Reflections on Brazil
Diocesan Press Service. March 8, 1966 [41-5]
Ralph S. Dean, Executive Officer, Anglican Communion
Together with representatives of various parts of South America, from Canada and England, from the U. S.A. and the West Indies, I recently attended a Consultation held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Consultation was called to consider the vocation of Anglicanism in Latin America. As news of that Consultation will appear elsewhere from time to time, let me offer some random reflections on the Christian presence in Brazil itself. It is possible that such reflections may apply to much of the rest of Latin America too, but "we can but speak of the things we have seen and heard".
The Episcopal Church in Brazil is the newest province in the Anglican Communion, having come into existence only last May. Necessarily small, it has the seeds of vitality within, and the IGREJA EPISCOPAL DO BRASIL must now give itself in a new way to the vocation God has surely given it, and it deserves our prayers - indeed I was bold enough to pledge the prayers of the rest of the Anglican Communion for it.
Even the briefest visit to the largest country in South America makes it abundantly plain that Anglican work simply must be carried out in an ecumenical context. I hold this to be true anywhere in the world, as a matter of fact. It is merely abundantly clear in Brazil.
On the one hand is the great Roman Church which for centuries has dominated the ecclesiastical scene and still does. Yet, in tune with the spirit of the times, there is a new open-ness, witnessed to by the gracious reception of some of the delegates by the Cardinal Archbishop of Sao Paulo and by his returning the visit in person the next day. It would be misleading to pitch the matter of Anglican-Roman relations too high, but there are certainly possibilities of co-operation now in some areas of work at least which were not there before.
On the other side are the various expressions of Pentecostalism and this growth is the most remarkable phenomenon in the whole scene. On all counts, the Pentecostal Church is the fastest growing Church in Latin America.
What are the reasons for this?
One undoubtedly is that it provides a complete contrast to the entirely liturgical pattern of worship which does not speak to the heart of every Brazilian or South American. Another is the more validly theological reason that, whatever we may feel about the Pentecostal movement, and however much we may react against its more violent and ecstatic forms, it speaks and witnesses to the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in the world and in the hearts of people now.
We are slow to recognise this, but it is high time we did. The old Catholic-Protestant debate must now take serious account of the fact of Pentecostalism.
The third reason is fascinatingly interesting. Pentecostalism is the religious expression of a kind of spiritism which is at the heart of South American life. Possibly deriving from the voodoo which African peoples brought with them to Brazil, this strange phenomenon seems to appear in three main forms. There is the ordinary spiritualism expressed in seances with which the Western world is entirely familiar. There is the practice of what can only be called black magic in which the spirits, real or feigned, can be manipulated to people's harm, and there is finally - and for me the most interesting - the exercise of what can be called "white magic" whereby the spirits of the departed can be invoked to the benefit of people.
I attended one such meeting of the "spiritista" and it was an experience I shall never forget. Meeting in a kind of club-hall, one sat as in a theatre before the curtain behind which drums were throbbing out their rhythm and the sound of wailing chants could be heard. When the curtain was drawn back the scene was wellnigh unbelievable. There was an altar, on the "east wall", at least 50 religious ikons, a white-robed company of African boys and women who were the mediums through which the spirits would speak, a plentiful use of rather poor incense, and more drums and chanting, and a kind of shuffling dancing. Of congregational participation at this point there was none. The leader - a benign-looking middle-aged man in white shirt and pants, began after various genuflections and crossings, to invoke the particular spirit of this "spiritista". In this case, the returning spirit was that of an old African slave. Remarkable things happened that I cannot pretend to explain. The mediums began to assume the physical appearance of old African slaves. Trickery? Charlatanism? Possibly - I do not know, but I cannot deny that it happened.
At this point, members of the congregation made their way to one or other of the mediums, poured out their troubles, sought advice on most material things - a job, a lost love, etc., while the mediums listened and answered sagely.
It was an incredible manifestation of psychiatric and counselling procedures. Clearly it met a need, and clearly the use of such phenomena is amazingly wide-spread. It is variously estimated that between 10% and 30% of the Brazilian population have recourse more or less regularly to these familiar spirits.
Perhaps the growth in Pentecostalism is in part due to the stress that movement puts on the present day-to-day activity of the Holy Spirit - a religious expression of part of a whole culture.
Certainly it bore witness to enormous human need. Despite its spiritism, it is entirely this - worldly and materialistic, any religious overtones being mere externals and highly syncretistic.
Suffice it to say that I came away convinced at least that we must pay much more attention to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit which we have neglected for so long. He is (we say) the Lord, the Giver of Life. What blocks His expression in our lives and through our ecclesiastical forms?
There is some hard thinking - and some hard praying - in front of us. At least there can be no doubt about that.