extra-provincial diocese. Formerly, it was related to the Church in the Province of the West Indies.
In this new post, he will succeed the Rt. Rev. Haydn Jones who retired last September after nine years as Bishop of Venezuela. A British citizen, Jones will continue to reside in Caracas.
The ordination and consecration of Soto have been set tentatively for July 11 in Caracas, pending the consents of the bishops and standing committees of the dioceses in Province IX.
In a statement to the Venezuelan press, the bishop-elect said, "I come to you as Christ did -- to serve and not to be served. I want to be a pastor and a friend, a center of unity and service. I do not represent any human authority, any social or economic power. I come to you simply as a servant of Christ."