More than 300,000 worshipers from 40 countries descended on the Hermosa Provincia neighborhood of Guadalajara this week for the annual Holy Convocation of the Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) church.
This strict evangelical denomination was founded in Guadalajara in 1926 and has some five million followers, including 1.5 million Mexican citizens. It is Mexico’s second largest religious organization after the Roman Catholic church.
The church’s doctrine rejects ritual and pageantry; there is no dancing, drinking alcohol or dating; women must wear long skirts and are separated from men during services. Worshippers of Luz del Mundo believe their leader, Naason Joaquin Garcia, the grandson of the church’s founder Aaron Joaquin Gonzalez, is the divinely elected apostle of God.