Padre Xico Checks In

Our Friends in Igreja Anglcana Do Brasil continue to speak with wisdom and clarity from the Global Center. My friend Rev. Cônego Francisco de Assis da Silva, Secretary General of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil has written another post at his site KANTINHO DE REV. I was unable to link to the article for some strange reason, so I nicked it, as our friend MadPriest says, as I think everyone should read this. I took this fóto at Epiphany West at CDSP in January, 2007.

We (those attending our Lenten Series) were talking about how so many of the recent controversies in the Anglican Communion are about power cloaked in theological language at San Cristóbal last night!

Communion...not Power!
I received with joy the message delivered by the Episcopal Church's Bishops after their meeting yesterday.
First, I was heartened by the courage in defending what it is a principle crystallized in the Communion -- that is, provincial autonomy. The Episcopal Church, like the other provinces, has its own canonical mechanisms that allow the exercise of its autonomy inside the parameters already consolidated historically in our tradition.
The present crisis within the Communion has been creating abnormal situations because, generally, the conservatives, under the claim of defending orthodoxy, transgress the jurisdictions, trespassing diocesan or provincial legitimate authorities.
Brazil's Province suffered this improper interference when the Primate of the Southern Cone extended his pastoral supervision over the bishop and the schismatic clergy of the Diocese of Recife without respect for the sovereign provincial decision that deposed the bishop of that diocese.

The establishment of a Pastoral Council with mandate over an autonomous Province, as suggested by the Primates has no legitimacy, without the consent of the whole Church. It is important to highlight that there is no legislative competence that legitimates such a proposition. Primates do not constitute an entity with legislative powers. The only entity that has powers for such an action is the ACC.
The non-observance of limits is the destruction of the Anglican Communion . It would establish a dangerous level of informality that will work according to everyone's political convenience.
Finally, the invitation for an open and sincere talk with the Archbishop of Canterbury and with the Primates' Standing Committee is a signal that the Episcopal Church in USA has maturity and an authentic wish to remain in communion with the whole family. In this present crisis it is very important overcome any unilaterality or self-sufficiency.
If the conservatives wish to expel the Episcopal Church from the whole Anglican Communion, they need to be more transparent, and behave in an appropriate way. Some arguments that the whole Communion is in agreement with the ultimatum stated by the Primates' Communique are not true.

The Baptismal commitment is not optional. Orthodoxy needs to be congruent with the way we live. When anybody defends orthodoxy and does not respect another person's fundamental human rights they takes on the onus of pharisaism. In the light of the crisis that we are experiencing, I reaffirm my conviction that what divides the Anglican Communion today is not the view people have of sexuality or of rights of the homosexual. What divides the Communion is the dispute for power and control.

Rev. Cônego Francisco de Assis da Silva
Secretário Geral
Igreja Episcopal Anglicana da Brasil