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Female
Episcopal bishop a first for Cuba
Andrea Rodriguez, Associated
Press Writer. June 11, 2007.
HAVANA - New Episcopal Bishop Nerva Cot
Aguilera, the church's first female bishop
in Cuba and the developing world, said Monday
she welcomed the opportunity to show what
women can do if given the chance.
"I feel very honored by my designation,"
Cot told The Associated Press in a phone
interview, a day after being consecrated
at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
in Havana. "It's a historic act that
demonstrates women's possibilities."
Cot's designation as suffragan bishop was
first announced in February.
"Her appointment is a wonderful reminder
that in some nations, leadership is primarily
about gifts for service and not about gender,"
U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts
Schori, who took office in November as the
first woman to lead the church, said at
the time.
Also consecrated on Sunday was Cuban's
other new suffragan bishop, Ulises Mario
Aguiera Prendes.
Cuba's Episcopal Church has about 10,000
members in a nation of more than 11 million.
A majority of Cubans are nominally Roman
Catholic, but Protestant denominations and
the African-influenced faith Santeria have
gained in popularity in recent years.
Cot was a secondary school teacher before
church reforms permitted her ordination
as one of the first three Episcopal women
priests in Cuba in 1987.
Cuba was a diocese of the U.S. church until
1967, when it was forced to break away because
hostility between the U.S. and Cuban governments
made contacts difficult. Cuba's communist
leaders were embracing official atheism
at the time, a stance abandoned in the early
1990s.
The Episcopal News Service of the U.S.
Episcopal Church reported earlier this year
that the Cuban church has since operated
under a Metropolitan Council, an extra-provincial
region of the church. Now chaired by the
Archbishop Andrew Hutchison of Canada, the
council also includes Jefferts Schori and
the archbishop of the West Indies.
As suffragan bishops, Cot and Aguiera will
serve under Cuba's interim bishop, Miguel
Tamayo. Cot said she will be responsible
for western Cuba and Aguiera eastern Cuba.
The Episcopal Church of Cuba is part of
the 77 million-member Anglican Communion,
a global fellowship of churches that trace
their roots to the Church of England.
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