Origin, Migration, Globalisation and the Missionary Encounter of Britain's Black Majority Churches

Abstract

Britain's Christian landscape has a definitive imprint of African and Caribbean Christianities. The growth and proliferation of Black Majority Churches in Britain in the last one hundred years attest to the tenacity and gradual acceptance of the Pentecostal stream within Britain's chequered church history. Religion is now a major motor in migration as most migrants now sacralise their migration and place minimal emphasis on economic motivations. In spite of their religious subscriptions, African and Caribbean Christians also carry their socio-cultural backpacks to the West. This has resulted in the emergence of Christianities that are reflective of African and Caribbean cosmologies. This article gives an overview of the origin of Black Majority Churches in Britain and the role of globalisation and migration in identity formation within these churches whilst also examining the distinctive socio-religious praxis of the amazing Black church movement in Britain.