Reverends Spofford, Haynsworth, Mahguramas, and Ramos Elected to Episcopacy
Diocesan Press Service. October 22, 1968 [70-7]
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- "I feel numb...."
The Very Rev. William B. Spofford, Jr., Dean of St. Michael's Cathedral, Boise, Idaho, was stunned when a friend telephoned congratulations upon his election to be Bishop of the Missionary District of Eastern Oregon.
Dean Spofford was among four men elected to the episcopacy during the meeting of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in Augusta, Georgia. The elections took place during the second day of the meeting, which is being held for the first time with the Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Also elected Bishops were the Ven. George Edward Haynsworth, Archdeacon of El Salvador and Guatemala, to be Missionary Bishop of Nicaragua; the Rev. Constancio Buanda Mahguramas, rector of Holy Trinity, Zamboango City, Mindanao, Philippines, to be the second Suffragan Bishop for the Philippines; and the Very Rev. Jose Antonio Ramos, Dean of St. John's Cathedral, San Juan, Puerto Rico, to be Missionary Bishop of Costa Rica.
Dean Spofford, who has served the Cathedral in Boise since 1960, is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., where he was born in 1921, the son of the Rev. and Mrs. William B. Spofford. The Rev. Mr. Spofford has been long-time editor of The Witness, an Episcopal Church weekly.
Dean Spofford was one of two men who made history in 1967 when they served as duly elected delegates to the Triennial Meeting of the Women of the Church. The other was the Rev. Powell Woodward of Central New York. During the 1967 General Convention Dean Spofford was also elected to serve on the Executive Council, national administrative body of the Episcopal Church.
Prior to accepting his present position, Dean Spofford was chaplain to the Massachusetts General Hospital and Clinical Training Fellow at the Kansas State Hospital and Boys Industrial School, Topeka, Kansas.
Archdeacon Haynsworth, who also serves as canon to the ordinary (assistant to the Bishop), is a native of Sumter, South Carolina. A graduate of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, he served in Hope Isle, Georgia, until 1960 when he became rector of St. John's, San Salvador, El Salvador. He became Archdeacon in 1964.
Dean Ramos, who is only 31, is a native of Puerto Rico. A graduate of Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin, and the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, he has served on the Cathedral staff since his ordination. Dean Ramos also has two brothers who are priests of the Episcopal Church. His twin, Francisco, is rector of St. Andrew's, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and his brother, Wilfredo, is on the faculty of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Caribbean, Carolina, Puerto Rico.
The Rev. Mr. Mahguramas, a graduate of Agricultural High School in Upi, the Philippines, and of St. Andrew's Seminary, Manila, has been rector of Holy Trinity since 1963. He also serves as chaplain to Brent Hospital and as director of Good Shepherd Mission School. A former rector of Holy Trinity, the Rt. Rev. Benito C. Cabanban, is now the present Bishop of the Philippines.