ABSTRACT
The Lea Valley Industrial Park of northeast London there are more than ten transnational churches founded by African migrants. The chapter explores the social disconnectedness by looking at one of this church. It contributes to the discussion about how to ground the description of transnational networks and transnational urbanism within specific places by avoiding free-floating delocalization and the romanticization of localism. The Chapter focuses the processes of place making on D. Massey's understanding of localities, who argues that a locale is not a bounded entity but evolves as a network of social relations and practices. It analyses the performative aspects of place making by focusing on how space is appropriated through aesthetic and ritual practices and how spatial meaning is created within the church. The chapter argues that it is precisely the size, functionality and "emptiness" of the space, from a spiritual point of view, which helps the church achieve the intensity needed to evoke the presence of the Holy Spirit.
