World Cup Churches 29: Portugal

Continuing a series of blogs heading round the 32 qualifying countries in the 2022 World Cup - I will pick out one church in each one.  I am not going to choose only churches that are to my liking.  This is an exploration not a recommendation! To see all in the series select the label 'World Cup Churches' below.

Portugal is such an interesting country that, despite its small size has influenced all corners of the maritime world.  It is also a country with deep Catholic history, but here for my blog is a Protestant Church - Igreja Evangelica Prebyteriana de Lisboa.  It was the first in Portugal and, predictably, the result of a Scottish missionary's initiative. 

There are not hoards of Evangelical Presbyterian churches in Portugal, and they have been through a lot over their history.  Although this one has ended up with a strong number in a modern building, many are in minuscule chapels in isolated locations, as typical of Protestantism in very Catholic cultures.  What drew me to these churches was something as simple as their default picture on their listings page.

What do you do when you don't have an actual picture of a church?  I've seen many techniques - badges, letters, blank spaces, Bibles, praying hands . . .

Like the photograph above, the default picture for the Evangelical Presbyterians of Portugal's unpictured churches is a picture of people:

Whether a typical Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Portugal is as friendly as this appears, I have no idea.   But I do like the idea that if you only envisage one thing about one of their churches you envisage warmth and fellowship.