Hispanic Heritage Month

Join the community of Seminary of the Southwest as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage throughout October.

Events include:

October 16 – November 2, 2017: Latino Art Display in the Weeks Center

October 25, 2017: Miguelina Howell, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford, CT, will be the featured Lecturer for Hispanic Heritage Month at 7 pm, preceded by a 6 pm reception. She will also preside for morning chapel at 11:45am.

Prior to her appointment as the Tenth Dean, Miguelina served as Vicar of the Cathedral.    Miguelina is originally from the Dominican Republic where she holds a license in clinical psychology.   She was ordained in 2002 in the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic. She is a member of the Episcopal Church Latino/Hispanic Ministries Council of Advice, member of the Board of the Society for the Increase of Ministry and was appointed to serve on the General Convention 2015  Task Force on Sustentability and Development of Latino/Hispanic Ministries.

Miguelina serves as a faculty member of CREDO, a wellness program of the Church Pension Group. She was the seventh Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Diocese of Newark, and served as a member of the Task Force for Re-imagining the Episcopal Church.

In the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic she was Priest-in-Charge of three congregations, executive director and administrator of the Diocesan Camp & Conference Center, and coordinator of Young Adult Ministries. Miguelina has also served as a member of the Presiding Bishop’s Staff at the Episcopal Church Center, as a member of the Council of Advice of the President of the House of Deputies, and as a member of Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.

November 2, 2017: Bishop Hector Monterroso at All Souls Day Evening Eucharist

A native of Guatemala, the Rt. Rev. Hector Monterroso served as bishop of Costa Rica for 14 years before becoming bishop assistant in the Diocese of Texas, July 1, 2017.

His father’s professional soccer career proved to be an opener for him in gathering people to a new worshiping community. “My training in the seminary did not include how to [plant] new churches,” he said, but with his inherited soccer skills, he soon made headway. “People couldn’t believe that a priest could play soccer. I visited many small towns where the people came to learn that I was the priest of the new church. Many young people came to the church to meet and to play on my soccer team. Eventually, we had our own soccer team sponsored by the Episcopal Church. It was good advertising,” he laughed.

In addition to his experience as a missionary, and as Bishop of Costa Rica, Bishop Monterroso also served as Secretary General of Province IX (1986-2000); as editor of the Revista Anglicanos for 16 years, a magazine that served the Hispanic diaspora in the Anglican Communion; and as Secretary General of the Anglican Church of the Central Region of America. During his tenure in Costa Rica, he secured its financial stability, increased the number of clergy from seven to 29, assured that most congregations were self-sustaining, and gained governmental recognition and support for many of the Diocese’s programs.

In Texas, Bishop Monterroso will continue to strengthen the growth in both Hispanic congregations as well as new missional communities and church plants. He will visit 45 congregations during the year; primarily in the southern region of the Diocese of Texas; chair the board of St. Vincent’s House, a social service agency in Galveston; support growth of multicultural presence in all congregations and help to create a strategy for new ethnic church plants and missional communities. Additionally, Assistant Bishop Monterroso will work to identify vocational leaders within the Hispanic congregations.

Bishop Monterroso earned an engineering degree and attended seminary at night while working for a rum company. He was ordained as a deacon in 1986, a priest in 1987 in the Diocese of Guatemala and consecrated as the Bishop of Costa Rica on June 7, 2003. He and his wife, Sandra Cardona, have two grown children: María Beatriz, a medical doctor in Costa Rica, and Héctor Ramón, a civil engineer.

November 2, 2017: Migrant: A Tribute through the Arts — Multi-media Presentation