Feel the warmth of Brazil, Portugal at United Methodist church in Kearny | Faith Matters – NJ.com

There’s a Norman Rockwell feel about the town of Kearny, the western outpost of Hudson County nestled between North Arlington in Bergen County and Newark in Essex. Drive down the main drag – Kearny Avenue — and you get that old-time feel seeing stately houses with green lawns, small businesses and the cluster of mainline Christian churches: Baptist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Methodist.

But what looks like a throwback can be deceiving.

Inside New Canaan United Methodist Church has been a decades-long transformation come to fruition with the largely Brazilian population who have moved into Kearny, Newark and the surrounding towns.

Leading the 100 or so congregants who travel from over a dozen towns every Sunday for the 10 o’clock service is a fourth-generation Brazilian pastor, the Rev. Ricardo Oliveira Canfield, 40, who feels right at home in Kearny.

“I have everything I can get in Brazil or Portugal right here,” he said.

Food, professional services and culture are within walking distance or a brief car ride to the Ironbound section of Newark, the center of a thriving Portuguese nightlife pre-COVID.

Post-COVID, Canfield’s Sunday services and other church activities are gradually building up attendance as more people feel safe and return.

Before the pandemic, almost every parishioner was at the church every Sunday — and not just on Sunday, when they’d spend the longest time — for the service that’s in Portuguese and simultaneously translated into English through headphones for anyone who desires it.

A weekly prayer meeting attracted some 40 regulars. Small groups prayed in homes. Friday night drew between 50 and 60 teens and young adults who have their own special room in the adjoining church center. The walls are painted black with lots of youthful symbols and banners and a widescreen television. They’d hang out and socialize and then participate in an 8 o’clock evening prayer service in English. All these activities have resumed and are growing in numbers.

The recently renovated sanctuary boasts a stage for musicians to lead the congregants in singing with a media system in the back of the nave. They were fully able to switch to online services while the church was closed due to the pandemic last year.

The church space is very inviting with a warmth and lots of sunlight.

The newly stained benches are slanted with a wrap-around effect. The church is airy with beautiful stained glass. There is a small altar unlike most churches since their service is mostly word and song.

Canfield said the congregants take Communion the first Sunday of the month and traditionally, even pre-COVID, use small paper cups for the blessed wine, making it COVID-safe today.

The Sunday service begins with an opening prayer, hymns, the tithing collection, then the children exit for Sunday school. Bible readings and the sermon follow and most Sundays there is an altar call, which could include conversions, healing, repentance or blessings.

Pre-COVID they would go to the social hall for breakfast before the service at 9 and that has not resumed yet. But Bible study is back at the same time.

Founded in 1896, in the last decades of the 20th century, the congregation was dwindling, but the New Jersey Methodist conference recognized the growing Portuguese immigration in the area. In 1997, the conference called Canfield’s father, Estevao, from Brazil to co-pastor the church alongside the small Anglo congregation.

Ricardo, his son who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen, graduated from Montclair State University and eventually moved to Portugal and Europe for 10 years to serve as a missionary until his wife was cleared to emigrate to the U.S. He took over the church in 2017.

Canfield resides in the parsonage next to the church with his wife, Cynthia, and their two children, Matheus, 11, and Beatriz, 6.

“Kearny is a really clean city,” Canfield said, which attracts more Brazilian immigrants who like the suburban feel. “I don’t really miss home and feel really alive here.”

He said he never wanted to be a minister but felt a calling during his college years and his reaction was, “I want to serve you, God.” He knew then what he knows now. He loves being a pastor.

The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Email: padrealex@yahoo.com; Twitter: @padrehoboken.

Details …

New Canaan United Methodist Church is located at 601 Kearny Ave., Kearny, NJ 07032. For information, call 201-955-0078 or email contact@newcanaanumc.com.