Videira comes to Europe: missionaries across social borders, teaching a sound life style to Brazilian migrants in Brussels

Mareels, Elisabeth
(2013) GloPent International and Interdisciplinary Conference: Pentecostalism and Politics — Location: Heidelberg, Germany (1.February.2013)

Files

VideiracomestoEurope_Presentation.pdf
  • Restricted Access
  • Adobe PDF
  • 101.15 KB
Request a copy

Details

Authors
  • Mareels, ElisabethUCLouvain
    Author
Abstract
Goiânia is a significant centre of Pentecostalism in Brazil, with 20 % of its inhabitants being Pentecostal (IBGE, 2010) and a set of original churches that have gained quite some importance. Goianos also represent a third of the 43.000 Brazilian immigrants in Belgium (IOM, 2009; www.brasileirosnomundo.itamaraty.gov.br, 2013), residing mostly in Brussels. Although Belgium does not seem a preferential missionary ground for Brazilian Pentecostal Churches, which tend to move within a Portuguese speaking transnational community, Brussels counts more than 30 Brazilian Pentecostal Churches. One of the largest (500 members), founded originally by a Goianian immigrant in Brussels, has recently become the North-European headquarter of a successful middle class Church from Goiânia, Videira, which sends pastors to Brussels. The latter have to face a population they had hardly any contact with in their home country and part of their mission is redefined by teaching a sound life style to Brazilian migrants. Moving across geographical borders but staying within a transnational Brazilian community, they find themselves unexpectedly obliged to cross social borders. These are part of the results of an ethnographic research about Brazilian Pentecostal Churches in Brussels, after a stay in Goiânia for comparative purposes.
Affiliations

Citations

  • APA
  • Chicago
  • FWB

Mareels, E. (2013). Videira comes to Europe: missionaries across social borders, teaching a sound life style to Brazilian migrants in Brussels. GloPent International and Interdisciplinary Conference: Pentecostalism and Politics, Heidelberg, Germany. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/202836