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Chapter Four explores the issues raised in Flushing by a radically and rapidly changing religious, racial, and ethnic landscape during the 1980s and 1990s and what set of factors and zoning laws contributed to this transformation. It chronicles both the possibilities and limits of pluralism as the community ideology of religious freedom and toleration so celebrated in the 1940s–50s was tested to the breaking point when places of worship proliferated into a dense microcosm of world religions by 2000. Focusing on the levels and contexts of interaction between groups in modern Flushing, the narrative shifts into a more ethnographic mode and theoretical analysis of pluralism in Flushing. Referring back to examples of each group in the history of Flushing that make up the bulk of the preceding chapters illustrates the range of different responses to religious diversity from conflict to cooperation, mission work to multiethnic congregations and interfaith.

This chapter presents the findings from a case study of Abundant Life, a multiethnic, multinational, charismatic/Pentecostal congregation in Limerick City. It provides a history of the congregation, including growth fed by immigration, and argues that Abundant Life can be considered an example of extra-institutional religion because of how its people define themselves in opposition to the Irish Catholic Church. It also analyses how Abundant Life is negotiating immigration and ethnic diversity. There are remarkably harmonious relationships between native Irish and immigrants, which were built in large part on a leadership model in which one ethnic group does not hold significantly more power than others—although challenges remained when it came to building cross-cultural relationships. It argues that Abundant Life negotiates diversity more effectively than traditional congregations and denominations. It may be better placed to contribute to socio-political transformations, and to model reconciliation between groups, than traditional religious institutions.

This chapter presents the findings from a case study of St Patrick’s United Church, a multiethnic, ecumenical (Methodist–Presbyterian) congregation under the care of the Methodist Church in Waterford City. It provides a history of the congregation, including growth fed by immigration. It explains how it can be considered an example of extra-institutional religion, focusing on its ambivalent relationship with the Irish Catholic Church, and apparent in how people spoke of being Christian in a post-Catholic Ireland, being Christian in a pluralist congregation, and rejecting the classical ecumenical project. It also analyses how St Patrick’s negotiates diversity, creating a multicultural haven that can serve as a model for other groups, although challenges remain around cultural differences and building cross-cultural relationships. It argues that St Patrick’s negotiates diversity more effectively than traditional congregations and denominations, and may be better placed to contribute to socio-political transformations than traditional religious institutions.