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Synod In Cuba OKs Election

Episcopal News Service. January 25, 1979 [79018]

Havana, Cuba -- A diocesan synod of the Episcopal Church of Cuba approved the election of a bishop coadjutor by petition of the Rt. Rev. Jose A. Gonzalez, Bishop of Cuba, who announced his intention to retire in a "future date."

The Church in Cuba became a missionary district of the Episcopal Church in the United States in 1901, and three years later the first bishop was elected. In 1966 it became an autonomous diocese under a metropolitan council.

The council is composed of the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Most Rev. Edward Scott; the Archbishop of the Church in the Province of West Indies, the Most Rev. Alan J. Knight, and the President of the Ninth Province, the Rt. Rev. Lemuel B. Shirley, Bishop of Panama and Canal Zone.

The Council has already decided to grant permission for the election. No dates have been set yet.

The Episcopalians in Cuba regarded the year of 1871 as the beginning of the Episcopal work. On that year the Rev. Edward Kenney arrived in the island as a missionary from the diocese of Minnesota.

In other actions, the synod:

• Expressed its pleasure for the dialogue between the Cuban Government and the Cubans in exile, which has resulted in the beginning of the release of political prisoners and the re-unification of the Cuban family.
• Appointed a committee to make a historical study of all the annual synods since 1906.
• Expressed concern about nuclear warfare and especially the building of the neutron bomb by any nation of the world.

Before the synod, a seminar on evangelism was celebrated under the leadership of the Rev. Canon Weeville Gordon, rector of the Church of St. Matthew in Kingston, Jamaica.

As a result, the synod adopted a resolution calling the Episcopal Church of Cuba to "renew its obedience to the Gospel" in order to re-evangelize its members, and "more commitment" in the proclamation of the Gospel to "those people who have no pastor."

Special guest of the synod was the Rt. Rev. Herbert Edmondson, Anglican Bishop of Jamaica.

At the conclusion of the church activities, a new deacon was ordained by Bishop Gonzalez.