information:extraction, structural:scholar_edition
Brazil

The Methodist Church in Brazil was founded by American missionaries in 1867 after an initial unsuccessful founding in 1835. It has grown steadily since, becoming autonomous in 1930. In the 1970s it ordained its first woman minister. In 1975 it also founded the first Methodist university in Latin America, the Methodist University of Piracicaba. As of 2011, the Brazilian Methodist Church is divided into eight annual conferences with 162,000 members.