General Representation

The General Representative Mestre is the maximum authority of the Beneficent Spiritist Center União do Vegetal. The position is so named because it represents the UDV’s creator, Mestre Gabriel. With the help of six Assistant Mestres, the General Representative Mestre leads the Spiritist Center from the religious perspective and supervises the entire institutional administration of the religion.

He is elected by a specific electoral college for a three-year term. The current General Representative Mestre is Jair Gabriel da Costa who started on January 6, 2024, and will conclude on January 6, 2027. The General Representative Mestre and seven Assistants (Clovis Cavalieri Rodrigues de Carvalho, Edson Lodi Campos Soares, Edison Saraiva Neves, Ivan Luiz Evangelista de Souza, João Luiz Cotta Neto and José de Anchieta Torreão de Sá) constitute the General Representation of the UDV. These are all volunteer positions.

Since its creation, the União do Vegetal has had ten mestres with the responsibility of being General Representative Mestre:

  • Raimundo Carneiro Braga
  • Raimundo Monteiro de Souza
  • João Ferreira de Souza (Janico)
  • Manoel Nogueira da Silva
  • Luís Felipe Belmonte dos Santos
  • Raimundo Nonato Marques
  • Florêncio Siqueira de Carvalho
  • José Luiz de Oliveira
  • Francisco Herculano de Oliveira
  • Clovis Cavalieri Rodrigues de Carvalho
  • Paulo Afonso Amato Condé
  • José Carlos Garcia
  • Jair Gabriel da Costa – Current MGR.

    • CONAGE

    The Council of General Administration (Conselho de Administração Geral, CONAGE) has, among other competencies, the responsibility to care for the maintenance of the order and harmony of the members of the UDV and to establish procedures for the training and development  of the leaders of the institution. The Council is composed of the members of the General Representation, the members of the Council of Recordation of the Teachings of Mestre Gabriel, the Central Mestres of the regions, the mestres who occupied the position of General Representative Mestre, the Representative Mestre of the General Representative Mestre, the President of the General Directorate, and the mestres that the Council designates as members (three mestres indicated by the Council itself, as well as two mestres indicated by the General Representative Mestre), for each three-year period.

    According to the laws of the UDV, the founding mestres of the Spiritist Center, members of the Council of Recordation of the Teachings of Mestre Gabriel, and the mestres who have held the position of General Representative Mestre are permanent members of the Council of General Administration.

    COUNCIL OF THE GENERAL REPRESENTATION

    The Council of the General Representation is constituted by the members of the General Representation, by the Mestres that are members of the Council of the Recordation of the Teachings of Mestre Gabriel, by the Mestres that have occupied the position of General Representative Mestre and by the permanent members of CONAGE. Among the attributes of this Council are the care and maintenance of the equilibrium of the União and the preservation of the session rituals so that the works obey the religious norms of the Center.

    CENTRAL MESTRE

    A Central Mestre for each region is indicated by the General Representative Mestre, to supervise and care for the discipline of the Núcleos and Authorized Distributions of Vegetal in the region. Each Central Mestre is one of the General Representative Mestre’s assistants in conducting the works of the União do Vegetal, and is also a member of the Council of General Administration.

    The UDV is currently organized in nineteen regions, with seventeen in Brazil, one in North America and one in Europe.