Bishop Opens New Mission in Ecuador
Diocesan Press Service. August 7, 1964 [XXIII-3]
In late June, the Rt. Rev. David Benson Reed, Bishop of Colombia, inaugurated the Capilla de la Transfiguracion (Chapel of the Transfiguration) on the outskirts of Guayaquil, Ecuador, with a celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Bishop Reed also administered the rite of Holy Confirmation on this occasion.
The new chapel stands on stilts in the tidewater flats of the shantytown section called Huancavilca, an east-end extension of the Pacific port city of Guayaquil. A series of precarious boardwalks lead from a dirt road out past the huts in which the people live - also on stilts - to the half-finished chapel at the low-water edge of an inlet to the sea. The building is being put up by local people and is constructed of sturdy poles with a floor measuring 20 by 20 feet. The roof will soon go on and the building will be extended back to make more room for meetings.
The Bishop, dressed in cope and mitre, and his attending clergy made their way under fluttering colored paper streamers across the narrow planks over the flood tide where 100 adults and children awaited them at their new church.
Six months ago the people in Huancavilca asked for the ministrations of the Episcopal Church through the established Church of Christ the King in Guayaquil. Services were held in a home, and a first and second grade school was set up under a teacher provided by the Women of Christ the King.
Bishop Reed, who is a citizen of the United States, was consecrated to be Bishop of the new diocese of Colombia, with jurisdiction over Ecuador, in late April. The 37-year-old bishop is emphasizing work among Ecuadorians. The Chapel of the Transfiguration in the slums of Guayaquil is one of the first fruits of that work.