The Italian Pentecostal Movement has had a profound impact worldwide, with the International Fellowship of Christian Assemblies serving as its primary exponent in the English-speaking world. Related movements flourish in Argentina, Italy, Brazil, and over 80 other countries. The archives also house materials pertaining to co-sister Scandinavian-related movements, such as the Assembleias de Deus.

The Itamar Coutinho Archives boast a rich collection, including original documents and copies, letters from pioneers, historical sources, and secondary literature. Researchers and enthusiasts will also find a diverse collection of Bibles in various languages and one of Brazil’s largest publicly available hymnbook collections. The archives are open for visitation and research by contacting the host institution, Instituto Meditafé.

Itamar Coutinho, a long-time enthusiast of this history and a leading minister at the Brazilian Christian Assemblies, has been instrumental in the creation of this archive. He is also a published author, with biographies on influential figures Louis Francescon and Rosina Balzano Francescon. Furthermore, Coutinho was responsible for the Brazilian edition for the classic textbook history of the Italian-American Pentecostal movement, Our Heritage (Nossa Herança, in Portuguese), by Louis de Caro.

This project is a partnership with Círculo de Cultura Bíblica, another initiative focused on disseminating the theology and history of the worldwide Pentecostal movement, which has roots in the Chicago revival of 1907. The archives aim to serve both the worldwide church and academic scholars.

Volunteers at the Instituto Meditafé, a church-supporting ministry in Londrina, are working to catalogue the entire archives.

The opening ceremony featured notable speakers, including Pastor Juliano Francisco, minister of Instituto Meditafé, and Isael Araújo, a historian from the Assemblies of God in Brazil and the organizer of another leading archive in the country, the Centro de Estudos do Movimento Pentecostal (CEMP) in Rio de Janeiro.

The Itamar Coutinho Archives are located at Instituto Meditafé, AvenidaMario José Romagnolli, 735 Jarddim São Paulo, Londrina, PR, Brazil. For more information, please visit https://meditafe.org.br/.

What is this resource? The Consortium of Pentecostal Archives (CPA) has brought together the written history of numerous denominations, authors, and ministries into one open access portal. Here are serials and books that are long out of print as well as some that are recent issues. Over 20 thousand books and publications are now available and they have seen significant growth even this year.

I find the site easy to use and navigate. That is important with almost half-a-million scanned pages already on file.

I deeply appreciate this resource because I love to see Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations and fellowships working together. This collaborative effort across denominational lines represents Christian unity at work.

Also, while I am neither a professional historian or archivist, I appreciate this opportunity to research and study these materials that most of us would be unable to access any other way. I am glad to see that these materials are not all in English, either. So far, I see Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Chinese, Armenian, German, Haitian Creole, and I expect this list will grow as people continue to make contributions.

Does your denomination already have a membership in the CPA? There is information on the site about how contributions can be made, and I encourage you to consider it.

Christian history connects us with the cloud of witnesses that have told us what God has done for them. Their testimonies remind us that the same God will do the same and more for us today as we put our trust in him.

Make use of PentecostalArchives.org soon and often.

Further Reading:

Darrin Rodgers, Director of Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (Assemblies of God) and part of the CPA’s Executive Committee, posted this update: “Consortium of Pentecostal Archives: Upgraded Website Launched” iFPHC.org (April 10, 2023).