African-Led Pentecostal Liturgies and Spiritual Mediation of Migration in Czechia

This paper examines how African Pentecostal churches in Czechia, drawing from the case of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM), serve as social architecture that helps African immigrants feel like they belong. It investigates how practices, "fire prayers," and hybrid liturgies assist migrants in reinterpreting difficulties like racism and isolation through spiritual meaning using qualitative interviews and participant observation. The study, based on the African epistemologies of Mbiti and Hountondji, demonstrates that although these churches foster a sense of belonging through transnational connections and African-centric worship, they also perpetuate cultural barriers that exclude others. As a result, belonging becomes a continual struggle between exclusion and inclusion. In relation to this conference’s theme of alternative spiritualities, the paper foregrounds lived spiritual practice as an embodied form of knowledge production, rather than focusing on doctrinal or institutional dimensions typical of Global Christianity studies.