Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the strategies through which Christian churches in New Delhi have sought to sustain fellowship and worship during and in the aftermath of the global Covid-19 pandemic and the experiences of their congregants who have meanwhile strived to maintain a life of Christian devotion.

Paper long abstract:

As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded over the past few years, religious institutions quickly discovered new and alternative ways of maintaining fellowship and worship online amidst lockdown and mobility restrictions. Churches not only followed each other in establishing and maintaining an online presence by opening YouTube channels and livestreaming their services, but they also had to modify the ways in which they engaged with their congregants, old and new. In an arguably unprecedented way, this afforded Christian believers multiple choices when it comes to fellowship and worship – they could choose to ‘attend’, in live or recorded formats, Sunday services, prayer meetings, special events and celebrations etc. organised online by different churches, and this put churches more pronouncedly than ever on the so-called market of salvation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in New Delhi (India), this paper explores how Christians belonging to the Naga and Mizo ethnic communities (the highest density Christian populations in India) have dealt with this apparent religious choice at the height of the pandemic and thereafter. What are believers’ experiences of online fellowship? Which church services do they choose to attend and why? What strategies do churches employ to maintain and expand their congregations, both online and offline? Why do some churches continue to livestream their services while resuming in-person fellowship? And what can we learn from all this about the changing nature of contemporary Christianity – and has it changed forever? The paper explores these and related questions as it seeks to understand this contemporary religious dynamic in urban India and the shifting experiences of what it means to be Christian in our increasingly complex world.