Transnational Pentecostal Connections
an Australian Megachurch and a Brazilian Church in Australia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ptcs.v12i1.62Keywords:
Pentecostalism, Brazil, Australia, Hillsong, hybridity, transnationalismAbstract
The paper analyses transnational flows of Pentecostalism between Australia and Brazil. It analyses the establishment of CNA, a Brazilian church that caters for the increasing number of Brazilian students in Sydney. It also investigates the ways in which Hillsong, an Australian Pentecostal megachurch, has influenced CNA and has been alluring young Pentecostal Brazilians to Australia. Scholars have paid little attention to how religious institutions in the host country may influence rituals and facilitate the establishment of the new church. I argue that churches created by migrants are not established in a deterritorialized diasporic vacuum. Reterritorialization engenders hybridity. Following an admiration for Australian churches due to Australia being part of the English-speaking developed world, CNA is a hybrid of a conservative Brazilian Baptist church and the very informal Hillsong church. I contend that it is precisely this hybridity that makes young Brazilians adhere to it since the church works as an effective bridge between Brazilian and Australian cultures. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the polycentric nature of Pentecostalism, as Australia is becoming a centre for the dissemination of Hillsong-style Pentecostalism in Brazil.
References
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Tweed, T. 2002. Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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— and L. Ribeiro. 2007. “A Igreja é Como a Casa da Minha Mãe, Religião e Espaço Vivido entre Brasileiros no Condado de Broward”. Ciencias Sociales y Religion/Ciências Sociais e Religião 9.9: 13–29.
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Wesley, L. 2004. The Church in China: Persecuted, Pentecostal, and Powerful. Baguio City, Philippines: AJPS Books.
Wulfhorst, C. 2011. “Intimate Multiculturalism: Blurring the Boundaries Between Brazilians and Australians in Sydney”. PhD dissertation, University of Western Sydney.
Cariello, R. 2007. “As Igrejas do Brasil”. Folha de São Paulo (Domingo; 6 May, Especial Religião): 2.
Connell, J. 2005. “Hillsong: A Mega-Church in the Sydney Suburbs”. Australian Geographer 36.3: 315–32.
DaMatta, R. 1984. O Que faz do brasil, Brasil? São Paulo: Rocco.
Dantas, B. 2010. “A Dupla Linguagem do Desejo na Igreja Evangélica Bola de Neve”. Religião e Sociedade 30.1: 53–80.
Dolghie, J. 2004. “A Igreja Renascer em Cristo e a Consolidação do Mercado de Música Gospel no Brasil: Uma Análise das Estratégias de Marketing”. Ciencias Sociales y Religión/Ciências Sociais e Religião 6.6: 201–20.
Economist 2010. “So Near and Yet So Far”. The Economist (11–17 September, Special Report on Latin America): 4.
Fernandes, N. 2009. “Deus é Pop”. Revista Época (15 June): 64–71.
Freston, P. 1997. “Charismatic Evangelicals in Latin America: Mission and Politics on the Frontiers of Protestant Growth”. In S. Hunt, M. Hamilton and T. Walter, Charismatic Christianity. New York: St Martin’s Press: 184–204.
—. 1999. “A Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus na Europa”. Lusotopie 1: 383–404.
—. 2001. “The Transnationalisation of Brazilian Pentecostalism: The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God”. In A. Corten and R. Marshal-Fratani, Between Babel and Pentecost: Transnational Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press: 189–208.
—. 2004. Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
—. 2008. “The Religious Field among Brazilians in the United States”. In C. Jouet-Pastre and L. Braga, Becoming Brazuca: Brazilian Immigration to the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press: 255–68.
Goh, R. 2007. “Hillsong and Megachurch Practice: Semiotics, Spatial Logic and the Embodiment of Contemporary Evangelical Protestantism”. Material Religion 4.3: 284–305.
Gomes, E. 2007. “No Bairro Tem Igreja: Práticas Culturais entre Jovens Pentecostais”. Cadernos do Ceru 18: 69–89.
Jenkins, P. 2002. The Next Christendom: The Rise of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lage, J. and R. Machado. 2008. “Retrato do Brasil”. Folha de São Paulo (19 September): C1.
Levitt, P. 1999. “Social Remittance: A Local-Level, Migration-Driven Form of Cultural Diffusion”. International Migration Review 32.4: 926–49.
—. 2001. “Between God, Ethnicity, and Country: An Approach to the Study of Transnational Religion”. Paper presented at the Princeton University Center for Migration and Development, Princeton University, July. See http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/ working%20papers/Levitt.pdf (accessed 11 January, 2012.)
—. 2003. “‘You know, Abraham Was Really the First Immigrant’: Religion and Transnational Migration”. IMR 37.3: 847–73.
—. 2007. God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape. New York: The New Press.
Linacre, S. 2007. “International Students in Australia”. In Australian Social Trends. Catalogue no. 4102.0. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Mariano, R. 1999 “O Futuro não Será Protestante”. Ciencias Sociales y Religión/Ciências Sociais e Religião 1.1: 89–114.
—. 2010. “Império Universal”. Folha de São Paulo (5 May): 4.
Martes, A.C. 1999. “Os Imigrantes Brasileiros e as Igrejas em Massachusetts”. In R.R. Reis and T. Sales, Cenas do Brasil Migrante. São Paulo: Boitempo: 87–122.
Martin, D. 1990. Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Oxford: Blackwell.
Miller, D. and T. Yamamori. 2007. Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
MRE. 2011. “Brasileiros no Mundo Estimativas”. See. www.brasileirosnomundo.itamaraty. gov.br/a-comunidade/estimativas-populacionais-das-comunidades/Brasileiros%20 no%20Mundo%202011%20-%20Estimativas%20-%20Terceira%20Edicao%20-%20 v2.pdf (accessed 14 February 2011).
Pereira, C. and J. Linhares. 2006. “Os Novos Pastores”. Veja (12 July): 76–85.
Rocha, C. 2006. “Two Faces of God: Religion and Social Class in the Brazilian Diaspora in Sydney”. In P. Kumar, Religious Pluralism in the Diaspora. Leiden: Brill: 147–60.
—. 2008. “The Brazilians in Sydney”. The Dictionary of Sydney/Sydney Journal 1.2: 79–80.
—. 2009. “Conexiones Sur-Sur: Vivir entre Australia y Brasil”. In C. Solé, S. Parella and L. Cavalcanti (eds), Nuevos Retos del Transnacionalismo en el Estudio de las Migraciones. Barcelona: Ministerio de Trabajo e Imigración: 113–27.
Stoll, D. 1990. Is Latin America Turning Protestant? The Politics of Evangelical Growth. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Strazzeri, J. 2009. “Hillsong College”. See www.jesushoje.com/hillsong-college (accessed 19 December 2012).
Tweed, T. 2002. Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vásquez, M. 2009. “The Global Portability of Pneumatic Christianity: Comparing African and Latin American Pentecostalisms”. African Studies 68.2: 273–86.
— and M. Marquardt. 2003. Globalizing the Sacred: Religion across the Americas. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
— and L. Ribeiro. 2007. “A Igreja é Como a Casa da Minha Mãe, Religião e Espaço Vivido entre Brasileiros no Condado de Broward”. Ciencias Sociales y Religion/Ciências Sociais e Religião 9.9: 13–29.
— and P. Williams. 2005. “Introduction: The Power of Religious Identities in the Americas”. Latin American Perspectives 32.1: 5–26.
Wesley, L. 2004. The Church in China: Persecuted, Pentecostal, and Powerful. Baguio City, Philippines: AJPS Books.
Wulfhorst, C. 2011. “Intimate Multiculturalism: Blurring the Boundaries Between Brazilians and Australians in Sydney”. PhD dissertation, University of Western Sydney.
Published
2013-05-05
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Rocha, C. (2013). Transnational Pentecostal Connections: an Australian Megachurch and a Brazilian Church in Australia. PentecoStudies, 12(1), 62-82. https://doi.org/10.1558/ptcs.v12i1.62
