At this church in Portugal, parishioners surf before they worship

PORTO, Portugal (AP) — Porto takes pride in its beaches, old churches covered in blue-and-white tiles and its famous port wine named after the city in northern Portugal. Marielle Louw, raised hands, and Andries Louw, missionaries from South Africa, pray during a worship service at Surf Church in Matosinhos beach in the suburbs of Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. We love Jesus.” “When you’re waiting for the right wave it’s the calm before the swell, and that’s a peaceful moment that sometimes is seconds, sometimes minutes,” said the Rev. Samuel Cianelli, Surf Church’s pastor. “This peaceful moment is, for me, my deepest connection with God.” Surf Church’s pastor, the Rev. Samuel Cianelli, walks into the Atlantic Ocean to surf with his congregation in Matosinhos beach in the suburbs of Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao) On a recent Sunday, he wore a bright orange wetsuit — instead of traditional priestly vestments — and lay belly down on a surfboard on the powdery sand of Matosinhos beach to show young parishioners huddled around him how to paddle, “pop up” and catch a wave. “I always loved waves, and when I see people learning how to surf, it makes my heart so happy,” said Uliana Yarova, 17, after she walked out of the same waters where — a week later — Cianelli baptized her and her brother in a joyous ceremony. Uliana Yarova, center, laughs while on a break from surfing with other members of Surf Church Church in Matosinhos beach in the suburbs of Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao) Surf Church member Andries Louw stows a surfboard in a church van in Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao) Surf Church member Zakharii Yarovyi, from Ukraine, surfs before a worship service in Matosinhos beach in the suburbs of Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao) Rochat Ludovic talks to members of Surf Church before they catch waves in Matosinhos beach in the suburbs of Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao) “When you’re paddling on the surfboard waiting for the wave, and you stand, you might start to doubt and feel like you’ll fall,” she said. “And then, when it goes right, you feel confidence and peace — you feel nature and how God is holding you on that wave.” The church members — mostly Generation Z and millennials — walked in and out of the waters smiling, carrying red and turquoise surfboards branded with Surf Church stickers. In preparation for worship, they rinsed the surfboards and carried them to a white van that a few missionaries in bathing suits drove to nearby Surf Church. Churches in Porto, Portugal’s second-largest city, include the majestic cathedral with its silver altar, the so-called “Chapel of the Souls” with its façade of thousands of illustrated white and blue tiles, and São Francisco, with its intricate wood carvings covered in gold dust. Surf Church members Lais Cardoso, center, and her brother, Ian Cardoso, behind her, carry their surfboards before they catch waves and worship at Matosinhos beach in the suburbs of Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. After surfing, sandal-wearing members of the church hung wetsuits next to a rack lined with boards. Surf Church member Uliana Yarova checks her phone after catching waves, while her brother Zakharii Yarovyi, changes clothes ahead of a worship service at the church in the suburbs of Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao) Surf Church pastor, the Rev. Samuel Cianelli, and church member Lydia Fleete laugh outside the church in the suburbs of Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. In this case for us, it’s God, but it can be the ocean, too,” she said after a Sunday service that she attended with her Portuguese boyfriend, who is also a surfer. “That’s what makes surfing a spiritual experience.” Surfing had religious significance in Hawaii, where it was born long before the arrival of Europeans. “After prayers and offerings, master craftsmen made boards from sacred koa or wililili trees, and some had heiaus (temples) on the beach where devotees could pray for waves,” William Finnegan writes in “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life.” Men and women of all ages and from all social levels — from royalty to commoners — surfed. Samuel Cianelli, preaches to his congregation at the church in Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao) Surf Church member Annalise Hunnicut sings during a worship service at the church in Porto, Portugal on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao) It only reemerged decades later thanks to Hawaiians like Duke Kahanamoku, the Olympic gold medal swimmer who is regarded as the father of modern surfing. “People from all over come to Portugal because they want to experience what the beaches of Portugal have to offer,” said Cianelli, wearing a loose shirt covered with designs of palm trees. “We found in this a good strategy to start a church that combines Jesus and surf.” He grew up swimming competitively in the Brazilian port city of Santos, where soccer legend Pele played most of his career. They wanted to use Portugal’s growing surf culture to attract members in the once fiercely Catholic country where religious practice is falling, especially among the young, while a rising wave of migrants from Brazil and other South American countries continues to plant evangelical churches. After moving with their families to Porto, they launched Surf Church in April 2015. We were all surfers.” They began to meet in an apartment, and from 2016-2020 they worshipped at a gym near the beach, “just to break the concept of what church means,” Cianelli said. It doesn’t matter the place, what is important is the people — this is the real meaning of church.” They were also intentional in their words: They still don’t use the word “igreja” — Portuguese for church — to avoid connotations of the cavernous spaces with emptying wooden church pews. There’s plenty of “gorgeous, historical” church buildings in Porto, Cianelli said. He respects their historical role, but says that what his congregation seeks is a modern-day “living church made by people.” The pillars of his church remain the same: surfing, community and the Bible. Their dream, he said, is to plant surf churches — or churches linked to mountain biking, soccer or any passion that brings people together in sport and prayer — across the world. “We’re not just surfers anymore,” he said. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://apnews.com/430638bf18320dc0068253c9973c42f1