The Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil (the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil) has published guidance for a presidential election in October.
The guidance includes essays on political participation and the gospel, the church’s constitution and the Anglican Communion’s Five Marks of Mission. It addresses issues such as inequality, violence, corruption, and Christian responsibility in political life.
The guidance suggests that Anglicans listen to candidates’ proposals and “separate those that do not correspond to some or all of these principles.” It does not endorse candidates, but suggests that readers ask which candidates’ policies “correspond to all or most of these principles.”
The elections on Oct. 7 will be the first in Brazil since President Dilma Rousseff of the Workers’ Party was impeached. Rousseff was elected in 2010, and re-elected in 2014, with just over 51 percent of the vote.
She was suspended by the Senate in May 2016 ahead of her impeachment in August that year, on charges of breaking budgetary rules. Vice President Michael Temer of the Democratic Movement Party assumed the presidency.
Bishop Francisco De Assis Da Silva, Anglican Primate of Brazil at the time, opposed her impeachment.
If none of the 13 candidates achieves at least 50 percent in the first round of voting, the two candidates with the most votes will face enter a runoff election on Oct. 28.
Adapted from ACNS
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
