Ribbens, MichaelDe Beer, Stephanus Francois2018-07-092018-07-092017-11-27Ribbens, M. & De Beer, S.F., 2017, ‘Churches claiming a right to the city? Lived urbanisms in the City of Tshwane’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 73(3), a4690. https://DOI. org/ 10.4102/hts.v73i3.4690.0259-9422 (print)2072-8050 (online)10.4102/hts.v73i3.4690http://hdl.handle.net/2263/65335This article forms part of a collaborative research project entitled ‘Religious innovation and competition amidst urban social change: a Pretoria case study’. The project is also a sub-theme of the ‘Faith in the City’ research project, hosted by the Centre for Contextual Ministry in the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria.This article sets out to describe how churches have responded and continue to respond to fastchanging urban environments in Pretoria Central and Mamelodi East, animating Henri Lefebvre’s sociological perspective of citadins or urban inhabitants. We make tentative interpretations and offer critical appreciation. Churches, which were historically separated from the city centre, now directly participate in claiming a right to the city. With necessary fluidity, churches express lived African urbanisms through informality, place-making, spatial innovation and everyday rituals. Though not exhaustive, the article focuses on rituals shared among historic urban Christians and contemporary African urban Christians, namely prayer, listening to the Bible and worship. These rituals, when combined with the churches’ spatial innovation, to a certain degree contribute to place-making.en© 2017. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.ChurchesUrban environmentsSeparatedEveryday ritualsSpatial innovationPlace-makingInformalityAfrican urbanismCity of TshwaneTheology articles SDG-01SDG-01: No povertyTheology articles SDG-04SDG-04: Quality educationTheology articles SDG-10SDG-10: Reduced inequalitiesTheology article SDG-11SDG-11: Sustainable cities and communitiesTheology article SDG-16SDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutionsArticle