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Primates of the Anglican Communion — Archbishop of Central America

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The Most Rev. Sturdie Downs, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of the Region of Central America (IARCA) and Bishop of Nicaragua.

Archbishop Downs is the senior archbishop of the Anglican Communion, having been consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of Nicaragua of the Episcopal Church of the USA in 1985. Born in 1947 on Corn Island on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, Bishop Downs was educated in Bluefields and trained for the ministry at San Andres Seminary in Mexico City. He was ordained deacon in 1976 and priest two years later for the Diocese of Nicaragua. At the time of his election as second bishop of Nicaragua, he was vicar of All Saints’ Church in Managua and dean of Western Nicaragua. He is the first native Nicaraguan elected bishop of the diocese. In 1973 he married Eufemia Gallopp, and they have three sons. The bishop and his wife subsequently divorced and the bishop’s second marriage also ended in divorce. He has since married again. In 1997 the Diocese of Nicaragua along with the dioceses of Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala and El Salvador withdrew from the Episcopal Church of the USA to IARCA.

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