ABSTRACT
The globalisation of the Pentecostal-charismatic movement has received much scholarly attention, especially regarding Latin America, Africa and Asia, while the European scene, including the UK, has received less notice, with some notable exceptions (see Coleman 2000; Hunt et al. 1997; Percy 1996; Martin 2002: chap. 2). Attempting to help redress the oversight, this chapter examines a controversial US-based, white-led organisation that in Britain is backed primarily by black1
Pentecostalists. During the 1990s, the American healing revivalist Morris Cerullo attracted public attention and criticism concerning his Mission to London (MTL) revivals.2 The issue of ‘race’,3 though largely unstated, was an integral sub-text, originating from the fact that Cerullo’s core of support derived mainly from the British ‘black churches’.4 Elsewhere I have looked at the controversy in detail (see Schaefer 2002, 2000); here I will identify these churches, focusing on the older, more prevalent African-Caribbean churches, and offer reasons for their support of Cerullo and MTL.
