Rt Rev Ramón Taibo Sienes, Anglican Bishop of the Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church passed away last 26th October 2001, after a long time of illness.
Bishop Taibo was a very highly cultured person, who always was keen on teaching and on the development of the Church in Spain. Since the age of 17 he was involved in duties of teaching, becoming a teacher in the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. During those days he was the editor of the "Adelante" journal, and president of the YMCA, whose current honorary president is His Highness the Prince of Asturias; he was also the secretary of the Committee of Evangelical Propaganda for Youth (Madrid Committee). He was in charge of the publishing "Juan de Valdés" along the Civil War.
Because of his links with the Republican left-wing he was in jail for fifty-nine months, in the prisons of Madrid, Pamplona and Alcalá de Henares. Actually, the sentence for him was of thirty years plus one day, but it got reduced to six years plus one day.
He was ordained deacon in January 1961, and later in July as presbyter that year too. After Rt Rev Santos Martín Molina's death, on the 3rd August 1966, an extraordinary Synod was held, when he was appointed as new the Bishop. Bishop Taibo was consecrated by ten of the most important Bishops of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Cape Town, among others.
Bishop Taibo focused most of his efforts in ecumenism. He organized celebrations for praying for the unity of Christians, where participated many Roman Catholic Bishops and Archbishops, theologians and many others.
At the age of seventy-two, after sixteen as a Bishop, he ended his period as the third Anglican Bishop in Madrid. Because of this occasion, a special service had place on the 22nd October 1983, for giving thanks.
Bishop Taibo was a very popular man in Spain and South America, and he wrote and produced many publications along his life.
He was one of the selected persons for giving some lessons, by the Department of the Autonoma University (Madrid) to the Princess Sofia, current Queen of Spain.