Brazil: a Church Seeks Its Identity
Episcopal News Service. July 25, 1985 [85165]
Rev. Oswaldo Kickhofel, Editor of Estanairre Cristad, the national paper of the Episcopal Church of Brazil
BRAZIL (DPS, July 25) -- With 94 years of history, 6 dioceses, 8 bishops, 107 ordained ministers (24 retired), 42,000 baptized members scattered among 63 parishes and 164 missions, the Episcopal Church of Brazil is the first Anglican province in Latin America to gain autonomy -- in this case, from its mother church in the United States. Now in its third year of complete financial independence (administrative autonomy came in 1965), it searches out its own paths in the face of an uncertain political, economic and social situation in Brazil.
Financial independence has been the most important single occurrence in the nearly century-long history of Brazilian Anglicanism. It marked the Church's coming-of-age and did so in such a way that the Church is now experiencing a healthy rejuvenation of its leadership, both lay and clerical. It is a situation which provokes change and challenge. Those who have long occupied positions of responsibility and leadership are giving way to a younger and more creative generation. In a pastoral letter issued during the 1984 synod, the bishops looked upon these changes with much hope and expectation, charges which may be summarized as follows:
- Financial independence: the Church is walking on its own feet;
- Creation of the Diocese of Brazilia: capital of the country and center of national decision-making;
- Election and consecration of three new bishops: the Church advances into the northeast and renews the House of Bishops;
- Creation of a national seminary: Brazilian theology, which is not a mere repetition of what Anglican theologians are saying elsewhere;
- Ordination of women: sharing the ministry of the Church on the level of equality and responsibility:
- Creation of a provincial office: a new structure with a full-time general secretary;
- Publication of a new Book of Common Prayer: liturgy more in tune with Brazilian culture.
Expectation aroused by these changes is so marked that the bishops themselves evidenced a certain uneasiness when they asked if "we possess the necessary human and material resources to meet these and other great challenges?" An important role will fall to the new provincial secretary, who has among his duties that of coordinating and promoting the plans and programs of the Episcopal Church of Brazil on the national level, as well as that of creating the necessary infrastructure for the satisfactory functioning of the national headquarters in Porto Alegre.
As part of the larger Church of God and heirs of a solid ecclesiastical tradition, we are a community in search of our identity as a uniquely Brazilian church. Though bearing the marks of a well-established denomination, we are, in reality, not yet a well-established church. Times have changed greatly the situation of the Brazilian people. We are a church inserted into the midst of a suffering and disoriented people. Such disorientation leaves its mark on the people of the Episcopal Church of Brazil, as well. We have a relatively large endowment, but one not yet sufficiently mobilized in behalf of mission. We have come through the ten-year plan of financial independence and are living out our third year of complete financial emancipation, but precisely at a time when the country is suffering a profound economic crisis. Even so, the Church is adapting itself to the new situation. We are experiencing a new awakening throughout the Church. New paths appear to be explored, and we understand more and more that "the wealth of the Church is its people."
The challenge of evangelization is intimately related to personal conversation and to awareness of the daily reality of the individual. Although it is a continuous process and independent of the social environment, evangelization only takes place when the Church is present and living within the social reality, for it must demonstrate congruence between what it says and what it does. The Episcopal Church of Brazil acts in society not by making emotional appeals, as many evangelical sects do, but rather by acting in a manner which is reasoned, mature, responsible and grounded in the daily reality of the Brazilian people.
In the search for its identity as a national church -- without disrupting or breaking its traditional and historical links with sister churches in the Anglican Communion -- the Episcopal Church of Brazil is finding its own way and developing the necessary material and human resources to be a church which is truly outward-looking.