Assisting Bishop in Residence
The Rt. Rev. Maria Griselda Delgado del Carpio
Born to a respected patent lawyer and a loving homemaker in 1955 in La Paz, Bolivia, Maria Griselda Delgado del Carpio was educated at the Instituto Americano’s Methodist High School. She next attended the Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz, graduating in 1981 with a degree in sociology. In 1982, Ms. Delgado moved to Cuba to enter the Evangelical Seminary of Theology in Matanzas, Cuba.
Griselda remained in Cuba and was ordained as a deacon in 1986. Shortly thereafter, she arrived at Itabo, Cuba, a small town with little acquaintance of Jesus Christ, to serve at a church property, with crumbling walls and no roof, known as Santa Maria Virgen. Working from a small house across the street, Deacon Griselda began introducing the townspeople to the love and hope of Christ. In 1991, Bishop Emilio Hernandez ordained Deacon Griselda as an Episcopal priest in a ceremony of ordinations that included three other women, the first four women priests of the Episcopal Church of Cuba. She continued at Santa Maria Virgen as Rectora for the next 20 years, inspiring the congregation of Santa Maria Virgen to work together to build their town temple back proud and strong, to build a self-sustaining community system of agro-ecological farms on and around the church, and to build their relationships with each other and with God.
In September 2009, the Cuban church, for the second time, failed to elect a bishop coadjutor. After 13 inconclusive ballots were cast, the choice of a coadjutor fell to the Metropolitan Council of Cuba (Bishops from USA, Canada and West Indies), which Council has governed the Cuban church in matters of faith and order since its 1967 post-Revolution separation and autonomy from the U.S.-based Episcopal Church. On February 7, 2010, The Rt. Rev. Griselda Delgado Del Carpio was consecrated as bishop coadjutor for the Diocese of Cuba and was installed later that year on November 28 as diocesan bishop of the Episcopal Church of Cuba at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Havana. She became the first woman to serve in that role as diocesan bishop of Cuba.
At the time of her ordination as bishop, the Cuban church included about 40 congregations and some 7,000 Episcopalians. “La Obispa,” as she is affectionately known, is the proud mother of three now-grown children: Griselda Edith, Lautaro, and Marcela Beatriz. She is married to Cuban-born Gerardo Logildes Coroas, a building contractor, who was recently ordained as an Episcopal priest and now serves not only as priest at the Bishop’s former parish in Itabo but also as Project Supervisor of Camp Blankingship near Santa Clara, Cuba.
