Written by Frederick Clarkson
Originally published by Religion Dispatches, a publication of Political Research Associates, on Oct. 9, 2025.
Last year on Yom Kippur, leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation staged an all-day rally in support of Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency called A Million Women. As was the case with the Million Man March and so many other “Million”-themed marches, far fewer than a million actually attended in person, but it was simulcast all over the country and the world. The 100,000 or so people who did show up to the Washington Mall—arguably the largest voter mobilization event of the 2024 election season—rallied to support Israel, sought to drive demonic spirits from the Capitol via spiritual warfare, and, as Matthew D. Taylor tweeted, targeted Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris with a “spiritual assassination order.”
One year later, NAR prophet and impresario Lou Engle is taking the show on the road. On October 25, a year before Brazil’s next presidential election, Engle plans to stage another Million Women event in São Paulo, the nation’s largest city.
“It has the potential to be the largest gathering of Christian women in history,” according to Virginia Garrard, Professor Emerita of History at the University of Texas. “I think they may very well exceed a million participants,” she tells RD, due partly to the fact that, unlike most Americans, “Brazilian Pentecostals are very accustomed to attending large rallies.” And, in addition to São Paulo’s sizable Pentecostal population (more on which below), “people of greater means who can afford to travel to São Paulo and stay in hotels or with friends and family will also travel from around the country to be a part of something so historic.”
Part of the historic nature of this event is that it is a benchmark in a wider trend in which much of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity is being courted by the leaders of right-wing, populist authoritarianism, and against those elements of Roman Catholicism that have sought to be the church of the poor.
“Women are a majority of Pentecostals and charismatics,” Garrard says, “and women of color are a majority of that majority.”
What’s usually left unsaid
Event organizers say that the Washington rally was just “the starting line. Now it’s time to mobilize.” And by mobilize, they mean going “global with this Esthers movement!” (In 2026, they plan to stage A Million Women in Africa.)
As I noted last year, however, urging Christian women to reimagine themselves as the biblical figure of Esther is “an implied call for physical violence against perceived enemies.” While various Christian and Jewish traditions draw different meanings from the story of Esther (usually celebrating her role in saving her people), NAR leaders highlight the part about the annihilation of enemies, which is typically left out.
How the São Paulo event will be staged remains to be seen, but there are a few similarities we can virtually count on: It will be broadcast internationally on multiple platforms, and it will almost certainly feature denunciations of religious and political opponents, and the depiction of LGBTQ people as demons who must be eliminated by the army of the Lord. This incursion into a city famous for being LGBTQ friendly, is consistent with the larger NAR strategy of seeking to disrupt “demonic strongholds.”
READ: The New Apostolic Reformation Is Expanding Its Seven Mountain Mandate Crusade into Latin America
The climax of last year’s Million Women event was a ritual sledgehammering of a faux stone altar to Ishtar, an ancient pagan god. Engle has since claimed, referring to Donald Trump’s victory in 2024, that “[the] election shifted because a principality of power named Ishtar fell to the ground.”
Apostolic leaders surely have their eyes on the Brazilian election in 2026, but more immediately concerning is the São Paulo rally’s explicitly anti-LGBTQ theme. According to the website of Engle’s Frontier Company, which is organizing the event:
“When demonic altars come down, we must fill the void by rebuilding the Altar of the LORD in its place. It is for this reason that we are excited to announce…
A Million Women presents an invitation to band together as the Psalm 68 army of women…to contend for our LGBTQ loved ones and the generations.
‘The Lord gives the word [of power]; the women who bear and publish [the news] are a great host. The kings of the enemies’ armies, they flee, they flee! She who tarries at home divides the spoil [left behind].’ Psalm 68:11-12″
Such rhetoric is typically framed as “spiritual warfare,” but the biblical stories most often told by NAR leaders are war narratives recounting the physical killing of opponents. And some NAR leaders are very clear that the stories aren’t merely metaphors, but calls to contemporary End Times war. Biblical warriors like Joshua, David, Gideon, Rahab and, in this instance, Esther and Mordecai, are routinely presented as contemporary role models.
Unfortunately, as researcher Chip Berlet wrote in 2014, “Social science… has shown that under specific conditions, virulent demonization and scapegoating can and does create milieus in which the potential for violence is increased.” And while “social science cannot… predict which individual upon hearing the rhetoric of clear or coded incitement will turn to violence,”A Million Women’s organizers are certainly rolling the dice when they invite people to “contend for Brazil… as we partner with heaven to see God’s heavenly justice come to earth.”
Here in the US, meanwhile, Engle and his allies are staging another event on the Washington Mall, October 9-12, called Communion America (featuring leading apostles Dutch Sheets of South Carolina and Bill Johnson of California). Like many Engle-led and organized events, it’s aimed at generating cultural and political energy in advance of the 2026 mid-term elections. For four days there will be “nonstop worship” in tents for each of the 50 states—plus one tent for Israel and another for First Nations.
Saturday will feature what organizers claim will be “the longest communion table in history, spanning the National Mall” (although attendees are being asked to “bring [their] own food”). The purpose of this stunt, they say, is to bring together all “races, generations, denominations” to launch a campaign aimed at colleges and universities. This is consistent with the history of NAR which has long recruited college students and attacked leading universities as cursed or demonic, a posture that is certainly congruent with the Trump administration’s agenda thus far.
Reasons to believe
If the scale of the prospective São Paulo event seems unlikely, here are several factors working in their favor. First, researchers estimate that, due to the explosive growth in the Brazilian Pentecostal and charismatic sector, they will eventually equal or surpass traditional Roman Catholicism as the largest Christian demographic in the country. (Many Catholics are also charismatic.) Second, as Professor Garrard observed, large apostolic rallies are common in Brazil, so both organizers and attendees are accustomed to staging and attending large events.
Plus, Engle has made a career of staging large events, including in Brazil, mostly under the rubric of The Call. The 72-year-old Engle, along with several other American and Brazilian-based ministries, organized a massive youth rally in Brasilia in February 2020 under the banner of The Send. Uncoincidentally, it was an election year. As Fox News reported, “More than 140,000 people attended the 12-hour event at three different stadiums…with 1.7 million watching on the Portuguese livestream and more than 560,000 on the English one.”
Far-right president and Donald Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro, who was running for reelection at the time, unexpectedly showed up to declare that he believes in Jesus as his savior and that “Brazil belongs to God.”
As a result Brazil has a massive base primed for political action—and political violence. When Bolsonaro lost the 2022 election he and his supporters, including American NAR figures like Lou Engle, falsely claimed fraud. Ten weeks later, Bolsonaro supporters attempted a coup during which they invaded and vandalized government buildings in ways reminiscent of the January 6, 2021 insurgency and the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
What’s more, there are other major apostolic networks in Brazil that may feed into the rally. One of those is led by Bishop Edir Macedo of São Paulo who has, according to Professor Garrard, described himself as a “prophet” and claims to have an international network of seven million.
Macedo’s Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) has a 10,000-seat, $300 million megachurch complex whose floor and walls are covered in stone imported from Jerusalem. (They claim it’s a full-size replica of Solomon’s Temple, the ancient Israelite temple in Jerusalem which will be rebuilt in the End Times, according to Christian scripture.)
A power broker, Macedo helped marshal evangelical support for the 2018 election of President Jair Bolsonaro. But Macedo’s political influence, according to The New Republic’s Alexander Zaitchik and Christopher Lord, “is built from the money of indigent congregants, who are systematically targeted with warnings about the ‘godless left.’”
The other major Brazilian network, led by Apostle Rene Terra Nova, who heads the Brazilian Coalition of Apostolic Leaders, has staged massive pro-Israel rallies in Brazil. Terra Nova also claims an international network of more than seven million members. Like Macedo, Terra Nova supported Jair Bolsonaro’s failed 2022 campaign for president.
Apostle of Apostles
Another NAR figure whose followers may factor into the turnout is John P. Kelly of Ft. Worth, Texas, who leads the eponymous John P. Kelly Ministries. In addition to having spent much of the past two years in Brazil, where he’s headlined major events, held side meetings, and planned strategy with prominent apostles, Kelly is also the Convening Apostle of ICAL.
This is no small thing.
While apostolic networks comprise ordinary Christians, ICAL is a network of apostolic leaders and claims to relate to 85 nations—making Kelly something of an apostle of apostles.¹ Over the years he’s helped organize many national coalitions of apostles, including those in Brazil, Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.
In February 2025, Kelly and other ICAL leaders spoke at an apostolic conference hosted by Apostle JB Carvahlo in Brasilia, the nation’s capital. In April, Kelly addressed (and fellow American Apostle Fabio Berton translated into Portuguese) a reported 2000 pastors, leaders, and apostles from Rene Terra Nova’s network in the city of Porto Seguro.
The conferences were clearly about more than religious revival and are intended to draw people into the urgent vision of religious and political dominion—as outlined in C. Peter Wagner’s foundational book Dominion!: How Kingdom Action Can Change the World.
During the February 2025 summit, Kelly met and prayed with Senator Flavio Bolsonaro of Rio de Janeiro, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. He’s considered a possible candidate for president in 2026 since his father is barred from running, having been sentenced to 27 years in prison for an attempted coup in 2022. Sen. Bolsonaro has also been embroiled in controversies involving allegations of corruption and ties to paramilitary death squads, although he hasn’t yet been charged with any crimes.
Professor Garrard believes Flavio Bolsonaro may serve as a presidential proxy for his father. (Former First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro and another son, Eduardo, are also considered to be possible candidates.²)
“The NAR connections to the elections will be interesting,” she adds. “Macedo has called Jair Bolsonaro an apostle.”
The Bolsonaros are not the only politicians to embrace this movement. Greyce Elias, a Federal Deputy (and a Bolsonaro supporter) for one, says she will be there. ”Heaven is moving,” she declared, “and the time God has prepared for our nation has arrived.
Kelly spent a lot of time in Brazil in 2024 headlining events convened by leading Brazilian apostles, and his calendar for 2025 is similar:
February 03 – 10 Brasilia Apostolic 25 Summit, Apostle JB Carvahlo
April 18 -19 São Paulo Apostolica Convergencia, Apostle Welly Sierra
April 22 – 29 Porto Seguro Apostle Rene Terra Nova Conference
June 16 – 23 Manaus International Conference
October – 13-20 Brasilia Apostle JB Carvahlo Conference
A transformative month
Given that NAR events in one country often have political implications elsewhere, October 2025 may be transformative for Christianity and politics in the U.S., Brazil—and beyond.
Communion America is a telegenic four day event on the national mall designed to attract, recruit, and train young people to be religious and political influencers on college campuses going into 2026, an historic American election year. It will likely draw significant media coverage and discussion about the political commitments of young people, especially in the wake of the Kirk assassination.
When it takes place later this month, A Million Women—São Paulo may prove to be an historic event of religious and political consequence. It will likely draw international media coverage, including from the United States. And even if the event only draws half of their branded goal, its reach in Brazil and globally will be significant—like last year’s Washington rally and Engle’s 2020 rally in Brazil. It promises to be the stuff of long form reporting, books, and doctoral theses for years to come.
Of course, it’s possible the event won’t live up to the hype (if it’s a bust, that would be an important story too). But if a million women and men—mostly African-descended, indigenous, and mestizo people envisioning themselves as 21st century Esthers (and the men as Mordecais) turn out in São Paulo—Brazilian and global Christianity may never look, or be, the same. If this religious movement is politically harnessed in the way the Bolsonaros seem to hope it will be (which very much remains to be seen), it may add wind to the sails of authoritarian movements in Brazil, the U.S., and around the world.
Frederick Clarkson is a Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates in Somerville, Massachusetts. He is the editor of Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America (Ig Publishing, 2008), and Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, (Common Courage Press, 1997).
¹ Kelly isn’t as well-known as the late NAR thought-leader, C. Peter Wagner, although he may someday be seen as just as significant, having taken the vision of apostolic networks dramatically forward. Kelly was the first Presiding Apostle of the International Coalition of Apostles in 2000, but ceded the office to Wagner in 2001 (Wagner handed it back to Kelly when he retired in 2010). The group later changed its name to the International Coalition of Apostolic Leaders (ICAL) and changed the title of the leader from Presiding to Convening Apostle as well.
² Eduardo Bolsonaro fled to the US ahead of criminal charges of obstruction of justice related to the prosecution of his father’s coup attempt. Michelle Bolsonaro is now downplaying speculation about a run.
