RIO DE JANEIRO — One of Word of Faith Fellowship’s two churches in Brazil has rejected claims made by former members that they were subjected to physical and verbal abuse at the hands of ministers and that congregants were sent to the mother church in North Carolina and forced to work without pay.
The allegations were detailed in investigative stories published by The Associated Press this week.
In a statement released Wednesday, pastors of the Ministerio Evangelico Comunidade Rhema church in Franco da Rocha, Brazil, called the former members’ accusations “many lies and distorted facts.”
The statement, published in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, said the church had maintained a strong relationship with pastors at the Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, N.C., for 30 years. “They are good people, they live God’s love and in trying to help people they have been slandered,” it read.
Word of Faith Fellowship is an evangelical church founded in North Carolina in 1979 by Jane Whaley, a former math teacher, and her husband, Sam. It has branches in Brazil and Ghana, along with affiliations in other countries.
