The Church Building: A Sanctuary or a Consecrated Place? Conflicting Views between Angolan Pentecostals and European Presbyterians

Abstract

The African diaspora is partly shaped through religious institutions, such as the migrant churches. Angolans, like other Africans, when building a new life in the Netherlands, find new ways to gather in church communities. Since these communities need housing, the existing church building is a place of encounter between established and migrant church communities. Far from approaching African diaspora as Africans facing problems in a host environment, this article states that in the encounter between locals and migrants at least two parties are challenged in their comfort zones. Taking a conflict between the Angolan church Igreja do Espirito Santo and the Presbyterian Holy Chapel in Rotterdam as a case study, it is argued that the material aspect of this shared place of worship is an enlightening perspective for studying this cross-cultural encounter. This article consists of three levels of analysis, namely of theological differences, differences in aesthetical appraisal of the...