Abstract
This chapter describes the ways in which APCC recapitulated African forms of worship in Canada, and reproduced familiar expressions of Christianity for a migrant community. These features of APCC are contrasted with non-African Canadian churches, which were perceived by congregants as having uninspiring Sunday services, being spiritually lacklustre, and in need of considerable religious rejuvenation. The evolving transnational identities of APCC members are highlighted, as well church-wide considerations of the democratization of power, gender, and ethnicity. This analysis further reveals how APCC united a multiethnic and multinational congregation by endorsing a successful form of Christian Pan-Africanism. As church members claimed, through common Christian faith, characterized by equal access to the Prosperity Gospel and Holy Spirit Power, even deep-seated ethnonationalistic prejudices were lessened within APCC’s walls.
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Notes
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© 2015 Thomas Aechtner
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Aechtner, T. (2015). One in Worship: Recapitulation, Transnational Identities, and Christian Pan-Africanism. In: Health, Wealth, and Power in an African Diaspora Church in Canada. Religion and Global Migrations. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485496_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485496_3
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