José G. Saucedo

Jose G. Saucedo Mendoza

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Jose G. Sauced Mendoza, (December 5, 1924 – August 7, 1998) was a Mexican Anglican bishop from 1958 to 1998. One of the youngest Anglican bishops ever to attend the Lambeth Conference he became the first primate bishop of the Anglican Church of Mexico, serving from 1995 until his death in 1998. Under his leadership spanning four decades the Anglican Church of Mexico grew from one missionary diocese to five dioceses that formed an independent member of the worldwide Anglican Communion in 1995.

Born in Michoacán, Mex., he attended the Anglican seminary in Guadalajara, Jalisco, graduating in 1945, and after three years at the Episcopal Church's Virginia Theological Seminary, at Alexandria, Virginia, earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree with honors.

Ministry

The USA Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop ordained him a deacon in February 1949 in Virginia and six months later Mexico's Bishop, Efrain Salinas y Velasco, ordained him priest, in Cuernavaca, Morelos, where in 1953 he organized and founded the first English speaking parish of the diocese (Saint Michael and All Angels). He was directly in charge of the pastoral and sacramental functions of the missions in the towns of Alpuyeca, Galeana, Jojutla y Alejandra, all in the Mexican State of Morelos. On autumn 1957 Saucedo was appointed missionary bishop to Mexico by the bishops of the USA Episcopal Church and consecrated on January 14th 1958 at 34 years of age. He is the youngest bishop to have ever attended any Lambeth Conference. As bishop he promoted missional work in places where there was no presence of other churches. He implemented an aggressive program of infrastructure building churches, rectories, boarding schools, and future diocesan centers in Mexico City, in the States of Morelos and Veracruz, and a new seminary in Mexico City.

In face of increasing anxieties over the ordination of women to the priesthood and the liturgical revisions of the 70's, bishop Saucedo played a decisive roll in convening the USA bishops in Oaxtepec, Morelos, Mex. from October 13 through October 18 1974 in an attempt to bridge deepening divisions among traditionalist on one hand and liberal bishops on the other.

He was elected the first Primate of the Anglican Church of Mexico in its first General Synod, February 1995, and was enthroned as primate by USA Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning on May 13, 1995. He was seen as a leader and a pastor, with a vision of an autonomous Mexican Anglican church and with the ability to bring that into being.

He died in Mexico City on August 6 at the age of 73.