Fugitive joy as diagnostic trace: Hope and reconciliation in secular courts – The Apostolic Faith Mission Zimbabwe case

Background: African Pentecostal churches increasingly resort to civil litigation for internal disputes, bypassing biblical reconciliation mechanisms and leaving the spiritual consequences of such schisms under-examined. Objectives: This study aims to trace where hope, reconciliation, and joy relocate after the 2018–2021 Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) Zimbabwe split and proposes the concept of ‘fugitive joy’ to describe residual practices of connection. Methods: A qualitative desktop analysis was employed, analyzing newspaper articles and social media discourse (Facebook and YouTube) from 2020 to 2025 using thematic analysis. Results: Public discourse was entirely secularized, dominated by tribal, financial, and legal framings rather than biblical language. However, ordinary members generated ‘fugitive joy’ through shared pre-split hymns, silent funeral cooperation, and anonymous digital reactions. Conclusion: While institutional reconciliation failed, lived reconciliation survived as fugitive joy, low-stakes, extra-ecclesiastical practices that serve as a diagnostic trace of hope. Contribution: This article introduces fugitive joy as a new concept for reconciliation theory. It fits the journal’s focus on religion, conflict and peacebuilding by showing how ordinary believers sustain connection after juridification.