Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I will reflect on how hybrid space and cyberspace are crucial in the making of the transnational Angolan Pentecostal church. Equally, I will analyse how cyberspace mediates between different modes of the imagined church community and offline performances.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I will reflect on how hybrid space and cyberspace are crucial in the making of the transnational Angolan Pentecostal church. Equally, I will analyse how cyberspace mediates between different modes of the imagined church community and offline performances.

The Angolan Pentecostal Church Bom Deus has spread to Cape Verde Islands, Brazil, and several African and European countries. The Bom Deus church is a Pentecostal church of Congolese origins that nationalised in Angola. It is heavily linked with the Bakongo ethnic group, and Bakongo social culture, however, it managed to transcend the ethnic boundaries in Angola. In the nineties of the 20th century and in the first decade of the 21st century intense missionary movement spread the church into different continents. If in Europe the church is linked with the diasporic Bakongo culture, in other spaces like Cape Vert and Brazil it had to be imagined from the scratch in a very diverse socio-political, religious, and cultural environment. In all these places the church managed to recreate its affective and aesthetic formation. Moreover, the headquarter located in Angola and in the centres in the European diaspora, continue managing the performance of the church in the distant, isolated transnational parishes.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the hybrid space of Bom Deus church, a mix of offline performances, digitalised and online streaming in creating a notion of a Bom Deus community. Equally, the paper will dwell on the imagined idea of Bom Deus church that becomes real through cyberspace. It will be done by concentrating on particular missionaries, church leaders, and the modes of their offline and online existence and performances.