Pastor Gedelti Victalino Teixeira Gueiros, founder and president of the Igreja Cristã Maranata, died in the early hours of Saturday, 5 July, in Vila Velha, Espírito Santo. He was 93. The church said the religious leader had been hospitalised since 3 July after suffering a heart attack; the exact cause of death has not yet been disclosed. Gueiros created the Pentecostal denomination in January 1968 in Vila Velha. Today, the Maranata Church claims more than 5,000 temples across Brazil and congregations in over 100 countries, making it one of the country’s most geographically widespread evangelical movements. Governor Renato Casagrande and the mayor of Vitória, Lorenzo Pazolini, each decreed three days of official mourning, citing the pastor’s decades-long influence on the spiritual life of Espírito Santo. Details of the funeral and burial will be announced by the church, which has asked members to observe a period of prayer and reflection.