The Pathfinder Salute and Its Meaning

When a Pathfinder raises a hand and says "Maranatha!", they aren't just greeting someone, they're making a small confession of faith. The official salute of the Pathfinder Club, used in the South American Division (which includes Brazil), is the Maranatha Salute, and every part of it carries meaning. In this guide, we explain how the gesture is made, what each finger represents, what the correct response is, and how the club's traditional handshake works. Where there are differences between divisions of the church, we say so honestly.

✋How to make the Maranatha salute

Standing at attention, the Pathfinder raises the right forearm with the hand open, the four fingers together and extended, and the thumb folded into the palm of the hand. The forearm stays parallel to the body with the hand at face height, forming roughly a 45° angle between the arm and forearm.

Along with the gesture, one says in a clear voice: "Maranatha!". It's the salute used to greet another club member, to open and close meetings, and to show identification with the Pathfinder ideals.

It's worth remembering that this is the standard of the South American Division, which organizes the Pathfinders in Brazil and neighboring countries. In other divisions around the world, the gesture may differ, we'll get to that further on.

⭐The meaning of each finger

The heart of the salute lies in the fingers. The four extended fingers stand for the four "A" letters in the word MA-RA-NA-THA and, beyond that, four attitudes every Pathfinder should cultivate toward the return of Christ: Love, Announce, Hasten, and Await the second coming of Jesus.

The thumb folded into the palm, meanwhile, represents reverence before the presence of God, the image of a young person bowing in humility and prayer, seeking to be ready for the encounter with Christ.

That's why the salute is described as a profession of faith: the whole gesture points to the central hope of Adventism, the certainty that Jesus will return.

"The four fingers represent Love, Announce, Hasten, and Await the return of Christ; the folded thumb, our reverence before the presence of God."Summary of Pathfinder ideals, according to official sources of the Adventist Church (SAD)

🗣️The response: "The Lord is coming soon!"

The Maranatha salute has a fixed response. When someone greets you with "Maranatha!", the correct countersign is: "The Lord is coming soon!".

That's because Maranatha is a word of Aramaic origin that appears in the Greek of the New Testament (1 Corinthians 16:22) and means exactly "The Lord is coming" or "Come, Lord!". In other words, the response is nothing more than the translation of the salute itself.

This back-and-forth, salute and response, turns a simple greeting into a small shared declaration of hope between the one who speaks and the one who answers.

🤝The Pathfinder handshake

Besides the raised-arm salute, Pathfinder tradition in Brazil also describes a distinctive handshake, inherited from Scouting and adapted to use the right hand (in classic Scouting, the handshake is done with the left).

According to historical club sources, the handshake is made by interlocking the pinky and ring fingers with those of the other person, so that the pinky fingers end up joined. The symbolic reading usually goes: the joined pinky fingers represent the Pathfinders; the thumbs, union in Christ; and the right hand recalls those who will be "at the right hand" of Jesus when He returns.

A note of honesty is worth adding here: the raised-arm gesture (the Maranatha salute) is the one that appears most consistently in official administrative materials. The handshake is widely taught in clubs and recorded by historical sources, but its detailed symbolism circulates mainly through club materials and Scouting sources, rather than as a single, standardized church text.

🌎Are there variations between divisions?

Yes, and it's important to know that. The Maranatha salute, with its four fingers, is the form adopted in the South American Division, the standard you'll see in Brazil.

In some other divisions of the Adventist Church around the world, Pathfinders follow the Scouting tradition more closely, using a three-finger sign (thumb over the pinky, three middle fingers raised) when reciting the Pledge and the Law. In those contexts, the meaning of the three fingers is usually tied to the commitments of the pledge, rather than to the letters of "Maranatha".

As for its origin, the Maranatha salute was first used in Brazil in 1976, during a Leadership Course in Itapema (SC), brought to the country by Pastor Léo Ranzolin, a Brazilian who would go on to become a world youth leader at the General Conference. So, more than just a nice gesture, it's part of the history and identity of Brazilian Pathfinders.