Episcopal Press and News

New Asian American Ministries Officer Appointed

Episcopal News Service. February 10, 2004 [021004-4-A]

The Rev. Dr. Winfred B. Vergara has been appointed Missioner for Asian American Ministries for the Episcopal Church and will begin his duties on May 1, 2004. Vergara is the founding Vicar of Holy Child Episcopal Church in San Jose, California and Canon Missioner for Asian American Cultures in the Diocese of El Camino Real. He also organized the first Filipino American mission in Las Vegas in the Diocese of Nevada and facilitated the formation of Holy Light Chinese Mission in Campbell, California.

Vergara was born in the Philippines and served as a priest in the Philippine Independent Church for 15 years before being received into the Episcopal Church in 1993. During his six years in the Diocese of Singapore on the staff of St. Andrew's Cathedral he coordinated the formation of two cathedral missions which are now self-supporting parish churches. He is a member of the Episcopal Asian American Ministry Council and Convener of the Filipino Convocation. He is author of

Milkfish in Brackish Water: Filipino Ministry in the American Context.

At St. Andrew's Theological Seminary in Quezon City, Philippines, he earned a Master of Divinity degree. While in Singapore he was awarded a Master of Theology degree from the Southeast Asian Graduate School of Theology. In 1989 the San Francisco Theological Seminary conferred on him the Doctor of Ministry degree. He is married to Angela Vinluan Vergara.

"Father Vergara comes to his new responsibilities with wide experience in the areas of church planting, church growth, missionary expansion and congregational development in the context of Asian American and inter-cultural ministries," said Bishop Richard Shimpfky of El Camino Real.

Peter Ng, longtime and now retired President of the Episcopal Asian American Ministry Council, commented, "I have enjoyed working with Fred for several years on the Council and welcome him to this new place of leadership."