Nicaragua Church Ordains Four Priests
Episcopal News Service. April 27, 1984 [84087]
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (DPS, April 27) -- Four Nicaraguan deacons, representing four ethnic groups, have been ordained to the priesthood by the Rt. Rev. Cornelius Wilson, bishop-in-charge of the Episcopal Church of Nicaragua.
More than 800 people packed St. Mark's Church, Bluefields, for the ordinations of the Rev. Robert Campbell, OHC, and the Rev. Joseph Bendliss on March 25. Campbell, a native of Corn Island off Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast, is vicar of St. Mark's Church. He is on loan from the Order of the Holy Cross to the local diocese of Nicaragua and serves as regional coordinator for Bluefields and Corn Island.
Bendliss, a native of the Atlantic Coast which is currently being affected by war, is regional coordinator of the Rio Grande area inhabited by the Miskito and Sumo peoples. His father served the same area for many years as a catechist. One of his sons is in seminary here preparing for priesthood and to carry on the family tradition of ministry in that isolated region.
All Saints' Church, located at the diocesan center here, was the setting for two separate ordinations in the presence of standing room only congregations. The Rev. Arturo Riguero was ordained Jan. 25 after serving for many years in diocesan affairs as an active layperson. Riguero is vicar of the rapidly growing Matagalpa parish (four congregations) and is now at Nashotah House to complete his theological studies. The Rev. Lucio Morales, ordained April 6, will become diocesan consultant for Christian education and vicar of the missions in the area of Bonanza, Siuna and Rosita. Morales is a native of the Pearl Lagoon area.
All four of the new priests attended the Anglican Institute of the Episcopal Church of Nicaragua, a diocesan training center for ministry development. They were ordained under Project Indigenous Ministry Development which calls for 12 Nicaraguan priests, 12 deacons and at least 50 trained lay ministers to be serving under a Nicaraguan bishop. That election has been set for Sept. 9.
Now part of Province IX of the Episcopal Church, the Church is preparing for autonomy in 1985 as part of a new province.