Nearly a year after his election to the position, Archdeacon Michael Pollesal has been ratified as bishop coadjutor of Uruguay. The Uruguay Synod elected Pollesal to the position in May 2012, but, without explanation, the election was not ratified at that time by the House of Bishops of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. Anglican Journal reports:
The Anglican Province of the Southern Cone has reconsidered the Diocese of Uruguay’s appeal and has voted to ratify the election of Archdeacon Michael Pollesel as coadjutor bishop.
The decision came 10 months after the province’s House of Bishops rejected Pollesel’s election. The Uruguayan diocesan synod had appealed the decision, but “for technical canonical reasons the form of the original appeal was not valid” and had to be presented again, said Southern Cone Presiding Bishop Hector Zavala in a press release.
The Southern Cone House of Bishops and provincial Executive Council, “with joy and thankfulness to God,” ratified Pollesel’s election after new consideration of the appeal and the presentation of new background material, Zavala said.
The Diocese of Uruguay has navigated rocky waters within the Province of the Southern Cone, and requested to switch provinces after Pollesal’s ratification was voted down last year. According to Anglican Journal, Pollesal credited a visit last January “and subsequent report by the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, Anglican Communion general secretary, as having allowed the diocese and the province to ‘find a way out of being stuck.’ Zavala decided to invite a small delegation from the diocese to attend part of the Southern Cone’s House of Bishops meeting, a recommendation in the Kearon report.
“ ‘At the face-to-face meeting I believe we were able to bring down some defensive walls that had been built and also build some bridges of understanding and reconciliation,’ said Pollesel. ‘We’re not there yet. But we’re certainly moving in a good direction.’ ”
Pollesal will replace retiring bishop Miguel de Tamayo, whom Pollesal described as “a faithful pastor who has been here as a priest and bishop for almost two decades.” Read full story here.