The Rt Revd Bavi Edna "Nedi" Rivera was consecrated the first bishop suffragan for the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia on Saturday 22 January at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington, also making her the first Hispanic woman bishop and only the 12th woman bishop in the history of the denomination.

Rivera's father, the Rt Revd Victor Manuel Rivera, who served as the Bishop of San Joaquin, California, from 1968 to 1988, was an opponent of women's ordination. For years, father and daughter agreed to disagree about the issue. But lately, feelings if not positions have begun to change. He was present along with 20 other bishops from across the country for the ordination service.

In electing Rivera, the diocese sought out a bishop who would lead the church in its efforts to expand ethnic ministries, evangelism and the work of faith formation. The service highlighted these areas of ministry.

Invitations were printed in Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Khmer and Arabic, the languages of the ethnic congregations of the diocese. Children and youth played significant roles in the liturgy just as they have in the ministry of the bishop and as they do in the life of every worshipping congregation.

"Children bring life to anything," Bishop Rivera said. "I really do believe that is one of the places where we see the kingdom. These children hold for us the vision of what the church and world can be. And they hold us to it."

Drawn from the congregations of the diocese, a children's choir and a festival choir sang music selected from resources old and new, including two local composers. In each element of the consecration, Bishop Rivera and the service planners intentionally included all ages and ethnicities.

"How often can the church model what God's world is supposed to look like," Bishop Rivera asked. "How do we model listening to each other's cultures? How do we model listening to children? The church is saying we do care."

The Episcopal Church was the first province in the Anglican Communion to ordain a woman as bishop when the Rt Revd Barbara Harris was consecrated bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Massachusetts in February 1989. Bishop Rivera becomes the 16th woman bishop in the history of the 70 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion. The Diocese of Olympia comprises 33,000 Episcopalians in the western half of the state of Washington.