September 30, 2004

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - The special Episcopal oversight in the Anglican diocese of Recife, mandated by the primate of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) Orlando Santos Oliveira, after hearing the Chamber of Bishops, is legal and has backing in Church cannons, said Lawyer Senomar Teixeira Junior.

The lawyer, who advises the IEAB, made the affirmation in response to the Bishop of Recife Robinson Cavalcanti who said that he did not recognize the intervention as it was not supported by cannon law.

In an extraordinary meeting held in Porto Alegre on September 16 the IEAB Chamber of Bishops accepted the request of the suffragan bishop of Recife Filadelfo Oliveira Neto, 14 clergy, nine from parishes and six from missions who asked for the "special Episcopal oversight" due to Cavalcanti's "intransigent and disrespectful" attitude.

The tensions between Cavalcanti and the IEAB are rooted in a decision made by the Episcopal Church of the United States (ECUSA) in July last year to accept the ordination of declared homosexual Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Different Churches objected to the ordination and a great debate was sparked in the World Anglican Communion. Cavalcanti is among those who rejected Robinson's ordination.

In a clarifying note, published by the IEAB news service, Teixeria Junior said that the case involving the diocese of Recife is serious and that Bishop Cavalcanti is "breaking disciplinary commitments that were spontaneously assumed at his ordination" in a flagrant act of insubordination, "breaking down the collegiality of the Episcopal government."

When he did not recognize the alternative supervision, the Bishop of Recife alleged that the diocese was autonomous.

However, "a diocese in Brazil can only be an Anglican diocese if it is affiliated and in communion with the IEAB, which is the 19th Province of the Anglican Communion" said Teixeira Junior. This means that there is no possible provincial link with Canterbury in Brazil outside of the IEAB, the lawyer said.

According to Teixeira Junior those who resist the disciplinary action of the IEAB will inevitably end up separated from the Anglican Communion.

He said that "resistance to recognizing and fulfilling the IEAB decision, through the primate, is considered a transgression of the cannons."

ALC News Service