Thirty-two priests and deacons of the diocese of Recife were deposed on Aug. 23, charged with abandoning the Communion [por abandono de Comunhão] of the Episcopal-Anglican Church of Brazil [IEAB] for pledging their continued loyalty to the Bishop of Recife, the Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti.

In announcing the depositions, the Rt. Rev. Filadelfo Oliveira, Bishop suffragan of Recife, said “dialogue had been exhausted” with the “uncompromising and rebellious” Recife clergy. Acting on behalf of the Primate of Brazil, he deposed without trial the clergy, who minister to approximately 90 percent of the diocese’s communicants, under Article 3.5.4 of the IEAB’s canons on the abandonment of Communion.

The deposed clergy had acted in “disobedience and disrespect” to the Convocation of the IEAB, Bishop Oliveira said, by pledging on July 4 that they were “maintaining full communion with the diocesan bishop, Dom Edward Robinson Cavalcanti”

A “declaration of full communion” with a bishop “deprived of his orders” was prima facie grounds for declaring the 32 had deserted the “doctrine, worship and discipline of the IEAB,” the decree stated.

A statement released by Bishop Cavalcanti and the President of the Recife Standing Committee, Fr. Mauricio Coelho, noted the alleged deposition of Bishop Cavalcanti was under appeal with the Provincial Ecclesiastical Court and had been forwarded to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference for arbitration.

They stated the decision to depose the majority of the Recife clergy was an act of political chicanery to create a rump “diocesan synod called by the dissident liberal minority next Sept. 9-10, in order to re-create a new “diocese, destroying the existing orthodox one.”

The Rev. Miguel Uchoa, rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Recife--the largest Anglican parish in South America with a claimed average Sunday attendance of 1,000, told The Living Church “We were deposed without any process...no court, no judgment, only a decree.”

Fr. Uchoa noted that 42 congregations support Bishop Cavalcanti, while only six congregations back the Primate.

Bishop Oliveira did not respond to our query before this report was prepared.

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