Female Episcopal bishop a first for Cuba

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Female Episcopal bishop a first for Cuba

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

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.