[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs press release]  The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, President of The Episcopal Church House of Deputies, will visit the Anglican Church in Mexico’s VII General Synod on June 14 and 15. The synod will elect a new primate, who will succeed Bishop Carlos Touché-Porter, primate and bishop of the Diocese of Mexico, whose term as primate is concluding.

President Jennings was invited to attend the synod by Touché-Porter and the Rev. Canon Habacuc Huerta-Ramos, provincial secretary of the Anglican Church in Mexico.

“Her presence is another visible sign of the closer and continual relationship between la Iglesia Anglicana de México and The Episcopal Church,” said Touché-Porter. “It is always a joy to welcome visitors from all parts of the Anglican Communion.”

While in Mexico, President Jennings, Huerta-Ramos and the Rev. Glenda McQueen, Episcopal Church officer for Latin American and the Caribbean, will visit the Dioceses of Mexico and Cuernavaca, including visits withTouché-Porter and Bishop Enrique Trevino Cruz, who became bishop of Cuernavaca in February. She will also meet with the clergy of the Diocese of Mexico at their clericus meeting.

“The visit will give us the opportunity to affirm the bonds of unity between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Mexico, a relationship that has lasted for more than 100 years,” said McQueen. “Meeting people in the Dioceses of Cuernavaca and Mexico will give us the opportunity to see, listen and share with the people engaged in God’s mission every day.”

She continued, “As the financial support provided by The Episcopal Church decreases in the last seven years of the 1994 Covenant, the Anglican Province of Mexico is challenged to develop alternative sources for funding mission. In Mexico City and Cuernavaca, we will meet with clergy and congregations who are being called to work toward the sustainable development of mission.”

The 71^st General Convention in 1994 ratified a covenant between The Episcopal Church and the new province of the Anglican Province of Mexico. That covenant, which took effect in January 1995, established a mission partnership between the two provinces and a plan for the Mexican province’s economic self-sufficiency. The agreement provides for The Episcopal Church to support self-sufficiency with progressively decreasing financial grants until 2020

“I am honored to be a guest at the Anglican Church in Mexico’s General Synod as the province elects its new primate, and I am delighted that I have been invited to visit with leaders in two of its dioceses,” said President Jennings. “In 1994, I was a deputy to the General Convention that established the covenant between our two autonomous provinces, and I am gratified to be able to express my commitment to our covenant in person.”