I will be heading to Natal, Brazil soon for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (in Portuguese Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil, or IPB). The IPB is the largest and oldest of the Presbyterian and Reformed denominations in Brazil. To give you an idea, it is twice to three times the size of the PCA (with a reported 1,011,300 members, 8,315 ordained ministers and 5,015 churches and 5,392 parishes). The efforts of American Presbyterian missionary Ashbel Green Simonton were used of God in its beginnings and the denomination considers the date of his arrival in Brazil, August 12, 1859, as the date of its founding. I’ll try to give reports along the way.
