About Comunidade Maria de Nazaré
Comunidade Maria de Nazaré (the Mary of Nazareth Community, also known as CMAN) was founded together with Grupo Espírita Scheilla (the Scheilla Spiritist Group) on 29th August 1999 and focuses its activities on social services.
Its physical structure consists of three blocks.
- Block 1 houses the Dr Ivon Costa Education and Health Centre, where the socio-educational activities of the Construção do Homem de Bem (Building the Good Person) project take place, along with the other social and community projects offered by CMAN.
- Block 2 holds the administrative activities, and Espaço Dona Luzia Duro (the Dona Luzia Duro Space), where the institutional operations take place.
- Block 3 houses Grupo Espírita Scheilla, where all the activities related to the knowledge and practice of the Spiritist Doctrine1 are carried out. It is divided into two rooms for mediumship activity, plus the Divaldo Pereira Franco Auditorium where meetings, healing, spiritual care for the sick, courses, and doctrinal meetings are held.
Grupo Espírita Scheilla is located in Mussurunga, a neighbourhood in the Brazilian city of Salvador. The needs of some of the inhabitants of this community, especially in Colinas de Mussurunga (the Hills of Mussarunga), are numerous and range from urban infrastructure problems, such as water, sanitation, and road surfacing, to basic issues such as food, decent housing, and education.
With this in mind, the institution, through the activities offered by Comunidade Maria de Nazaré, set out to promote actions that would restore a minimum of dignity to these people who, somewhat marginalised, have found no support in the environment in which they live.
Comunidade Maria de Nazaré Activities:
- Construção do Homem de Bem (Building the Good Person) project
- Manjedoura Vera Kalil (Vera Kalil Manger) project
- Scholarship project
- Meu Lar (My Home) project
- Literacy, music, and professional training workshops
- Handicrafts project
- Nutritional support
About Grupo Espírita Scheilla
Grupo Espírita Scheilla (GES) is a non-profit religious organisation, a legal entity governed by private law in accordance with Law No. 10.825/2003. Its statutes are registered at the Santos Silva Registry Office in Salvador, under registration number 23273, and its legal entity is recognised by CNPJ number 07.779.864/0001-00.
GES was founded on 29 August 1999 in the Mussurunga neighbourhood of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The institution, whose main objective is the integral education of the human being, was conceived by medium, psychologist and pedagogue, Florencio Anton. Through the resources obtained from mediumistic paintings, Florencio transforms art and the mediumistic phenomenon into solidarity. In addition to Florencio, Ana Márcia Lima and Sidney Rocha (in memoriam) were the founding members and were part of the first GES group of directors.
The institution remains firmly grounded in the Spiritist postulates, and seeks to maintain a dialectical relationship with the social-interactionist theory, since its pedagogical proposal aims to meet the demands of the individual in the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual spheres, finding in education the happy instrument of human progress.
The values present in our activities are: joy, work, education, and transformation.
The institution’s objectives are centred on five principles:
- Study, practice, and dissemination of the Spiritist Doctrine as a religion, philosophy, and science according to the codification of Allan Kardec.
- Evangelisation of the human being, as per The Gospel According to Spiritism.
- The solidarity of Spiritist societies and the unification of their movement.
- The promotion of the spirit of citizenship and solidarity among people, seeking to improve their living conditions.
- To work in the field of social assistance, the practice of charity as a social duty and a principle of Christian ethics, and the full exercise of solidarity.
The management of the Grupo Espírita Scheilla is currently made up of Florencio Anton, founder and president, Adriana Bittencourt, vice-president, and Tarcísio Sampaio, administrative secretary. GES is also supported by a group of volunteers, made up of around 25 people engaged in the doctrinal and socio-educational activities of the organisation.
All work completed by Comunidade Maria de Nazaré and Grupo Espírita Scheilla is only possibly due to donations, as well as through the auction of paintings produced by Florencio Anton during mediumistic painting demonstrations.
Please visit the Donations page to see how you can support this work.
For more information about Comunidade Maria de Nazaré and Grupo Espírita Scheilla, visit www.ges.org.br.
- Spiritism, or the Spiritist Doctrine, is a spiritualist philosophy, codified by Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, under the pseudonym Allan Kardec, in 1850s France. ↩︎