• Submitted by: admin
• 06 / 11 / 2007

Reverend Nerva Cot Aguilera was ordained the first female Episcopalian bishop in Latin America and the Caribbean on Sunday in the Cuban capital.

Ulises Aguero Prendes was also ordained as a bishop at the ceremony held at Havanas Episcopal Cathedral of Holy Trinity.

Miguel Tamayo, interim bishop of Cuba as well as Uruguay, noted the historical nature of the event for the Anglican Church and especially in Latin America.

Tamayo had asked the Metropolitan Council to designate two auxiliary bishops to help him in his ministry as bishop and leading pastor. Reverend Cot said it was "a privilege" to be named to the post and told Granma that it presented a challenge to promote greater unity in the church and strengthen it in order to accomplish that mission.

Reverend Cot said that to such a high post a women brings her tenderness, sensitivity and experience as mediator due to the role they play in the family: in search of unity, understanding and dialogue. "We are not prone to absolutism; instead, we like to listen," she noted.

The two new Episcopalian bishops took the oath and received their symbolic crosier, crosses and rings before worshipers and bishops and clergy including: Andre Hutchinson and Katherine Jefferts Schori, leaders of the Episcopalian Church of Canada and the United States; and Julio Ernesto Murray, president of the Latin American Council of Churches.

Cot, 69, has worked as a primary school and junior high teacher. She studied languages at the Higher Pedagogical Institute of Camaguey. Arguero, 70, an electrical engineer, worked for 40 years for Cubas Electric Company. One will be assigned to the western part of the country and the other to the eastern provinces.

Caridad Diego, who heads of the office of religious affairs at the Communist Party Central Committee, also attended the ordaining ceremony

Source: By Joel Mayor Lorán, Granma