Brazil: Loud praying, big emotions
Trance, exorcism, mass baptisms —evangelical congregations and Pentecostal churches are changing society and politics in what is still the world's largest Catholic country. Soon they will be the majority.
Beating drums for Jesus
Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother prayed to the Afro-Brazilian gods, the Orixas. But after 30 years as a priestess in a Candomble temple, Norma, a Brazilian, joined a Pentecostal church and became a pastor. She draws strength for her difficult life from her faith. For the service, she practices with her granddaughter on the bass drum and the pandeiro.
Prayer for dealers
Bible in hand, missionary Nilton Pereira, once one of the most wanted criminals in Rio's drug mafia, delivers a sermon to drug traffickers in a Rio de Janeiro favela. After serving a sentence for drug trafficking, he became an evangelical. He now works as a cleaner and is a pastor in his spare time.
Trance and exorcism
Members of the Jesus Christo missionary church on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro support the body of a teenager and hold his arms. They are firmly convinced that he is possessed by a demon. They want to free the boy from the evil spirit through an exorcism ritual.
Amazon baptism
David Bailey, a US missionary (second from left) came to Brazil with his parents in the 1970s to evangelize Indigenous people. They were so successful that today an indigenous pastor, Tiago Krikati (left), continues the mission. Here he is at a baptism ceremony in the Krikati reservation in the state of Maranhao.
Rhapsody in yellow
Teenage girls wearing festive yellow robes, one hand raised, pray at a dedication ceremony in the Krikati Indigenous settlement. The 15th birthday is a very special celebration in Brazil, heralding the transition to adulthood. The evangelicals have adopted this ceremony in their rituals.