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This paper explores the idea of ‘superdiversity’ at the city level through two churches with different approaches to architectural visibility: the hypervisible Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the invisible Igbo Catholic Church, both in North London, guide our exploration of invisible Nigerian London. Although Nigerians have lived in London for over 200 years, they live beneath the radar of policy and public recognition rather than as a vital and visible element of superdiversity. This paper argues that we can trace the journeys composing Nigerian London in the deep textures of the city thus making it visible, but this involves re-mapping space and ethnicity. It argues that visibility is vital in generating more open forms of urban encounter and, ultimately, citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reports on the Catholic-Jew interfaith conference on May 23-25, 2000, in London, England. Theme of the event; Topics of discussions and presentations; Key speakers; Event highlights.

The former British Labour Government acknowledged that religious practices play an important role in the development of children's identities [DCFS. (2009). Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century schools system. London: HMSO; DfES (2007). Curriculum review: Diversity and citizenship. London: HMSO]. However, little is known about the ways in which these identities develop in faith settings. This article aims to address language planning in faith lessons of ethnic churches and to reflect on how their language planning dynamics create (or not) opportunities for the children to develop their cultural, linguistic and religious identities. With this purpose, the article reports on part of two investigations of religious settings in the development of children's literacy and identity. The specific language ideologies of these migrant churches are explored mainly through an examination of the qualitative semi-structured interviews with their faith leaders, and comparisons are made to Pentecostal and Catholic leaders of Brazilian migrant groups; newcomers to the UK and with numbers on the rise. It is argued that, although a group's theological orientation is linked to the language ideologies of faith leaders, linguistic and cultural identities play an important role in the (unplanned) language planning of ethnic churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon extensive oral history interviews and long scale participant observation in two London churches, an ethnically diverse Catholic parish in Canning Town and a predominantly West-African Pentecostal congregation in Peckham, this article compares and contrasts differing Christian expressions and understandings of 'civic engagement' and gendered articulations of lay social 'ministry' through prayer, religious praxis and local politics. Through community organizing and involvement in the third sector, but also through spiritual activities like the 'Catholic Prayer Ministry' and 'deliverance', Catholics and Pentecostals are shown to be re-mapping London - a city ripe for reverse mission - through contesting 'secularist' and implicitly gendered distinctions between the public and private/domestic, and the spiritual and political. Greater scholarly appreciation of these subjective understandings of civic engagement and social activism is important for fully recognizing the agency of lay people, and particularly women often marginalized in church-based and institutional hierarchies, in articulating and actuating their call to Christian citizenship and the (re)sacralization of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focused on the London Irish, this article discusses the diasporic dilemmas of Irish Catholics in England who oscillated between four claims to loyalty in the early twentieth century. Liberals and later the labour movement sought to mobilise them for radical political and socialist goals; the Catholic Church to support religious education against secularist threats; a homeland nationalism to advance the prospects of Irish parliamentary autonomy; and a diasporic nationalism to defend their ethnic interests in England. These pressures peaked during the First World War and the Irish War of Independence. The overall effect of this nationalist mobilisation may have been to advance their integration into English social and political institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]