The Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church was formed "...being born of individuals who left the Church of Rome for reasons of Biblical conscience but desired epsicopacy and an ordered vernacular liturgy for which Anglicanism provided the original precedent." The IERE considers its origin to be in 1868 when the "Consistorio General de la Iglesia en España" was formed by Juan Bautista Cabrera in Gibraltar. The IERE was officially organised in 1880 by Cabrera, a former Roman Catholic priest, and other former Catholic priests and Reformed ministers. In 1878 he had requested the Church of England to consecrate a bishop. In 1880 the Episcopal Church in the United States sent a missionary-bishop of Mexico to visit Spain and Portugal and contributed in organizing the congregations into the IERE and the Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church, each with its own synodical government. At the Synod of 1880, Cabrera was elected the first bishop of the IERE, under the pastoral care of William Plunket, 4th Baron Plunket, then Bishop of Meath and later Archbishop of Dublin. He had been interested in the two Iberian churches and determined to act to consecrate a bishop in Spain. The church remained without a bishop for a time after Cabrera died in 1916 and was placed under the authority of the Church of Ireland. For a lengthy period from 1935 to 1951 there was not a single episcopal visit to Spain. Fernando Cabrera, son of the Church's first bishop, was elected to be the next bishop, but he died in 1954 before being consecrated. Fernando Cabrera served as rector of the Anglican Cathedral of the Redeemer for close to a half-century. The IERE experienced persecution during the regime of General Francisco Franco. In 1954, Santos M. Molina was consecrated as a bishop. The consecration took place behind closed doors at his parish in Seville. The ordaining bishops were from Meath in Ireland, and two bishops from the Episcopal Church —Bishop Reginald Mallett from the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana and Bishop Stephen Keeler from the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. Under Molina the church experienced a resurgence. During the episcopate of Molina the IERE signed agreements of intercommunion with numerous provinces of the Anglican Communion, including Episcopal Church, the Church of Ireland, the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Anglican Church of South Africa, the Episcopal Church of the Philippines, and the Old Catholic Church. In 1980 the IERE became an extra-provincial diocese under the metropolitan authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The IERE uses the Mozarabic Rite, also known as the Hispanic Rite, a Latin liturgical rite. It dates principally to the 7th and 8th centuries. St. Isidore of Seville, who was influential at the Fourth Council of Toledo 633, according to the wishes of that Council, gave the Hispanic rite its final form before Muslim conquest of Hispania. Mozarab is the term for the Christian population living under Muslim rulers in Al-Andalus. Previous to its organization, there were several translations of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer into Spanish in 1623 and in 1707. In 1881 the church combined a Spanish translation of the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer with the Mozarabic liturgy, which had recently been translated. This is apparently the first time the Spanish speaking Anglicans inserted their own "...historic, national tradition of liturgical worship within an Anglican prayer book." A second edition was released in 1889, and a revision in 1975. This attempt combined the Anglican structure of worship with indigenous prayer traditions. An experimental "Rito 1" or "Rite 1" for the church dating from 1984 has a few interesting aspects. One item is that after the president or the Bishop if he is in the presbyter seating prays for the absolution of the sins of the congregation, the assembly responds by praying in turn for the absolution of the sins of the bishop: "God have mercy on you also, forgive you your sins through Jesus Christ and give you eternal life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
Organisation
The IERE has a democratic, synodical polity. The Synod is the highest authority in the Church; the laity and clergy have equal representation in it. The parishes are represented by one cleric and by one lay person. The Synod elects the Standing Committee, which governs the Church between synods. The IERE is not a Church with an episcopal government, like the Roman Catholic Church, but is a synodical Church governed by a bishop in synod. The bishop and the synod are required to work together in close co-operation. The current diocesan bishop is Carlos López Lozano, a Madrilene who was ordained as bishop by the Archbishop of Canterbury in November 1995. The Church is divided for administrative purposes into three zones: Catalonia, Valencian Country, and Balearic Islands; Andalusia and Canary Islands; Centre and Northern Spain. As of 2001, the IERE had one diocese and 22 licensed priests serving 20 parishes, in Salamanca, Valencia, Valladolid, Seville, Oviedo, Tarragona, Murcia, Alicante, and Madrid.
