Abstract
The 21st century is dominated by many trends that are redefining human history. One of these characteristics is the influx of migrants from developing countries to developed nations. Although South-North migration cannot be viewed as new in the sense of the phenomena, its impact on Christianity is worth engaging. Scholars from diverse fields including religion and theology have conducted intensive research on these migrations’ pushing and pulling factors. This article aimed to analyse the impact of migration to the church in the Global North as several Christians from the Global South are now part of the Western Church. This coming, together of the former missionary and the former convert worshipping in the same church, calls for a redefinition of the church as a hybrid community. This article explores the relationship between the migrant and the host’s newfound space of faith, which is hybrid Christianity. In using the term hybrid Christianity, the article is informed by Homi Bhabha’s ‘third space’ where the host and the migrant redefine their new faith. The article applied qualitative research methodology to demonstrate how the hybridisation of Christianity is the best approach to doing church in the context of migration. The article started by defining hybrid and hybrid Christianity. This was followed by an engagement into the theological foundations of migration and hybridity in the context of migration. The article concluded by emphasising the third space as a platform for the renegotiation of faith by the host and the migrant to do church together.
Contribution: The reverse mission presupposes that Christians from the Global South are becoming the majority in the pews of the Global North. As the host and the migrant worship together, the history of the missionary convert is redefined into a new reality of a hybrid church of multiracial groups. Hybridity calls for the creation of a third space to accommodate the new faith.
Keywords: hybrid Christianity; reverse mission; hybridity; migration; third space.
Introduction
Migration is as old as humanity, and God’s mission for people begins with migration (Heimburger 2017). The 21st century is attributed to many pushing and pulling factors of migration, namely political unrest in the developing countries, economic challenges, social crisis, abuse of legal systems, environmental degradation, natural disasters, religious conflicts and globalisation among other occurrences. The results of the migrant Christians and their host in the new destinations result in conflicting faiths as the two peoples will be coming from two distinct sides of the understanding of Christianity. This relationship calls for a redefinition of Christianity. Unlike in the colonial era when the missionaries were sent out from Europe into the rest of the world to evangelise, the world of Christianity has changed mostly because of its continued decline in the Western world. Christians from the Global South are slowly taking centre stage in the evangelisation of the West, and scholars refer to this as a ‘reverse mission’ (Adedibu 2013; Ola 2017; Olofinjana 2023; Sterling 2015).
According to Stiftung Marburger Mission:
Reverse Mission began in 2009 as a missionary movement. Young church groups and congregations of the host countries of missionaries, predominantly in the southern hemisphere, participated in the worldwide commission of Jesus Christ. They become new sending countries sending out their missionaries. The focus was on Europe. They saw the spiritual need and the secularisation of Europe and wanted to make their contribution, to make the gospel of Jesus Christ known to Europe. (n.d)
Adedibu (2013) agrees with the Stiftung Marburger Mission. He adds that:
Britain’s Black Majority Churches make use of self-representation and symbolic mapping in their discourses. These churches are one case of reverse mission that, in reality, more resembles migrant sanctuaries all across the Western world. (p. 405)
Sterling (2015) adds that the reverse mission is the notable increase in many people shifting from the Global South to the Global North and from West to East has the potential to change the character of migration patterns considerably. Although it can be argued that the presence of the migrants in the Global North churches, equals to reverse mission, however, Ola (2017:6) cautions that ‘reverse migration is difficult to discuss because of the “discernible failure” of the migrants in infiltrating the British white community’.
The lack of understanding of British culture, flawed church-planting strategies and the operational methods employed by these churches have severely hampered the Britain’s Black Majority Churches (BMCs) missionary endeavours in Britain (Adedibu 2013:405). This article agrees with Olofinjana (2023) that the deterioration of Christianity in the West coincided with globalisation, which saw most people from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania migrating to Europe and North America. These migrations have led to the formation of hybrid churches experiencing Christianities from different parts of the world. In some instances, the migrants and the hosts find themselves focusing on their past experiences of the ugly relationship between a coloniser and the colonised and yet they are supposed to redefine their newfound faith.
Using desk research methodology, this article aims to redefine the new way of doing church in the context of migration in the Global North. The article argues that the approach of accommodating, appreciating and compromising each other between the migrant,1 and the host defines hybrid Christianity, which is a renegotiating platform for the third ‘neutral’ space of faith. In using the term hybrid Christianity, the article seeks to emphasise the importance of redefining faith by the host and the migrant first by appreciating the diversity of their understanding of Christianity and second by accepting the new circumstance of their diverse faith. The article will start by defining hybridity and locating the theological foundations of migration. This will be followed by an exposition of hybrid Christianity in the 21st century. The article will conclude by emphasising the importance of the third space as a platform for renegotiating faith in the context of migration.
Theological foundation of migration
Migration is grounded on the theme of liberation (Gn 12). After humanity sinned against God (Gn 3), the relationship of God and humanity was strained. When God decided to reconcile with humanity, the liberation process began with promises and migration. In Genesis 12:1–3, God instructs Abraham to migrate. The text presents God as the migrant God, one who causes people to migrate, one who journeys with the sojourners, defends the wanderers, provides, protects and keeps his promises to them. Abraham was instructed to go forth from the land of his relatives and his father’s house to the land he was to be shown (Tatu 2013). This instruction to move to an unknown land resonates well with the dictates of migration as the migrants hopefully wander to the unknown new places. Abraham’s call to migrate came with many promises, a great nation, blessings, a great name, a channel of blessings and curses and an anchor and source of blessing (all communities will be blessed through you) (Gn 12:1–3).
Firstly, this call presents migration as a divine call where people respond to God’s call to move. Secondly, migration is an economic issue as the migrants seek greener pastures in foreign lands, thirdly, migration is a social issue as the migrants run away from their poor conditions or abusive environments to the new lands. Migration has also a political connotation as some migrants will be seeking political security in their new destinations. In addition, migration features as a time of divine encounter where God could not pronounce the new plan like God did to Abraham when he was among his people, with old habits. God decided to start afresh, and the first instruction was a command to migrate suggesting that new life is not in the old place, among everyday people, with the same old habits but alone, in a new land. Abraham’s first destination was Egypt, and the other patriarchs took the same route. In these stories, it is evident that the fusion of Asian and African cultures was the beginning of religious and cultural hybridity (Abdou & Zervas 2024:2).
Defining the term hybridity
‘The dialogue on hybridity is diverse as scholars generally agree that there is no single definition that can define the term’ (Allolio-Näcke 2014:925). According to Allolio-Näcke (2014):
[T]he term hybridity includes all terms and theories that deal with processes of the construction of otherness as a result of cultural contacts and identity. The notions of boundaries as markers of difference and borderline play a critical role, which calls into question issues of transgression, relocation, displacement, suspension, bewilderment, and essentialist categories like race, gender, and nations. (p. 925)
For Sanchez-Stockhammer (2012):
[H]ybridisation is defined as a process whereby separate entities or processes generate another entity or process (the hybrid), which shares certain features with each of its sources, but which is not purely compositional. (p. 133)
In this article, we will locate the definition of hybridity from its scientific usage and how the word found itself in the postcolonial discourse being used to define the new form of churching in the Global North.
According to the Oxford Dictionary:
[T]he word hybrid originated in the early 17th century but was used regularly in the 19th century to describe the offspring of two plants or animals of different species. For example, the Latin word hybrida meant the offspring of two unrelated animals such as a wild boar, and the term sow. (n.d.)
Hybrida was also used during the 17th century period to illustrate the children of humans of different races assumed to be of dissimilar species. This 19th century spurious belief of distinct ‘races’ in the discourses of scientific racism was based upon an immutable boundary between White Europeans and their racial ‘others’ over time (Gent n.d.). Hybridity describes a condition in which these boundaries of identity are crossed, resulting in illegitimate racial mixing.
In the postcolonial period, hybridity was associated with the work of Homi K. Bhabha, whose analysis of the relationship of the coloniser or colonised emphasised their correlation and the mutual construction of their subjectivities (Nasrullah 2016). Bhabha (1994:38) developed the hybridity model from literary and cultural theory to explain the relationship between culture and identity within conditions of colonial hostility and discrimination. For Bhabha, ‘hybridity is the process by which the colonial governing authority undertakes to translate the identity of the colonised within a singular universal framework’ (Papastergiadis 1997:225). Bhabha contends that a new hybrid identity or subject position emerges from the interweaving of elements of the coloniser and the colonised challenging the validity and authenticity of any essentialist cultural identity. Allolio-Näcke (2014) argues that:
[H]ybridity is taken for thinking along different cultural and social borders: between the centre and periphery, black and white, the oppressor and the suppressed, the rich north and the poor south, and the self and the other and between races, genders, bodies, and the resulting identities. (p. 926)
According to Bhabha (1994):
All cultural statements and systems are constructed in a space called the ‘third space’ of enunciation. This third space is an ambivalent site where cultural meaning and representation have no ‘primordial unity or fixity. (p. 37)
The third space represents the space ‘in-between’ spaces that carry the burden and meaning of culture, and this is what makes the notion of hybridity important as a postcolonial discourse. (Nasrullah 2016)
For Bhabha, ‘the third space explains the uniqueness of each person, actor, or context as a hybrid’ (Bhabha 1994:37).
The third space emerges from the sociocultural tradition, which can be defined in two different ways (Lillis 2003). On the one hand, the third space represents the gap where the exploited plan for their emancipation in the whispering corners of the bazaar or the tavern. On the other hand, the third space can also represent that vacuum where the oppressed and the oppressor can come together, freely and temporarily of oppression itself, expressed in their individuality (Bhabha 1994). This article is interested in the later interpretation where there is a dialogue between the two opposite spaces. This space is ideal for the hybridisation of the church given that, unlike the 19th century migration where the church came on the wings of colonialism and empire, the 21st century is a reverse mission. The 19th century mission grew because of the power of the crown and the resources. This relationship was explained by Clarence Thorpe (1951) while writing on the history of Methodism in Zimbabwe.
Thorpe explains how Rev Owen Watkins and Rev Isaac Shimmin the first Methodist missionaries in the country negotiated for more land from Cecil John Rhodes while he was coming from his sleep still in his nightwear (Thorpe 1951:52). This missionary–coloniser relationship is not the same relationship of the church and state in the 21st century migration because the migrants are the weak and powerless who are trying to redefine themselves in the context of dehumanisation of the least and the oppressed.
The term hybridity was also used in anthropology in the ending of hostile cultural frontiers between groups hitherto perceived as separate, the intermixture of various identities. As used in anthropology, hybridity displays how identities have been and are conceived and reinvented for political and other purposes. ‘Hybridisation in Bhabha’s theory refers to the emergence of new mixed identities as a result of the intermingling of different cultures’ (Bhabha 1994:39). The process occurs when two or more cultures operate close to each other. In the 21st century migration where the host and the migrants find themselves in the same church, hybridity challenges the host and the migrant to redefine worship that used to be homogeneous.2 But now it is heterogeneous to accommodate each other’s form of ascribing worth to God.
Postcolonial theorists also used hybridity to explain the sociocultural forms that arose from colonial encounters. However, the discussion on hybridity that was adopted by social scientists especially those interested in diaspora, transnationalism, migration and globalisation is varied and includes debates about its usefulness as a category. These debates arose partly from the hybridity’s historical usage to refer to superiority over inferiority (Bhabha 1994). During the 19th century, discourses on hybridity were modelled by racist assumptions about the human species. As a cross between two classes that should not, in theory, be able to reproduce with each other, discourses on human hybrids were focused on questions of sexuality and fertility that reflected widespread anxiety about sexual unions between different races (in particular, between Blacks and Whites leading to an early definition of hybrid as the child of a freeman and slave) (Bhabha 1994).
Hybridity discloses semantic terms like syncretism that involves the merging of different religious traditions and cultural adaptation where Christianity interacts with local cultures. Hybridity also entails creolisation3, which is a process where two or more cultures that were originally from different parts of the world mix to produce a new culture (Jourdan 2001:2903). Jourdan’s definition of hybridity resonates well with the 21st century migration where the pigmentation of the church is changing to a rainbow with almost all colours of humanity finding themselves in the same church.4 Jourdan and Bhabha agree on the fact that the mixing of two people from two different parts biologically or religiously always creates something new. Jourdan calls it creolisation, while Bhabha prefers the third space. (Jourdan 2002:2903) goes further to argue that the mixing of two people from different Christianities may give birth to syncretism. Given that in the Global North, the former colonisers and the colonised meet during worship is assumed that their understanding of Christianity is defined by the migrants–host relationship. Syncretism becomes evident in the same way when two religions such as Christianity and Islam encounter each other. Hybridisation also has to do with bricolage,5 borderland, fusion and cosmopolitanism.6 In the encounter of two faiths, Christian teachings are adapted to fit the cultural norms, values and practices, creating a version of Christianity that is distinct from its original form.
In addition, hybridity can be equated to globalisation and interfaith dialogue’s impact and effect. The term is read in the same way as theological innovation where some hybrid forms of Christianity arise from deliberate theological innovation, where new interpretations of Christian doctrine are developed to resonate with contemporary or diverse cultural contexts.
The diverse histories of hybridity in postcolonial studies, biology and linguistics have made it acceptable by social scientists as well as debates about how the term can be useful. Researchers on migration, diaspora, globalisation and transnationalism have used hybridity to describe the distinctiveness of persons of a hybrid cultural origin or race (Bhabha 1994). Regardless of its manifold meanings, hybridity relates to the realities related to mixing, dynamic fusion and mixing of the former antagonists. It is important to argue that hybridity relates to the individual or group processes of cognitive, linguistic, ethnic or cultural methods that create or transform elements that become different from the original discrete parts. Moreover, hybridity is a confluent of diverse occurrences that were once considered autonomous, definable identities but are now merged. Culturally, hybridisation explains which past forms suit to be separated from their preceding backgrounds or current practices. These past forms are re-explained or combined with new forms to create new meanings or new practices. Hybridity is a product of the dynamic nature of human conversations and social development that provides a vital thrust for the development and growth of society.
In the period of globalisation, infusion, erosion of cultural boundaries, increased intercultural communication, population migration and cultural contact and hybridity have expanded human contact within and across cultures and inevitably brought about the hybridisation of beliefs, values, social attitudes, norms and practices (Bhabha 1994). That being as it may, hybridity remains an essential concept and a product objective for intercultural communication, competence development, training, promoting the advancement of individuals and groups with a co-cultural orientation, plural perspective, sense of intercultural personhood or multicultural personality for enhancing inter- or cross-cultural identities and interactions. Hybridity can inform and enrich intercultural competence studies and the status of hybridity in intercultural communication. Although the word hybridity is a later development, the definition of the term has its origins in the Bible. These foundations therefore call us to engage briefly into the theological foundations of the term.
Theological foundations of hybridity
Although the word hybridity was borrowed from science, the meaning of the term has its origin in the Bible as argued earlier. For example, the intermarriages that happened in the Ancient Near East produced both biological and religious hybrids:
Religious hybridity relates to the religiosity of persons who are fastened in one spiritual system while immersed at different stages through association, involvement, belonging, or loyalty to other religious traditions. (Hounguevou 2023:55)
A quick example of biological and religious hybridity can be traced to the intermarriages of the Israelites and other nations from the time of Solomon, which resulted in syncretism. It cannot be denied that the flourishing of Baalism in Israel before and after the division of the Monarchy points towards the hybridisation of the chosen people and the other nations. This impact was more evident during the time of Ahab when Baalism compromisingly became the religion of the chosen people (2 Ki 19, 21).
In the New Testament, Christianity developed as a hybrid religion starting from the time of the post-Easter. The Church moved from being a Jewish sect to a religion, from the confirmation of the Jewish tradition and beliefs to the Gentile world through, Philip, Peter, Paul and the other disciples (Wylen 1996:191). The church also moved across the Roman Empire and Africa as a hybrid movement. In the hybridisation process, Christianity encountered different philosophies and teachings including the Greek orthodoxy and the Roman philosophy but survived as an incarnational and contextual Church, one that was able to inculturate the gospel and adapt to the third space (Britannica 2024). Paul is an example of the anchor of hybrid identity (Lee 2021).
Hybrid Christianity in the context of migration
Reading from Romans 11, hybridity is the coming together of the two former opposites. In the process of negotiating faith, hybridity does not allow the imposition of one faith on the other, but it is a coming together of the two faiths to reason together to create a ‘third space’ as Bhabha puts it. In the context of the 21st century where most people are on the move, hybridity describes a point of contact between people of two or more cultures, traditions, faiths, beliefs and assumptions.
The fact that most people are moving from the Global South to the Global North, a lot of issues are at play. In his PhD thesis, Buhle Mpofu (2015) raises very critical questions about the position of the church on migration. Mpofu questions whether the church is a host, home or hostile to migrants in the face of a global migration crisis that has fuelled mixed reactions (2015:iii). In his response to this critical question, Mpofu (2015) argued that:
[T]he church is not a temple built in local communities, but it is a lived religious experience embodied by people who belong together through a family or community called the church. As people move, they do not leave behind their religious experiences, faith, or beliefs; instead, they move with their religiosity and articulate their migration experiences in the light of these personal religious convictions and draw on them for the perilous journeys and as survival strategies in host communities. (p. iii)
Mpofu forwards that ‘people move with their faith and beliefs and meet the locals with these religious experiences. The encounter of people from different Christian experiences produces hybrid Christianity’ (Mpofu 2015:iii).
People on the move have created a situation where the formerly oppressed are now worshipping with their former oppressors. The former evangeliser is finding himself or herself with the former evangelised singing from the same hymnbook sitting in the same pew. The segregated church services have been diluted in some places of worship to bring about a rainbow church where all colours, cultures, faiths, beliefs and styles of worship are accommodated. Hybridisation of Christianity means that the theology that used to be applied from two parallels of the poor in spirit (Mt 5:3), and the socially poor (Lk 6:20) is being redefined to create a third space of tolerance. Given the sociopolitical and economic challenges in the Global South, people on the move are finding the church in the Global North as home far away from home. Perhaps this is what Kumalo meant when he talked of the Methodist with a White history and a Black future (Kumalo 2009) to refer to the projected increase of the Black majority in the Global North churches. Giving examples of South Africa, Kumalo was convinced that the Whites remain the champions in propagating the gospel; however, their number in the church continues to decline as the Black people are increasing in the church. The Global North church is not only changing in colour but also in demographics as the migrants bring their families to the church, which dilutes the context of the privileged versus the subjective position. The image of God is no longer defined by pigmentation, geography or history, but by biblical standards – ‘God created humanity in the image of God’ (Gn 1:26).
Hybridity as a concept cannot be expressed as a dilution of one form of Christianity but as a process of redefining the same in the context of migration. More often, hybridity is qualified as an occasion for making another religious and social identity for people of different identities who meet at the altar of grace. The process allows Christians to integrate themselves into a multicultural society. For example, in the Western society that used to worship God with modern instruments in a solo style some of them found themselves responding to the drumbeats and rattles of the Africans that are fast and noisy during the time of worship and vice versa. Hybrid Christianity allows the redefinition of the order of worship, forms of worship, ways of giving, the routine of the church, mixing of leadership and preaching of the gospel from different life settings.
Moreover, hybrid Christianity as a ‘third space’ redefines equality, diversity and inclusion. As the host and the migrants come together, the issues of superiority and inferiority is diluted by the call for equality, not in the social sense of the definition, but in the theological sense where all humanity represents the image of God. In hybridity, equality means offering the same rights and opportunities to all people. Such opportunities go beyond the background of those who need to be given opportunities. Diversity is understanding that each person is unique. It entails embracing people’s differences, including their beliefs, abilities, preferences, backgrounds, values and identities. Diversity also allows the two spaces to appreciate what can join or separate them. Furthermore, the concept of hybrid Christianity allows the host and the migrant to appreciate their unity in diversity. Hybridity provides space for the former antagonists to come to the roundtable to redefine God in the new space. This space also allows them to overgo their history and focus on the new relationship of inclusion of each other.
Hybridisation of Christianity from this point means a give and take. Whereas the destination has the resources, people on the move particularly from Africa are coming from a church that has fewer resources, but they have the vibe and charisma. In this contrasting relationship of charisma and coolness, hybrid Christianity has an opportunity to embrace the weak and the strong, the poor and the rich, the conservatives and the liberals and these opposites present a third space that redefines theology and the context of the church in the form of undefined space. Moreover, in the hybridisation process, diverse theological differences are engaged in the same space by redefining theology produced by the newfound space.
As the migrants are given space of leadership in the ‘third space’, other immigrants will be motivated by a space given to one of them, thereby growing the church of their destination. The involvement of the migrants in the leadership of the hosts is a sign of a relationship built on mutual trust and respect in the context where the Global North church is losing membership. The hybridisation of Christianity helps the host church to embrace the realistic issues of migrants who will be the new congregants.
Migration, hybridity and culture
It cannot be overemphasised that migration had a serious impact on the religious and cultural lives of the migrants. The fact that people on the move find themselves on the other side of life, having left their home countries, their relatives, their churches, their routine life to an unknown land, their religious and cultural life is challenged. It is critical to appreciate that the successive use of hybridity in postcolonial studies was influenced by semantic genres that analysed culture as a process and a site of contestation. Culture as a process means diverse things to different people. As culture is a process, migration detours this process and creates another hybrid. It is, however, not the case that everyone’s culture is detoured as some people on the move will agree with the Zimbabwean Singer the late Dr. Oliver Mtukudzi that ‘you can take me out of the Ghetto, but you cannot take the Ghetto out of me’ (Mtukudzi 2019; see also Mwanza 2021). This statement means that the culture that has grown in the lives of the migrants cannot easily diminish because there is a third space. If not carefully managed, the third space can be a new space of new conflicts caused by misunderstanding of either the host or the migrant’s intentions or benefits in the third space.
Advantages of hybrid Christianity
Hybrid Christianity has transformed forms of worship in the Global North by introducing cultural diversity and blending traditional and contemporary practices. The coming together of the hosts and the migrants in those churches where the two are worshipping together has created a richer and more inclusive worship experience that resonates with the diverse backgrounds of the congregants and reflects the global nature of the Christian faith. This also depends on how hospitable the receiving church is. To this end, the hybridisation of Christianity is characterised by a symbiosis of Euro-African worship styles, inculturation of the gospel, a redefinition of administrative systems, a third way of doing theology defined by unity in diversity and the sharing on the table of grace together.
There are several transformations that migration has positively brought to both the Global North church and the people on the move. Firstly, migration has introduced the Global North Christians to different cultures, traditions and theological viewpoints from the people on the move. This migration broadened their understanding of Christianity from the migrant’s point of view and encouraged them to reflect on their faith in new ways. Secondly, the emphasis is on social justice. The challenges faced by migrants, such as discrimination and inequality, have led to a renewed focus on social justice within Christian theology (Crowther 2024). This renewed social justice results in the development of contextual theologies that seek to address the needs and rights of marginalised groups. Thirdly, the advantage is the revitalisation of the Christian communities: migrants bring with them a strong sense of faith and commitment to Christian practices. Their active involvement in churches has revitalised Christian communities in the Global North leading to a deeper engagement with theological issues and practices. Fourthly, transformative advantage is the diversification of worship style. This diversity has enriched the theological understanding of worship and encouraged Christians to embrace multicultural forms of expression in their faith practices.
Fifthly, the advantage is the ecumenical dialogue, which is characterised by impact and effect that promote conversations between different Christian denominations, fostering unity and mutual understanding (Adedibu 2023). This dialogue has enriched theological discussions and encouraged a more inclusive approach to the hybridisation of theology. Sixthly, it is the creation of an interfaith dialogue. The migration of people from different religious backgrounds has encouraged interfaith dialogue to find a third space. These dialogues led to a deeper understanding of other faiths and promoted a more inclusive and tolerant approach to religious diversity. Seventhly, hybridity creates a revitalised church that is vibrant and alive.
The third space as the centre of the new faith
From the advantages of hybridity presented above, it is clear that the 21st century church has a new face and a new future. Migration is a reality, and there are chances that this will be worse. Statistics of people on the move show that more migrants are crossing different borders legally or illegally, as victims of human trafficking, or as asylum seekers still carry their faith with them. Regardless of how the circumstance of their migration, be it political, social, economic or religious, the mixing of two races is unavoidable. The hybridisation of Christianity does not only create a ‘third space’, but it also nuances a new identity that is neutral. For example, during worship, hybridity allows the use of both traditional and modern instruments, thereby fulfilling Psalm 50 which encourages people to praise God with all types of instruments. This new space created by hybridity does not have a place for ugly history, stereotyping, classism, racialism, colonialism, superiority or inferiority. Each member in the redefined space is treated as the image of God. In addition, hybridity redefines the Global North and Global South Christianity into a rainbow Christianity where everyone regardless of race and background feels to be part of the Body of Christ. Moreover, the hybridisation of Christianity in the Global North allows for the continuity of the church. This move of black-only churches started over 10 years ago. For example, in 2014 Gledhill mentioned that the British Methodist dedicated the black alone churches because the membership was increasing (Gledhill 2014). The hybridisation of Christianity also brings the two extremely opposite centres to a neutral point. The coloniser and the colonised, the weak and the powerful, are redefined by the third space. This relationship also takes into cognisance that the Global North is still the epic centre for ecclesiastical power while the Global South is the new centre of gravity of evangelisation. The ecclesiastical wealth, power and influence of the Western Church is incomparable to the Global South, which makes the relationship of the host, and the migrants seemingly compromised.
Theology is shaped by culture, perceptions and context. That being as it may, the third space that allows the rewriting of theology as the new identity redefines itself in the context of the new identity. It is also important to appreciate that whenever two cultures come together, the product is inculturation. Inculturation presents a congruent culture reshaped by the new belief systems. Hybrid Christianity as a third space produces a rainbow church where some colours are visibly illuminating when others are fading. The shining colours continue to attract outsiders who also want to identify with the existing brightening colours and invite others to occupy the space that is seemingly dwindling.
The future of the Global North church in the context of migration holds promises for growth, enrichment and mission advancement if the migration trends are to go by. As churches embrace diversity, practice inclusivity, advocate for justice and seize missional opportunities, they will not only adapt to demographic changes but also embody the transformative power of Christ’s love in increasingly multicultural societies. By navigating challenges with wisdom and compassion, Global North churches can thrive as vibrant, welcoming communities that reflect the Kingdom of God in all its diversity and unity defined by the hybridisation of Christianity.
Conclusion
From the discussions raised in this article, it has become evident that migration remains a global phenomenon. Whereas we have the new form of migration where the people from the Global South are migrating to the Global North, it cannot be resisted that the future of the church will be rainbow and hybrid theology being used. Although both sides will lose their cultural identity, the third space will redefine hybrid Christianity as a space of all, for all and by all. This space will grow the church as the rainbow Christians will redefine themselves as the image of God. Theology will be reevaluated, redefined, reread, reinterpreted and revamped to speak to the modern context and not the ugly past. The Global North church has to demonstrate that they are homes to the people on the move while the migrants also demonstrate that they are prepared to learn a faith in their new home. This relationship builds hybrid Christianity shaped by theological commitments, sociocultural adaptability and practical capacities in the third space.
Acknowledgements
This article is partially based on the author’s presentation to the World Methodist Conference that was held in Sweden on 13 -18 August 2024 on the unpublished topic, entitled ‘Hybrid Christianity? A Religio-Cultural Analysis of the Impact of Migration on the 21st century Church’ the programme of the Conference is available here: https://worldmethodistconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/WMC-Conference-Program-R7.29.pdf.
Competing interests
The author declares that no financial or personal relationships inappropriately influenced the writing of this article.
Author’s contributions
M.M. is the sole author of this research article.
Ethical considerations
Ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the University of South Africa College of Human Sciences (Rec-240816-052).
Funding information
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for profit sectors.
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.
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Footnotes
1. Given that migrants are not always in the same place, the article will also use the term people on the move to refer to the migrants.
2. The worship of the two homogenous groups aforementioned is largely shaped by contextual; factors, though liturgical rites, might be uniform; other aspects of worship are moderated by prevailing culture such as the use of local drums, etc. Even the Pentecostal adherents have a homogeneous label but are deeply heterogeneous in ecclesiastical rites, liturgy, ritual praxis and ecclesiastical order.
3. According to Jourdan (2001), ‘the concept of creolisation has been used in anthropology to refer to processes of social and cultural change that take place in societies characterised by rapid social flux. It is borrowed from linguistics and used in analogy with the processes of language creolisation that appear in some types of sociolinguistic contact. In anthropology, the concept of creolisation has been used in three different ways: as a metaphor capturing the elusive processes of integration of new cultural forms; as a synonym of hybridisation associated with globalisation; and as a model for the study of language change directly derived from the linguistic model of creolisation. Discussion of the applicability of this concept to the study of social change addresses the nature of the creolisation process itself; the relationship of creolisation to globalisation; and the definition of the concept of culture’.
4. However, it has to be noted that most migrant churches are largely homogeneous; hence Ukah (2013) described such churches as Asylum Christianities, while Adedibu (2013) called them repositories of Migrants or migrants’ sanctuaries that led to the increase in Church attendance in Britain halting declining church attendance figures. Nevertheless, the growth portal is largely through migration, transferred growth and flight from migrant independent churches because of leadership ineptitude, corruption, fiscal scandals or sexual perversion.
5. Bricolage is the process of creating art using a variety of different objects.
6. Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community.
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