Nearer, My , to Thee

Damaso Reyes

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all ARCELONA—Los Pentecostales together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the de Barcelona is located on a non- blowing of a violent wind came from heaven Bdescript street near the city’s con- and filled the whole house where they were sit- vention center. Twenty minutes before ting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire the evening service, the sounds of prayer that separated and came to rest on each of them. and soft singing waft down from the sec- All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit ond floor sanctuary. The lights have been and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit dimmed, and some two dozen congregants enabled them. —Acts 2:1-4 are scattered throughout the large room, some on their hands and knees whispering prayers at their seats. Others hold hands in small groups and sing joyously. The trait most associated with Pentecostalism and other charismatic forms of Christianity is glossolalia, or speaking in

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tongues, but here in Barcelona, there is little William Joseph Seymour, a self- of that. Many, if not most, Pentecostals never trained preacher and the son of former find themselves so moved by the Holy Spirit slaves, led a small prayer group in Los that they speak in a language unknown to Angeles and, in 1906, told of the coming them, but all of these worshipers seek a of a second Pentecost, when the Holy personal relationship with God. , Ghost would descend to earth. After researchers, and parishioners alike define weeks of prayer, the metaphorical tongues the central characteristic of Pentecostalism of fire came down, and soon, so many were as a close, direct connection with God. arriving to experience this miracle that That’s why the faithful are so often found the group had to move to a former stable on their knees. on Azuza Street to accommodate their “I preach a relationship with God numbers. In the months and years that and not a religion,” says Nathan followed, men and women, blacks and Harrod. “People in Spain are tired of whites, were singing, dancing, weeping, religion, and I believe people worldwide and worshiping together. At its birth, are tired of religion. Being Pentecostal Pentecostalism, with its radical equality, is not a religion. What we focus on was perhaps the most progressive form of is a relationship with God, and what Christianity in America, and within a few people want to have nowadays is a years, it spread to Europe. Today, upward relationship with God.” Pentecostalism of 500 million people around the globe encourages believers not to blindly adhere to some offshoot of the movement follow the church’s hierarchy but to place that began on Azuza Street more than a responsibility for salvation squarely on century ago. the shoulders of the believer. Outside the United States, Every religion needs an inspiring Pentecostalism spread quickly in South creation story. In fact, Pentecostalism has America, Asia, and Africa, changing the two. The first can be found in the book center of gravity of the movement. But in of Acts in the New Testament when the the last 25 years, evangelists from Europe’s Holy Spirit, in the form of flames, came former colonies have set their sights on down from heaven. At that point, the bringing the gospel back to the continent separation of language, which God had and in so doing threaten to change a inflicted when men attempted to build religious balance of power that has existed a tower in the city of Babel that would for centuries. From a population of just touch the sky, was lifted. Jews, who had a few tens of thousands, Pentecostals come from “every nation under heaven,” now number between 15 and 20 million could suddenly understand one another. in Europe—from just 5,000 in tiny The tongues of fire had touched them and Luxembourg to 3 million in the United given them a gift so special it would not Kingdom. In most nations, their numbers be received again for another 2,000 years. are in the low single digits as a percentage

Damaso Reyes is a photographer, writer, and project leader at the World Policy Institute. This article was made possible by The Knight Luce Fellowship for Reporting on Global Religion.

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Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 19, 2014 PENTECOSTALISM of the total population of Christians. experience to the small storefront church But Pentecostalism’s growth is truly with five believers. As these churches have remarkable. Over the past two decades gained members, they have begun flexing churches based in Africa and the United their social and political power. In Britain, States have planted numerous churches on leaders of the largest Pentecostal organiza- European soil, and they are flourishing. In tion have spoken out against gay marriage. Spain, one American-based Pentecostal Just like their American counterparts, Eu- group now has nearly 70 churches and ropean Pentecostals are fully engaged with 40,000 followers, rising from fewer than the secular society. Far from waiting for a a handful 20 years ago. Pentecostals see better world in the life to come, Pentecos- this as just the start of their tals are interested in chang- movement to re-evangelize ing the world now to reflect the continent. pentecostals their values. For more than a and other In eight of 10 coun- generation, weekly religious tries surveyed by the Pew attendance along with charismatics Forum on Religious and religious affiliation has been have found Public Life, a majority of dropping across Europe. a way to fill Pentecostals said religious Millions of Europeans are groups should try to in- leaving the faith of their the pews fluence policy. WhileP ew fathers and mothers and where old-line did not survey Pentecos- becoming more secular. tals in any European coun- Charismatic Christianity, churches have try, in every country it did with Pentecostalism at the not. survey, Pentecostals were forefront, is rushing in to fill more socially conservative that space. As Pentecostal congregations than other mainstream Christian groups. grow by double digits, it is clear that As the number of Pentecostal congre- their struggle for souls is not just with gations grow in Europe, their political the secular world but with the traditional activism will increase, and they will push torch bearers of Christianity and in some their conservative social values and fight cases even the state itself. for the rights of their followers, who are In many parts of Europe, especially disproportionately poor and lacking in those with declining religious participa- political influence. tion rates, faith is seen as a zero sum game. More established denominations see Pen- A Multinational Religion tecostalism as an existential threat to their In Spain, the number of people who attend own survival. For generations, one was born church has been eroding steadily. A gov- into the Catholic, Anglican, or Orthodox ernment survey shows that while three- Church. Today, Pentecostalism is present- quarters call themselves Catholic, only 13 ing Christians, especially young ones, with percent attend mass regularly—down from a choice. If established Christianity is an nearly 20 percent a decade ago. By Euro- iPhone, offering one color and one screen pean standards that still makes Spain quite size, then Pentecostalism is Android, offer- a religious country. Still, in 2010, when ing every variation from the mega-church Pope Benedict XVI visited in an effort to

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boost morale, he warned of the “strong and Church, was very anti-anything that was aggressive secularism” gripping the na- not from a Calvinistic viewpoint,” he says, tion. Upward of 90 percent attend church describing the religious landscape of the at least once a year but normally just for a mid 1980s. “They were very much against wedding, funeral, or special religious day Pentecostalism and most Evangelicals like Christmas or Easter. While the cul- to the point that when we wanted to tural ties that bind Europeans to their tra- have a major meeting and we wanted to ditional churches remain, religious bonds rent a church building, they said no we have been fraying for decades. couldn’t, because they considered us non- This has not gone unnoticed by Pen- Christian.” Twenty years later, the Dutch tecostals. Harrod’s ministry in Barcelona church is closing houses of worship, and is a part of the United Pentecostal Church the Pentecostals are purchasing them. International, one of the America’s larg- In Spain, under the Franco est denominations. After reaching a dictatorship, Catholicism was the state critical mass in the United States, along religion and the only recognized church. with many other churches, it made a con- Over decades, these restrictions were scious choice to grow its missionary arm slowly relaxed, and Protestantism gained abroad. “Pentecostalism is the religious ver- a tenuous foothold, becoming secure after sion of the multinational,” says Craig Ott Franco’s death in 1975 and the official of Trinity International University, separation of church and state in 1978. describing the way Pentecostal churches Spain’s United Pentecostal has increased have spread around the globe. from a handful of churches 20 years ago For many, the idea that “Christian” to 65 today. Harrod came to Barcelona Europe needs saving is received somewhere in 2004 after his American father-in-law between shock and insult. But Pentecostals started Los Pentecostales three years earlier and other charismatics have found a way by renting space in a hotel meeting room. to fill the pews where old-line churches Today, his congregation comprises several have not. The fact that many of these hundred parishioners from more than missionaries are minorities of color or come 16 nations. Most are either immigrants from former colonies hasn’t helped their or the children of immigrants from efforts to win acceptance among traditional the Caribbean and Central and South Christians in Europe. For much of its America. “Once they get inside the doors history, Christian missionary work was they feel something different,” he says of seen as the “white man’s burden.” Now, a new members, many of whom come from generation of Christians outside Europe a Catholic background. sees this continent as the new battleground. “Here in the house of the Lord, we don’t While many American missionaries have nationalities,” Rafael Pujols, a 43-year- went to the developing world, others like old who came to Spain from the Dominican United Pentecostal’s Europe and Middle Republic in 2009, says after a service. East Regional Director Michael Tuttle Still, expanding beyond immigrants were dispatched to Europe. Since 1984, is one of the biggest challenges Pen- Tuttle has been preaching the gospel from tecostalism faces in Spain. Culturally, his base in the Netherlands. “The state most Spaniards are Catholic, even if most church here, which is the Dutch Reformed haven’t stepped inside a church for years.

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While immigrants to Europe make up Pentecostalism has deep roots in large percentages of Pentecostal congrega- Britain, arriving shortly after the Azuza tions, they are also making inroads among Street revival. It mostly took hold among native Europeans like Sonja Steinheiser, the nation’s working class in industrial born in Mannheim, Germany. cities like Birmingham and Manchester, “In those churches, I feel cold and but by the late 1990s, the Pentecostal dead,” she responds when asked why she revival swept Britain. Churches like doesn’t attend a traditional cathedral. Hillsong proliferated, in part by appealing “When I went to a Pentecostal church for to young people. the first time, I felt good. You can move. Alongside the growth of churches You’re not just sitting there wondering like Hillsong, another movement was when it will end,” she says. building in Britain’s West It’s 10 p.m. on the last African communities. Friday of the month at Los “they see In 1988, the Redeemed Pentecostales. The monthly themselves as Christian Church of God all-night service has begun opened its first church in with just a handful of people bringing the London. Founded in the clapping and praying. After gospel back to middle of the 20th century a long week of work, for in , the church those fortunate enough to britain.” has had explosive growth have jobs in a Spain in the around the world. Today midst of an economic crisis, it is hardly in the United Kingdom, it claims more surprising there are few in attendance. than 400 churches. Its goal is to have a But as the faithful take turns sharing church within a 10-minute drive or walk their testimony and leading the group in of every person on the planet. And its song, their ranks begin to swell. In a few members take that goal very seriously. hours, dozens of Pentecostals are singing, One reason Redeemed Christian has been letting Barcelona know they’re as popular so successful in expanding is that the as any nightclub and have a party that church asks a great deal of involvement lasts past dawn. by its members. Few members are of the stop-by-once-a-month variety. The In the Midst of London congregations may be small, but they are Each Sunday, London’s Hillsong mega- tightly knit. church holds four sessions at the Domin- A hallmark of Pentecostalism is a ion Theatre, home to the Queen tribute lack of liturgy. The repetition and call show “We Will Rock You” the rest of the and response that a devout Catholic week. All the smoke machines, lighting, finds comforting is all but banished in a and sound equipment remain in place on Pentecostal service. Instead, pastors tend Sundays. The vast theater is not the first to use a particular passage or story from place a Pentecostal church would usually the as a starting point to explain the consider making its home, but it is one gospel’s real life implications. “When you of the few venues in London that can seat visit a Redeemed Christian Church, you are several thousand, and every Hillsong ser- exposed to the knowledge of who God is,” vice is packed. Pastor Ernest Ogbe tells a visitor at Christ

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the Redeemer College where he serves missionaries,” Burgess says of African im- as an instructor. Pentecostals feel that to migrants to Britain, “but when they are have that personal relationship with God, here they’re surprised that Britain, which a worshiper needs to understand the Bible they thought was a Christian country, no in a practical way. During their midweek longer seems Christian.” Bible classes, Redeemed Christian pastors The immigrant communities who’ve seek to apply the Bible to the everyday lives gravitated toward Redeemed Christian- of their congregation, explaining how the ity over the past 20 years have matured. Bible is the lens through which they should At the same time, new immigration laws filter their actions. make it increasingly difficult for non- Redeemed Christian Church leaders Europeans to enter Britain. So to main- tend to be well-educated and financially tain the church’s exponential growth, successful—an essential since the church it has been converting white English doesn’t pay salaries. With believers. This trend is the recent refusal of the fully on display during Church of England to allow as the numbers Pentecost 2012, an an- women into the highest and diversity nual festival held by three reaches of its leadership, of London’s largest Pente- many Brits are wondering of pentecostals costal churches including if there is a role for a state grow, their Jesus House, London’s church in 21st century ability to largest Redeemed Chris- Britain. Pentecostals have tian parish church. The thus far stayed out of the influence two-week celebration cul- political fray, but as the the national minates at the Earl’s Court nation takes up the issue of Exhibition Center in mid- gay marriage, there is every agenda grows May. is indication the Redeemed with it. another one of the three Christian Church, among sponsors and the finger- others, will use its large membership prints of their showmanship are all over to push back against what it sees as the the event, from the light show to the up spread of secular values. tempo music. Thousands of Redeemed “The Redeemed Christian Church Christian members from around Britain is probably one of the fastest growing are in attendance praying side-by-side and Pentecostal churches in Britain,” says listening to the same pastors. Apart from Richard Burgess of the University of a football match or a pop concert, not Birmingham and a researcher of the Af- many other institutions can bring such rican Pentecostal movement in England. a diverse and passionate group of people “They see themselves as bringing the together in one place. The message from gospel back to Britain.” While some in the stage is one of unity and conveys a the Pentecostal movement shy away from confident, assertive faith. Jesus House the term reverse missionary, Redeemed Pastor Agu Irukwu tells the audience, Christian members seem to embrace “No one leaves here the same. Everyone the idea that they are taking back Eu- leaves here knowing that they are part of rope for Christ. “They may not come as this great army.”

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Pastor casts out demons in Kiev.

That army is continuing its march BACK IN THE USSR throughout Britain where it has given an Pentecostalism also found early roots in often marginalized group of immigrants , arriving just after the Commu- a network to pressure the establishment. nist revolution. In the nine years between ama

The Anglican Church continues to its introduction in 1921 and the start of D so Reyes lose members and relevancy, and Stalin’s purges, there were 150 Pentecos- Pentecostals are moving into that social, tal churches in what is today Ukraine. In and increasingly political, vacuum. The western Ukraine, then part of , the Pentecostal and charismatic movement churches survived until 1939. At that point, provides a unique mix of conservatism any church that wanted to survive went and dynamism that appeals to previously underground. Near the end of World War disenfranchised minorities in Europe. As II, Stalin allowed a very limited and heavily the numbers and diversity of Pentecostals monitored Pentecostal church to emerge. grow, their ability to influence the national Speaking in tongues and other manifesta- agenda grows with it. tions of faith were banned; children were

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not allowed to attend; public proselytiz- come to his church. Born out of that ing was forbidden, and congregants knew frustration, Adelaja began ministering to that at every service there were informants. what he calls the down and outs—drug After the fall of the in 1991, addicts, alcoholics, and the homeless. there was a mass wave of emigration by “It was a different form of ministry. Pentecostals from Ukraine to the United In the next year, I had over 1,000 of States. Today, most experts place the num- them.” Today, former addicts make up ber of Pentecostals at just 2 or 3 percent, an important core of God’s Embassy’s compared to an estimated 30 percent of the adherents, and Adelaja claims to have population that identify as Protestant. freed more than 10,000 from drug abuse Ironically, the seeds for what is today one through some 1,000 churches around the of Kiev’s largest churches were sown during world, including 300 in Ukraine and 100 the end of the Soviet era. Sunday Adelaja, in , and a network of church-run a young Nigerian student, had the choice rehabilitation centers. of a scholarship to Columbia University or Following 80 years of enforced athe- a college in . For reasons unknown ism, the ground was fertile for a rebirth even to himself, he chose the latter. “When I of religious expression. The Ukrainian came, I got the shock of my life. Everything Orthodox Church, along with the Greek was gray,” Adelaja recalls in his office at Orthodox and Catholic Churches were God’s Embassy. As a stranger in a strange quick to fill the vacuum that the Soviet land, there were no churches for him to State had left. Many still felt attend, so he gathered some of the foreign a cultural, if not religious connection to students in an informal worship group. The the church, and it began to dominate re- school’s administration, perhaps tipped ligious life. Ukraine, perhaps uniquely off by the portrait of Jesus he hung in his among the former Soviet states, allowed dorm room, told him to stop his religious a great deal of religious freedom in the activities. Still he persisted, feeling that era immediately following independence. God had a plan for him in that country. There was also a huge influx of missionar- After the end of communism, there ies and money to support the creation of was an awakening of spiritual life in churches after independence. Many grav- Ukraine. “We began to discover there itated to the new Pentecostal churches, were Pentecostals. They were coming out seen as threatening to leaders of the of the underground,” Adelaja says. He had Ukrainian Orthodox Church. a dream where he saw himself preaching, In many post-Soviet states, the gov- a vision that repeated itself night after ernment quickly co-opted religion and night. “I saw myself ministering to all used it as a prop, but until recently, state these white people.” For all the talk of and religion remained relatively separate fraternal Socialism, the Soviet Union was in Ukraine. Over the past few years, how- still a deeply racist society. “I knew there ever, there has been an erosion of religious was a lot of racism. I experienced it every tolerance, and the Orthodox Church and day. When the Lord told me to open a Ukraine’s political leaders have seen the church here, I said wait a minute.” advantages of supporting one another. For the first few years, it was difficult In a move being watched closely by faith for him to get a white Ukrainian to communities in Ukraine, the minister of

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Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 19, 2014 PENTECOSTALISM culture, Mykhaylo Kulynyak, has called changes to the laws that would allow more for changes in the law that would make state interference. it more difficult for churches to register Adelaja and his church have felt the with the government, potentially forcing effects of this push back from the state and many churches back underground. In re- more established churches. For the past cent years, there has also been a spate of three years, he has been facing criminal investigative articles and television docu- charges related to the collapse of a business mentaries aimed at exposing evangelical, owned by members of his church but with and especially Pentecostal, churches as which he says he had no relationship. cults where members are brainwashed. Many in Ukraine see the accusations as Since Ukraine’s last remaining indepen- a transparent ploy by the government dent television station was to diminish his growing recently raided by tax au- stature and influence. thorities, the objectivity of from its birth “Ukraine is not yet a law these journalistic investiga- in an old and order society,” Adelaja tions is in doubt. What is says when asked about the clear is that the Orthodox livery stable, charges he faces. “Here you Church and its proxies are pentecostalism don’t need to break a law, increasingly viewing Pen- has always they just don’t have to like tecostalism as a threat to you. … It’s not just the their primacy. been a radical political establishment we “There was quite a religion. offend but the religious negative campaign from establishments as well. … the Orthodox Church, especially from the Anybody that is leaving the Orthodox faith Orthodox Church, about all the is regarded as a betrayer.” Protestant denominations,” Ukrainian While God’s Embassy has incurred sociologist Olena Bogdanova says. “In wrath from more established institutions, a Ukraine, we saw how something we casual observer needs look no further than really believed in turned out to be fake,” the Palace of Sports last July to see just she continues, reflecting on Ukraine’s what the Ukrainian traditionalists fear. reaction to the fall of the Soviet Union. Vladimir Muntyan and his Spiritual Cen- Anti-Pentecostal propaganda is playing ter Regeneration were holding their first on those fears. revival in Kiev, bringing out thousands “They were not prepared to compete of Ukrainians on a Saturday night. The with foreign missionaries,” says Victor night’s revival was a statement that he is Yelensky, a senior researcher at the a player on the religious stage, so much so Philosophy Institute of the Ukrainian that the evening was cut short by a bomb National Academy of Sciences, explaining threat that forced an evacuation. But the response of the Orthodox Church. before that, Muntyan, dressed head to toe The Church responded to this influx by in white, cast out demons, healed the sick, “appeal[ing] to government to restrict and prowled the stage. A half hour before the activities of so called new religious the start of his sermon, a dozen women movements.” While most of these appeals were already in various states of convulsion have failed, the government is proposing after receiving his touch.

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From mass revival meetings to small urban to push a progressive agenda, they are churches, Pentecostal leaders are making a finding these believers are pushing back. bold claim on the souls of Ukrainians. When hundreds of thousands of people One of the challenges observers face marched in Paris on a cold January day when exploring Pentecostalism is that there against the government’s plan to allow same is no central authority to address, no divine sex marriages, there weren’t just Catholics leader to quote. Pentecostals are as varied as in the crowd. Evangelical Christians played the cultures where they work and live, but a large role. Far from being marginalized, they share a passion to spread their faith. the political right is taking a page from the It’s a passion that can strengthen immigrant hymnbook of its American cousins and communities and challenge authority. From mobilizing Christian conservatives. its birth in an old livery stable, Pentecostal- If established Christian churches have ism has always been a radical religion. not aided in Europe’s secularization over With a leadership that sees their the past half century, in many respects mission as re-Christianizing Europe, they have made their peace with it. Pentecostals present a direct challenge Pentecostalists, flush with victories in the to Europe’s first two estates—the church Americas and the global South, have not and the government. The real question is agreed to any such cease-fire. The challenge how much the entrenched denominations now is for the rest of the world to deal with in grand buildings and soaring cathedrals this new force sweeping through Europe. will change their masses, their songs, and Secular and religious leaders must even their theologies to compete with accept Pentecostals as a constituency, not this challenge. The Catholic Church is a threat. By attacking and marginalizing convinced it must become more traditional, these groups, elites from Russia to reinstating the Latin Mass in some cases. Spain simply reinforce a narrative that But at a time when young and old alike allows Pentecostals to feel righteously are yearning for a religious experience that persecuted. While many Pentecostals speaks to them and their world, this return hope to transform the world around them to orthodoxy is unlikely to inspire many of to match their Christian ethics, most also its already lukewarm adherents. understand the need for negotiation and European governments, more concerned compromise. But if they are refused a seat with headscarves and radical Islam, have at the table, there is little reason for them largely ignored the growth of charismatic to do anything but continue to challenge Christianity. But as European states continue the orthodoxy. l

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