Ethiopian Christians in Greater Boston: Diverse Journeys

Ethiopian Christians in Greater Boston: Diverse Journeys

by Steve Daman

Bostonians celebrate Ethiopians each year when runners sprint up Boylston Street to the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Ethiopians took first place in the men’s open four times in the last ten years. In 2016, Ethiopian men took the top three spots, and Ethiopian women took the top two spots in the men’s and women’s open, respectively.

Photo courtesy of the Associated Press, April 18, 2016.

But many Ethiopians in Boston have also been running another good race—that of keeping the faith. 

Boston is home to 9,000 to 12,000 Ethiopians. And like other immigrant groups, Ethiopians Christians have planted various expressions of Christian churches in and around Boston, serving the needs of Ethiopians here today. 

Map of Ethiopian churches in Greater Boston. Data Source: Emmanuel Gospel Center's Boston Church Directory, 2017. Click to go to interactive map.

Ethiopian Christianity Today

"[Ethiopia] has maintained its long Christian witness in a region of the world dominated by Islam. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church currently has a membership of around forty million and is rapidly growing,” according to a 2017 history of the Ethiopian Christian church. Western missionaries also planted Protestant churches among the Ethiopians starting as early as 1634.

Religion in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is 55% Christian: 34% Orthodox, 16% Protestant, 2% Independent, 0.5% Catholic. Data for Ethiopia from World Christian Database, 2017.

In Ethiopia today, more than half the population identify as Christian, including Orthodox, Protestants, Independents and Catholics. The Ethiopian churches in Greater Boston reflect this diversity, with about a half dozen each of evangelical and orthodox churches and one Catholic congregation.

Leader Profile

Workneh Tesfaye - pastor and church planter with Missions Door

Workneh Tesfaye grew up in a Coptic Orthodox family in Ethiopia. A graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, today Pastor Workneh is a Boston-based, church-planting missionary with Missions Door.

Back in 2008, a group of eight family members began to meet regularly every Sunday afternoon to pray for and raise support for orphans in Ethiopia. By 2011, as this group continued to grow, Pastor Workneh followed God’s direction to plant a new church out of this gathering—the Emmanuel Disciples Church—which continues to hold services in the EGC building in the South End.

Boston Ethiopian Christians 

The Ethiopian church in Boston is colorful, diverse, and rich with history, tradition, faith and service. The 2017 revision of “The Story of the Ethiopian Christian Community in New England” explores questions such as:

• What is life like for Ethiopian Christians in Boston?

• What are the biggest challenges they face in the U.S.?

• What are the areas of opportunity for ministry in this region?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Hundreds of biographical stories on Ethiopian Christians throughout history.

A comprehensive recent history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Stories of how God has been growing his Church among many people groups and ethnic groups in New England.

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History of Revivalism in Boston

History of Revivalism in Boston

Resources for the urban pastor and community leader published by Emmanuel Gospel Center, Boston

Emmanuel Research Review reprint
Issue No. 24 — January/February 2007

by Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher, Emmanuel Gospel Center, Boston

Read the full version online here.

Executive Summary

“Revivalism,” according to the Dictionary of Christianity in America, “is the movement that promotes periodic spiritual intensity in church life, during which the unconverted come to Christ and the converted are shaken out of their spiritual lethargy.” David W. Bebbington, professor of history at the University of Stirling in Scotland and a distinguished visiting professor of history at Baylor University, describes revivalism as a strand of evangelicalism, a form of activism (which he identifies as one of evangelicalism’s four key characteristics), where a movement produces conversions “not in ones and twos but en masse.”

Dwight L. Moody revival meeting in Boston

In this 2007 study, EGC’s Senior Researcher Rudy Mitchell traces Boston’s key evangelistic revival movements from the First Great Awakening in Boston in 1740–1741 through the Billy Graham campaign in Boston, starting on New Year’s Eve in 1949. With 23,000 attending services on the Boston Common in 1740 to hear Whitefield (without the benefit of electronic amplification) to an estimated 75,000 gathered at the same spot in 1950 to hear the same Gospel preached by Rev. Billy Graham, the story of revivalism in Boston gives color and texture to the waves of revival.

Rudy introduces us to a few of the key players, remarkable crowds, recorded outcomes, while weaving in familiar faces and places, from Charles Finney, Dwight L. Moody and Billy Sunday to Harvard Yard, Park Street Church and the Boston Garden. We sense history coming alive as we read how God moved in remarkable ways through his gifted evangelists and preachers, and we gain a deeper appreciation for Boston’s vibrant Christian history.

“History of Revivalism in Boston” was first printed in the January/February 2007 issue of the Emmanuel Research Review, Issue 24. It was subsequently published in New England’s Book of Acts, a collection of reports on how God is growing the churches among many people groups and ethnic groups in Greater Boston and beyond.

Table of Contents (with key themes and names added)

Revivalism
First Great Awakening in Boston

George Whitefield

The Revivals of 1823-24, 1826-27

Second Great Awakening, growth of evangelicalism, church planting, Rev. Lyman Beecher

The Revival of 1841-1842

Rev. Edward N. Kirk, Charles Finney, Elder Jacob Knapp, resulting church growth

The Revival of 1857-58

“The Prayer Revival,” noontime businessmen’s prayer, daily prayer meetings by and for women

The Dwight L. Moody Revival Meetings in Boston

YMCA, Ira Sankey, A.J. Gordon, social justice, temperance, 1877-78

The 1916–1917 Billy Sunday Revival

celebrity status, campaign prayer events, mass rallies, businesswomen’s luncheon, 64,000 declarations of faith, 133 sermons delivered

The 1950 Billy Graham Revival

Harold J. Ockenga, Boston Garden, New England-wide follow-up rallies

Learn More

Read the full version of “History of Revivalism in Boston”

Contact Rudy Mitchell with questions, or to request a printed copy.

Email Rudy

Contact Rudy Mitchell

New England's Book of Acts

WHAT IS IT?

New England’s Book of Acts is a publication of the Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) that captures the stories of how God has been growing his Church among many people groups and ethnic groups in New England.

WHERE IS IT?

An online version of the book is available here.

HOW AND WHY WAS IT WRITTEN?

Intercultural Leadership Consultation 2007

Between 2000 and 2007, EGC collaborated with various church groups and leaders to compile stories, articles, and resources that help tell the story of what God is doing in New England. Then on October 20, 2007, EGC convened the Intercultural Leadership Consultation, a one-day conference to share the stories captured in New England’s Book of Acts. Four hundred leaders from over 45 ethnic and people groups around New England gathered to learn and celebrate. These included Christian leaders who were Puerto Rican, Colombian, Haitian, Brazilian, Czech, Egyptian, Malawian, Ugandan, Ghanaian, Liberian, Indian, Bengali, Indonesian, Filipino, Cambodian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mashpee Wampanoag, and Massachusett Natick Indian. Each participant was given a copy of the book.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Updates. In the ten years since publication, there has been some limited updating and editing to the material, and yet, as time goes by, these organic church systems continue to grow and change, so there are many more stories to be told. As these stories are updated, they will be made available here.

We are currently working on these updates, which will be posted soon. When they are posted, we will add the links:

• The Chinese Churches in Greater Boston

• The Story of the Brazilian Church in Greater Boston

• The Story of the Ethiopian Christian Community in New England

WHAT’S IN THE ORIGINAL BOOK?

Section One

Section One provides an overview of some of the ways God has worked among people who came to Boston and New England and offers a framework to guide our thinking. Research on past revivals and the current Quiet Revival help us gain perspective and look forward to what God will continue to do here. Hopefully, these articles will expand our vision of the Kingdom of God here in New England.

Some of the topics covered in Section One are:

• Seeing the Church with Kingdom Eyes

• What is the Quiet Revival?

• History of Revivalism in New England

• Five Stages of Sustained Revival

Additional helpful resources along this line are:

• Understanding Boston’s Quiet Revival (2013)

• The Quiet Revival: New Immigrants and the Transformation of Christianity in Greater Boston (2014). Basing much of her research on New England’s Book of Acts, Marilynn Johnson, professor of history at Boston College, has written a 28-page paper on the Quiet Revival which was published in Religion and American Culture, Summer 2014, Vol. 24, No. 2. To read it online, click here.

Section Two

Section Two gives examples of how God is at work among the churches of New England. Many of these 24 reports were written by leaders from within the various groups. Others were produced by the Applied Research staff at EGC. This section also includes reports on multicultural churches, international student ministry, and more. Of course not every church or ministry group has been mentioned in this publication. However, there is enough information for users to connect with many various streams, and inspiration to develop stories on those that are not mentioned here. We would love to hear from you if you pursue research on another group among New England’s church streams.

Section Three

Section Three offers a rich selection of articles on topics like leadership development, evangelism, church planting, youth and second generation ministry, diaspora ministry, and social ministries. Some of these selections describe models of ministry in these areas, while others give nuggets of wisdom from experienced leaders. We hope those who also face similar challenges in developing leadership, reaching youth, and meeting other needs, can use these ideas and models.

TAKE ACTION

Questions? If you have questions about New England’s Book of Acts, don’t hesitate to be in touch. Or if you would like to help us continue telling the story of God’s work through the various people streams in New England, we would love to hear from you.

Contact Us

Contact Us

The Story of the Brazilian Church in Greater Boston

The Story of the Brazilian Church in Greater Boston

by Kaye V. Cook, Ph.D. and Sharon Ketcham, Ph.D.

an updated analysis based on work done previously by Pr. Cairo Marques and Pr. Josimar Salum in New England’s Book of Acts, Emmanuel Gospel Center, 2007

Brazilians in New England

About 30% of all Brazilians living in the U.S. reside in New England (approximately 68,197 Brazilians according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, 2012), and Portuguese is the third most spoken language after English and Spanish in New England (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Brazilian churches in the Boston area are strikingly dynamic, and there is significant turnover in pastors as well as attendees, often because individuals go back and forth to Brazil.

What are the strengths and opportunities of the predominant Brazilian-speaking churches in Greater Boston today? Before we answer that question, we need to consider the roots of Boston’s Brazilian church community.

History and Contemporary Context

The history of Brazilian churches in Boston is very much shaped by the context of Brazil. Historically, the dominant religion in Brazil is Catholicism, which was the religion of the Portuguese settlers (Juergensmeyer & Roof, 2012). However, fewer people in Brazil today report being Catholic than in previous generations. Whereas more than 90% of Brazilians reported being Catholic as recently as 1970, 65% reported being Catholic in the 2010 census (PEW, 2013).*

The largest Pentecostal church group in Brazil is the Assemblies of God (Assembleias de Deus) with more than 23 million members (Johnson & Zurlo, 2016). Spiritualist religions, which emphasize reincarnation and communication with the spirits of the dead, are also common. More recently, Protestantism―especially Pentecostalism―has had a major impact with 22% reporting being Protestant as of 2010 (Pew, 2013). The earlier Protestant influence was a result of missionary work and church planting, but most of the major Protestant denominations now have an indigenous presence in the country (Freston, 1999) and today’s Brazilian Protestant church is strikingly indigenous.

Pentecostals in Brazil resist typology because of their rapid growth and diversity. The historical Pentecostals (primarily those growing out of missionary endeavors such as those by the Foursquare Church) emphasize the Holy Spirit, the Spirit’s manifestations in gifts, separation from the world, and a high behavioral code. NeoPentecostals such as participants in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a denomination which was established in 1977, continue to emphasize the Holy Spirit, especially healing and exorcism, and make connections between Christianity, success, and happiness. NeoPentecostals may also move away from a separatist worldview and strict behavioral standards and toward increased cultural integration, and some emphasize prosperity rather than a central focus on Christ and the Bible (Juergensmeyer & Roof, 2012). The movement toward greater cultural integration has opened doors for political activity (Freston, 1999). There is debate however about whether NeoPentecostalism can be reliably distinguished from Pentecostalism (Gedeon Alencar, personal communication, 3 October 2015). Some also suggest that PostPentecostalism is the preferred term for those who operate in a way that is similar to a business, emphasize cultural integration, and bypass the traditional elements of Pentecostalism such as the “central focus on Christ and the Bible,” focusing instead on a prosperity gospel (Juergensmeyer & Roof, 2012, p. 159).

Pentecostals (including NeoPentecostals) comprise 85% of the Protestants in Brazil (Juergensmeyer & Roof, 2012). Five years following the 1906-1909 Azusa Street revivals, the rapid expansion of Pentecostalism reached Brazil through Swedish Baptist missionaries (Chesnut, 1997). Due to urbanization and the growth of the mass media (Freston, 1999), there was simultaneous growth among Pentecostals in the North (Belem) and Southeast (São Paulo) regions. Much of the recent growth in Brazil is accounted for by six denominations, three of which are of Brazilian origin: Brazil for Christ, God Is Love, and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Freston, 1999).** The most rapid recent growth in Brazil among Pentecostals is due to growth in the Foursquare (or Quadrangular) Church, Brazil for Christ, and God Is Love (Juergensmeyer & Roof, 2012).

According to the IBGE Census, in 2010 there were almost 4 million Baptists in Brazil represented by the Brazilian Baptist Convention (affiliated with the U.S. Southern Baptist Convention) and the National Baptist Convention (Renewalist Baptists). In addition, Reformed churches were common such as the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, the Independent Presbyterian Church, and the Renewed Presbyterian Church. Adventists, Lutherans, and Wesleyans were also represented.

Baptists

According to Marques and Salum (2007), Pastor Joel Ferreira was the first Brazilian Minister to start a Portuguese-speaking church in New England. No interviewee knew of an earlier presence. Pastor Ferreira was a member of the National Baptist Church in Brazil and planted a Renewed Baptist Church in Fall River in the early 1980s that grew to about 500 members (Marques & Salum, 2007), also called the LusoAmerican Pentecostal Church. Pastor Joel returned to Brazil in 1991 and later returned to the U.S. where he recently died. Today there are several (perhaps 6-9) churches in Massachusetts that were born from this pioneer church.

Several renewal Baptist church groups exist in New England, including the Shalom Baptist International Community in Somerville led by Pr. Jay Moura and the Igreja Communidade Deus Vivo led by Pr. Aloisio Silva.

American Baptist Churches began a new church-planting movement in Boston in 1991 and planted primarily renewal churches (Marques & Salum, 2007). This movement gained force from 2001 to 2004 when about 20 new Brazilian Portuguese churches were planted in Massachusetts and Rhode Island under the New Church Planting Coordination led by Rev. Lilliana DaValle and Pr. Josimar Salum. This forward movement stalled due to issues of church doctrine. Another group of churches that were established with Baptist connections are the Vida Nova churches including Igreja Batista Vida Nova in Medford (Pr. Jose Faria Costa Jr) and Igreja Batista Vida Nova (Pr. Alexandre Silva).

The Southern Baptists also planted many churches since 1995. There are about 30 of these churches in New England, including the Portuguese Baptist Church in Inman Square, Cambridge (Pr. Silvio Santos), the Celebration Church in Saugus (which was in Malden and Charleston under the direction of church planter Pr. Joe Souza), and the First Brazilian Baptist Church of Greater Boston (also known as the Lovely Church) with Pr. Antonio Marques Ferreira.

Assemblies of God

The first Assembly of God churches in Boston were established by Ouriel de Jesus. He was invited by Pr. Alvacir Marcondes to Somerville in 1985, and under his supervision the Assemblies of God denomination in the U.S. experienced tremendous growth. After September of 2001, Pastor de Jesus said he received a message from God to lead a great revival and began holding revival meetings all over the country and world. Currently, he is the pastor of the World Revival Church in Everett, which now has over 70 congregations throughout the U.S. and in 17 other countries with a membership exceeding 15,000.

Despite Pr. Ouriel’s success at leading revivals and church growth movements, his ministry has been accompanied by a great deal of controversy. As a result, in 2002, the church was expelled from the Assemblies of God denomination in both the U.S. and Brazil. The mother church and those he planted are no longer allowed to call themselves Assemblies of God and instead have taken the name The World Revival Church, later adding “Boston Ministries” (Pinto-Maura & Johnson, 2008). These churches continue to exist under Ouriel’s leadership.

There are 36 Brazilian Assemblies of God churches in Massachusetts, including Igreja Vida Assemblies of God (Pr. Salmon Silva) and Mission Assembly of God (Pr. Joel Assis).

Presbyterians

Several Presbyterian churches are in the Boston area. Christ the King church in Cambridge was established in the early 1980s by Pr. Osni Ferreira, who had a multicultural vision. Several additional Brazilian Presbyterian churches have been planted by this church, including New Life Presbyterian (Framingham), Bethel (Marlboro), and Christ the King (East Boston).

Church of Christ

In 1984, the Church of Christ established the Hisportic Christian Mission (HCM) in East Providence, Rhode Island, led by Rev. Wayne Long with the vision to reach Portuguese-speaking people in New England (Hisportic stands for Portuguese as Hispanic stands for Spanish). In 1990/1991 Rev. Aristones Freitas and Josimar Salum planted the first Brazilian Church in Worcester, Mass. Today there are about 46 churches that have been established through the HCM, of which 26 are in Mass., an additional 10 are in other New England states, and three are in Brazil.

Independent churches. The Foursquare Gospel Church arrived in 1991 and now has several churches throughout New England. These include the Communidade Brazileiro of Framingham, PenteBaptist (Pr. Dimitri Grant) and Malden Portuguese Foursquare Church (Pr. Cairo Marques).

Strengths and Opportunities for the Brazilian Churches in Boston and New England

Strengths

The strengths of the Brazilian churches are many. Some churches have numerous young people, many pastors are committed to preaching the Gospel, and large numbers of lay people who fill these churches take seriously their responsibility to know the Bible and to serve Christ. Brazilians as a group are well-accepted in the community. We heard stories which indicate that this is not always true for individuals, particularly with regard to immigration, but we also saw newspaper articles extolling the benefits that Brazilian churches have brought to the community! Brazilian churches can and often do reach out to contribute to their larger communities.

Nevertheless, there are many challenges, including the language barrier, how immigrants can participate in the larger culture and retain their Brazilian culture, immigration issues, and high levels of turnover among church attendees, in part because of immigration. In a series of interviews conducted in 2015, virtually everyone mentioned the challenge of finding affordable meeting space. Many churches do not have their own buildings, and, if they do, they struggle to maintain them. Renting space is increasingly expensive, and there are often problems parking near urban churches. Difficulties surrounding meeting together, an essential aspect of being a church, results in significant stress in the community.

These churches have other struggles as well. Converting new people to Christ is often hard. There is a need to raise up new pastors, because many pastors have been in the U.S. for several decades. It can be difficult to recruit young people to such a challenging ministry and one focused specifically on the Brazilian community.

Some challenges come from outside the churches and others from within. Networking among Brazilian pastors is challenging even though there are some groups that meet regularly, including BMNET (Brazilian Ministers Network), Brazilian Prayer Network of Boston, and Pastors Fraternal Union in Fall River. When asked during an interview to name the single thing that would be most helpful to them, pastors frequently said that they would like better contact with other Brazilian pastors. Nevertheless, multiple factors can limit opportunities for networking:

• Journeyman pastors work a full-time job in addition to pastoring and lack time for networking.
• Instability in church membership as members return to Brazil contributes to pastor overload and burnout.
• Pastors may compete among themselves for church members.
• The needs of first, second, and third generation immigrants are difficult to navigate. For example, churches struggle with whether to have services in English or maintain evening services as in Brazil versus the American way of holding morning services.

Opportunities

The opportunities for growth and change are many. Among them are these:

1. The Brazilian population in Massachusetts is estimated by the 2005 census to be approximately 84,000 individuals, many of whom are not in church. There is great potential for church growth within (and outside) the Brazilian population.

2. Brazilian churches can get more involved with the local and global realities, e.g., by supporting other church efforts such as limiting human trafficking.

3. They can perhaps better educate their members about the problems with the prosperity gospel, and the financial abuses that are too often perpetrated against church members (including the Ponzi scheme called Telex Free in which some pastors participated).

4. They need to strategize for the future, as more and more of their members speak English and either ask for changes in Brazilian churches, or leave for English-speaking churches.

The Brazilian churches have much to teach the larger community. Church planting appears to be a primary focus for Brazilian Christians and virtually every church visited had either already engaged in church planting or hoped to at some point. Many churches also feel called to send out missionaries. Even though we were unable to get an estimate of the number of missionaries commissioned, anecdotal evidence suggests that there are surprisingly many missionaries from these churches. And finally, at least one of these churches feels called to minister not just in their local community but around the world. In a church community that was itself not financially flush, the church has supported orphanages in Brazil and dug a much needed well in a needy community without a church, while also supporting ministries in Africa. This level of commitment is remarkable and challenging to mainstream American churches.

In conclusion, the size, energy, number of young people, and commitment to church growth in Brazilian churches should inspire the Global Church. The needs are great, and the opportunities are many for serving those engaged in these impressive churches and for ministering together in the larger community.

Endnotes

*Johnson and Zurlo (2016) report approximately 76% Catholics and 28% Protestant. These numbers refer to the percentage of all Brazilians and demonstrate that some Brazilians claim dual affiliation or membership in more than one community of believers. By their estimate, the number of dually affiliated believers is 13% of Brazilians, many of whom claim to be both Protestant and Catholic. Their estimate is based on an effort to provide a more precise estimate than the 2010 census, in part by collecting information from additional sources than the census and in part by allowing individuals to report belonging to more than one religion.

**The remaining three churches are the Assemblies of God, the Four-Square Church, and the Christian Congregation (Freston, 1999).

References

Boston Redevelopment Authority. (2012). New Bostonians 2012. BRA Research Division Analysis.

Chesnut, R. A. (1997). Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom in Brazil: The Pentecostal Book and the Pathogens of Poverty. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Freston, Pl. (Jan-Mar, 1999). “Neo-Pentecostalism in Brazil: Problems of Definition and the Struggle for Hegemony.” Archives de sciences sociales des religions. 44E, No 105, p. 145-162.

IBGE (Institute Brazileiro de Geografia e Estatistica) (2010). Census. http://censo2010.ibge.gov.br/en/ censo-2010 Accessed 6.27.2015.

Johnson, T. M., & Zurlo, G. A. (Eds.) (2016) World Christian Database. Leiden/Boston: Brill. Accessed at worldchristiandatabase.org/wcd on 1 January 2016.

Juergensmeyer, M., & Roof, W. C. (Eds.) (2012). Encyclopedia of Global Religion. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Marques, C., & Salum, J. (2007). The Church among Brazilians in New England. In R. Mitchell & B. Corcoran (Eds.), New England’s Book of Acts. Boston: Emmanuel Gospel Center.

Pew Research Center (2013). Brazil’s Changing Religious Landscape. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/07/18/brazils-changing-religious-landscape/ Accessed 6.28.2015.

Pinto-Maura, R., & Johnson, R. (2008). Abused God. Maitland FL: Xulon Press.

U.S. Census (2009). ActivitiesUpdate_June09. Accessed on 8.2.2015 from http:// www.henrietta.org/index.php/doccenter/2010-us-census-documents/6-june-2009-census-2010-activities-update/file

This essay updates the story of the Brazilian Church in Greater Boston as told in New England’s Book of Acts (2007), originally published by the Emmanuel Gospel Center in preparation for the October 2007 Intercultural Leadership Consultation. The earlier version was written by Cairo Marques and Josimar Salum, and work on the current document began by talking with them as well as 45 other Brazilian pastors and lay people in the Greater Boston community. Their observations are integrated into the comments above. —Kaye Cook and Sharon Ketcham, February 24, 2016.

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See the original 2007 article on the origins of the Brazilian church movement in New England in New England’s Book of Acts.

Let's Do It! Multiplying Churches in Boston Now

God’s intent is that everyone living in Greater Boston be enthusiastically and holistically engaged in a community of vibrant Christian faith. The best way to make that happen right now, in 2012, is by church planting—apostolic-led church planting. That is the story of the Book of Acts and it is the story of Christian history ever since.