Paper short abstract:

The contribution will focus on Evangelical Churches attended by migrants coming from Guinea-Bissau in the peripheral areas of the Greater Lisbon. It will investigate the way in which churches and believers appropriate and transform the urban space in which they live.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, migrants coming from Africa and Latin America gave birth to new configurations of Christianity in European urban spaces, contributing to a progressive pluralisation of the religious landscape. The metropolitan area of the Greater Lisbon, where the foreign population living in Portugal is concentred, is the scene of a religious contact between Catholicism and these new forms of Christianity.

The contribution will focus on Evangelical Churches attended by migrants coming from Guinea-Bissau in this context. In particular, it will investigate the way in which churches and believers appropriate and transform the urban space in which they live, often the suburbs of the city. The meaning of being a "church of migrants" will be explored, as well as the role of the churches in the neighbourhoods in which they are settled.