“the Global Evangelist Movement of the “Gypsies”. in Spain's Case”

The aim of the paper is to highlight some of the most relevant phenomenons which occurred to understand the aforementioned expansion, the intimate relationship of the Pentecostal religion with the articulation, re-composition and renovation of the identities found in ethnic communities, and presents the particular case of the expansion of Pentecostalism among the ethnic Gypsy communities in Europe in general, and in particular, Spain.  Gypsy Pentecostalism has designated itself with the special mission of evangelising the Gypsy people throughout the world, offers a biblical interpretation of the origins of the Gypsy people, placing them in one of the 12 lost tribes of Israel, and a historical interpretation of the unfortunate journey they faced in this world, culminating with the ethnic genocide during the II World War. Gypsy Pentecostalism promotes the conservation of some of the most deep rooted elements of their ethnic tradition and confronts the production of ethnic identities and collective destigmatised representations.

The proposed paper deals with the expansion of the Pentecostal religion on three levels;

1. At the supranational level. The Pentecostal religion’s role in the emergence and promotion of an ethnic sense of global diaspora, which remains articulated in organisational and institutional networks and movements.
2. At the national level. The role of Pentecostalism in the renovation of the Spanish Gypsy’s ethnic and cultural identities.
3. At the local level. The role of the Pentecostal religion in the articulation and re-composition of the different identities among Spanish Gypsies and non-Spanish Gypsies (above all Romanians) after the intensification of the arrival of transnational migratory waves of European Romanians to Spain in the 21st century.

This paper forms part of the doctoral thesis of the author, funded by the Spanish Government (Subprogram FPI-MICCIN) as part of the Groupe Européen de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur le Changement Religieux (GERICR) research program