Hallelujah religion

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Hallelujah religion. A group of new movements among Amerindian peoples in the interior of Guyana and across into neighbouring states. The 19th-cent. origins are obscure, pointing to Christian mission contacts and including a Makushi, Bichy Wung, who is believed to have visited England where, in a dream, God gave him the new Hallelujah religion (so-named from the shouting of ‘Hallelujah’ in worship). After his death, it spread to the Akawaio whose own prophet Abel (d. 1911?), after visiting heaven and receiving prayer-songs, reformed the religion which had drifted back into traditional shamanist forms. With Anglican assistance, Hallelujah became affiliated in 1977 to the Guyana Council of Churches and secured more recognition from the government.

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