After the breakdown of communism in Poland, Czech Republic, and the GDR, and after the reunification of Germany, former Vietnamese contract workers from eastern European countries settled in Germany. Hundreds of them joined Vietnamese Pentecostal churches in the diaspora, simultaneously maintaining close connections to so-called underground churches in Vietnam.
In my paper, I will outline the processes of contestation and conflict in a Vietnamese charismatic Pentecostal church in Germany with branches in different German cities as well as in former eastern European countries, in Vietnam, and in other countries of Asia. I will focus on the schism of this church, which happened during my fieldwork among Vietnamese migrants in Berlin. As a consequence of the split, a new mobility emerged concerning the travelling of born again people to other churches, the daily or weekly communication with Vietnamese Pentecostal churches in other places, the visits of pastors from outside, and the participation of believers in so-called nation-wide organized summer and winter conferences.
While concentrating on different actors (mobile pastors and mobile believers) as well as on different places (churches, wholesale markets, and house cells) I will analyse the difficulties of the new church in finding a place of worship. From a methodological point of view, I will furthermore elaborate on the challenges of fieldwork and participant observation with highly mobile people: the interconnectedness of multiple religious networks on the periphery is challenging the power of the center.