Abstract
This dissertation examines how women express their faith with three Prophetic Pentecostal Churches (PPCs) - Rabboni Centre Ministries, Enlightened Christian Gathering, and Alleluia Ministries International - in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on how women feature in prophetic worship, healing, prayer, and testimony services streamed on social media. The data includes nine online services (three per church) hosted between April and September 2020, along with user interactions and testimonies from these services. The research uses thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns and themes in these services, including women's roles and responses to sermons and spiritual practices. When examining how women feature and express their faith, authority emerged as key to understanding their roles, as power — viewed through Foucault’s relational theory and African feminist insights from Dube and Oduyoye — circulates through church leaders whose spiritual authority shapes women’s participation within patriarchal structures.
The study found that male leaders in Rabboni Centre Ministries and Enlightened Christian Gathering maintained control over formal leadership through practices such as anointing, prayer, and faith, while women actively participated in these spiritual practices and claimed authority through testimonies and prayer, especially in online worship settings. This revealed that power within PPCs is fluid and contested, with authority negotiated relationally rather than remaining fixed. Alleluia Ministries international decentralized leadership model emerged as an example of more inclusive participation, offering a counterpoint to the hierarchical structures of the other two churches. The pandemic-driven shift to digital platforms provided women with new opportunities to participate meaningfully in worship, challenging traditional gender roles and creating spaces for collaborative faith practices. Through these findings, the research contributes to scholarship on gender dynamics in Pentecostalism, digital religion, and African feminist theology by demonstrating how power, faith, and gender intersect in both physical and virtual spaces.
Practical and policy recommendations for digital ministry training and collaborative leadership development are also provided, underscoring the potential for transformative change within religious communities. This research highlights the importance of sharing leadership roles and reimaging spiritual authority to foster greater gender equality and ensure that PPCs remain relevant in the evolving social landscape.