GLOBAL HOLY SPIRIT FORUM

The Global Holy Spirit Forum is taking place throughout July, August, and September, across the Azores, the United States, and Brazil.

This Forum is another initiative of the Government of the Azores aimed at strengthening ties with and affirming the value of the Azorean diaspora. It is organized by the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities, through the Regional Directorate for Communities.

The Global Holy Spirit Forum recognizes and celebrates the identity-defining dimension of the most representative social, cultural, and religious expression of the Azorean people, wherever they may be—whether across the nine islands, the nineteen municipalities, and the 155 parishes of the Azores, or within the major communities of our diaspora throughout North and South America.

The Forum draws inspiration from seven international congresses dedicated to the Holy Spirit festivities, held over a span of seventeen years in diverse geographic settings: the first in 1999 in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil; the second in 2005 in Santarém, on mainland Portugal; the third in 2008 in Angra do Heroísmo, on the island of Terceira; the fourth in 2010 in San José, California, in the United States; the fifth in 2012, once again in Angra do Heroísmo; the sixth in 2014 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; and the seventh in 2016 across Coimbra, Lisbon, and Alenquer, on the Portuguese mainland.

Nine years later, the Global Holy Spirit Forum introduces an unprecedented and innovative format.

It unfolds over three months—July, August, and September—across three countries—Portugal, the United States, and Brazil—and is anchored in the most emblematic celebrations of Azorean devotion to the Holy Spirit:
on July 10–11, on the island of São Miguel, during the Grand Holy Spirit Festivities of Ponta Delgada; on August 25–26, in the city of Fall River, during the Grand Holy Spirit Festivities of New England; and on September 25–26, in the city of Florianópolis, during the grand celebration marking the closing of the Divine Cycle in Santa Catarina.

The first vertex of this triangular journey, already realized in the Azores, comprised two distinct sessions.

On July 10, presentations were delivered by Pedro Furtado, coordinator of the Grand Holy Spirit Festivities of Ponta Delgada; Márcia Sousa da Ponte, president of the Grand Holy Spirit Festivities of New England; and Roseli Pereira, president of the Franklin Cascaes Cultural Foundation of Florianópolis, which promotes the Divine Cycle in Santa Catarina.

On July 11, attention turned to Holy Spirit popular celebrations in Portugal, Brazil, the United States, and Canada, through the contributions of four distinguished scholars: João Leal, of NOVA University Lisbon; Lélia Nunes, Director of Cultural Heritage of the Santa Catarina Federation of Culture; António Goulart, a leading promoter of Azorean culture in the State of California; and Ilda Januário, of the University of Toronto.

The presentations delivered during these sessions will be compiled, translated, and published in the second issue of the bilingual journal Açorianidade, to be released by the Regional Directorate for Communities at the end of this year, as a record for future generations.

Several of the invited speakers will also participate in the second and third phases of the Global Holy Spirit Forum, in August and September, in Fall River and Florianópolis, thereby reinforcing and elevating this defining mark of Azorean and Azorean-descended identity in North and South America.

The Global Forum goes even further, leveraging established logistics to fulfill an essential responsibility: contributing to the transatlantic preservation of two other major expressions of Azorean popular culture—philharmonic bands and folklore.

In New England, a training initiative will be held for the philharmonic bands of Azorean communities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island on August 23–24, in Fall River, led by conductors Marco Torre, from São Miguel, and Antero Ávila, from the island of Terceira.

In southern Brazil, a training initiative for folklore groups from Azorean-descended communities in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul will be held in Florianópolis on September 27–28, led by choreographers Luísa Bairos, from São Miguel, and Leandro Ávila, from Terceira.

Through Holy Spirit popular celebrations and through the cultural expressions of philharmonic music and folklore, we are thus projecting, valuing, and preserving the traditions that affirm and dignify Azorean identity in the Americas.

Yet the Global Forum does not end here, nor is it confined to 2025 or to the Azorean devotion to the Holy Spirit.

A second edition is already envisioned for 2026, dedicated to another major religious, social, and cultural manifestation equally representative of the Azorean diaspora.

Following the Global Holy Spirit Forum, extended to the United States and Brazil, there will be a Global Forum of Senhor Santo Cristo, extending to Canada and Bermuda.

In this way, we embrace the two greatest religious manifestations of the Azorean people and engage the four principal historical destinations of our diaspora.

—
José Andrade is the Director of the Regional Directorate for Communities
Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores

Based on the inaugural address of the Global Holy Spirit Forum, delivered in Ponta Delgada on July 10, 2025.

Translated by Diniz Borges

Filamentos is a bilingual arts and letters platform where diaspora and origin speak to one another—and to the wider world—through shared cultural inquiry and creativity, lived diasporic experience, and common humanistic values.

Filamentos é uma plataforma bilíngue de artes e letras onde diáspora e origem dialogam entre si — e com o mundo — através da partilha da investigação e da criação, da experiência diaspórica vivida e de valores humanistas comuns.