Nedi Rivera
|
The Right Reverend Nedi Rivera |
|
|---|---|
| Provisional Bishop of Eastern Oregon | |
| Church | Episcopal Church in the United States |
| Diocese | Eastern Oregon |
| Appointed | 2009 |
| Term ended | 2015 |
| Successor | Patrick W. Bell (Bishop-Elect) |
| Other posts | Suffragan Bishop of Olympia (2005-2010) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | June 1974 (deacon) 1975 (priest) |
| Consecration | January 22, 2005 by Harry Brown Bainbridge, III |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 24, 1946 Visalia, California |
| Spouse | Robert "Bob" Moore |
| Alma mater | Wheaton College Church Divinity School of the Pacific |
Bavi Edna "Nedi" Rivera (born March 24, 1946) is a bishop of the Episcopal Church who has held appointments in the Diocese of Olympia and the Diocese of Eastern Oregon. She was the first Hispanic woman to become a bishop in the Episcopal Church. Her late father, Victor Rivera, was also a bishop in the church.
Rivera is one of three daughters born to a Puerto Rican father, Victor Rivera (an Episcopal priest and subsequently third bishop (1968–1988) of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, California) and an Anglo mother, Barbara Ross Starbuck. Rivera grew up in Visalia, California and went to an Episcopal convent boarding school in Tucson, Arizona. A nun at the convent advised her to attend Wheaton College in Massachusetts, believing that Rivera would like it there. At Wheaton she majored in Physics and also took calculus. In 1968, she earned a BA in physics and married six weeks after her graduation. Instead of pursuing a career in physics, she dedicated herself to her two daughters and two sons and volunteer work that included convening a youth group for church in her home and bookkeeping. Having divorced in 1976, she married another priest, Robert "Bob" Moore, on February 16, 1979. Both subsequently served at various churches in the dioceses of California and El Camino Real.
In 1972, Rivera learned at a meeting that the church was planning on ordaining women as priests. Being raised within the religious beliefs of the Episcopal Church served as an influential factor when she decided that she wanted to become a priest. However, one of the obstacles that she would have to face was convincing her father, at that time the Bishop of San Joaquin, and a staunch opponent of the ordination of women. In spite of his opposition, Rivera attended the seminary and was ordained a deacon on June 1975. In 1976, she earned her Master of Divinity degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley, California and on June of that same year, she was ordained to the priesthood. Her father did not attend her ordination. She served as the Rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church, Salinas, in California's Diocese of El Camino Real, from 1984 to 1993. From 1994 to 2004, she served as rector of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco.
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