The Standing Commission on World Mission is sponsoring a resolution to create a formal covenant relationship between the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil (IEAB) and the Episcopal Church. The House of Bishops of that province has been engaged in a long-simmering feud with the Archbishop of Canterbury over the latter’s refusal to recognize the deposition of the Bishop of Recife, the Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti.

The IEAB was founded in 1890 by Episcopal missionaries. It achieved independence in 1965 and the Episcopal Church concluded ongoing financial obligations in 1975. In 1990, during centennial celebrations in Brazil, the Primate of Brazil and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church agreed to establish a bilateral committee to “reconnect and reconcile dynamics of distance that occurred during and after the establishment of the Brazilian province,” according to “The Commitment to be Companions in Christ,” a bilateral committee report submitted in June 2005 to Executive Council. Resolution A119 in the Blue Book, proposes the creation of a covenant relationship and endorses the findings of that report.

“This is an attempt to give the Brazilian bilateral committee the same standing as the other provinces that have achieved autonomy from the Episcopal Church,” said Margaret Larom, director of Anglican and Global Relations at the Episcopal Church Center. “In discussions they felt they wanted some kind of document describing the nature of the relationship.”

After a trial in absentia in June 2005, the IEAB House of Bishops deposed Bishop Calvalcanti for contumacy and eventually most of the clergy, 32 priests and deacons of that diocese who remained loyal to him. The diocesan congregations and leadership loyal to Bishop Cavalcanti have been placed under the temporary provincial care of the Archbishop of the Southern Cone (South America). The Archbishop of Canterbury has angered the IEAB by meeting with Bishop Cavalcanti and failing to recognize the deposition.

The proposal for a covenant relationship predates the controversy over the Diocese of Recife by a number of years, according to Mrs. Larom, who said that most of the covenant committees meet once every 18 months, too infrequently to delve deeply into day-to-day operations. She said that to the best of her knowledge, there was no official Episcopal Church position on the Recife crisis.

To find more news, feature articles, and commentary not available online, we invite you to subscribe to The Living Church magazine. To learn more, click here.