Congregazioni Cristiane Pentecostali (CCP)

From the 1930s, the name "Pentecostal Christian Congregation" (Congregazione Cristiana Pentecostale) was used to denote what to that point had been called a 'Christian assembly' (following the original name of the 'Assemblea Cristiana' in Chicago). Under the reforms (called popularly the 'Codice Rocco') of the Italian penal code, however, the Fascist regime sought (inter alia) to crack down on unrecognized and 'disorganized' popular churches. These controls became more specific again in 1936 with the issuance of the Circolare Buffarini Guidi, which explicitly banned pentecostalism as "harmful to the psycho-physical health of the race". Widespread judicial and de facto police repression spread across the country. Their unorganized nature, however, made these communities of faith difficult to track and there is some evidence that they continued to grow under persecution. The Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, in Operation Husky, restored freedom of worship to what were some of the largest pentecostal communities in the country. Vincenzo Federico convoked a Convegno degli anziani delle chiese pentecostali siciliane at Raffadali (prov. Agrigento) from 25-27 August 1944. The following convention, also in Raffadali (30 August-2 September 1945), called together the majority of Italian pentecostal churches, reaffirming its "congregationalist" ecclesiology.

Widespread economic desperation, the continuance of local police and municipal oppression under the Buffarini Guidi provisions, and the control of American aid by a number of churches in Rome, however, forced many churches to recognize the need for a nationally-recognized organization. As the congregations had no legal recognition, the following convention (held in Rome, 28 August-1 September 1946), led the majority of the participating churches, to approve a request for affiliation with the Assemblies of God in the USA. This was formalized at the 1947 national convention (16-18 August, 1947) held in Naples. On 13 December 1947, with the signing of an agreement, the new name of "Assemblies of God in Italy" [24] [27] became official.

A minority of the delegates at the Naples Convention, however -- in particular those from Sicily -- rejected the new constitution of "Assemblee di Dio in Italia" (ADI), seeking to maintain their traditional local autonomy and congregationalist ecclesiology. They continued to use the name "Congregazione Cristiana Pentecostale" (CCP) for their churches, and affiliated with one another on non-formal grounds until a pastoral meeting held on 23 January 1958 in Vittoria (RG). At that meeting, these churches organized themselves into an association of free Pentecostal communities, deliberating among other things: "(...) This movement continues to be called" Pentecostal Christian Congregations ", as in the past." This was a recognition that, counter to the historical narrative common in the ADI, that these churches were a continuing rather than 'separated' reality, the continuing tradition founded in Italy by the original pentecostal pioneers.

In 2005 the association of churches defined as "Pentecostal Christian Congregations", established its headquarters in Ragusa and was granted legal status as a "juridical personality" under Alfio Bosco, protempore president of the Association, with the Presidential Decree June 20, 2005. As a whole, the churches did not grow, and by the 2010s, the 'Coordinamento' (Executive) of the movement under pastors Paolo Ferla, Salvatore Romano and Paolo Gatto, led discussions as to how to revivify the movement, and draw in a younger leadership. On 6 December 2021, the assembled pastors of the movement unanimously elected as President a younger pastor (Daniele Recca) whose church in Ragusa (CC Emmanuel) had shown remarkably sustained growth over the previous 30 years. Open (by training and disposition) to international trends and contemporary worship styles, CC Emmanuel not only demonstrated a new way of retaining and building youth cultures, but had become a multi-centric network for resourcing new models of ministry throughout south eastern Sicily. The Coordinamento was completed by the appointment of Mario Gelardi (Paterno) and Francesco Romeo (Catania).