GO Religioscapes · Churches, Arks of Migratory Narratives: A Comparative Study of the Greek-Orthodox Religioscapes in Germany and Great Britain

Churches, Arks of Migratory Narratives: A Comparative Study of the Greek-Orthodox Religioscapes in Germany and Great Britain

This research project deals with the Greek and Greek-Cypriot migrant communities in Germany and Great Britain, particularly with reference to their religiocultural symbolic constellations found in the public sphere, which illustrate the particularities of their establishment and integration in the receiving country. As regards the Greek Gastarbeiter, they identified their communities with their parishes, as the church often functioned as head of community and a link between them and the state. The bulk of the Greek-Cypriot Commonwealth migrants on the other hand, found the Greek-Orthodox Archdiocese already established as well, and, as they expanded and dispersed across the British Isles, so did the parishes, which, in both cases, have served as arks of culture and identity. In that respect, one observes the phenomenon of interwoven migrant and church narratives; in the lapse of time, community and church, being closely knit, jointly constructed their migrant narratives of de- and reterritorialisation, cultural adaptation and hybridisation, essentially their own distinct sense of being and belonging. The particularities of this constantly under construction identity are manifest in the architecture, hagiographical/iconographical themes, aesthetics and concepts of their churches, which, albeit within canonical specifications, often deviate from the normative typology as it is graphically attested by the occurrences of the phenomenon thereof. It is typical, however, of the Byzantine hagiographic/iconographic tradition to take into account and demonstrate the socio-political conditions of its time and place; and, those visual manifestations are part of a sociocultural reality as such, given that they possess a contextual dimension with reference to their symbolic content, their thematic endorsement and the appropriation of extra-ecclesiastical identity elements, but they are also an act and a medium of communication in their own right. It is therefore feasible to decode their aforementioned content and articulate the narrative that they convey. The project has produced knowledge in intra-European migration in conjunction with the formation of religioscapes, and sheds light on novel dimensions concerning the theoretical as well as methodological approach of the topic, which emanates from the constructive interdisciplinary application of Religious Studies and Social Sciences. This study is pertinent considering the contemporary and future dynamics of intra-European migration and the problématique concerning the phenomenon, given that the theoretical and methodological outcomes are implementable in a broader Eastern Orthodox context, while due to increased mobility the formation of religioscapes will continue; therefore, so will the post-secular utilisation of religiosity as a purveyor of a sense of belonging.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union