Anglican missions in Brazil began to flourish after 1889, when the Republic was proclaimed and the country became officially secular; this decriminalized the conversion of Roman Catholics to Anglicanism and other churches and religions. In 1890, the priests Lucien Lee Kinsolving and James Watson Morris were sent to Brazil from the Virginia Theological Seminary. They established themselves in a rented house later known as the "Mission House" ("Casa da Missão") in Porto Alegre, where they held the first Anglican Mass in Portuguese on 1 June 1890. Three other American missionaries followed in 1891: Rev. William Cabell Brown (who would leave in 1914 to become bishop in his native Virginia, but after completing translations of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer), Rev. John Gaw Meem and lay woman Mary Packard. They established missions in Santa Rita do Rio dos Sinos, Rio Grande and Pelotas. These five missionaries are regarded as the founders of the Brazilian Episcopal Church, since they preached to Brazilians in Portuguese and spread Anglicanism throughout the Southern region of Brazil, which now has the largest number of Anglican communities.