Nicaraguans Tap Native Priest
Episcopal News Service. [84182]
BLUEFIELDS, Nicaragua (DPS, Sept. 13) -- The Rev. Sturdie Wyman Downs, vicar of All Saints' Church in Managua and dean supervisor of the Pacific Coast Deanery, was elected second bishop of Nicaragua on the first ballot at a special diocesan convention held here on Sept. 9.
Downs received 12 clerical votes (out of 18) and 35 lay votes (out of 50). When the announcement was made, the congregation rose in a standing ovation and the bishop-elect broke into tears.
Downs received his elementary and secondary education in Bluefields and is a graduate of St. Andrews' Seminary, Mexico City.
The 37-year-old priest is the first Nicaraguan to attain this post since Nicaragua became a missionary district of the Episcopal Church in the United States in 1968. The first bishop was the Rt. Rev. G. Edward Haynsworth, who resigned in 1980, and after a stint in El Salvador joined the World Mission staff at the Episcopal Church Center in New York. In the interim, the Church in Nicaragua has been under the care of the bishop of Costa Rica, the Rt. Rev. Cornelius Wilson.
Downs was ordained deacon in 1976 and priest two years later, also at St. Mark's Church. In 1973 he married Eufemia Gallopp, a Christian education graduate and school teacher. The couple has three sons.
A life-long Episcopalian, Downs was born in Corn Island, on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, on May 5, 1947.
The convention was presided over by Wilson, and the bishop of the Dominican Republic, the Rt. Rev. Telesforo Isaac, served as an observer from the Ninth Province.
In the two-day regular convention which preceded the special convention, Nicaragua was authorized to enter negotiation with the dioceses of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica with the intention of forming an Anglican province in the near future.
In 1982 the Church in Nicaragua decided to ask for its autonomy from the Episcopal Church. The upcoming General Convention in Anaheim will decide on that.