“It Is My Family!”: African Immigrant Congregations and the Politics of Belonging in North America

In January of 1991, Bernice Boakye welcomed her three friends: Adelaide Agyemang, Elizabeth Andoh and Grace Ocansey, into her home. As one of many such informal gatherings among friends, a distinct chord was struck on that day. The women talked about their cultural and religious experiences as Ghanaian immigrants in America and concluded on the need for a congregation that would serve the growing number of Ghanaians living in the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York, USA. This idea received support leading to the birth of Bethel Presbyterian Reformed Church (BPRC). Today, BPRC serves formative functions in the lives of its congregants, the immediate neighborhoods of Brooklyn, and within the umbrella organization of the Conference of Ghanaian Presbyterian Churches in North America (CGPCNA).

Against this backdrop, this paper will attempt to understand how African congregations construct their identities as supportive spaces for African immigrants in the diaspora. The translocation of Christian congregations is engineering scholarly interest. However, what has remained understudied is how congregational identities and theologies are specifically fashioned to cater to the wellbeing of African immigrants. Using BPRC and CGPCNA as a case studies, this paper will attempt to understand how theologies of belonging emerge against the backdrop of the politics of migration and difference in North America and how individual immigrants experience succor within these frameworks. I will unpack how the term “Bethel” is both reframed and embodied in BPRC’s denominational and social outlook of belonging for African immigrants in the United States and how women contribute to these processes.