(29 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Matosinhos, Portugal – 25 August 2024
1. Wide of Matosinhos beach
2. Surfers riding a wave
3. Various of Ukrainian Surf Church member Uliana Yarova being baptized in the sea, UPSOUND (Portuguese): “As Surf Church, we baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
4. Various of members of Surf Church at beach
5. Pastor Samuel Cianelli and daughter riding a wave
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Cianelli, Surf Church pastor: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT++
“We started nine years ago with three different families, myself and my wife, half Brazilian, half Portuguese, American family and a German family. And we started with the vision to preach Jesus in a different way to Portugal. Combining surf and religion.”
7. Various of church members entering sea
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Cianelli, Surf Church pastor: ++PART COVERED BY SHOT 9++
“I believe the best word to describe Surf Church today is a lighthouse. We are a safe place, where people from all over the world can come and find community, find family, find faith in Jesus”
9. Various of religious service with pastor Samuel preaching
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Cianelli, Surf Church pastor: ++PART COVERED BY SHOT 12++
“When I’m surfing and I’m in the ocean and I see a wave, I can see God and I can relate to God when I’m in the ocean. And surfers, they think the same. Maybe they don’t believe in God, they don’t worship something, but they understand nature.”
12. Various of members of the community singing during service
STORYLINE:
Porto takes pride in its beaches, old churches covered in blue-and-white azulejo tiles and its globally famous export port wine named after the city in northern Portugal.
It’s also home to a different kind of church.
Located on a beach suburb on the Atlantic coast, known for some of the world’s largest waves, churchgoers attend in boardshorts, t-shirts, flip flops – even barefoot.
They surf before they worship.
Surf Church was set up by a Brazilian surfer and ordained Baptist pastor to spread the Gospel in Portugal, a once-devoutly Catholic country, where about half of young people now say they have no religion.
In just under a decade, it has grown from a few families to dozens of parishioners representing more than a dozen nationalities from across the world.
Their motto: “We love waves. We love Jesus.”
On Sundays, Pastor Samuel Cianelli gathers his parishioners, or shall we say surfers, and hits the waves.
After the surfing session, a ceremony usually takes place where they pray and sing along together.
For 17-year-old Uliana Yarova this was a special Sunday, she was baptized with a plunge into the Atlantic ocean.
The Ukrainian teenager fled her war-torn country with her family after Russia’s invasion and found refuge in Porto and in Surf Church.
Long frowned upon as a counterculture movement or a mere pastime — and for decades invisible outside California and Hawaii — surfing has spread around the world and in Portugal.
It is now a professional and Olympic sport and a multi-billion-dollar industry.
The rising profile of Portugal as a surfing destination, due to the now famous big waves of the town of Nazaré, was also one of the reasons that led the Portuguese-Brazilian pastor to chose Portugal for Surf Church.
Many foreigners come to Portugal just for the surfing spots.
For pastor Cianelli, the spiritual connection through nature is what binds people together.
AP video by Jorge Jeronimo
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