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Geraldo Gomes de Oliveira

Photo courtesy of Brazilian White Center - UNASP. 

Oliveira, Geraldo Gomes de (1914–1999)

By The Brazilian White Center – UNASP

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The Brazilian White Center – UNASP is a team of teachers and students at the Brazilian Ellen G. White Research Center – UNASP at the Brazilian Adventist University, Campus Engenheiro, Coelho, SP. The team was supervised by Drs. Adolfo Semo Suárez, Renato Stencel, and Carlos Flávio Teixeira. Bruno Sales Gomes Ferreira provided technical support. The following names are of team members: Adriane Ferrari Silva, Álan Gracioto Alexandre, Allen Jair Urcia Santa Cruz, Camila Chede Amaral Lucena, Camilla Rodrigues Seixas, Daniel Fernandes Teodoro, Danillo Alfredo Rios Junior, Danilo Fauster de Souza, Débora Arana Mayer, Elvis Eli Martins Filho, Felipe Cardoso do Nascimento, Fernanda Nascimento Oliveira, Gabriel Pilon Galvani, Giovana de Castro Vaz, Guilherme Cardoso Ricardo Martins, Gustavo Costa Vieira Novaes, Ingrid Sthéfane Santos Andrade, Isabela Pimenta Gravina, Ivo Ribeiro de Carvalho, Jhoseyr Davison Voos dos Santos, João Lucas Moraes Pereira, Kalline Meira Rocha Santos, Larissa Menegazzo Nunes, Letícia Miola Figueiredo, Luan Alves Cota Mól, Lucas Almeida dos Santos, Lucas Arteaga Aquino, Lucas Dias de Melo, Matheus Brabo Peres, Mayla Magaieski Graepp, Milena Guimarães Silva, Natália Padilha Corrêa, Rafaela Lima Gouvêa, Rogel Maio Nogueira Tavares Filho, Ryan Matheus do Ouro Medeiros, Samara Souza Santos, Sergio Henrique Micael Santos, Suelen Alves de Almeida, Talita Paim Veloso de Castro, Thais Cristina Benedetti, Thaís Caroline de Almeida Lima, Vanessa Stehling Belgd, Victor Alves Pereira, Vinicios Fernandes Alencar, Vinícius Pereira Nascimento, Vitória Regina Boita da Silva, William Edward Timm, Julio Cesar Ribeiro, Ellen Deó Bortolotte, Maria Júlia dos Santos Galvani, Giovana Souto Pereira, Victor Hugo Vaz Storch, and Dinely Luana Pereira.

 

 

First Published: July 9, 2021

Geraldo Gomes de Oliveira, canvasser, evangelist, pastor, and teacher, was born September 4, 1914, in the small town of Extrema, Minas Gerais. He was the son of Daniel Gomes de Oliveira and Joaquina Maria de Oliveira. Growing up, he participated in the healthy environment of country life and the discipline of work. In 1926 his parents became the first Protestants and Adventists in the city, under the influence of the canvasser Domingos Silva Costa. They suffered persecution from local priests, who even threatened to burn their family Bible. As a result of a request from de Oliveira’s parents, the canvasser lived on the Oliveira farm for a few years in order to teach and instruct their 14 children. Geraldo was baptized on August 6, 1930, in Extrema, by Pastor Ennis V. Moore.1

As a youth Geraldo de Oliveira demonstrated initiative in religious activities. He was the first to be baptized among his brothers and lead family services and Sabbath school. In 1932 he accepted Pastor Moore's offer to study at Brazil College (today’s UNASP-SP), with the first semester paid. After a break in the second semester because of the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932, he continued his studies the following year. Through canvassing, he was able to complete secondary education in 1934.2 Thereafter he chose to study theology, as he had enjoyed preaching since childhood and, in his words, no other course would make him feel accomplished.3 He concluded his course in 1938.4

Geraldo de Oliveira entered the ministry in 1939 as an evangelist pastor of the Sao Paulo Conference, where he served in the church in the Belenzinho district, in the city of Sao Paulo. One of his evangelistic methods was writing columns for The Religious World section of the Estadão, an important Brazilian newspaper. From 1940 to 1941 he worked in the city of Lins, Sao Paulo.5 On February 8, 1940, he married Linda Falvik, whom he had met at Brazil College.6 In 1942 he accepted a call to pastor in the Rio-Espirito Santo Mission. He held evangelistic conferences in the cities of Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, in Espírito Santo, and Campos dos Goytacazes, in Rio de Janeiro.7

In 1944 de Oliveira returned to the Sao Paulo Conference, where he was director of the Sabbath School, Radio, and Evangelism departments until 1945.8 Geraldo de Oliveira was ordained to the ministry on January 6, 1945, during the Thirteenth Quadrennial Assembly in the South Brazil Union Conference.9 From 1946 to 1953 he served as a pastor and evangelist in several districts of the state of Sao Paulo. He helped found the Bragança Paulista and Joanopolis Churches, in 1946 and 1947. He pastored the Campinas district in 1949 and 1950. Then he pastored in the capital of Sao Paulo, where he helped establish the Tucuruvi and Vila Mazzei churches.10

In 1953 de Oliveira accepted the call to be an evangelist at the South Brazil Union Conference, which encompassed the Paraná-Santa Catarina, Sul-Rio-Grandense, and Paulista Conferences; and the Goiano-Mineira and Mato-Grossense Mission. Between 1953 and 1962 he held evangelistic conferences in cities across the vast territory. The cities were Santos, Campo Grande, Goiânia, Caxias, Uberlândia, Lages, Cuiabá, Curitiba, São Carlos, Araçatuba, Caxias do Sul, Londrina, Moema, Pinheiros, Cachoeira, Florianópolis, Porto Alegre, Campinas, São José do Rio Preto, Taquara, Cruzeiro D’Oeste, São Paulo, Blumenau, Joinvile, Ijuí, Penha, Corumbá, Rio Negro, Novo Hamburgo, Apucarana, Baurú, and many others.11

From 1962 to 1963 de Oliveira took an extension course in evangelism at Andrews University. While in the United States, he held a series of conferences in New Bedford, Massachusetts. When he returned to Brazil in 1964 he accepted an invitation to teach evangelism at Brazil College.12

In 1967 de Oliveira returned to the United States, where he conducted evangelism in Newark, New Jersey, and other locations. He returned to Brazil in the mid-1970s as an evangelist in Sao Paulo Conference, where he served until his retirement in 1978.13 Afterwards, he moved to the Elderly Living Center, in Sao Paulo. He died in 1999 at the age of 85.14 

Sources

Arno Schwantes. “Coluna Paulista.” Revista Adventista, August, 1941.

“Falecimentos”, Revista Adventista, May, 1999.

Filho, Hamilton Ribeiro, “Pastor Geraldo Gomes De Oliveira, Da Infância a Juventude.” Monografia, Instituto Adventista de Ensino, 1985.

Waldo, Lúcio, “Décima-Terceira Assembleia Quadrienal da União Sul-Brasileira dos A.S.D,” Revista Adventista, February, 1945.

Santos, Sinézio Marques dos, “Geraldo Gomes De Oliveira.” Monografia, Instituto Adventista de Ensino, 1985.

Seventh Day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1946 and 1947.

Notes

  1. Hamilton Ribeiro Filho, “Pastor Geraldo Gomes De Oliveira, Da Infância a Juventude.” Monografia, Instituto Adventista de Ensino, 1985, 3-4.

  2. Sinézio Marques Dos Santos, “Geraldo Gomes De Oliveira.” Monografia, Instituto Adventista de Ensino, 1985, 7-8.

  3. Ibid., 9.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid., 10; and Arno Schwantes, “Coluna Paulista,” Revista Adventista, August, 1941, 11.

  6. Filho, 28.

  7. Ibid., 7.

  8. “São Paulo Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1946), 160; and “São Paulo Conference,” Seventh Day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1947), 155.

  9. Filho, 6; and Waldo, Lúcio, “Décima-Terceira Assembleia Quadrienal da União Sul-Brasileira dos A.S.D,” Revista Adventista, February, 1945, 11.

  10. Filho, 8.

  11. Ibid., 9-12.

  12. Ibid., 13, 28.

  13. Ibid., 28.

  14. “Falecimentos,” Revista Adventista, May, 1999, 28.

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UNASP, The Brazilian White Center –. "Oliveira, Geraldo Gomes de (1914–1999)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. July 09, 2021. Accessed February 19, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5GMC.

UNASP, The Brazilian White Center –. "Oliveira, Geraldo Gomes de (1914–1999)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. July 09, 2021. Date of access February 19, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5GMC.

UNASP, The Brazilian White Center – (2021, July 09). Oliveira, Geraldo Gomes de (1914–1999). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved February 19, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5GMC.