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| Assemblies of God in Brazil | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Pentecostal |
| Scripture | Protestant Bible |
| Theology | Finished Work Pentecostalism[1] |
| Leader | José Wellington Jr. (President of CGADB) Samuel Câmara (President of CADB) Manoel Ferreira (President of CONAMAD) |
| Associations | Assembly of God |
| Region | Worldwide |
| Headquarters | Rio de Janeiro,Brazil |
| Founder | Daniel Berg andGunnar Vingren |
| Origin | 1911 Belém,Pará, Brazil |
| Absorbed | Free Baptist Church[2] Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil[3] (Maranhense, MA and Portas Abertas, CE Congregations) |
| Separations | Brazilian Baptist Convention (1911) |
| Congregations | 100,000 |
| Members | 12 million (2013) |
TheAssembleias de Deus (Portuguese pronunciation:[ɐsẽˈblejɐzdʒiˈdews]) are aPentecostal church inBrazil founded byDaniel Berg andGunnar Vingren, who came to Brazil as missionaries from theSwedish Pentecostal movement. The Assembleias de Deus are related to the worldwide Pentecostal movement, and some groups are affiliated with theWorld Assemblies of God Fellowship.
TheAssembleias de Deus began whenDaniel Berg andGunnar Vingren, two Swedish Pentecostal missionaries departed to Brazil. They arrived inBelém,Pará, where in 1911 they founded theMissão de Fé Apostólica ('Apostolic Faith Mission'), which later changed its name in 1918 toAssembleia de Deus.
The Pentecostal movement in Brazil had already begun by that time among Italians in São Paulo, by an Italian-American missionary,Louis Francescon, who founded theChristian Congregation of Brazil (CCB) in 1910. While the CCB spread in the South, theAssembleias de Deus reached the Amazon villages and the semi-aridNordeste before migrants from the North brought the Church toRio de Janeiro andSão Paulo in the late 1920s.
Initially theAssembleia de Deus was closely linked to theScandinavian Pentecostal movement, led byLewi Pethrus, who financed and sent missionaries to help Berg and Vingren. The Swedish Pentecostals gave autonomy to the BrazilianAssembleia de Deus in aGeneral Convention in 1932. From that time onward, theAmerican Assemblies of God increased their presence in the Brazilian denomination, mainly in doctrinal and teaching spheres, but the church retained its independence from its American brethren.Walter Hollenweger explains the relationship as follows: "In the mission statistics of the North American Assemblies of God, theAssembleia de Deus figure as their mission church. In contrast, the Brazilian Pentecostals regard themselves as an independent church."[4]
According to a census of theGeneral Convention of the Assemblies of God in Brazil in 2013, it would have 12 million members.[5]
Since the 1911 theAssembleias de Deus have suffered several schisms and splits. As a consequence, many Conventions andMinistérios left using the same name,Assembleia de Deus, though they are totally independent organizations. The most significant denominations namedAssembleias de Deus are:
TheAssembleias de Deus has always sent missionaries abroad, starting in 1913 when a returning Portuguese immigrant was sent to Portugal. Today, there are Brazilian missionaries in Latin America andPortuguese-speaking Africa. There also areAssembleias de Deus among Brazilian immigrant communities in North America, Japan, and Western Europe, but they do not typically have a relationship with localWorld Assemblies of God Fellowship-affiliated national denominations.[6]
In the United States there existsAssembleias de Deus, mostly on the east coast; some are affiliated with theBrazilian District of the Assemblies of God, but the majority of the Brazilian churches are either independent or linked to theirministério back in Brazil.
TheAssembleias de Deus have a non-territorialepiscopal polity (calledministério)[7] where eachministério is a directed by amother church under a pastor-president (also calledbishop orapostle in variousministérios) with affiliated congregations and preaching points. The mother church receivestithes and manages the funds of the affiliated local churches, as well as assigning pastors to local congregations. Pastoral leadership has a strong influence on the decision-making process, and the members only rubber stamp theministério's decisions.
As theministério structure overlaps many territorial boundaries, there usually is not much organizational collaboration amongministérios. Eachministério operates almost entirely independently, and ends up becoming an independent denomination unto itself. Among the majorministérios are theAssembly of God Bethlehem Ministry, which has about 2,200 churches concentrated in the south-central[clarification needed] and headquartered in the Belenzinho neighborhood of São Paulo. In 2008,Ministério do Belém was chaired by PastorJosé Wellington Bezerra da Costa, who succeeded Pastor Cicero Canuto de Lima, who also chaired the CGADB.
Since the 1980s, for administrative reasons, notably after the death of Pastor Paul Leiva Macalão and his wife, Zelia, a missionary, theAssembleias de Deus has undergone several divisions that gave rise to various conventions and ministries with autonomous administration in various regions of the country. The most significant of the independent ministries are the Ministry of Madureira, whose church has existed since the 1930s, founded by the aforementioned Pastor Paul Leiva Macalão and, in 1958, served as the basis for structuring the national ministry chaired by him until his death in late 1982.
Since it is not a unified movement, there are many variations in doctrine and practice in theAssembleias de Deus in Brazil, but they share beliefs in the Bible as thesole source of doctrine, the vicarious death of Christ, thebaptism of adults byimmersion in water,Holy Communion with no wine (grape juice is used, instead), an obligation totithe,[8] thegifts of the Holy Spirit, thepremillennialreturn of Jesus.[9]
InBrazil, theAssembleias de Deus have an increasing influence on politics, although representing only a minor segment of the population. ThePartido Social Cristão (PSC) is considered the political arm of theAssembleias. The PSC is led byPastor Everaldo Pereira.
Other Brazilian politicians with ties to theAssembleias, such asBenedita da Silva andMarina Silva, do not follow theright-wing course of the PSC. Marina Silva pursuesecological ideas and supports the rights of theindigenous tribes of her country. Silva has been at times criticized by church leadership for her leftist stance on many issues, such asdrug reform.[10]
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