Brazil and Cuba to be represented at General Synod 2016

Representatives from two of the Anglican Church of Canada’s global partners-the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil and the Episcopal Church of Cuba-will be in attendance when General Synod meets this July.

Archbishop Francisco de Assis da Silva, primate of Brazil, and Bishop Griselda Delgado del Carpio will be representing the churches of Brazil and Cuba, respectively.

Da Silva’s visit comes at a time when the Canadian and Brazilian churches are moving toward re-establishing a formal relationship after a six-year lapse, Andrea Mann, the church’s director of global relations, told Council of General Synod (CoGS) March 11.

Until 2010, Mann said, the two churches had enjoyed a long relationship that included regular meetings and visits, grants and scholarships from the Canadian church, mentoring and other programs. Canadian Anglicans volunteered in Brazilian missions. But in 2010, General Synod, in consultation with the Brazilian church, withdrew from its formal partnership. Instead the Canadian church decided to focus on partnering with one province in each of the Communion’s six global regions. Within the Latin American/Caribbean region, the Episcopal Church of Cuba became the Canadian church’s strategic partner, she said.

More recently, however, the two churches have been re-establishing ties. After visiting Brazil last December, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said he foresaw a “formal, global partner relationship” between the Canadian and Brazilian churches.

A number of changes lie in store for the Cuban church, given its request last year to rejoin The Episcopal Church, Mann said, who asked CoGS members to reflect on how the Canadian church ought to be involved in this transition.

After Mann’s presentation, Hiltz, who visited Cuba earlier this year, said he sensed in the Cuban church, alongside a sense of anticipation to return to its American cousin, also some anxiety that its relationship with the Canadian church continue in some form.