The Rt. Rev. Telésforo Alexander Isaac, the first native Dominican to lead the Diocese of the Dominican Republic, died July 4 at 96. He was the senior member of the House of Bishops at his death, having served in episcopal ministry for 52 years.
A native of San Pedro de Macorís, an early base for the Episcopal Church’s ministry in the country, Isaac studied at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of Haiti, the Caribbean Seminary in Puerto Rico, the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, and the Pontifical University of Salamanca, Spain.
He was ordained as a deacon and priest in 1958, the first native Dominican to be ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal Church. He served congregations in San Pedro de Macorís, San Francisco de Macorís, Haina, and Santo Domingo before his election as the second bishop of what was then the Missionary Diocese of the Dominican Republic.
A great advocate for education, Isaac established San Gabriel School in the Ingenio Consuelo and Jesús Nazareno School in San Francisco de Macorís during his priestly ministry. He was later among the founders of the Center for Theological Studies in Santo Domingo, where he served for many years as a professor of homiletics, spirituality, pastoral theology, and pastoral counseling.
Isaac was a prolific author, writing columns regularly for several newspapers in the Dominican Republic as well as Consejería Pastoral Noutética, a work on pastoral counseling, which was published in 2017.
During his ministry as bishop, he helped to establish the Dominican Association for Rehabilitation and oversaw a vaccination campaign against polio for infants and young children across the nation. He was the leader of a short-lived attempt to create an Episcopal Province of the Caribbean, which was to include the dioceses of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
Isaac stepped down as diocesan bishop in 1991, when he became an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Southwest Florida for five years. He also served twice as interim bishop of the Diocese of the Virgin Islands in 1996 and 2003.
Funeral services will be held on July 6 at the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Santo Domingo.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
