Between the local and the global: partnership networks and the constitution of religious visibility in the Church of the Metropolitan Community of Rio de Janeiro (ICM-Rio)

Abstract

In this article I intend to analyze the circulation of religious representatives, images and ideas linked to the Igreja da Comunidade Metropolitana (ICM) in the USA and Brazil, with a greater focus on the activities carried out with its Rio de Janeiro branch in 2019. I seek to show through an ethnography the maintenance of transnational relations that enable the creation of an agenda of engaged religious actions and common strategies. Initially, the exchange between the local and the global will be mobilized through the ICM-Rio de Janeiro leaders going to the General Conference of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), based in Florida (USA). In a second moment, I will address the reception of the general moderator of UFMCC, the primary position of the religious institution, at ICM-Rio. In addition to these events, Sunday services, digital material and other activities were also used to understand the constitution of an institutional trajectory by the local church and the actions and representations of ICM at a global level. It was possible to understand political activism at ICM-Rio linked to gender, sexuality and ethnic-racial issues, through confronting HIV-Aids and anti-racist practices. I conclude that this local action establishes networks of partnerships that allow the religious institution to constitute its legitimacy and visibility in the public space.