Miguel Uchôa Cavalcanti is a Brazilian Anglican

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

and author. Since 2012, he has been diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Recife, which broke away from the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

-recognized

Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil ( pt, Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil – IEAB) is the 19th province of the Anglican Communion, covering the country of Brazil. It is composed of nine dioceses and one missionary district, each hea ...

(IEAB), and since 2018, he has been the first

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

of the

GAFCON The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (branded as GAFCON or Gafcon) is a global network of conservative Anglicanism, Anglican churches that formed in 2008 in response to an ongoing theological crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion. ...

-recognized

Anglican Church in Brazil The Anglican Church in Brazil ( pt, Igreja Anglicana no Brasil) is an evangelical Anglican denomination in Brazil. It is not a member of the Anglican Communion, but is in full communion with other provinces of the Global Fellowship of Confessing ...

(IAB). Uchôa is also rector of the Anglican Parish of the Holy Spirit (known by its Portuguese acronym PAES) in greater

Recife That it may shine on all ( Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South A ...

, which is considered one of the largest Anglican churches in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

with more than 1,000 worshipers.

Early life and ministry

Uchôa studied fishing engineering and was converted to

Protestant Christianity Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

through the work of Aliança Bíblica Universitária do Brasil, a campus ministry organization. He received his theological education from the Seminário Teológico Batista do Norte do Brasil. Uchôa was married to Valéria Uchôa until her death in 2018; they had two sons. His second marriage was to Juliane. Since 1979, Uchôa has been active in the charismatic renewal movement in Brazil. In 1996, he planted Parróquia Anglicana Espíritu Santo (PAES) in the

Jaboatão dos Guararapes Jaboatão dos Guararapes () is a city in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. It is a part of the Recife metro area. The population was 706,867 according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2020, making it the second most- ...

area of metro Recife. He and PAES were part of the

Fresh Expressions Fresh Expressions is an international, cross-denominational, creative movement of Christians working alongside existing congregations to cultivate new forms of church for those who have never been involved in church or who have left the church. T ...

movement, conducting Christian outreach in cafes, museums, beaches and skate parks. With more than 1,000 parishioners, PAES grew to become the largest Anglican congregation in Latin America.

Anglican realignment

In 2004, following the deposition of Recife bishop

Robinson Cavalcanti Edward Robinson de Barros Cavalcanti (Recife, 21 June 1944 – Olinda, 26 February 2012) was a Brazilian Anglican bishop. He was the conservative bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Recife, in the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil. He led his dio ...

by the IEAB, Uchôa joined two-thirds of the clergy and roughly 95 percent of the laity in disaffiliating from the IEAB and joining an independent Diocese of Recife under the "extra-provincial recognition" of Greg Venables, primate of the

Anglican Church of the Southern Cone The Anglican Church of South America ( es, Iglesia Anglicana de Sudamérica) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Formed in 1981 ...

. In October 2012, after Cavalcanti's murder, Uchôa was elected to succeed him. In December 2012, he was consecrated and installed as bishop of Recife. In 2015, an appellate court in

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...

ruled that diocesan assets belonged to the IEAB-affiliated rump diocese, resulting in the loss of four churches. After the ruling, in 2016, the GAFCON-aligned group led by Uchôa reconstituted itself as the Anglican Church–Diocese of Recife. In May 2018, GAFCON recognized the Anglican Church–Diocese of Recife as an autonomous

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

, the Anglican Church in Brazil. Uchôa was installed as the IAB's first primate. To form the new province, the diocese split into three dioceses (Recife, Vitória and João Pessoa) and a missionary region encompassing the rest of Brazil. As primate, Uchôa has participated in the 2018

Global Anglican Future Conference The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders, the first of which was held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the An ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

and the 2020 enthronement of

Stephen Kaziimba Samuel Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu (called Stephen Kaziimba; also spelled Kazima; born 15 August 1962) is a Ugandan Anglican bishop. On 28 August 2019, he was elected to serve as the ninth Archbishop of Uganda and Bishop of Kampala, effective 1 Mar ...

as archbishop of the

Church of Uganda The Church of Uganda is a member province of the Anglican Communion. Currently there are 37 dioceses which make up the Church of Uganda, each headed by a bishop. Each diocese is divided into archdeaconries, each headed by a senior priest known a ...

. He is a member of the GAFCON Primates Council and a member of the

Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, formerly known as Global South (Anglican), is a grouping of 24 Anglican churches, of which 22 are provinces of the Anglican Communion, plus the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Ch ...

. In 2023, after the

Church of England General Synod The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...

's vote to welcome blessings of same-sex unions, he signed the Global South statement rejecting the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

's leadership of the Anglican Communion. At the fourth quinquennial GAFCON event in

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...

in April 2023, Uchôa was elected vice chairman of GAFCON.

References

External links

Personal website

Anglican Church in Brazil profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uchôa Cavalcanti, Miguel Living people 21st-century Anglican archbishops Evangelical Anglicans Anglican realignment people Brazilian Anglican bishops 21st-century Anglican bishops in South America People from Recife Anglican bishops of Recife Brazilian Christian religious leaders Year of birth missing (living people)