By Kirk Petersen
The Rev. Juan Carlos Quiñones of Quito was elected Bishop of Ecuador Central on November 6, according to Episcopal News Service. Assuming he receives the necessary consents from a majority of Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction, he will be consecrated on May 7, 2022. He is the first Afro-Ecuadorian to be elected to the post.
The Standing Committee has been the ecclesiastical authority of the diocese since the sudden death of the Rt. Rev. Victor Alfonso Scantlebury in December 2020. Scantlebury had served as interim bishop for nearly a decade. He was named to the position in 2011 after the entire leadership of that diocese resigned to settle a dispute between Bishop Luis Fernando Ruiz, who was bishop diocesan at the time, and the Standing Committee of the diocese.
Quiñones was elected on the fourth ballot from a field of three candidates, in a special convention at the Cathedral of Our Lord in Quito. The other candidates were the Rev. Joel Almono, a priest in the Diocese of Massachusetts, and the Rev. Gerónimo Alava of Guayaquil, in the Diocese of Ecuador Litoral.
Central Ecuador, based in the capital of Quito, is one of two Episcopal dioceses in the country, and has 21 churches, according to the Episcopal Asset Map, with 716 members. The other is Litoral Ecuador, based in Guayaquil and encompassing the coastal region, which has 17 churches and 7,900 members.
Pittsburgh
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Ketlen A. Solak was consecrated the IX Bishop of Pittsburgh on November 13, in a ceremony at Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. “My heart is full,” she said following a standing ovation at the Peace, before she presided over her first Eucharist as a bishop. She is the first Black and first female Bishop of Pittsburgh, and is one of six Black female bishops leading a diocese.
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, who served as chief consecrator, said: “This is a joyous day, not just for Pittsburgh, not just for the Episcopal Church, but for the cause of Jesus and his way of love in our world.” Solak was elected in June, and succeeds the Rt. Rev. Dorsey McConnell, who retired in August after leading the diocese since 2012. She was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and served churches in Virginia and Delaware after receiving master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary.
Pittsburgh is one of five dioceses where a former bishop led a majority of parishes out of the Episcopal Church, in 2008. The diocese currently has 35 churches, comprising about 9,000 members. The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, formed by people who left the Episcopal diocese, reports 48 churches with 3,600 members.
New York
The Rt. Rev. Andrew ML Dietsche, XVI Bishop of New York, has announced his plans to retire in 2024, and called for the election of a bishop coadjutor. “I am not saying goodbye now. But please know that shepherding the two hundred (or so) churches in this diocese has been a privilege which I did not know how much I needed until you called me to it,” Dietsche said at the annual convention of the diocese on November 13.
Dietsche has served as Bishop of New York since 2013, after being consecrated bishop coadjutor in 2012. A bishop coadjutor is an elected successor who serves alongside a bishop diocesan until the incumbent’s departure from office. Plans call for the election of the coadjutor in December 2022, consecration as coadjutor in May 2023, and installation as bishop diocesan in March 2024.
New York is the fifth-largest diocese in the Episcopal Church, with more than 47,000 members. It was established in 1785 as one of the nine original dioceses of the church, and encompasses New York City and six counties north of the city. It is one of six dioceses in the state.
Kirk Petersen began reporting news for TLC as a freelancer in 2016, and was Associate Editor from 2019 to 2024, focusing especially on matters of governance in the Episcopal Church.
