BRÁS, a dowdy part of central São Paulo, has welcomed many newcomers. A century ago labourers came from Italy; from the 1950s to the 1980s migrants turned up from poor drought-prone parts of north-east Brazil, seeking work. Bolivians and Haitians are the latest arrivals. This churning mix has created the compost for charismatic worship, sprouting churches which have grown from a single congregation to embrace millions. Today Brás is a showcase of Brazilian faith, including several old and new kinds of Pentecostalism.

Data about religion in Brazil are inexact. According to the census, between 1980 and 2010 the number of Pentecostals rose from 3.9m to 25.4m. As a share of the population, it rose from 3.2% to 13.3%. But many of the 8% calling themselves “without religion” flit between Pentecostal churches. Meanwhile, the Catholic share has dropped from 89% to 65%. Pentecostals are poorer, blacker, less educated and younger than the average Brazilian, in contrast with traditional Protestant sects like Lutheranism. But they are generous. One study found that in 2002-03, when they made up 13% of Brazilians, they gave 44% of tithes collected by churches in Brazil; Catholics, then 74% of the population, paid less than a third.

The seeds of this charismatic expansion were sown just over a century ago when two movements were started in Brazil, both by Europeans coming from Chicago where Pentecostal fire was crackling. The better known is the main Brazilian branch of the Assemblies of God, which counts nearly 70m followers around the world. The other, the Christian Congregation of Brazil, was founded in this part of São Paulo in 1910 by Luigi Francescon, a migrant originally from Italy. Though it has not spread beyond Brazil’s borders, it now boasts 2.8m followers. As Pentecostals go, it is discreet. It refrains from proselytising; Francescon believed that God would lead people to church. Members dress conservatively; women eschew masculine or revealing clothes. Its services are orderly, and it shuns politics.

All that is in contrast to Brazil’s most famous home-grown Pentecostal group, the newish but ultra-confident Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG). The church was started in 1977 by Edir Macedo, an ex-lottery official, coinciding with a wave of urbanisation and the spread of new communications technology. Mr Macedo shuns the asceticism of early Pentecostals: Forbes magazine estimates that his assets exceed $1 billion, and he owns 16 broadcasting stations. In 1992 he was jailed for 12 days on charges of embezzlement and charlatanism, all later dropped.

The church’s grandest building, the Temple of Solomon, stands in Brás and is modelled on the original, in ancient Jerusalem. Opened in 2014, it houses 10,000 worshippers and oozes confidence, rising 50 metres above low-rise houses and cheap hotels. Flags flutter for 200 countries where UCKG claims a presence. One recent Saturday, before a women-only service, its stadium-sized forecourt swarmed with sleek ushers. Keeping order were members of Uniforça, the church’s youth wing, in yellow-and-black polo shirts. Hostesses in white gowns and golden sashes welcomed the worshippers.

A few hours earlier worship began at another UCKG church; the slightly smaller Brás Cathedral. Thousands of believers have been praying for “impossible” causes. “Make your wishes now!” their black pastor, with a boxer’s build but a sweet tenor, intones. “God is listening!” Reinaldo, a 50-year-old labourer, sighs that his list of requests is long; he commends the Monday job-seekers’ service to your needy-looking correspondent.

Not everybody in Brás is Pentecostal. The modest Catholic church of Saint John the Baptist sits in the Temple of Solomon’s shadow. By comparison it is shabby; its ethos reflects altruism, not pomp. Billboards offer help with beating alcohol or avoiding dengue fever. “We feed 50 homeless each week,” says Hevilaine Pereira da Silva, the parish secretary. Playing down the outflow to rival churches, she insists: “Those who left were never the true faithful.” But they are very numerous.

Read more on Pentecostalism around the world and Pentecostalism in South Korea.