IGREJA EPISCOPAL ANGLICANA DO BRASIL – IEAB
DIOCESE ANGLICANA DO RECIFE – DAR
Bispo Diocesano:
Revmo. Dom Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares
[email protected]
Escritório Diocesano: Rua Coelho Leite, 57 Santo Amaro
CEP: 50100 – 140 Recife – PE
Secretário Diocesano: Izaias Torquato da Silva
[email protected]
Telefone: 55 81 3421 1684 / 55 81 9169 7019
HISTORY OF THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF RECIFE, PART OF THE
EPISCOPAL ANGLICAN CHURCH OF BRAZIL (IEAB).
The history of Anglicanism in the northeast of Brazil started with the English
chaplaincies under the jurisdiction of the Church of England in 19 th century. An
agreement reached in 1955 opened the way to a handover between the English and
the Brazilians. In Recife, as in Salvador, half a century has passed since the
departure of the last English chaplain who attended a dwindling English-speaking
congregation. The work undertaken by the English speaking community and their
descendents in Recife, Salvador and Belem, was fundamental to the expansion of
the Church in a region in which Anglican Brazilians were practically absent.
In Recife, the original church was situated where the current Cinema São Luiz is
located until 1946, subsequently moving to the Rua Carneiro Vilela where the
building remains until today, although in the hands of the Episcopal Charismatic
Church. The minister who attended the community resided in “Beco do Pe.
Inglês” (Alley of the English Priest), in Boa Vista.
In 1968 bishop Edmund Knox Sherill, of the Central Diocese – Rio de Janeiro
transferred the Revd. Alfredo Rocha Fonesca to Recife, as the first Brazilian
chaplain of the Parish of Holy Trinity, commencing a slow process of integration.
Up until that point the work of the church was focused on the pastoral care of the
English-speaking community.
In 1975, the Revd. Paulo Ruiz Garcia arrived to assume the Parish of Holy Trinity,
finding the parish with a reduced number of members. In June of the same year,
the synod created the Diocese Setentrional, having Recife, the capital of
Pernambuco, as her seat, and also including the states of Pará, Amazonas, Bahia,
Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Alagoas and Bahia, with
Sherill as their first bishop, who chose to leave the Central Diocese.
In Salvador, the English chaplaincy was established in 1815 with services in
homes, and in 1851 the chaplain Edward George Parker led a movement to
urbanize the suburb of Campo Grande, turning the Ladeira da Barra (today Av.
IGREJA EPISCOPAL ANGLICANA DO BRASIL – IEAB
DIOCESE ANGLICANA DO RECIFE – DAR
Bispo Diocesano:
Revmo. Dom Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares
[email protected]
Escritório Diocesano: Rua Coelho Leite, 57 Santo Amaro
CEP: 50100 – 140 Recife – PE
Secretário Diocesano: Izaias Torquato da Silva
[email protected]
Telefone: 55 81 3421 1684 / 55 81 9169 7019
Sete de Setembro) passable, permitting better access to the English cemetery. The
inauguration took place in October 1853 in the land bought by Parker in the name
of the Society of St. George. Parker was the chaplain until 1860.
In Salvador, the chaplaincy passed to the jurisdiction of the Central Diocese under
the pastoral care of the missionaries Roger Blankley and Stuart Broughton. The
English community adopted the name Christ Church, and the mission of the
Brazilians, was called the Mission of Christ the Redeemer. Two apartments were
constructed below the chapel alongside the English cemetery, forming an
“Anglican House” for guests.
In 1976, a constructor offered a new site in the suburb of Pituba and an apartment
in the Edifício Morada da Pituba, given the poor state of the old church building.
The building in Campo Grande was the second non-Roman Catholic Church in
Brazil and probably in South America. The inauguration of the new temple took
place on 30th October 1976, by Bishop Sherrill integrating the community into the
Central Diocese.
In 1977 Bishop Sherrill instituted the Revd. Lauro Borba da Silva as priest-incharge of the Mission of Christ the Redeemer, while the Revd. Broughton
continued attending the English-speaking community. The Brazilian community
became known as the Good Shepherd, due to the stained glass window dating to
1860 and brought from Campo Grande. The Preaching Point that was located in
the “Anglican House” became known as Christ the Redeemer.
Her first Diocesan Council took place in 1976. The diocese had only four clerics,
three missionaries, a Lay Worker and three parishes. By the end of Sherrill’s
episcopacy, these numbers had changed to nine clerics, six parishes and two
missions.
In 1984 Bishop Sherrill announced his retirement by the end of 1985, which made
possible the election of the Revd. Clovis Erly Rodrigues, Dean of the Cathedral of
Santa Maria, at the General Synod of the IEAB in July 1984, as successor to the
Diocese Sententrional.
IGREJA EPISCOPAL ANGLICANA DO BRASIL – IEAB
DIOCESE ANGLICANA DO RECIFE – DAR
Bispo Diocesano:
Revmo. Dom Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares
[email protected]
Escritório Diocesano: Rua Coelho Leite, 57 Santo Amaro
CEP: 50100 – 140 Recife – PE
Secretário Diocesano: Izaias Torquato da Silva
[email protected]
Telefone: 55 81 3421 1684 / 55 81 9169 7019
This election was contrary to the wishes of Bishop Sherrill and the clergy and laity
of the delegation of Diocese of Recife, who desired the election of the Revd.
Paulo Ruiz Garcia as Sherrill’s successor. It is in this period, as well, that some
clergy and laity founded the ABAE (The Brazilian Association of Anglican
Evangelicals) and affiliated themselves to EFAC (Evangelical Fellowships in the
Anglican Communion), in a clear demonstration of the theological tendencies of
the Diocese Setentrional.
During the episcopate of D. Clovis Erly Rodrigues, there was a great increase of
Anglicanism in the northeast, particularly through events such as “Meetings of
Married Couples”, Seminaries of Life in the Spirit and Cursillos that gravitated
around the Parish of Holy Trinity. There was also an expansion of theological
education in the diocese with the foundation of the Nuclear of Anglican
Theological Studies (NAET) through the work of the Revd. Francisco de Assis da
Silva, her first rector. Clovis’s succession was planned with plenty of debates
involving the clergy of the diocese elaborating a profile and mission plan for the
Northeast. From this debate was elected the Revd. Edward Robinson de Barros
Cavalcanti at the Diocesan Council of 1997 in Bahia. During this time various new
communities were created, such as Caruaru (Reconciliação), Piedade (Espírito
Santo), and Maceió (Filadélfia).
In 1997, Edward Robinson de Barros Cavalcanti assumed the episcopacy of the
Diocese of Recife. A well known professor and writer in evangelical circles,
Bishop Robinson immediately attracted around him a large group of people
interested in joining the Anglican Church. The majority were from the
Presbyterian Church, with some Baptists, Pentecostals and Roman Catholics.
There are some notable marks of his administration of the diocese. While there
was a numerical increase in members and an expansion of theological education
with an emphasis on a brand of Anglican identity, on the other hand, his
episcopacy was marked by schisms and personal conflicts. In 2002, the diocese
suffered two schisms, first by Paulo Garcia, taking with him the community and
the building that historically belonged to the English and afterwards to the IEAB,
the Missions of the Beatitudes and the Living Rock, as well as the Revd. Célio
IGREJA EPISCOPAL ANGLICANA DO BRASIL – IEAB
DIOCESE ANGLICANA DO RECIFE – DAR
Bispo Diocesano:
Revmo. Dom Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares
[email protected]
Escritório Diocesano: Rua Coelho Leite, 57 Santo Amaro
CEP: 50100 – 140 Recife – PE
Secretário Diocesano: Izaias Torquato da Silva
[email protected]
Telefone: 55 81 3421 1684 / 55 81 9169 7019
Spineli, Edgar B. Ferreira Neto, Frederico Carneiro Rego Bastos. In the second
schism, the Revd. Leonides Menezes Ferreira, Revda. Karla Patriota, the Revd.
Adonias Ramos de Souza and the Parishes of Bethany and Calavary left the
diocese.
The episcopacy of Robinson saw the consecration as suffragan bishop of Filadelfo
Oliveira Neto in 2002. Originating from a Presbyterian background, Filadelfo
headed the administrative department of the diocese and dealt with pastoral
problems in the Archdeanery of Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, and afterwards
in the southern region of the Diocese, which extended from Boa Viagem in Recife
to Ilha de Itaparica in Bahia.
2004 was a difficult year for Anglicanism in the northeast and consequently for
the whole of the IEAB. Bishop Cavalcanti demonstrated a lack of pastoral
sensitivity, a great difficulty to relate in collegiality with his fellow bishops,
committing acts of indiscipline against the IEAB. This unleashed the greatest
crisis known to the church in recent times, which culminated in his separation
from the province and the withdrawal of his episcopal jurisdiction, as a result of
an ecclesiastical tribunal.
With the installation in the crisis, Maurício Andrade, bishop of the Diocese of
Brasília, was nominated by the province to offer special episcopal supervision, to
help Filadelfo in the pastoral and administrative work of the diocese. Later,
Bishops Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares and Glauco Soares de Lima also
played a supporting role.
In 2005, a notable number of clergy continued in full communion and obedience
to the deposed bishop, suspending their relationship with the IEAB, in a clear
display of the desertion of the doctrine, worship and discipline of the Church.
Thirty-two clergy and their respective communities left.
During this time, Bishop Filadelfo assumed temporarily the ecclesiastical authority
of the diocese, nominated by the Primate. Eight deacons were ordained.
The Missions of Christ the Good Shepherd, Jesus of Nazareth, Mount Sinai, St. Francis of
Assis, came into being, a demonstration of the will to overcome the crisis.
IGREJA EPISCOPAL ANGLICANA DO BRASIL – IEAB
DIOCESE ANGLICANA DO RECIFE – DAR
Bispo Diocesano:
Revmo. Dom Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares
[email protected]
Escritório Diocesano: Rua Coelho Leite, 57 Santo Amaro
CEP: 50100 – 140 Recife – PE
Secretário Diocesano: Izaias Torquato da Silva
[email protected]
Telefone: 55 81 3421 1684 / 55 81 9169 7019
During the General Synod in Curitiba in 2006, Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares was
elected the new diocesan bishop, with Bishop Filadelfo as suffragan, and was installed on
11th October in a celebration that brought hope for the future of Anglicanism in the
northeast.
In December the XXV Diocesan Council took place with a strong turnout of
clergy, and in which it was possible to outline new directions for the future of the
Church in the northeast, under the leadership of Bishop Sebastião.
In 2007, the new building of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was consecrated in the
suburb of Espinheiro with a festive spirit, demonstrating that the crisis, was surmounted,
and would not prevent the continuity of the ministry of the church.
The Revds. Elias Leôncio de Brito Filho and César Romero Leal Vieira, who had followed
the deposed bishop returned to the diocese.
Currently the diocese has eleven active priests, one licensed, one retired and eight deacons.
The geographical area of the diocese extends through the whole of the northeast of Brazil,
with seven parishes, two missions, five missionary points in all: two parishes, one mission
and three missionary points in the state of Pernambuco; two parishes and one missionary
point in the state of Bahia; one parish and one mission in the state of Paraíba and one
mission in the state of Ceará.
IGREJA EPISCOPAL ANGLICANA DO BRASIL – IEAB
DIOCESE ANGLICANA DO RECIFE – DAR
Bispo Diocesano:
Revmo. Dom Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares
[email protected]
Escritório Diocesano: Rua Coelho Leite, 57 Santo Amaro
CEP: 50100 – 140 Recife – PE
Secretário Diocesano: Izaias Torquato da Silva
[email protected]
Telefone: 55 81 3421 1684 / 55 81 9169 7019
A map of the territory of the Anglican Diocese of Recife in relation to the rest of Brazil.
IGREJA EPISCOPAL ANGLICANA DO BRASIL – IEAB
DIOCESE ANGLICANA DO RECIFE – DAR
Bispo Diocesano:
Revmo. Dom Sebastião Armando Gameleira Soares
[email protected]
Escritório Diocesano: Rua Coelho Leite, 57 Santo Amaro
CEP: 50100 – 140 Recife – PE
Secretário Diocesano: Izaias Torquato da Silva
[email protected]
Telefone: 55 81 3421 1684 / 55 81 9169 7019