Recife, The North American Archdeaconory and the matter of a “more definitive solution”

Well, it is all wonderfully convoluted and would not be worth the effort if it were not a prime example of something Canon David Anderson just wrote in the AAC Newsletter, “As churches exit ECUSA and find temporary homes all over the Global South, they need to be gathered together in some coherent manner so that a unified American Anglicanism can be built. To do this, we need some way to unite those who have recently come out of ECUSA, and allow them to have a relationship with each other, as a first fruit of what is yet to materialize.” So we need to pay attention to the strange business of the second Diocese of Recife, with its deposed Bishop, its strange relationship with the Province of the Southern Cone, and its newly declared “North-American Archdeaconry” (see Diocese of Recife News, December 5, 2005, posted in the AAC Blog.)

The strange case of the former bishop of Recife, The Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti, now deposed by the Province of Brazil, provides an instructive case study in the rather convoluted connection between parts of the Global South, the American Anglican Council and the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, aka the Anglican Communion Network.

Difficulties in relations between the leadership of the Diocese of Recife, IEAB (indicating the Province of Brazil) and the Church of Brazil have been long standing. In 2004 Bishop Cavalcanti taking part in confirmation services at a church in Ohio, not part of the Diocese, but within its jurisdiction, without the permission of the Bishop of Ohio. That in turn gave rise first to reprimand from the House of Bishops of the Province of Brazil and then to Bishop Cavalcanti’s deposition. The Diocese of Recife IEAB website has a clarifying article on the whole matter of the Diocese, the deposition of the Bishop and its continuing life as a diocese.

Bishop Cavalcanti, now deposed by the Province of Brazil, took with him a number of clergy and congregations and became a second Diocese of Recife, no longer recognized by the Province of Brazil. This new entity, the Diocese of Recife (PSC) Province of the Southern Cone, is clamed by the “Diocese of Recife News” of December 6, 2005, to be under the “Primatial authority of the Province of the Southern Cone” and at the same time, according to the press secretary, Rev’d Estevao Menezes Chiappetta, it is “de jure (for the State) and de facto (for the Church) pro-tempore, extra-provincial to the See of Buenos Aires, by analogy in a similar situation of Protugal, Spain and Bermudas as extra-provincial to the See of Canterbury. In the present process of realignment of the Anglican Communion we continue with our mission until a more definitive solution.”

So here we have a rogue diocese (at least in the sense that its bishop has been deposed by the Province in which he was ordered) claiming to be the “true” Diocese of Recife, now existing under the Provincial Authority of the Province of the Southern Cone, extra provincial to the see of Buenos Aires, deciding to open up shop with a “North-American Archdeaconry.”

It claims that “six priests, two retired priests, three deacons, serving in two parishes and four missions in four US States are under Recife’s Episcopal oversight.” The synod of this Diocese appointed the Rt. Rev’d Peter Beckwith, of Springfield as ‘Auxiliary Bishop for Pastoral Care’, available to the new Archdeaconry.”

Confused enough? An ECUSA diocesan is auxiliary for pastoral care to an Archeaconry of a diocese led by a Bishop (deposed in one Province) recognized and under the protection of another Province, claiming that this is in any way analogous to the extra provincial status of various other dioceses to Canterbury.

This thing is a mess. The Diocese of Recife (PSC) states “we continue in our mission until a more definitive solution.” The more definitive solution that the AAC seeks seems to include, as Canon Anderson suggests, “some way to unite those who have recently come out of ECUSA, and allow them to have a relationship with each other, as a first fruit of what is yet to materialize.” Well that raises two questions, (i) what is this new way of uniting these dispersed congregations and people who are currently in connection by way of an archdeaconry for this diocese or an outpost of the Province of Nigeria, or connected to Bolivia, or wherever? And (ii) what is it that is yet to materialize?

Of course the Archdeaconry for North America of an extra-provincial diocese whose bishop is not recognized by the Anglican Province in the jurisdiction of Brazil is not the answer to the organizing question. We must really ask if it is any answer at all.

It seems that the AAC is working to round up all these dispersed congregations into a unified collection whose oversight could be provided by a “stand in” for the Network until such time as the new “definitive solution” materializes. At such time the strange convoluted situations in which these congregations find themselves linked to existing dioceses and Provinces will end, and some new stopgap will be engaged. At that time the Diocese of Recife (PSC) will find itself more marginalized than it is even now.

The strange doings in the alternative Diocese of Recife are small things stirring in the stew pot caldron of realignment, but they reflect the chaos that comes before some effort to enact a “definitive solution.” What a mess.