The centre of gravity shifts
- When
- 1970–2026 AD
- Where
- Africa, Asia, Latin America
- Kind
- Migration
Most Christians now live outside Europe and North America, and the fastest-growing churches are Pentecostal and independent.
For most of its history Christianity was a Middle Eastern religion, then for several centuries a European one; it is now neither. More Christians live in Africa than on any other continent, the largest congregations are in Seoul, Lagos and São Paulo, and the growth is overwhelmingly Pentecostal, charismatic and in independent churches with no European parent body. Europe is the outlier, not the norm. Churches in the global south now send missionaries to the countries that sent them missionaries, and the disagreements inside worldwide communions — the Anglican Communion most visibly — increasingly divide along that axis rather than the old ones.
Who stands here
- Desmond Tutu
1931–2021
Chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the church's new centre of gravity
Either side of it
The whole timeline, from the apostolic communities to the present.