Bishop Miguel Uchoa to be the province’s first primate and archbishop

The Bishop of Recife, the Rt. Rev. Miguel Uchoa, will be installed as the first archbishop and primate of the Anglican Church in Brazil next month.

On 12 May 2018 Archbishop-elect Uchoa will be installed as primate at a special service set for the Church of the Holy Spirit in Pernambuco.

In 2004 the Diocese of Recife led by its bishop, the Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti, withdrew from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil over its support for limiting the efficacy of Scripture in favor of human experience in setting church doctrine and discipline. The Primate of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables provided archiepiscopal oversight for the diocese, and in 2008 the newly formed GAFCON movement extended its oversight to the diocese.

Even though it lost many of its church buildings following a court ruling in favor of the IEAB, the diocese has grown rapidly — adding 35 congregations across Brazil in the past 12 years. Bishop Uchoa has also extended episcopal oversight to Anglican congregations in Central America and in northern South America, such as  Iglesia Anglicana La Vid in Bogotá, Colombia. The new churches and ministries have been formed across class and racial divides in Brazil and has been particularly successful in attracting young people to the Anglican Church. One Youtube ministry within the diocese, Momento A2, attracts 10,000 viewers to its daily podcasts.

In 2017 the province consecrated three suffragans to serve geographic regions of the burgeoning diocese, and is likely to divide into three dioceses in order to meet the standard for a free standing province.

Contacted at the primates meeting in Kampala, the Most Rev. Peter Jensen, General Secretary of GAFCON said was not yet able to respond to queries as to whether Archbishop-elect Uchoa would join the primates’ council or to clarify the new province’s relationship to the GAFCON provinces.