An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

The researcher has previously discussed the importance of the fact that although Blackpeople have been living in Britain since Roman times, the 1991 census was the first timethat some attempt was made to document the proportion of black people that live inBritain, as opposed to simply “immigrants” (Rose 1998, Kee 2006). This was more thanthirty years since the mass import of colonial labour to rebuild Britain following theSecond World War. During the mass import of colonial labour in 1950s, black people hadto find a way to survive the rejection of them as a people, although they were accepted as alabour force. Consequently they formed themselves into groups and many of these groupswere Pentecostal churches. According to Ward (1970) Christians from the West Indiesusually congregated themselves at Seventh Day Adventist churches or PentecostalAssemblies especially of various branches of the Church of God. A study by Toulis (1992)of the New Testament Church of God (which has similarities with COGIC in the UK.)shows how belief supports ethnic identity in African-Caribbean Pentecostalism. Themajority of the members in New Testament Church of God are from Jamaican origin as arethe membership of COGIC. Gerloff‟s (1992) „Plea for BlacBritish Theologies‟ defendsthe need for theology to address itself specifically to the large proportion of Jamaicans(who migrated to the UK in the 1950‟s-1960‟s) in the Blacentecostal churches in theUK. We cannot assume, however, that the meaning of African-Caribbean Pentecostalismin England is the same as that of Pentecostalism in Jamaica or even EnglishPentecostalism. We have to look at the pre-existing root of different Pentecostaldenominations before Azusa Street.The humble beginnings of COGIC in England were in the late 1940s when the first waveof immigrants arrived in Britain from the Caribbean in the search of a better life. A few113