"Being on fire for Jesus" : faith memory and how reborn members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God make home in Ireland

Abstract

Literature indicates that the diasporic journey undertaken by African Pentecostal migrants can often be remembered through the lens of their faith. This article is based on an ethnographic study conducted with Pentecostal members of three Redeemed Christian Church of God parishes (the vast majority were Nigerian migrants) in North Co. Dublin commuter towns. The aim was to explore their experiences as homemakers in Ireland. This work provided insight into how “being on fire for Jesus”, directly affected the living memory of the research participants in this fieldwork. Pentecostalism provides a lens through which to remember the migrant journey, and is intrinsic to their home-making processes in Ireland. The migrants’ making of home actively engages with a faith memory, within wider temporal, socio-cultural, economic and political spheres at international, national and community level. It is of anthropological value to explore Pentecostal memory production, so often characteristic in reborn African migrants, as a means to better comprehend the relationship between faith and the migrant experiences of making home in a post Celtic Tiger Ireland