Seattle - The Diocese of Olympia, the Episcopal Church in western Washington, today elected the Revd Bavi Edna "Nedi" Rivera as its bishop suffragan making her the first Hispanic woman bishop and only the 12th woman bishop in the history of the denomination. The election, held at St. Mark's Cathedral, took three ballots with Rivera holding a substantial lead among both clergy and lay people in the first two ballots. The Diocese of Olympia comprises 33,000 Episcopalians in the western half of the state of Washington.

At the closing worship of the convention, Bishop Vincent Warner who heads the diocese offered, "I just want to put in perspective that this is the first suffragan elected in this diocese in 150 years, it is the first woman elected in this diocese, it is the first woman-of-color elected in this diocese and the first woman-of-color suffragan bishop who has a father who is a bishop. It is part of God's history of God's church."

Rivera is the daughter of the Victor Manuel Rivera who served as the Bishop of San Joaquin, Calif., from 1968 to 1988. She is presently serving as rector of St. Aiden's Episcopal Church in San Francisco. She was ordained a priest in 1979.

The diocese was seeking a bishop who would lead the church in its efforts to expand ethnic ministries, evangelism and the work of faith formation. Rivera is a leader in youth work and a member of the clergy of color in the Diocese of California. She has done advanced study at the Vancouver School of Theology in parish re-vitalization.

The Episcopal Church was the first province in the Anglican Communion to ordain a woman as bishop when Barbara Harris was consecrated bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Massachusetts in February of 1989. Rivera becomes the 16th woman bishop in the history of the world-wide Anglican Communion of seventy million members.