Church in an Age of Global Migration A Moving Body

Migration has become a defining feature of the contemporary age. It has brought about significant changes in political, economic, social, and religious landscapes. This volume explores a question that has been little considered to date: how are churches being transformed in the face of global migration? The book features contributors from diverse national, denominational, cultural, professional, and linguistic backgrounds. Their essays reveal the ways in which migrants and the phenomenon of migration expose longstanding gaps and failings within Christian communities. However, the prevalence of migration and migrants simultaneously opens up fresh possibilities for churches to grow, renew, becoming more authentic, dynamic, and diverse. Church in an Age of Global Migration presents a collage of embodied ecclesial practices, understandings, and realities that have emerged and are continuing to develop in the face of global migration. Committed to transnational and ecumenical dialogue, and to integrating practical and theoretical perspectives, this volume is the first to offer an in-depth analysis of the ways in which churches are being changed by migrants.

Susanna Snyder is assistant director of Catherine of Siena Virtual College, UK, as well as tutor in Theology at the University of Roehampton, UK. Between 2010 and 2014, she held posts as Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin, USA, and at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. An Anglican priest, she has worked alongside asylum seekers and refugees. Her first book, Asylum-Seeking, Migration and Church, was published by Ashgate in 2012, and she has published numerous articles on migration and Christian ethics, including in the Journal of Refugee Studies and Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. She is co-editor of the Palgrave Series Religion and Global Migrations and was co-chair of the Religion and Migration Group at the American Academy of Religion from 2012 to 2015.

Joshua Ralston is Lecturer in Muslim-Christian Relations at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, UK. He has worked with refugee resettlement in the United States for a number of years and has published essays and chapters on ecclesiology and political theology.

Agnes M. Brazal is Professor, Graduate Program Coordinator, and Director of the Office of Research and Publications at St. Vincent School of Theology, Adamson University, Philippines. She is past president of DaKaTeo (Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines) and Former Coordinator of the Ecclesia of Women in Asia.

Introduction: Moving Body; Susanna Snyder
PART I: DENOMINATIONAL VISIONS OF MIGRANT ECCLESIOLOGY
1. 'You are Close to the Church's Heart': Pope Francis and Migrants; Gioacchino Campese
2. 'Gathered from all Nations:' Migration, Catholicity, and Reformed Ecclesiology; Joshua Ralston
3. Orthodox Church(es) Stepping Outside the Heartland; Maria Hämmerli
4. Being Church as Latina/o Pentecostals; Néstor Medina
PART II: REIMAGINING TRADITIONAL ECCLESIAL TASKS
5. The Promise of a Pilgrim Church: Ecclesiological Reflections on the Ethical Praxis of Kinship with Migrants; Kristin Heyer
6. Migration, Higher Education, and the Changing Church; James Walters
7. Liturgy in Migration and Migrants in Liturgy; Hyeran Kim-Cragg and Stephen Burns
8. Worshipping with the Homeless: Foreign Ecclesiologies; Claudio Carvalhaes
9. Woman, Where Have You Come from and Where Are You Going?': Circular Female Migration, The Catholic Church and Pastoral Care in India; Patricia Santos
10. Patron Saint of Catholics and Hindus: Saint Antony and Ecclesial Hospitality in East London; Alana Harris
11. Not Quite Here: Queer Ecclesial Spaces in the Filipino Diaspora; Michael Sepidoza Campos
PART III: NEW ECCLESIAL STRUCTURES
12. Cyberchurch and Filipino Migrants in the Middle East; Agnes Brazal and Randy Odchigue
13. Vulnerable and Missional: Congregations of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon; Daniel Chetti
14. Intentional Community and Displaced People: Dwelling Together in the Body of Christ; Jennifer Drago
15. Interreligious Dialogue in a Nomadic Church: The Witness of Jesuit Refugee Service in Eastern Africa; Deogratias Rwezaura
16. Ghanaian Presbyterians in America: Why Some Join American Denominations and Others Don't; Moses Biney