BRAZIL
Associated Press

BY PETER PRENGAMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — One of Word of Faith Fellowship’s two churches in Brazil has rejected claims made by former members that they were subjected to physical and verbal abuse at the hands of ministers and that young congregants were sent to the mother church in North Carolina and forced to work without pay.

The allegations were detailed in investigative stories published by The Associated Press this week.

In a statement released late Wednesday, pastors of the Ministerio Evangelico Comunidade Rhema church in Franco da Rocha, Brazil, called the former members’ accusations “many lies and distorted facts.”

The statement, published in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, said the church had maintained a strong relationship with pastors at the Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina, for 30 years. “They are good people, they live God’s love and…