Recife denies Archbishop’s claim: CEN 2.27.09 p 8. March 1, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper.1 comment so far
Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti. Photo taken at the 2005 Hope and a Future Conference in Pittsburgh
Church leaders in Brazil have questioned the Archbishop of Canterbury’s assertion that an informal mediation process is underway between the Provinces of the Southern Cone and Brazil over the Diocese of Recife.
In his Feb 5 press conference held at the close of the Primates Meeting in Alexandria, Dr. Williams gave an overview of the recommendations made by the Windsor Continuation Group to the primates for responding to the divisions within the communion.
A “pastoral forum” to hear disputes and “pastoral visitors” who “can act as consultants in situations of stress and conflict” were proposed, Dr. Williams said, adding that “in case that sounds too abstract, I might mention that we have tried this out informally as between the province of Brazil and the Southern Cone over the question of Recife.”
“Two pastoral visitors were appointed to go and investigate the situation in the Province, discuss with various people and propose some ways forward,” Dr. Williams said.
“And although its taken a couple of years to move things on, some of those recommendations are bearing fruit,” the archbishop said, adding that it “in some cases” a pastoral visitor scheme “could be helpful.”
In a statement posted on his diocesan website on Feb 9, Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife said Dr. Williams appeared to have been misinformed about the situation in Recife.
The mediation process described by Dr. Williams had “never begun. Dr Williams is not being well informed by his staff or is receiving inaccurate information from the revisionist leadership of the Province of Brazil,” the diocese said.
In 2005 Bishop Cavalcanti was deposed for incivility by his fellow bishops following several years of doctrinal disputes between the Evangelical bishop and the liberal majority in the Province. After he was removed from office, the province then defrocked 32 Recife clergy without trial for backing their bishop.
Approximately 90 percent of the lay members of the diocese followed Bishop Cavalcanti and are presently under the metropolitan oversight of Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina.
Dr. Williams appointed the former Bishop of Southwell, the Rt. Rev. Patrick Harris and the Bishop of Peru, the Rt. Rev. William Godfrey as pastoral visitors to Recife in 2006. The two met with the leadership of the diocese and the national church and prepared a private report for Dr. Williams.
The diocese also filed an appeal with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference, but no action was taken by Lambeth Palace and the appeal was never forwarded to the panel for adjudication.
Conversations about Recife were held at the 2007 Primates Meeting in Dar es Salaam and at the 2008 Lambeth Conference between Bishop Venables and Brazilian Archbishop Mauricio de Andrade, but these were only brief exchanges with no substantive discussions or action taken, Bishop Venables said.
Bishop Cavalvanti stated that to his knowledge, there were no talks underway and that nothing had transpired since the pastoral visitors filed their, still secret, report with Dr. Williams in 2006.
Mediation was not likely to be successful in Recife, Bishop Cavalcanti said as the differences were “deep and irreconcilable.”
Episcopal Church summit discusses mission: CEN 3.01.09 March 1, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, La Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America, The Episcopal Church.add a comment
| Delegates from the Anglican Churches of North and South America are meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica, this week for a five-day conference on Mutual Responsibility and Mission. An initiative of The Episcopal Church, the conference seeks to build closer links for mission between the eight provinces in the Americas.
Conference keynote speaker, the Rev John Kafwanka, a staffer on the Mission and Evangelism desk of the Anglican Consultative Council, told the Episcopal News Service “this week we have come to discuss and we have come to consider something that is really not new and yet sounds new at the same time” — the interdependence of the Communion across the world. Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper. |
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Diocese of Recife facing legal action: CEN 11.21.08 p 6. November 24, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, Secession.add a comment
The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) has filed suit against the breakaway Diocese of Recife seeking to gain control of the diocese’s properties.
On Oct 30, Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti stated that “following the example of their allies in the USA and Canada” the IEAB has “filed a suit against the Diocese of Recife in Pernambuco’s State court seeking to annul our juridical identity.”
They are “intent on the seizure of certain key properties (including the Cathedral and the Diocesan Central Office), in which for so long we have carried out the tasks of evangelism, thus posing a direct threat to our mission and social outreach.”
The Provincial Secretary of the Brazilian Church, the Rev. Francisco da Silva declined to comment on the litigation, but documents filed with the court allege that following the mass deposition in 2005 of Bishop Cavalcanti and 32 members of the Recife clergy, along with the secession of approximately 95 percent of the church’s members, the church properties should now be turned over to the IEAB.
Historically the small Anglican Church in Brazil was supported by two doctrinally and geographically distinct groups, with the Episcopal Church of the US supporting the church in Southern Brazil and the Church of England supporting the church in the Northeast of the country. Recife followed a different path of theologically development than the southern dioceses and retained an Evangelical identity while the southern dioceses moved into the Affirming Catholic camp. At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Bishop Cavalcanti was the sole Brazilian bishop to vote with the majority in support of Resolution 1.10 on Human Sexuality.
Following his 2005 deposition from the IEAB, Bishop Cavalcanti and his diocese was given shelter in the Province of the Southern Cone. While repeated public calls for reconciliation have been made by the leaders of the IEAB, no action has ever been taken to resolve the dispute.
“As a diocese, we have never surrendered to the option of unlimited comprehensiveness, nor capitulated to the absolute relativism that marks the post-modern liberal revisionism of the Brazilian Province,” the Recife Standing Committee said on Oct 30.
“Neither have we accepted the attempt to force us into ‘continuing church’ status. We are part of the Anglican Communion, part of the Global South, partners of the Networks of the Anglican Communion in the US and Canada, partners of the Common Cause Movement, of GAFCON, signing on to the Jerusalem Declaration and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, in permanent dialogue with all the orthodox expressions of Anglicanism, seeking to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in this slow, difficult, but inevitable realignment,” they said.
However, “geographical and cultural distances often cause us to feel isolated and make it difficult for us to be heard and understood,” by the Western churches. “We hope that Anglican leaders, and the Gafcon Primate’s Council, to whom we appeal, and particularly those who share with us the same principles, sincerity and transparency, may exercise discernment with regard to reports concerning us, so that justice may be done to our identity and dignity as we seek a stable institutional future for our diocese within the Anglican Communion,” they said.
The Bishop of the Amazon July 16, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Album (Photos), Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Lambeth 2008.add a comment
The Rt Revd Saulo Mauricio de Barros on the opening day of the Lambeth Conference
Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti December 14, 2007
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Bishop Cavalcanti in move to Southern Cone: CEN 12.14.07 p 6 December 14, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, Ecclesiology, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.add a comment
Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti along with the congregations and clergy of 44 parishes in Northeastern Brazil were received last week by Bishop Gregory Venables as an extra-territorial diocese of the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.
The reception marks a shift in the status of the traditionalist Brazilian congregations from a personal prelature of Bishop Venables over individuals in Recife to a formal ecclesial entity within the Province.
In 2005, Bishop Venables extended his personal primatial oversight to Bishop Cavalcanti and 40 priests of the Diocese of Recife after they were deposed by the Brazilian church for contumacy.
While a new bishop was appointed to oversee the remaining clergy, over 90 per cent of the diocese’s members backed Bishop Cavalcanti and withdrew from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) to form the Anglican Diocese of Recife (DAR).
Bishop Venables issued a “statement of support” to the DAR clergy recognizing their “ordinations and ministries, and provide[d] a special status of extra-provincial recognition by my office as Primate of the Southern Cone until such time as the Panel of Reference, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Anglican Communion has, in some way, adequately addressed this crisis.”
Following last month’s vote by the South American synod to welcome ecclesial entities into the Province, delegates to the 37th annual DAR synod on Dec 8 asked to be received as an “extra-territorial” diocese, and adopted legislation conforming the diocese’s constitution and canons to those of the Southern Cone.
Bishop Cavalcanti said synod had sought to “find the language necessary to bring the diocese of Recife into formal relations with the Southern Cone” and into “normal provincial life.”
Bishop Venables welcomed DAR into the Southern Cone and assured them of the Province’s “united support and prayers for you and particularly for my deep sense of privilege as your brother and Primate.”
Brazilian Diocese Received Into Province of the Southern Cone: TLC 12.11.07 December 14, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Ecclesiology, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, Living Church.add a comment
Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, along with the congregations and clergy of 44 parishes of the Diocese of Recife in northeastern Brazil, were received last week by Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables as an extra-territorial diocese of the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone.
The reception marks a shift in the status of the traditionalist Brazilian congregations from a personal prelature of Bishop Venables over individuals in Recife to a formal ecclesial entity within the province.
In 2005, Bishop Venables extended his personal primatial oversight to Bishop Cavalcanti and 40 priests of the Diocese of Recife after they were deposed by the Brazilian church for contumacy. Approximately 90 percent of the diocese backed Bishop Cavalcanti and withdrew from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) to form the Anglican Diocese of Recife (DAR). The IEAB appointed a new bishop to oversee the remaining clergy.
Following last month’s vote by the Southern Cone synod to welcome ecclesial entities into the province, delegates to the annual synod in the DAR voted on Dec. 8 to ask to be received as an “extra-territorial” diocese, and adopted legislation conforming the diocese’s constitution and canons to those of the Southern Cone.
Published in The Living Church.
Presiding Bishop visits Western Hemisphere Partners: TLC 6.09.07 June 10, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Living Church, The Episcopal Church.add a comment
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, visiting Cuba to participate in the consecration of two suffragan bishops, will visit the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) next month, that church’s primate has announced.
Read it all in The Living Church.
New Global Centre Pleads for Doctrinal Latitude in Church: CEN 6.08.07 p 6. June 7, 2007
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Communion, Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, La Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America.1 comment so far
A coalition of bishops from Brazil, Mexico, Central America and the Spanish-speaking dioceses of the Caribbean have released a statement calling for doctrinal latitude within the Anglican Communion, arguing that a respectful diversity of opinion could be an engine of renewal and growth for the Church.
In a letter released following a May 18-22 meeting in San José, Costa Rica the Bishops, who call themselves the Centro Global, [Global Center], distanced themselves from the hardline approach taken by the American Church and its allies amongst the “Global North” and the opposing “Global South” coalition of dioceses in Asia, Africa and the Americas.
This growing “polarization” between the “non reconcilable” truth claims of the “Global North and Global South” had placed the “unity of the Communion at risk” they said, noting “in the midst of this painful controversy, we do not identify with either side, because they don’t fully represent the spirit of our thoughts.”
Among the signatories to the letter were supporters of the progressive agenda including two of the consecrating bishops for Gene Robinson, El Salvador Bishop Martin Barahona and Central Ecuador Bishop Wilfredo Ramos, along with American bishops who strongly opposed his consecration: Colombian Bishop Francisco Duque and Honduran Bishop Lloyd Allen.
The Centro Global bishops acknowledged that within their ranks were those who “hold different positions on the themes that are presently discussed in the Communion.” However this “plurality and diversity” had been a “rich source for growth, rather than a cause for controversy and division.”
Echoing the call of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams the Centro Global bishops affirmed their intention to maintain Eucharistic fellowship across doctrinal and party boundaries and invited the bishops of the Anglican Communion “to join together and work for an effective reconciliation, interdependence and unity in the diversity of our family of faith and so preserve the valuable legacy of which we are guardians.”
Their meeting in San José left the Centro Global bishops with the firm “conviction that, [the Anglican Communion] will make it with God’s blessings. Of this, we are sure and now we return to our dioceses comforted and full of joy and hope.”
WCC 9th Assembly – Archbishop de Oliveira: ACNS 2.17.06 June 7, 2007
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Brazilian Primate, Archbishop Orlando de Oliveira and the church’s provincial secretary the Rev. Francisco da Silva celebrating the Eucharist for Anglican participants at the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil on Feb 16, 2006.
First published by ACNS.
