Anglican Primate suspends Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti

RECIFE, Brasil, February 25, 2005

 The Bishop Primate of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB), Orlando Santos de Oliveira Taxi Heathrow Airport issued a resolution February 18 suspending, for preventive reasons, the Rev. Edward Robinson de Barros Cavalcanti, up until then bishop of the diocese of Recife.

Four days later, the bishop primate designated, also by resolution, Bishop Filadelfo Oliveira Neto as a Church authority from the diocese of Recife.

Meanwhile, Cavalcanti has convened, for February 26, an Extraordinary Diocesan Council meeting, that will be held in the Anglican Jardin de los Olivos Parish, to analyze the denomination and diocesan situation. The convocation underlines that the delegates to the Extraordinary Council will be the same as for an Ordinary Council.

In December last year, the Diocesan Plenary decided to suspend relations with the IEAB Board “as it has adopted positions and actions that contradict the Biblical revelation and the Constitution and the General Canon Law (of the Church), affecting the identity and autonomy of this diocese.”

The Association of Clerics and Lay Ministers from the Diocese of Recife proposed that the Extraordinary Council reject the resolution that suspends Bishop Cavalcanti. Moreover, it called on the World Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury (England) to adopt measures so that the diocese receive Episcopal supervision from another Anglican province, rather than Brazil. 

The conflict between Cavalcanti, the IEAB and the primate originated when the diocesan bishop of Recife participated in a confirmation service with 110 young people held in 2003 in an Orthodox Church in Ohio. The service was conducted by five Anglican emeritus bishops without authorization from the local diocesan bishop.

The celebration was requested by the young people who did not agree with the consecration of Gene Robinson, a declared homosexual, as bishop of the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA). Cavalcanti participated in the service in Ohio without informing the IEAB board.

In September last year, Orlando Santos de Oliveira ordered that the Anglican Diocese of Recife would be under alternative Episcopal supervision. Cavalcanti declared he would not accept this intervention in his diocese as it did not have canonic support.