Universal Church of the Kingdom of God

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) (Portuguese: Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, IURD) is an Evangelical charismatic Christian denomination with its headquarters at the Temple of Solomon in São Paulo, Brazil. The church was founded in 1977 in Rio de Janeiro by Bishop Edir Macedo,[5] owner (since 1989) of the multi-billion television company RecordTV.[6]

Universal Church of the Kingdom of God
Logo version in Portuguese.
ClassificationEvangelical Protestant
OrientationPentecostal
TheologyProsperity theology[1]
LeaderEdir Macedo
Region128 countries in 2019
HeadquartersTemple of Solomon, São Paulo, Brazil
FounderEdir Macedo
OriginJuly 9, 1977
Members1.8M - 7M (in Brazil), 3M - 8.2M (worldwide) [2][3][4]
Official websitewww.universal.org

In 1999 UCKG claimed to have 8 million members in Brazil and was already considered a "commercial church"[7] and had established temples in the United Kingdom and in Africa and India, claiming a total of more than 12 million members worldwide that year.[8][9] By 2013, the church had congregations in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, and—according to the website of the Universal Church in the United States—as of 2019 had more than 300 congregations in 33 U.S. states.[10]

Because of the expressive growth, the church has been accused of cult-like illegal activities and corruption, including money laundering,[11] charlatanism,[12][13][14] and witchcraft,[13] as well as intolerance towards other religions.[15][16] It has been subject to bans in several African countries.

History

Beginning and split with R. R. Soares
Gazebo of Jardim do Méier Square, place where UCKG began.

It was founded in 1977 by Macedo and his brother-in-law R. R. Soares in Rio de Janeiro.[17][18]

Macedo converted to Evangelism at the Igreja Cristã de Nova Vida ("Christian Church of New Life"), a Pentecostal church founded by the Canadian bishop Walter Robert McAlister. In 1968 he met Soares, who also joined it. Macedo wanted to become a minister of that church, but since he was not accepted by its leaders, they decided to change to another denomination. They joined another church called Casa da Bênção ("House of Blessing"), where they claim to have seen possession by and deliverance from demons for the first time, but only Soares was consecrated as a pastor.[19]

In 1975, Soares and another pastor invited Macedo, who still wanted to started his ministry, to inaugurate the Cruzada do Caminho Eterno ("Crusade of the Eternal Way"), a precursor of the UCKG. The services were held in some cinemas they rented for a few hours.[20] In order to increase the number of members, Macedo began to preach in a gazebo at the main square of the Méier neighborhood.[21]

In 1977, Macedo rented the building of a former funeral home, which became officially the first temple of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Macedo and Soares had arguments at that point, with Soares thinking the rent was too high.[22]

Universal Church in New York, United States.

In 1980, Macedo went to the state of New York to start a ministry in the United States, but soon returned to Brazil to solve administrative problems with Soares. Some of Macedo's principles clashed with those of Soares, such as, according to Macedo, the hiring of pastors from other denominations while Macedo was planning a completely fresh denomination, financial management, and the centralization of the image of the "Missionary R. R. Soares". They decided to call a vote for the leadership among the 15 pastors UCKG had at the time; Macedo won by twelve votes to three.

Soares resigned from the UCKG and founded the International Grace of God Church, using the copyright of the books of Thomas Lee Osborn.[23]

From 1989
Worship service at Cathedral of Faith in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 1989, the UCKG expanded to Portugal,[12] its first European country. During the 1990s, they were very visible and energetic to build a "gigantic" temple in Porto.[12] In 1995: the attempted purchase of the well-known theatre Coliseu do Porto[12] to transform it into a temple. The church then began expanding into Eastern Europe.

In 1989, the UCKG purchased RecordTV, which by 2013 was Brazil's second-largest television network.[24] In 2009, the Workers' Party (PT) government in Brazil bought advertising from RecordTV.

The church preached prosperity theology, that believes those who believe in a living God, should have prosperity as it is promised in the Bible (Malachi 3:10) which asserts that faith and commitment to God are rewarded with Salvation first, but also monetary wealth.[25] and in the late 1990s started trying to change its image of being associated with only the poorest people. In 1998, Macedo appointed his nephew Marcelo Crivella as a bishop. Crivella said, "We want to win the middle class."[8] In 1992, Crivella began a mission in Africa, resulting in the creation of multiple UCKG temples. He returned to Brazil in 1998 where he lived in a four-bedroom condominium in an exclusive development. He is married to Sylvia Jane, with three children who attend a Methodist school in Río de Janeiro.[8]

Some observers of the time thought that Crivella was being promoted as a competitor to the popular Catholic priest-singer, Marcelo Rossi, who had sold over 4 million albums.[8] In 1999, Crivella was reported to have signed a contract with Sony Music to make three albums, one in Spanish. The first CD, The Messenger of Solidarity, reportedly sold 1.3 million copies that year.[8]

Crivella was the only pastor whom Macedo authorized to hold large events in stadiums. He has been effective at attracting crowds: the first time appearing at the Nilson Nelson gymnasium in Brasília, with a capacity for 25,000 people, and also in the Estádio Fonte Nova in Salvador, and the Mineiro in Belo Horizonte. In October 1999, Crivella packed the Maracanã football stadium in Río de Janeiro. By the end of that year, Crivella planned to have sung "in the largest football stadiums in the country" according to weekly news magazine Veja.[8]

Temple of Solomon, headquarters of UCKG

In July 2014, the Temple of Solomon with 10,000 seats was inaugurated in the Brás district, in São Paulo.[26]

Activities

Humanitarian

By the 2010s, the UCKG was reportedly encouraging blood donation by its members; in various regions, hundreds of donations have been made, with numbers significantly higher (e.g. by 28%) than before UCKG's involvement.[27][28][29]

In 2017 the Universal Church built and opened more than 100 churches inside Federal Penitentiaries in Brazil, dedicated to helping inmates transform their lives. The success of the Universal Behind Bars (UBB) Project was so great that the Brazilian Government has authorized the church to open a church inside all 1,800+ jails in Brazil. The church receives zero Government funding for this project, it is 100% financed by the church's followers.

In 2018, the American Branch of the Universal Church opened its first church inside of a jail in the United States, in Houston Texas. Plans are to open many more churches inside jails to help the convicts turn their lives around as well as help their families.[30]

Political

Edir Macedo has said he wants to "create a theocratic state" by participating in elections.[15]

In 2002, Bishop Crivella was elected a member of the Federal Senate as a candidate for the Liberal Party. In 2005, he switched his affiliation to the Brazilian Republican Party, a party he had co-founded. The party has been described as a vehicle to run candidates for the UCKG.[31] As of 2015 Marcos Pereira was head of the party. Other prominent members are Bishop Marcelo Crivella of the UCKG, former vice-president José Alencar, and journalist Celso Russomanno.[32]

Crivella also ran for mayor of Rio de Janeiro in 2004 and 2008, both times unsuccessfully, finally winning the election in 2016; and for governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro in 2006 and 2014. In 2016, Crivella was successfully elected mayor of Rio de Janeiro, assuming office on January 1, 2017.[33]

Influence

According to Forbes magazine, as of 2015 UCKG's founder Edir Macedo had a personal fortune estimated at US$1.1 billion, largely from his ownership of RecordTV, the second largest broadcaster in Brazil.[25] The church's continuing growth. In addition, claims against the church together with government efforts related to other investigations have caused a review of its operations. In 2013, Macedo acquired a 49% stake in the privately held bank Banco Renner, which charges some of the highest interest rates in Brazil.

Beliefs

The denomination has a charismatic confession of faith.[34][35]

  • That the baptism of the Holy Spirit empowers believers for service and endows them with supernatural gifts.
  • That ministries of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher are divinely ordained.
  • That Jesus Christ appointed two ordinances to be observed as acts of obedience:
    • immersion of the believer in water (baptism)
    • the Lord's Supper, symbolic of consuming the body and blood of Jesus, in remembrance of his sacrifice and in the expectation that he will return.
  • In divine healing as described in the Christian Bible. The translation recommended by the UCKG is the 1982 New King James Bible (NKJB; different from the original King James Bible, KJB); they say "it is the most true to the original we’ve found so far. Also be aware of the Jehovah's Witness version."[36]
  • That people can be sanctified (become holy)[37] during their lifetime.
  • The UCKG does not believe that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is sufficient enough to work in the congregant's life today; it teaches that a member of the church has to make a "total and complete"[38] sacrifice of what they depend on to God through the church (for example, a month's pay, or savings) twice a year without telling anybody;[38] they commonly refer this as the "Campaign of Israel."[39][40]

The UCKG also considers that "hard work, perseverance and faithfulness to God" will produce earnings for people, a Biblical doctrine called prosperity theology, and that a tithe(10%) of earnings should be given to God through the church.[41][42] They offer the "promise of the psalm" (Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd): peace, healing, protection, prosperity and favour.[43]

A 2015 academic paper by Ilana van Wyk, author of the 2014 book The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in South Africa analyses "Prosperity and the work of luck in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God" in South Africa, where the UCKG has a very significant presence. She found, based on long-term fieldwork, that the traditional Protestant doctrine of frugality and ability to work hard had been largely replaced by the prosperity gospel at the heart of popular Protestantism, with the pursuit of "blessings" superseding older concerns over secular vocations and hard work. She found that in churches such as the UCKG members were urged to demand "miracle jobs" and reject humble vocations and low pay, regardless of qualifications, skills or experience. Complementing her book, the paper examines the role of good and bad luck in the lives of believers, how it attempts to regulate the flow of money, and its relationship to older notions of prosperity, fate and good fortune.[44] Further findings are in her book (see Bibliography), discussed in an interview at its launch.[45]

The church has been accused of intolerance and demonisation of African-Brazilian religions such as Candomblé and Umbanda, with aggressive speech and attacks on temples.[16] In 2005, a Brazilian court ordered that Macedo's book Orixás, Caboclos e Guias: Deuses ou Demônios? be removed from stores as prejudiced and attacking the religious freedom of members of religions of African origin;[46][47] the judgement was reversed on freedom-of-expression grounds after a year of litigation.[48]

Tithing and offerings
See also: Tithe

According to the Bible, UCKG considers that the first ten percent of all of a person's gross income before deductions "belongs to God" as a tithe, quoting the Bible as the ultimate, divine authority (Malachi 3:10).[49][50][51] The first tithe should include 10% of everything owned at the time. The church gives very detailed instructions on what is to be paid, when, and to whom, distinguishing between rules for salaried workers, business owners, the self-employed, pensioners, and the unemployed, including beggars. Guidance is given for money received as a loan, gifts, benefits, and the sale of property. The UCKG says "the Biblical way of tithing is to bring the tithe onto the altar of the church (see Deuteronomy 14:25)", but accept payment by debit order, "if you must".

The UCKG is clear that "You must tithe everything that comes to your hands ... wages [gross, not after deductions], overtime pay, bonuses, unemployment benefit, child support, business profits/profit from business, pensions, allowances, interest earned on an account, inheritance, prizes, commission, sales, gifts, etc." The church's position is that failure to give tithes is, according to the Bible, robbing God.

The church says that tithe has a direct impact on salvation. The question is posed "How can tithe benefit my finances if after giving I am left with less than before?"; the answer is described as "the miracle of tithe": "when you tithe you can count on God's protection upon your money ... He promised to bless you with more than you can have room for ... When you tithe, you remove yourself from under the curse of those who rob God." A clear distinction is made between tithe, which is an obligation, and an offering. Tithe is to be paid before an offering, without deducting the offering from the 10% tithe. Tithe is said to mean faithfulness, submission and obedience; and offering to mean love, faith, thanksgiving, and sacrifice.

The UCKG offers a Financial Seminar "for people who are in pursuit of financial growth, independence, stability and as well opportunities in the financial world (Jobs, Promotions, Recognition and the like), people who do not accept failure, poverty, misery, loses [sic] and want a turn over in their life because they believe that they are worthy of much more."[52]

Tithes are stated to be used so "the Church can pay its existing expenses and plan to expand the work of God", quoting "That there may be food in My House." (Malachi 3:10). This also means that tithes must not be paid to a charity for the needy instead of the Church, because their primary purpose is to maintain the house of God. "The responsibility rests with the church authorities to decide whether after the needs of God's House have been met to use the remainder in aid of the poor."[50]

The chain of prayer

The purpose consists of people attending a prayer meeting for five uninterrupted weeks. The meeting is designed to help people achieve a positive life transformation by using their faith.Those who are in need of spiritual healing, or who are waiting for a financial breakthrough, or who require spiritual freedom, are more than welcome to participate. In addition to the main day, participants will need to attend the Wednesday and Sunday morning services. During these services, participants will receive steps, practical guidance, and encouragement to help you continue the fight until you see a change in your life, because as humans, we have a tendency to give up when we do not see immediate results.

For this reason, each week, the participants will receive one of five stickers to place on their card. By the fifth week, the stickers should spell out the name of Jesus – the One who is walking with you each day of your battle.

Team

Pastors & Bishops: the meetings and conferences are conducted by a fully trained Pastor or Bishop. These are men of God (and in some countries also women) who have embraced the ministry on a full time basis. They do not have other employment and their only aim is to serve God by serving and helping the congregation and others in the community that need assistance. On gaining more experience, Pastors may then be chosen to serve as Bishops.

Assistant Pastor: assistant Pastors will also be present in the services and their role is to assist the Pastor or Bishop. They also have embraced the ministry full-time to help others. After some years of experience, many of them will be consecrated to become a Pastor.

Assistants: assistants are voluntary helpers who dedicate some of their free time outside their daily life of work, family, domestic duties etc, to this calling. They have been chosen from among the congregation to assist the Assistant Pastors, Pastors and Bishops and to serve the members of the church.

You will find that most Bishops, Pastors, Assistant Pastors, and Assistants have been through personal problems in the past before they started attending the church.

Through the teaching and prayers they received at the UCKG, they used their faith and overcame these situations. They have all had a personal encounter with God and have undergone a self transformation. They are therefore willing and capable of assisting you through difficult situations.

Bibliography
  • Macedo, Edir (2012). Nada a perder [Nothing to Lose] (in Portuguese). 1. São Paulo: Planeta. ISBN 9788576658931.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • van Wyk, Ilana (May 2014). The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in South Africa - A Church of Strangers (1st edition). New York: The International African Library, International African Institute, London and Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107057241. The first English-language book on the UCKG outside of Brazil. A review by David Lehmann, University of Cambridge says that the book describes "a new, antisocial form of Christianity in which the definitions of church and religious practice are fundamentally redefined. Illustrates how expectations of material efficacy shaped Christianity in this locale". The review says that the UCKG rituals are often condemned as empty or manipulative, but the book shows that they are locally meaningful, demand sincerity to work, have limits and are informed by local ideas about human bodies, agency and ontological balance, concluding "Some of the case material is deeply distressing, but the analytical fruits will be with us for a long time to come." The UCKG said in a press release that it did "not condone the seemingly one-sided, biased report which is fraught with factually incorrect statements and sweeping generalisations which are contained both in the book and in Van Wyk’s interviews".[53]
  • van Wyk, Ilana (2015). A Church of Strangers - The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. ISBN 9781868148097. This is a 2nd, paperback, edition of van Wyk's book, with title and subtitle swapped; there are excerpts from reviews on the publisher's Web site.

References
  1. https://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/censo-igreja-universal-perde-adeptos-poder-de-deus-ganha-5345868
  2. "Igreja Universal perde quase 230 mil fiéis em dez anos - Ciência - Estadão". Ciencia.estadao.com.br. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  3. "Artigo: 105 bandeiras para 8 milhões". Correiodopovo.com.br. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  4. "Adherents.com: Largest Religious Bodies". Adherents.com. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  5. "Últimas Edições - notícias recentes do Jornal Nacional - NOTÍCIAS - Bispo Edir Macedo é indiciado por lavagem de dinheiro". jornalnacional.globo.com. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  6. André Ricardo de Souza (2005). Igreja in concert: padres cantores, mídia e marketing. Annablume. p. 25. ISBN 978-85-7419-513-1.
  7. (BBC News) Latin America: "Brazil's multinational 'commercial church'", BBC
  8. Roberta Paixão (11 March 1999). "O sucessor de Edir Macedo" [The successor of Macedo]. Veja (in Portuguese).
  9. "JACOB, C.R.; HEES, D.R.; WANIEZ, P.; BRUSTLEIN, V. Atlas da Filiação Religiosa e Indicadores Sociais no Brasil, São Paulo: PUC-Rio - Edições Loyola, 2003. ISBN 85-15-02719-4"
  10. Brasil, SoulDigital. "Universal USA". Universal USA. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
  11. Phillips, Tom (2009-08-13), "Brazilian evangelical leader charged with fraud", The Guardian, London, retrieved 24 August 2009
  12. "A Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus em Portugal, Claudia Swatowiski, XIV Congresso Brasileiro de Sociologia, 28 a 31 de julho de 2009, Rio de Janeiro (RJ)". Sbsociologia.com.br. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  13. André Ricardo de Souza (2005). Igreja in concert: padres cantores, mídia e marketing [The Church in concert: fathers, cantors, media and marketing] (in Portuguese). Annablume. p. 25. ISBN 978-85-7419-513-1. "in 1992 Edir Macedo was imprisoned accused of charlatanism, quackery, and larceny by fraud"
  14. "Prosperity" in the 1990s: Ethnography of the work commitment between worshippers and God in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Scielo (in Portuguese)
  15. Frayssinet, Fabiana (3 July 2009). "RELIGION-BRAZIL: Intolerance Denounced At UN". Interpress Service.
  16. Emilio Sant Anna & Ricardo Muniz, State of S.Paulo (15 November 2008). "Aos cem anos, umbanda ainda sofre preconceito - Vida & Estilo - Estadão". Vida-estilo.estadao.com (in Portuguese). Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  17. Mark A. Lamport, Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South, Volume 2, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 2018, p. 495
  18. Patrice de Plunkett, Les évangéliques à la conquête du monde, Éditions Perrin, France, 2009, p. 110
  19. Macedo 2012, pp. 159–164
  20. Macedo 2012, pp. 187–189
  21. Macedo 2012, pp. 200–202
  22. Macedo 2012, pp. 210–214
  23. Macedo 2012, pp. 214–217
  24. "Igreja também procurou Dilma para manter pacto inalterado", Estado de São Paulo, 25 February 2013 (in Portuguese)
  25. "The World's Billionaires: 2015 Ranking - #1638 Edir Macedo & family". Forbes. 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2015. The bulk of Macedo's fortune stems from his ownership of RecordTV, Brazil's second-largest broadcaster, which he acquired in 1990 from entertainer Silvio Santos for just $10 million.
  26. Simon Romero, Temple in Brazil Appeals to a Surge in Evangelicals, nytimes.com, USA, July 24, 2014
  27. "Save a life - Donate blood". UCKG South Africa. 30 March 2011. Archived from the original on 22 March 2016. A blood drive in Soweto in 2011, encouraging UCKG members to donate blood
  28. lcvmada. "Santé - Don de sang de la communauté FVKFMA" [Health: Blood donation by the FVKFMA community]. La Coueur et la voix de Madagascar (in Malagasy and French). Archived from the original on 20 March 2013.
  29. bizcommunity.com, South Africa: information provided by UCKG: members in the Pretoria area commit to becoming regular blood donors, 30 August 2012. "The number of active blood donors has increased by 28% since the first blood drive held at the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) in the Pretoria region. This year the churches in Pretoria, Mamelodi and Soshanguve invited members to donate life-saving blood and more than six hundred people attended the three blood drives."
  30. "The First Universal Church inside U.S. Prison". Universal USA. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  31. "A Igreja Universal e o custo da megalomania". Oglobo.globo.com. 20 October 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  32. "Longe do PP, Celso Russomanno diz que eleitorado de Maluf é bem-vindo". Jb.com.br. 8 May 2012.
  33. Watts, Jonathan (2016-10-31). "Brazil's religious right on the march as bishop elected mayor of Rio". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  34. Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, Em que Cremos, universal.org, Brésil, retrieved February 18, 2020
  35. FANCELLO Sandra et MARY André, Chrétiens africains en Europe, KARTHALA Editions, France, 2011, p. 383
  36. "How to Read the Bible". UCKG. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  37. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed.Sanctify: to make (a person) holy, to purify or free from sin
  38. "7 Steps to Being Blessed in the Campaign of Israel". Uckg.ca. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  39. "Campaign of Israel - Articles, Messages". Blogs.universal.org. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  40. Justino, Mario (1995). Nos Bastidores do Reino (PDF) (in Portuguese). São Paulo, SP, Brasil: Geração Editorial. ISBN 8586028061. (in Portuguese)
  41. "Tithers must be like eagles". UCKG. July 2013. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.CS1 maint: unfit url (link) "We are encouraging you to put God to the test and, during this month of July, give the tithe of what you can 'see yourself' earning, as through your hard work, perseverance and faithfulness to God, you believe you deserve."
  42. "Yellow rose- for prosperity". UKCG Web. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  43. "Could one drop of oil really make a difference?". 2 April 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  44. van Wyk, Ilana (2015). "Prosperity and the work of luck in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, South Africa". Critical African Studies. 7 (3): 262–279. doi:10.1080/21681392.2015.1050216. ISSN 2168-1392.
  45. "Mysterious Money Ministry: Ilana van Wyk's A Church of Strangers Launches at UCT". Wits University Press - Books Live. 4 September 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  46. State Agency (10 November 2005). "Teor preconceituoso faz Justiça proibir livro de Edir Macedo - Cultura - Estadão". Cultura.estadao.com (in Portuguese). Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  47. Maria Fernanda Erdelyi (16 February 2006). "Dono e diretores da Record são processados por descaminho" [Owner and directors of Record tried for misdemeanor]. Consultor Jurídico (in Portuguese). Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  48. "TRF libera circulação do livro de Edir Macedo". Expresso-noticia.jusbrasil.com.br. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  49. "Bible Gateway passage: Malachi 3:8-12 - New King James Version". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  50. "The Right Way to Tithe, booklet and Web page". UCKG. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015.CS1 maint: unfit url (link) Reference for all the UCKG guidance on tithing. Material in "double quotes" in Tithing and offerings section is quoted verbatim.
  51. "Tithe : The First Fruits" (PDF). Uckg.org. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  52. "Monday Chain of Prayer". UCKG. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  53. "Press release: The UCKG's statement on Ilana van Wyk's book". UCKG. 22 October 2015. Archived from the original on 21 February 2016.
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