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RECIFE, Brazil: Reformation Yes, Rome No.
by Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti
October 30, 2009
The calendar of the Brazilian Book of Common Prayer (LOCb) of the Diocese of Recife - and of the majority of evangelical churches in our country - registers today as the day in which we commemorate the Reformation.
This year we celebrate 500 years of the birth of John Calvin, and we're reminded of the fact that the Protestant Reformation of the 16th. Century was one of the most important chapters in the History of the Church, and that october 31st. 1517 was one of the most significant days since Pentecost.
The protestant community, ever growing in Latin America owes its existence to the sacrificial work of missionaries in the 19th, and 20th, centuries, who were motivated by the conviction and message of the Reformers.
The denunciation of and break with the "errors and superstitions" within Christendom, the affirmation of the supremacy of Holy Scripture - which all should have the freedom to read - the recovery of the apostolic message of salvation exclusively by Grace received through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and the universal priesthood of all believers, comprise a genuine treasure, valuable and non-negotiable.
Latin America, home on the one hand to traditional, nominal and syncretistic Christianity, is, on the other hand, a creedal continent. Its protestant component is almost entirely orthodox, and continues to believe that the errors and doctrinal distortions of non-reformed branches of the Church in the East and West remain unacceptable. We appreciate the spiritual suffering of Christians that live in the developed West, marked as it is by the destructive influence - both spiritual and moral - of revisionist Liberalism, and we affirm our solidarity with those Christians.
In our continent, Liberalism was brought to us, principally from the Roman Church, via Liberation Theology. Of the six hundred thousand people who leave the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil each year, the vast majority do not become secular or join non-Christian religions, but, by the liberating experience of new birth, convert to Christ in reformed churches, in both traditional and Pentecostal contexts.
As Brazilian Anglicans, we look to the memory of the blood of the martyrs, to Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley, and also to the example of those passionate pioneers, reformed missionaries in our country like our first bishop Lucien Lee Kinsolving.
The crisis which Anglicanism currently faces will not be solved by returning to the other side of the river Tiber, but by crossing the bridge of the river Cam(bridge), to get back to the impassioned debates of the White Horse Tavern. We must become more, not less protestant. Reformation, yes: Rome, no. "Almighty Fortress is our God."
----The Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti is Bishop of the Diocese of Recife, under the Primatial Authority of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America.
