The Paulista Association (PA) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, one of the administrative headquarters of the denomination in the state of São Paulo, celebrated its 100 years of history and achievements throughout the period: the growth of members, churches, and educational institutions. To mark the moment, in partnership with other offices of the denomination in the capital, the Novo Tempo Communication Network and the Brazilian Publishing House promoted the Adorers Mega Choir.
The event, which was also a worship service, aimed to achieve the record for the largest Christian choir in the world, surpassing the mark of 21,262 choristers. For this, in the last few months, members and friends of the Adventist Church throughout the state were invited to be part of the choir. The big meeting took place on August 13, at Arena Barueri, 30 kilometers from the city of São Paulo.
For Álisson Melo, the event's musical producer, the first challenge was to make thousands of people able to not only sing together but express the same emotion, harmony, and intentionality. For this, voice kits and online rehearsals were prepared and made available to the choristers who signed up for the mega choir in the period leading up to the meeting.
In the surroundings of the venue, it was possible to observe, from the beginning of the afternoon, thousands of uniformed people—an aspect that characterizes a choir. At 5 p.m. sharp, the big service began. Inside the arena, 24,100 people were already gathered, and together, they accompanied traditional musical groups from the city of São Paulo, such as Projet'Art and Nova Voz, as well as other guests, such as Prisma Brasil and two versions of the Arautos do Rei quartet: the current one and the one from 1995.
Pastor Cândido Gomes, Adventist youth leader for the entire state of São Paulo, was the program speaker. "Our message today is the deepest promise of God's Word, which is the return of the Lord Jesus. Every time we gather like this, we get a taste of what heaven will be like. Today, we are going to open the Bible and [share] that Jesus is coming back," he declared moments before addressing the audience.
Thousands of Voices, Only One God
On stage, Pastor Fernando Iglesias led the praise, alongside singers like Tia Céceu, Os Discípulos, Rayssa Andreoli, Ronaldo Fagundes, Melissa Barcelos, Douglas e Marcele, Jéssica Dantas, and Wesley Fonseca. They were joined by a thousand-voice choir from the São Paulo Adventist University Center (UNASP)—São Paulo campus. For about an hour, the entire group and more than 24,000 voices praised God together, singing traditional songs from the new Adventist Hymnal, celebrating the history of the church, and awaiting Jesus' return.
"As I welcome these people here today, I hope that first of all, God's name will be glorified. But also that the faith of each one is revived and that the Holy Spirit is poured out in the lives of our brothers and sisters. May they praise God for all that has been done in favor of His church and, above all, in our lives," declared Pastor Romualdo Larroca, president of the Paulista Association.
How It All Began
The year was 1922. The city of São Paulo was receiving, for the first time, an administrative headquarters of the Adventist Church. A few years before, the Adventist message had arrived in São Paulo by means of two colporteurs who had come from the south of the country. They contacted families in the interior of the state and there planted the seed of the gospel, which quickly spread. Years later, in 1906, the first administrative headquarters of the Adventist Church in the state was established in the city of Rio Claro: the Paulista Mission.
From Mission to Conference
Where the city of Santo André is today, in the past, it was the São Bernardo station. The Brazilian Publishing House was established there in 1909. Years later, the Paulista Mission was installed in the same place, closer to the capital. In 1922, with 750 members and five local churches, the church took another step: becoming the Paulista Association, whose headquarters was established in Mooca, a traditional neighborhood in the eastern region of the capital.
As time went by, the Paulista Association changed its address, going through the central region of São Paulo and settling permanently in Brooklin, a strategic place at the time, near the tramway that connected downtown to Santo Amaro, where the largest church in the city was located. The fast growth of membership and churches led to the division of the headquarters in order to multiply the work and its reach.
In 100 years, four major divisions took place, giving rise to other administrative headquarters in the east and south zones of the capital, the metropolitan region, and countryside. The name also underwent changes, and in 1992, the headquarters that remained in Brooklin was renamed Associação Paulista. Through it were generated the other seven state headquarters, which together make up the Brazilian Central Union.