wfn.org | Presiding bishop's Brazil visit confirms old friendships, creates new connections

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2001-197

Presiding bishop's Brazil visit confirms old friendships, creates new connections

by Mardi Mauney
(Photos available at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens/2001-197.html)

     (ENS) "I strongly believe that the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil and 
the Episcopal Church of the United States are instruments for one another's 
salvation," said Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold to the congregation gathered at 
the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Porto Alegre, Brazil on the feast day of St. 
Benedict. Griswold and his wife, Phoebe, made their first visit to the Episcopal 
Anglican Church of Brazil in early July, meeting with bishops, clergy and lay 
leaders in the Diocese of São Paulo and in Porto Alegre, see city of the Southern 
Diocese. Phoebe Griswold also met with bishops' wives and other women leaders to 
learn about their outreach ministries.

     Taking part in the visits were the Rev. Patrick Mauney, the Episcopal 
Church's director of Anglican and Global Relations, and Mardi Mauney, convener of 
the Bilateral Committee for the Episcopal Churches of the United States and 
Brazil. The Mauneys formerly served as missionaries in Brazil.

     The Most Rev. Glauco Soares de Lima, Primate of the Anglican Episcopal 
Church of Brazil, expressed the hope that this visit would remind both churches 
that "the whole world is our mission field." He noted that in this increasingly 
globalized and individualist world, sister churches offer a redemptive example in 
that we are not strangers to one another or to the world. Griswold said that he 
had come to Brazil in part because of a friendship with Bishop Soares de Lima, "a 
wonderful, wise and seasoned primate who has been a minister of encouragement to 
me."

Long history together

     Brazil is now the largest Anglican province on the South American continent, 
with some 100,000 baptized members. There are seven dioceses and two newly formed 
missionary districts in Amazônia and Rondônia, Brazil's furthest reaches. 
Communities gather in about 80 parishes, 60 missions and over 90 preaching 
stations all across this vast country.

     There is a long historic connection between the Episcopal Churches of Brazil 
and the United States. It was two young graduates of Virginia Seminary, Lucien 
Lee Kinsolving and James Watson Morris, who journeyed to Brazil in 1890 to found 
a new church. At ceremonies in the Provincial Offices in Porto Alegre, Bishop 
Griswold unveiled a plaque celebrating the 56 ECUSA missionaries who followed in 
Morris and Kinsolving's footsteps.

     Not far from the Episcopal Cathedral of São Paulo, where Griswold preached, 
lies the Paraisópolis, a vast favela or shanty town. The Griswold party visited 
the "Lina Rodrigues" day care center at the heart of the Paraisópolis. This 
relatively new ministry offers pastoral care to the residents of the favela, as 
well as child care. With the help of favela residents, an addition to the present 
building will be built in order to provide a space for worship and community 
events. 

Gift--and challenge

     During his visit, Griswold met for an hour with the president and senior 
pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil and other Lutheran leaders. 
They discussed Called to Common Mission, the recent agreement for full communion 
between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church in 
the United States, and relations between the Lutheran and Anglican Churches of 
Brazil.

     Other sites visited included the Alice Kinsolving home for the elderly, now 
celebrating 50 years of ministry, and an indigenous community of the Guarani 
peoples where the church is working to preserve their culture. 

     At the conclusion of his visit, Griswold preached at a Eucharist at the 
Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Porto Alegre, speaking of the value of the visit 
to this sister province of the Anglican Communion. "It became very clear to me 
that the church in Brazil is an immense gift to us in the Episcopal Church of the 
United States. Their integrity as a witnessing and ministering community, not to 
mention the depth of their prayerfulness, can be both a gift-and a challenge," he 
said.

     Following the service, a gala churrasco, or southern Brazilian barbecue, 
gave the Americans an opportunity to enjoy local traditions with some 150 
Brazilian Episcopalians.

--Mardi Mauney is co-convener of the Presiding Bishop's Committee for the 
Episcopal Churches of the United States and Brazil and a former missionary in Brazil.