Héctor "Tito" Zavala Muñoz (born 16 October 1954) is a Chilean Anglican bishop. He was the first native Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Chile and later the first Latin American presiding bishop of the

Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America The Anglican Church of South America () is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Formed in 1981, the province has 35,000 members. The ...

, renamed in 2014 as the

Anglican Church of South America The Anglican Church of South America () is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Formed in 1981, the province has 35,000 members. The ...

. When the new Anglican Church of Chile was inaugurated in 2018 he became its first presiding bishop, also known as Archbishop by the Anglican Communion News Service. He is married to Miriam and they have three adult children.

Early life

Zavala was raised in a Roman Catholic family, of nominal faith, with limited religious practice. He received the sacraments of Baptism and First Communion, and attended a Roman Catholic school. He has said that the first time he heard the Gospel clearly preached, and held a Bible in his hands, was when he visited an Anglican church, aged 17, at the invitation of a friend. He subsequently converted to

Anglicanism Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Ecclesiastical career

He studied at the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, and was ordained deacon in 1982, and priest in 1984. In 1998 he was consecrated as coadjutor bishop of Chile, with the right of succession to the

episcopal see An episcopal see is the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

. He became the diocesan bishop in 2000. He was elected unanimously to be the first Latin American and Chilean Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church in the Southern Cone of America, at the 10th Provincial Synod held in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, from 2–5 November 2010. He served for two three year terms, being re-elected in 2013,Bishop Tito to succeed Gregory Venables as the new Southern Cone Primate, Global South Anglican Online, 12 November 2010
/ref> and stood down in 2016. In early 2018 his diocese of Chile was split into four dioceses, whereupon he became the Bishop of Santiago. On 4 November 2018 the four Chilean dioceses were inaugurated as a new province of the Anglican Communion, named the Anglican Church of Chile. Zavala was commissioned by Archbishop Justin Welby,

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

, as the first

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

of the new province.

Views

He has been a keen supporter of

Anglican realignment The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church (United States), Episco ...

, as a member of the

Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (branded as GAFCON or Gafcon) is a communion of conservative Anglican churches, aligned with the Confessing Movement, that formed in 2008 in response to ongoing theological disputes in the worldwide A ...

and the

Global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly com ...

Primates Council. He attended the GAFCON II meeting, in

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, from 21–26 October 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zavala, Tito 1954 births Living people Chilean Anglicans Converts to Anglicanism from Roman Catholicism 21st-century Anglican bishops in South America 21st-century Anglican archbishops Anglican bishops of Santiago, Chile Trinity School for Ministry alumni Anglican bishops of Chile