Scholarship on Pentecostal potential and practice forms a significant part of the debate on religion and development, not least when the focus is on sub-Saharan Africa. Yet in this debate African Pentecostal migrant communities have scarcely been represented. The article focuses on two such communities in South Africa, arguing that they may be regarded as developmental agents in the context of racialized xenophobia, even if they do not portray themselves as such. The argument is based on ethnographic fieldwork and shaped through employing the concept of transformational development that centers on restoring relationships. The article concludes that the two communities – living in a context affected by racialized xenophobia – contribute meaningfully towards restoring relationships between people and God, one's relationship with oneself, relationships within the church community as well as relationships between the church community and the neighborhood.

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This paper explores the effect of intercessory prayers as experienced by Black African migrant women in the context of xenophobia. Drawing on an ethnographic study of the experiences of Black African migrant women at St Aidan’s Anglican Church (saac), located in a migrant-dominated area in Johannesburg, I discuss the transformative experiences of health, wealth and relationships resulting from intercessory prayers that challenged the context of xenophobia in which saac functioned. While the transformation observed in the study was limited in time and space, I argue that certain church practices can be transformative if intentionally designed in ways that are sensitive to the specific context in which that church functions.