On 20 March of this year, the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Synod of Cuba (LSKAEB) elected Pastor Virgen Laborde Figuera as its new presiding bishop. Pastor Laborde Figuera is the first woman to hold such an office in the Cuban church. A woman was also elected as assistant bishop – Pastor Martha Romero Lorenzo. During the service, four pastors and one deacon were also ordained.
Pastor Virgen Laborde Figuera was born on 15 January 1952 in the city of Santiago de Cuba, where she has served as a pastor. She obtained her theological education at the Concordia Seminary. She grew up in a family of five children and has a 36-year-old son of her own. By her first profession, Laborde Figuera is an accounting technician; she worked in this field until 2005. In 1994, Laborde Figuera was baptized; in 2001, she was ordained as a presbyter, first serving as an assistant pastor and later as the senior pastor of the “Aposento Alto” congregation in Santiago de Cuba. In 2014, she became an assistant bishop. She served in this office until now, when she was elected presiding bishop.
The previous presiding bishop, Pastor Ismael Laborde, served in this office for 17 years, since 2004. The Constitution of the Cuban church stipulates that there may be 3 re-election terms – each of five years. The latest amendments to the Constitution provide, however, that a person may remain in the office of bishop until the age of 72.
We would remind readers that the Cuban church (LSKAEB) joined the Lutheran World Federation only in February 2019. You can read about what the Cuban church is in our article (here).
Until 2010, the LSKAEB invited professors from the Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and from the Argentine Lutheran seminary, but, given that the Cuban church had a practice of ordaining women in the ministry of Word and Sacrament, the LSKAEB broke off its relations with the Missouri Synod in 2010.
In contrast to the Cuban church, which broke off cooperation with the Missouri Synod because it had a practice of ordaining women in the spiritual ministry, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (ELCL), which in 2001 established a relationship of fellowship with the Missouri Synod (which teaches against the ordination of women), discontinued its own domestic practice of ordaining women in order to fall in line with the theological direction of the Missouri Synod.
Source: Federación Luterana Mundial, América Latina y Caribe
Photo: IEU-SL
Photo caption – from right to left: Rev. Martha Romero (assistant bishop); Rev. Virgen Laborde (presiding bishop), Rev. Ismael Laborde (coadjutor bishop), Rev. Ulises Aguero (bishop of the Episcopal Church of Cuba).