Cuba Bishop Griselda Delgado del Carpio holds her granddaughter’s hand as she and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry process out of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Havana during the March 6, 2020, service marking the return of the Diocese of Cuba to The Episcopal Church. Photo: Lynette Wilson/Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] The Rt. Rev. Griselda Delgado del Carpio, who has led the Episcopal Diocese of Cuba since 2010, retired on March 23, according to information from the Friends of the Episcopal Church in Cuba. She was the first woman to serve as a diocesan bishop in Cuba and in Latin America.

Delgado was instrumental in working for the reunification of the church in Cuba with The Episcopal Church, which took place in 2020, after five years of efforts that included approval by the 79th General Convention in 2018. The reunification was celebrated in a March 6, 2020, service at Havana’s Holy Trinity Cathedral.

The relationship between the Cuban church and The Episcopal Church was severed in 1966, after the loss of diplomatic relations between the two countries that followed the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.

Delgado, who was born in Bolivia in 1955, moved to Cuba in 1982 to attend seminary. After graduation, she remained in the country and served for 20 years as rector of Santa Maria Virgen in Itabo before becoming bishop coadjutor and then diocesan bishop.

The standing committee of the diocese serves as the ecclesiastical authority following Delgado’s retirement and will oversee the process of electing the next bishop.