The Episcopal Church of Cuba ( es, Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba) is a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of the Episcopal Church in the United States (

ECUSA The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...

or TEC). The diocese consists of the entire country of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. From 1966 to 2020, it was an extra-provincial diocese under the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

. , it had about 10,000 members in forty-six

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

es, including the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Havana.

History

The Episcopal Church of Cuba traces its formal origins to 1901, when the House of Bishops of ECUSA established the Missionary District of Cuba under the jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop. In 1966 ECUSA's

House of Bishops The House of Bishops is the third House in a General Synod of some Anglican churches and the second house in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

withdrew the Cuban diocese from ECUSA association in the wake of the 1959

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...

, which had strained communication and travel between the churches. After 1966, as an extra-provincial diocese, the Cuban church was under the oversight of a

Metropolitan Council The Metropolitan Council, commonly abbreviated Met Council or Metro Council, is the regional governmental agency and metropolitan planning organization in Minnesota serving the Twin Cities seven-county metropolitan area, accounting for over 55 pe ...

of the Primates of the

Anglican Church of Canada The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC or ACoC) is the Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French-language name is ''l'Église anglicane du Canada''. In 2017, the Anglican Church co ...

, and the

Church in the Province of the West Indies The Church in the Province of the West Indies is one of 40 member provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church comprises eight dioceses spread out over much of the West Indies area. The present position of Archbishop and Primate of th ...

, as delegated by Archbishop of Canterbury. The diocese remained in full

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

throughout the period. ECUSA voted at its 2018 General Convention to readmit the diocese.

Bishops of Cuba

Recent history and future structure

Internal divisions over a range of issues including the possibility of rejoining the

Episcopal Church in the United States The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...

(ECUSA) and the election of a successor to Bishop Perera, led to a long period of instability within the Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba, which found itself unable to elect a bishop for many years. Bishop

Miguel Tamayo Zaldívar --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disam ...

, a native Cuban who moved to

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

to serve as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

and subsequently became Bishop of Uruguay in the

Iglesia Anglicana de Sudamérica Iglesia may refer to: * Iglesia Department * Iglesia ni Cristo * Iglesia Filipina Independiente , native_name_lang = fil , icon = Logo of the Philippine Independent Church (Aglipayan Church).svg , icon_width = 8 ...

(formerly the

Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de las Americas The Anglican Church of South America ( es, Iglesia Anglicana de Sudamérica) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Formed in 198 ...

), was appointed Interim Bishop in 2005. Following a number of attempts at resolution of the problem, the Metropolitan Council, in February 2007, appointed

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

Nerva Cot Aguilera Nerva Cot Aguilera (1938/1939 – July 10, 2010) was a Cubans, Cuban Anglican bishop. From 2007 to 2010, she was a suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Church of Cuba. Upon her consecration, she became the first female Anglican bishop in a developing ...

and Ulises Mario Aguero Prendes as

suffragan bishop A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

s of the Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba to carry out pastoral oversight under the direction of Bishop Tamayo. They were consecrated on June 10, 2007. Cot Aguilera was the first woman to be appointed an Anglican

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

. She expressed openness to ordaining openly gay and lesbian clergy. After a short retirement, Cot Aguilera died suddenly on July 10, 2010 after a brief battle with severe anemia. She was 71. Bishop Tamayo worked industriously to heal divisions within the diocese, but repeated attempts to elect his successor ultimately failed. Following Bishop Tamayo's announcement in 2009 of his wish to resign (to focus on his ministry in Uruguay, ahead of his anticipated retirement in 2012-2013), and a further inconclusive election, the responsibility for an appointment fell again to the Metropolitan Council, which in January 2010 appointed Griselda Delgado Del Carpio as bishop coadjutor (assistant bishop with the right of succession). She was ordained to the episcopate on February 7, 2010 and following Bishop Tamayo's resignation was installed as diocesan on November 28, 2010. At a meeting of the Diocesan Synod in March 2015, following the decision by the

and to re-establish diplomatic relations, it was resolved to take steps to formally reincorporate the Cuban church within the Episcopal Church in the United States. A commission was formed to consider what processes would be needed to achieve a reunification, and the

General Convention The General Convention is the primary governing and legislative body of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. With the exception of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Constitution and Canons, it is the ultimate authority ...

was expected to consider the matter in 2018. In July 2018, at the 79th Episcopal General Convention, both the House of Bishops and the

House of Deputies The House of Deputies is one of the legislative houses of the bicameral General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The other is the House of Bishops. Membership Each diocese of the Episcopal Church, as well as the ...

voted unanimously to re-admit the Episcopal Church of Cuba to ECUSADeputies concur with bishops in unanimous vote to admit Cuba, Episcopal News Service, July 2018
/ref> as a diocese of province II (also called the Atlantic Province), which includes dioceses from New York and New Jersey in the United States, Haiti, and the Virgin Islands.

References

External links

Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba official siteAnglican Communion siteHistorical resources on Anglicanism in Cuba
from

Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuba Anglican Church in the Caribbean Anglican dioceses established in the 20th century Dioceses of the Episcopal Church (United States) Protestantism in Cuba Province 2 of the Episcopal Church (United States)