The Rev. Mark Pendleton, rector of Christ Church in Exeter, New Hampshire, writes for General Theological Seminary’s Beyond the Close:
Over the years I have led countless mission trips, sponsored refugee families to come to the U.S., and even encouraged my son to take a gap year during college to be the first Young Adult Service Corps (YASC) volunteer in Cuba in 2013 (where he met and would later marry his Cuban bride). In 2015, I was appointed a member of the Task Force on Cuba that met in preparation to General Convention and wrote a comprehensive report that recommended that Cuba be welcomed home.
… My one-time General tutor William “Chip” Stokes, Bishop of New Jersey and co-chair of the committee, was masterful in weighing various paths while keeping Gospel reconciliation at the center of the deliberations. General Seminary trustee Bishop Andrew Dietsche, the Bishop of New York, as a member of the committee and a friend of Cuba offered context and timely assurance that there could be a way forward to embrace the moment and move on the resolution at the current convention.
Bishop Delgado, who received an honorary doctorate from General in 2017, has been a tireless leader and ambassador for a long isolated church. Plans for dioceses to help pay the five-decade-long pension arrears are now underway.
Read the rest. Related: Friends of the Episcopal Church in Cuba, which offers a means to send support to the diocese.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
