Assembleias de Deus

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The Assembléias de Deus are a group of Pentecostal denominations in Brazil related to the Assemblies of God. Altogether, the churches that bear the name Assembleias de Deus in Brazil had 8.5 million adherents in 2001.

[edit] Backgound

The Assembléias de Deus began when Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren, two Swedish Baptist immigrants from South Bend, Indiana had the Pentecostal experience in Chicago and departed to Brazil. They came to Belém, Pará, Brazil, where in 1911 founded the Missão de Fé Apostólica, which later changed its name in 1918 to "Assembléia de Deus".

The Pentecostal movement in Brazil had already been started by that time among Italians in Sao Paulo, by an Italian-American missionary, Louis Francescon, who initiated the Christian Congregation of Brazil (CCB) in 1910. While the CCB spread in the South, the Assembleias de Deus reached the Amazon villages and the semi-arid Nordeste before migrants from the North brought the Church to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in the late 1920's.

The Assembleia de Deus was intimately linked to the Scandinavian Pentecostal movement, led by Lewi Pethrus, who financed and send missionaries to help Berg and Vingren. The Swedish Pentecostals give autonomy to the Brazilian Assembleia de Deus in a General Convention in 1932.

The Brazilian Assembleia de Deus has always send missionaries abroad, starting in 1913 when a returning Portuguese immigrant was commanded to Portugal.

[edit] Schism

Since 1980's the Assembleias de Deus suffered several schisms and splits and many Conventions and Ministérios left using the same name. The most significant are:

General Convention of the Assemblies of God of Brazil (CGADB) - the biggest and most traditional convention, the only group that has official fellowship with the American Assemblies of God, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and considers itself the heir of the Sweedish mission. The CGADB had nearly 3,5 million members in 2001.
National Convention of the Assemblies of God- Also known as the Assembleias de Deus Ministerio Madureira - started as an internal ministerio of the CGADB in 1958, with headquarters in the Madureira neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, but in 1989 was expulsed from the General Convention, taking 1/3 of the membership and churches. Has an Episcopal governance, but docrinally is similar to the GCADB. It had about 2 million members in 2001
Assembleia de Deus Betesta - headquartered in Fortaleza, Ceará. It has nearly 200 churches, serving mostly middle class.
There are almost a hundred small minsterios and independent conventions.