“But God meant it for good:” Inter-personal conflict in an African Caribbean Pentecostal congregation – A Pastoral study By Delroy Wesley Hall A thesis submitted to the Department of Theology and Religion University of Birmingham University of Birmingham For the degree of July 2013 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis examines conflict within a UK Black Majority Church. It uses personal observation and journals, with the work of academic historians of the Black churches, to establish that Black Majority Churches have a tendency to conflict that is usually unacknowledged yet often pervasive and damaging. The thesis locates this within a Black cultural history (almost entirely untold in the academy until after the present author’s schooling ended) that involves deep-seated past causes for present conflict among post-colonial Christians. The thesis then proposes a model for the pastoral analysis, practical management, and spiritual resolution of conflict. The key methods for this (drawing on psychology and counselling as well as theology) are autoethnography, transpersonal analysis and pastoral journal records. The final stage of the pastoral model is resolution by scriptural teaching and active faith in the Holy Spirit; key passages of scripture show that conflict has been crucible for making Christianity, and has often been integral to the discovery and transmission of God’s word. Finally, the thesis offers a training plan for Pastors in the CoGoP – a plan combining the practicalities of work in that church with the historical and theological conclusions drawn from the present academic research. Acknowledgements “I can no other answer make but thanks and thanks and ever thanks,” as one author writes. I have been pre-warned by my wife, Paulette, and my twin daughters, Saffron and Jordan, that they do not want their names to appear at the end of the acknowledgements page. I started this doctoral journey when the girls were six years old and I have completed it a few months after their eighteenth birthday. Paulette has been a computer widow and my daughters have had a father who was both present and absent, as I tried to juggle the tricky combination of being a husband, father, church pastor, Bishop and potential academic. A special thanks to my late father Lindo Hall, and my mother Dorothy Hall who were both a part of the Empire Windrush epoch. They, with thousands of other African Caribbean migrants, helped to reshaped English religious and civil society. A special thanks to my sister Sandra Adegun, who continued to cheer me on to the end. Anyone who has completed a PhD knows that it is seldom the efforts of one person. Many others have played an important role in the completion of such an enormous task. I must also thank the congregation where I was the pastor at the time of this research. They shaped me into becoming a more effective servant by being a more critical and self-reflective pastor. Those episodes of conflict provided much food for thought and a rich source for theological reflection. Then there is the group of students who walked with me and joined in the ranks of loving support with the aforementioned. I would like to thank the ‘proud Jamaican,’ who is now my best friend: Delroy Antonio Reid-Salmon, a man with a sharp mind who is forever looking at things theologically. I want to thank Eric Williams who’s piercing intellectual analysis and creativity brought clarity of thought when I hit some difficult patches during my studies. I would like to thank Lynnette Mullings, whose indeterminable spirit has warmly affected the fledging group of scholars to “keep on keeping on” amidst the vicissitudes of life outside of the PhD arena. I also want to thank Dulcie Dixon and Carver Anderson, who were fellow sojourners of this monastic pursuit of higher study, and Cecelia Cappel, who always believed I would get the doctorate. There was never any doubt in her mind. Anthony Reddie proved a loyal sojourner and an able think tank as I ploughed through and negotiated the various intellectual terrains of the PhD. Thank you. It was good to have all of you near me and your belief in me sustained me when I did not believe completion would ever arrive. Another person I must thank is Father Evans, a retired Anglican priest, who was my spiritual director in the early years of my pastorate in Leicester. He was the first who suggested I had the “intellectual tackle,” in his words, to embark on a course of further studies. The next person to encourage me to consider the PhD was Anglican priest, David Hart. His copious notes on my pages of my Masters’ assignments encouraged me to excel in my work. I cannot forget a sensitive and caring tutor named Joy Bates, who introduced me to the technique of free writing. What a difference that made in my ability to write. Robert Beckford took me on as a doctoral candidate, later followed by Garnett Parris; but it was the intellectual insight and rigour of Mark Cartledge who led me to the finishing line within a very short space of time. Yet I have a greater cloud of witnesses who made it possible for me to even contemplate the undertaking of a doctorate. They are the millions of my nameless ancestors, who were brutally transported from their homeland to work on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean and other parts of the Americas. Their incessant quest for freedom and their relentless assertion of their humanity against all odds made it possible for me, and many others like me, in making such high learning accessible and possible. My final thanks are to the Creator who made heaven and earth. What has been accomplished began as a question in my mind as a twelve year old boy sitting in a boring history lesson. My mind had drifted from the drone of the teacher’s voice and the irrelevance of the topic and wandered to the emptiness of the school playground. I looked up to the sky and posed this question: “God, if you have made Black and White people equal, haven’t Black people made any positive contribution to the development of the earth?” I now know we have. But God meant it for Good: Inter-personal conflict in an African Caribbean Pentecostal church – A Pastoral Study Contents page Chapter 1 - Introduction 1 Conflict, a characteristic of democratic life 2 Conflict: Initial observations and understanding 4 Defining conflict - Initial considerations 9 The nature of conflict 11 Understanding conflict from different perspectives 13 The emergence of Womanist Theology 16 Womanist Theology in the Caribbean and the UK 18 A considered perspective on the effects of internalised conflict 22 Defining of Terms 26 The Black Majority Church in Britain – A historical overview 26 African Caribbean Identity, a constant state of flux 28 Diaspora and diaspora communities 34 Outline of the thesis 39 Conclusion 44 CHAPTER 2 – Methodology 46 Introduction 46 The purpose of methodology 47 i The problem of objectivity 49 The validity of multiple methodologies 50 Autoethnography as a methodology 52 What is autoethnography? 53 The process of authoethnograpy 55 Collecting data 56 Managing Data 58 The need of writing and rewriting for self-discovery 61 The nature of reflexivity 63 Personal context 66 Race and identity matters 68 Autoethnography and writing typologies 70 Criticisms of autoethnography 72 The role of ethics 77 Representation of the other 79 Journals as a means of collecting data and proving a source of understanding 86 The history of journals 86 Logs, diaries and journals 87 Journal and their purposes 88 Reflection and its critiques 90 Model of theological reflection 91 Pastoral Cycle: The Doing Theology Spiral 93 Conclusion 96 ii Chapter 3 - Resources for a Black British Pastoral Theology 99 Introduction 99 Very early writings - Making Contact 1960 – 1970 100 Early Writers – 1970 -1990 101 The early emergence of Black Christian voices 106 Later Writings - 1990 – 2000 113 The meaning of church for African Caribbean people 113 Emerging voices for a Black theology 120 Black theology through a Black Christology 109 Contemporary writings - 2000 and beyond 125 Contemporary critiques of Black theology 133 Further critiques and developments in Black theology in the twenty first century 136 Black Pastoral Theology across the Atlantic 138 Conclusion 144 Chapter 4 - Context of conflict in the Caribbean and in Britain 147 Introduction 147 Slavery in Jamaica 148 The Transatlantic Slave Trade 148 The Middle Passage 150 The quest for freedom 152 iii The Windrush generation: Social and religious conflict 154 The meaning of colour 156 Welcoming the stranger 161 The origins of the Church of God of Prophecy 164 The Caribbean – The Church of God of Prophecy's mission exploits 166 The Church of God of Prophecy in England and Black Pentecostalism 167 The Church of God of Prophecy in East London- A space for worship and a crucible of conflict 172 Interpersonal conflict and its visible consequences 174 The quest for new knowledge as a source