The Diocese of West Texas has elected the associate rector of St. David’s Church in Austin, Texas — a bilingual priest who says she thrives in a “second seat” team position — as its seventh suffragan bishop.
The Rev. Angela Maria Cortiñas has served at St. David’s since 2021. She was previously rector of St. Thomas Church, College Station, Texas, and an associate priest in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Cortiñas was one of three nominees, and she was elected on the fifth ballot. Another nominee, the Rev. Canon William Lee Curtis, canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of the Rio Grande, also said he has “learned to love life in the second chair.” The third nominee was the Rev. Matthew Wise, associate rector of St. Mark’s Church in San Antonio, the see city of West Texas.
In her profile for the election, Cortiñas described helping St. David’s discover that, despite the parish’s longtime identity as an “open and affirming congregation,” staff and leaders were surprised that Hispanic members “did not always feel welcome.”
“Changes were made to music at worship services, the bulletin’s language was updated to be bilingual and we added additional events throughout the year,” she wrote. “We partnered with other churches in Austin to put on events throughout the year, such as a celebration of Los Posadas and a retreat aimed at training Spanish-speaking lay leaders within and around the Austin area.”
She also described studying for a Doctor of Ministry degree through Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary beginning in 2020. She learned through those studies that “those seeking spiritual connection through pilgrimage, such as the Camino de Santiago,” are growing exponentially, even as church membership declines.
“We should be asking ourselves; What is driving people out of churches and into nature and on pilgrimage?” she wrote. “Why are so many returning to the ancient practice of fasting or intermittent fasting? What can we learn from intentional living and how can the church help these individuals make connections to the life and teachings of Christ to help those who are seeking? I see an opportunity to help those seeking make those connections. I see an opportunity to help create disciples.”
The date for her consecration and installation has been set for March 29, 2025.
Suffragan bishops, who support the ministry of diocesan bishops (the word comes from a medieval Latin term that means “supporter”), served in many of the Episcopal Church’s dioceses in earlier generations. In the last decade, dioceses have increasingly chosen to hire retired bishops (usually called assisting bishops) to perform necessary duties, a simpler and less expensive process.
Cortiñas is only the third suffragan bishop to be elected in the last decade. The others were the Rt. Rev. Kathryn Ryan, who was elected as Suffragan Bishop of Texas in 2019, and the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Brooke-Davidson, who was elected as Suffragan Bishop of West Texas in 2017, and now serves as an assisting bishop in the Diocese of North Carolina.
Douglas LeBlanc is the Associate Editor for Book Reviews and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
