Portuguese passage: As religiões no mundo lusófono

I found some of the parts of this passage difficult, not so much in terms of comprehension but rather that there are a few constructions and estreturas that I have not seen before or, if I have, have not thought much about them.
One is the very first sentence that starts the passage. "São ricas e variadas as tradições religiosas...." seems to be verb-predicate-subject order which would not be used in English. I'm not sure when to use this order or whether you could put it in this way:   As tradições religiosas são ricas e variadas .. which would be more natural for English speakers.

The second is  ".. a geografia religiosa vem sofrendo profundas e rápidas mudanças." My dictionary gives vir fazendo algo as to have been doing something. So, I suppose ".. vem sofrendo.. mudanças" means has been suffering some changes.