Rosa Maria de Aquino is a professor of social sciences at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco. She represents Brazil and Latin America for the International Society for the Sociology of Religion.

Cristina Rocha is a professor at Western Sydney University, where she researches Pentecostal Christianity, Buddhism in the West, New Age spirituality and transnational links between Australia and Brazil, where she grew up. She is president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion and co-editor of the Journal of Global Buddhism and Religion in […]

Wanda Deifelt is a professor of religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She was a member of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity that produced the Vatican document “From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017.” She is originally from Brazil and represented that country on the commission.

Associação Íris Angola is an LGBTI rights group based in Luanda, Angola.

Grandmother Clara Shinobu Iura is on the the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, an organization dedicated to promoting and preserving the wisdom of indigenous women. She is from Sao Paolo, Brazil and is now a women’s healer in the Amazon. She can speak about South American indigenous women’s wisdom and spirituality.

Atletas de Cristo, or Athletes for Christ, is a Brazil-based international organization of Christian — usually Pentecostal and evangelical — athletes. Its purpose is to “bring the Gospel to the world through the athlete.” Brazilian soccer players have been known to flout FIFA’s rules against proselytizing via clothing at games.

The Center for the Study of Latin American Pentecostalism is based in Brazil and works to promote and support scholarly research on Pentecostalism in Latin America. It is a project of the University of Southern California’s Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Initiative. Contact Paul Freston. He is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

The Kadampa Meditation Center in Brazil is a Kadampa Buddhist temple located in Brazil. The organization offers resources on modern Buddhism and teachers and centers located throughout the country.

The Zu Lai Temple is a Fo Guang Shan (Mountain of Light Buddha) Buddhist temple located in Brazil. The denomination has its distant roots in Mahayana Buddhism, whose tradition emphasizes that the Buddha nature is within every living being.