Universal Church temple in La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, holds Friday service with prayers for demons to leave worshippers

The Journalist’s Tribune describes a Friday evening service in January at a Universal Church of the Kingdom of God temple at 55th and 56th Streets in La Plata, in a building that once housed a cinema. The article says the church’s red-heart emblem with a white dove now appears under the marquee, and that about 400 people filled the room. The church calls Friday its “Day of Spiritual Liberation.” The reporter writes that the church has opened temples across Argentina since its arrival in 1990, and that it has more than 3,000 branches in Latin America, parts of the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia.

The article describes the sanctuary’s furnishings and practices. A wicker basket holds what the report calls “mystical roses,” which the church distributes on Saturdays. A violet blanket, which the report says worshippers touch with photographs of relatives, is described as the “mantle of the impossible.” Bread and grape juice are set out for Sunday Communion, and an altar holds written petitions. Worshippers receive a red cloth at the end of each Friday service and are expected to display it the following week, which the church calls a “chain of prayer.”

According to the reporter, the preacher, who wears a white shirt rather than clerical dress, told the congregation that most people have “opened the gates” to the devil. The article attributes to the sermon a list of people said to be under demonic influence, including liars, the poor, adulterers, people who have consulted healers, users of cocaine, tobacco and alcohol, transgender people, and people with fatal illnesses such as AIDS or cancer. The reporter describes the preacher demanding that evil spirits leave, and says some worshippers wept, shouted or trembled. The article does not say how these claims are received within the church or whether they are representative of its teaching as a whole.

The reporter also describes several young people moving through the seats before the service, encouraging children to join the church, and says three girls the reporter believed to be under fifteen were among them. Protecting children from pressure to take part in a religious gathering is a matter of care for the vulnerable (Mark 9:42). The article describes about 20 workers, mostly young adults, who guided visitors and attended to those seeking help, and it describes a young worker who placed his hands on the heads of two people and called out “sana!” (be healed). The article reports these scenes as observations and does not include interviews with the workers, the families involved or church leaders.

After the sermon, the reporter writes, the congregation sang a hymn without instruments and the atmosphere became calm. The article states that the preacher left the stage, pointed toward the back of the room, and then approached an elderly woman who was bent forward and crying. The reporter says he spoke quietly into her ear.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)