Miguel Uchôa Cavalcanti is a Brazilian Anglican

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

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 a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

-recognized

Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil () is the 19th province of the Anglican Communion, covering the country of Brazil. It is composed of nine dioceses and one missionary district, each headed by a bishop, among whom one is elected as the Prim ...

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

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

of the

GAFCON The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (branded as GAFCON or Gafcon) is a communion of conservative Anglicanism, Anglican churches, aligned with the Confessing Movement, that formed in 2008 in response to ongoing theological disputes in th ...

-recognized

Anglican Church in Brazil The Anglican Church in Brazil () 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 Anglicans and the Global Sou ...

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

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

, which is considered one of the largest Anglican churches in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

with more than 1,000 worshipers.

Early life and ministry

Uchôa studied fishing engineering and was converted to

Protestant Christianity Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes justification of sinners through faith alone, the teaching that salvation comes by unmerited divine grace, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as the sole infallible sour ...

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 mo ...

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

Fresh Expressions Fresh Expressions is an international, cross-denominational movement within Christianity that seeks to develop new forms of church in collaboration with existing congregations. Its aim is to engage individuals who have never participated in churc ...

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 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. 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 States of Brazil, state of Brazil located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.5 million people as of 2024, it is the List of Brazilian states by population, ...

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 an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, 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 Ang ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and the 2020 enthronement of Stephen Kaziimba as archbishop of the

Church of Uganda The Church of Uganda (C/U) is a member province of the Anglican Communion. Currently, there are 37 dioceses that make up the Church of Uganda, each headed by a bishop. Each diocese is divided into archdeaconries, each headed by a senior priest k ...

. 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 (GSFA), formerly known as Global South (Anglican), was originally started as a Communion (Koinonia/Christian Fellowship), communion of 25 Anglicanism, Anglican churches, of which 22 are Ecclesiastic ...

. In 2023, after the Church of England General Synod'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 Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

'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 is a relativ ...

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 21st-century Anglican bishops in South America 21st-century evangelicals Anglican bishops of Recife Anglican realignment people Brazilian Anglican bishops Brazilian Christian religious leaders Brazilian evangelicals Evangelical Anglicans People from Recife Year of birth missing (living people)