african christian diaspora

context

• Rise of churches and prophet movements in africa meant that christianity grew quickly in sub-saharan africa in 20^th century 

• These developments, with emergence of P+C varieties of christianity, led to huge changes in the african christian landscape 

• Largest congregations in europe are either founded by africans/ led by people of african descent 

• African diaspora is at forefront of new missionary and evangelist initiatives 

• African churches have emerged as a beacon of christian mission 

african diaspora in europe

• many African diaspora communities believe that the “witness of presence” is significant – the presence of African-led churches in Europe is testimony to the dynamic quality and significance of the African evangelical witness. 

• African members of mainstream denominations in their home countries initially joined similar denominations in Europe, meaning that Methodist, Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism and Presbyterianism have all acquired new ecclesial identities, liturgical structures and styles of worship. 

• Questions of ethnic and cultural identities are important for people in the diaspora – the churches founded in Europe provided members a safe space from harsh immigration conditions.  

• Religion helped them to achieve a level of security and inner strength. Some even see parallels between the pains of being “aliens” in a foreign land and the experiences of Jesus. 

windrush era migration and settlement and christian presence in britain

• Migrants travelled with their forms of Christian faith and practises including pentecostalism, and thus set up their own churches to accommodate these beliefs and practises 

• There is also a chance that these migrants were excluded from mainstream british churches and thus was forced to establish their own mostly pentecostal churches 

• In the 1960s and 70s Black pentecostal growth in britain was mainly identifiable as caribbean, but since the 1990s it is identifiably African, particularly Nigerian 

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