Two wooden chalices -- both carved to commemorate the visit and unveiled on its opening day -- offered a central metaphor as the visit concluded with an Evening Prayer liturgy in Rio de Janeiro's historic Christ Church.

"These vessels, like the communion between our two churches, bear and strengthen the whole body of Christ," Brazil's Primate Mauricio Andrade said, speaking in Portuguese and underscoring the Church's call to spiritual transformation.

Expressing her thanks for the Brazilian Church's vitality and hospitality, Jefferts Schori, speaking in Spanish, affirmed the shared mission of the Episcopal Church and the 100,000-member Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil. "Thank you for your work in Christ," she said.

While speaking, each Primate held one of the two chalices and its accompanying paten, all carved from the same block of cedar by Brazilian artisan-priest Jesse Ramos and used for Eucharist July 7 at Brasilia's Resurrection Cathedral and July 8 at Porto Alegre's Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Andrade presented Jefferts Schori with one set of the altarware, which she will bring back to New York after continuing from Rio de Janeiro on July 11 for visits to Episcopal Church dioceses in Ecuador and Quito.

Mission dialogue
"I appreciate the emphasis that you are placing on the development of the whole person and the community," Jefferts Schori said in dialogue with Brazilian bishops and other church leaders gathered July 9 at the Provincial Office in in Porto Alegre.

"I sense you have much to teach us about leadership development, especially among young people," she said in response to presentations made by several diocesan bishops.

"I hear the plea for more companion relationships, and that is a message I will take back with me," she added, citing the international partnerships often developed diocese to diocese and parish to parish.

Reflecting on commonalities in North and South America, Jefferts Schori said the Brazilian Church faces "many of the same challenges present in the United States: in inner cities, on Indian reservations, in other indigenous communities, and Appalachia."

She pointed to "many similarities (in Brazil) to areas of the Church I know best: the Church in rural areas and the West," referring to her experiences as bishop of the U.S. Diocese of Nevada and as a parish priest in Oregon.

"One of the things I learned in the West is the benefit of leanness," Jefferts Schori said, affirming the spiritual growth, discipline and community that can emerge from building ministries and volunteer networks amid limited financial resources.

The Presiding Bishop said she "will ask more about the economic challenges you have had in closing schools" and suggested consultation and "building some solidarity" with the Anglican Church of Canada, whose campus closures in recent years have occurred "for different reasons, but the consequences to the church have been similar."

Jefferts Schori also inquired about ministries of deacons: "Are there programs in other dioceses to develop this kind of work?"

Underscoring the Brazilian Church's gifts -- and its roots in U.S. missionary work beginning in 1890 -- Jefferts Schori added that "in the same way the Bible has said 'a child shall lead them,' in our case the daughter church has much to teach its mother and now sister church."

The visit to the Provincial Office also included reflection on visits of previous Presiding Bishops Edmond L. Browning and Frank T. Griswold, and the missionary work of, among others, the Rev. Canon Patrick Mauney and his wife, Mardi. Mauney is retired director of the Episcopal Church's Anglican and Global Relations unit.

Gathered in Porto Alegre, bishops who presented audio-visual overviews of their diocesan ministries included Orlando Santos de Oliveira (who is also the Brazilian Church's previous Primate) of the Diocese of the South, Renato Raatz of the Diocese of Pelotas, Jubal Neves of the Diocese of the Southwest, and Naudal Gomes of Curitba. Gomes' sister, Carmen, is a priest who has served in ministry in U.S. dioceses including Los Angeles and San Diego.

Santos de Oliveira, host bishop in Porto Alegre, offered a comprehensive view of his diocese's parochial and regional outreach -- which includes ministries with indigenous residents of Viamao -- under the current theme of "We shall do our part in the mission of God." He noted the work of the regional seminary, where his wife, Vera Lucia, teaches church history.

Raatz, who was ordained a bishop on April 15, voiced his appreciation for the welcome he has received in beginning new ministry in the Pelotas diocese. Evangelism and communication were among ministries he highlighted.

A unique center of the Southwest diocese is its university with some 3,000 students, said Nevas, a familiar visitor to meetings of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops and General Convention. Fiscal support for the university is among current priorities, he added.

Meanwhile, Curitiba's bishop said his diocese is exploring establishing a companion relationship with the San Francisco-based Diocese of California. Current ministry initiatives include holistic spiritual formation, and solidarity with "landless" and other people in need, Gomes said.

Similar dialogue occurred July 6 in Brasilia with bishops Saulo Barros of Amazonia, Almir Dos Santos of the Missionary District of the West, Sebastiao Armando Gameleira of Recife, Suffragan Filadelfo Oliveira Neto of Recife, and Andrade, who, in addition to his elected ministry as Primate, is bishop of the Brasilia diocese, which is growing from its base in the nation's capitol.

Some 50 million people, vast numbers of whom are landless, live in Amazonia, Barros said of his diocese, where the wider population's serious social problems include child prostitution, slave labor, drug trafficking, and black-market sale of children. Deforestation persists in compromising the region's unparalleled biodiversity, Barros said, adding that he would welcome a companion relationship with a U.S. diocese.

Almir leads the Missionary District of the West, formed in 2000 to bring new mission work to a region spanning three geographic states. A veteran bishop of 18 years' experience, Almir said the new region is "growing in stature and grace" and outreach to large numbers of indigenous and landless people, some of whom are agricultural migrants from the south and north.

Recife's Gameleira spoke of his diocese's increasing health and rebuilding after a series of widely reported schisms in which hundreds of parishioners departed, and the previous bishop, Robinson Cavalcante, was deposed amid conflict over views of theology and human sexuality. The diocese is steadily stabilizing, said Gameleira, and a new cathedral has been consecrated earlier this year in the Espinheiro suburb.

Commenting on church conflicts, Jefferts Schori later told the group assembled July 9 in Porto Alegre that focus on mission keeps dioceses healthy.

"Conflict to the side, that [mission focus] is what will keep us together," she said. "In the Episcopal Church, as in Brazil, the dioceses focused on mission are healthy. They don't fall into consuming conflict."

Jefferts Schori added that the Episcopal Church's 10 overseas dioceses "are clearly focused on mission; they're not concerned with the conflict within the Anglican Communion" as a primary issue.

That afternoon in another session devoted to dialogue with lay and ordained women gathered in Porto Alegre from across Brazil, the Presiding Bishop and other participants reiterated that homophobia and racism are inconsistent with receiving all people into the body of Christ.

The group also discussed ways in which women are engaged in uniting the Anglican Communion through new initiatives, including the Anglican Women's Empowerment organization.

Rio de Janeiro send-off
As host bishop at Rio de Janeiro's Christ Church, Celso Franco de Oliveira welcomed Jefferts Schori as "a symbol of the care, tenderness and other virtues that can save the world."

Gifts were presented by Dean Inamar Corres de Souza on behalf of St. Paul the Apostle's Cathedral.

Christ Church, which dates from 1819 as a property owned by the British Commonwealth Society. In addition to weekly rites in English, Sunday services in Portuguese are also conducted under an agreement through which space is rented to the resident Parish of St. Luke.

Rio de Janeiro's bishop, "Dom Celso," told the Presiding Bishop of parish work and regional programs serving people in need, including residents of "favelas," or barrios where the effects of drug trafficking are often most severely felt. There poverty stands in starkest contrast to the wealth reflected in the city's world-famous resorts and other exclusive enclaves.

The diocese shares a companion relationship with the U.S. Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, said the bishop, who with his wife, Lucien, hosted the Presiding Bishop and her husband, Richard Schori, on a July 10 morning tour of Rio de Janeiro landmarks. Mountaintop stops included the towering "Cristo Redentor" statue overlooking the city and its ongoing preparations for the July 13 opening of the Pan American Games.

An evening reception in the Christ Church parish hall capped the day and the provincial visit. There guests viewed the two commemorative chalices before Andrade, Brazil's Primate. Carefully packed one for return to Brasilia and the other for Jefferts Schori to take to the Episcopal Church Center in New York.

Again, Jefferts Schori expressed her gratitude for the chalices' symbolism of common mission that is both historic and ongoing.

More information about the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brazil is online at http://www.ieab.org.br/