A CHRONOLOGY OF PROTESTANT BEGINNINGS:
LEEWARD ISLANDS

by Dr. Clifton L. Holland

(last revised on June 12, 2003)

Historical Overview:

Discovery by Christopher Columbus on several voyages to the New World:                      1492-1500

Spanish occupation and first Roman Catholic missionaries arrive in Guadalupe:                        1523

French take control of Guadalupe and other smaller islands:                                                 1630s

British take control (except for the French-controlled islands), Treaty of Versailles:                   1793

British colonize Anguilla, St. Kitts-Nevis and the Virgin Islands:                                               1816

Slavery abolished:                                                                                                               1838

Separation of the Virgin Islands:                                                                                           1871

Antigua achieves self-government:                                                                                        1966

Separation of St. Kitts from Anguilla:                                                                                     1980

 

Indicates European society*

Significant Protestant Beginnings or Events in the following islands:  Anguilla, Antigua, Guadeloupe (also Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre and Marie-Galante), Montserrat, St. Kitts, St. Christopher and Nevis.

     1623       -    First British settlement in the Caribbean on St. Kitts, led by Thomas Walker; also occupied Nevis Island in 1628.

 

     1634       -    *Anglican chaplains arrive with British occupation; the Church of England becomes the Established Church after the first Anglican priest arrived in Antigua; after 1824, Antigua became part of the Bishopric of Barbados; the Bishopric of Antigua was established in 1842 with responsibility for church matters in Antigua, Aruba, Barbuda, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis, Saba, St. Barts, St. Eustatuis, St. Martin and St. Kitts; this area is now part of the Church in the Province of the West Indies.

 

     1635       -    *French Huguenot colonists settle on Guadalupe and Martinique; this was the basis for the development of the Reformed Church of the Antilles – Eglise Evangélique de la Guadeloupe.

 

     1756       -    *The Moravian Church in Antigua; entered St. Kitts in 1777; now part of the East Indies Province of the Moravian Church.

 

     1760       -    *Wesleyan Methodist layman Nathaniel Gilbert, a plantation owner who was converted in England through the teaching of John Wesley, returned to Antigua in 1760 and became a lay preacher.

 

     1787       -    *The Wesleyan Methodist Church began work in Antigua and St. Kitts, as an extension of its ministry in Jamaica, under the authority of Bishop Dr. Thomas Coke; other islands were also visited; work in Anguilla began in 1813 and in Montserrat in 1820; in 1968, these islands became part of the Conference of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas.

 

     1850       -    Roman Catholic Church establishes a parish on Anguilla, and in 1861 in St. Kitts-Nevis.

 

     1904       -    The Salvation Army in Antigua.

 

     1910       -    Canadian Pentecostals arrive on Montserrat and build a thriving work, still related to the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.

 

     1943       -    Church of God World Missions (Cleveland, TN): St. Kitts in 1943, Guadeloupe in 1946 and Antigua in 1954.     

 

     1944       -    Seventh-day Adventists:  Antigua and Anguilla; entered Guadalupe in 1965; later in St. Kitts-Nevis.

 

     1946       -    Church of God (Anderson, IN):  in St. Kitts and Nevis in 1946.

 

     1947       -    World Team (formerly, West Indies Mission) in Guadalupe

 

     1950       -    Independent Faith Mission in Antigua.

 

     1964       -    Southern Baptist Convention:  in Guadeloupe, Antigua and St. Kitts.

 

     1968       -    Baptist International Missions in Anguilla; Antigua in 1975; St. Christopher-Nevis in 1994.

 

     1996       -    Habitat for Humanity International

 

    

Date of Origin Unknown:

 

-       Antioch Baptist Church

 

-       Assemblies of the First Born

 

-       Brethren Assemblies or Christian Brethren (Plymouth Brethren)

 

-       Church of God of Prophecy

 

-       Christian Church and Churches of Christ

 

-       Evangelical Faith Mission

 

-       Pentecostal churches in France have sent missionaries to several islands, including Guadalupe.

 

-       Pilgrim Holiness (now part of The Wesleyan Church)

 

 

NOTES:

(1)       Dates listed indicate the earliest recorded ministry or in case of discrepancies, the date most frequently indicated.

 

(2)       North American Agencies include U.S. and Canadian.

SOURCES:

(1) Daryl L. Platt, "Who Represents the Evangelical Churches in Latin America? A Study of the Evangelical Fellowship Organizations." Pasadena, CA: an unpublished Doctor of Missiology Dissertation, School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary, June 1991. Used by permission of the author.

(2) PROLADES (Latin American Socio-religious Studies Program), international headquarters in San José, Costa Rica: www.prolades.com, prolades@racsa.co.cr

            (3) John A. Siewert and Edna G. Valdez, editors: Mission Handbook of U.S. and Canadian Christian Ministries Overseas (MARC 1997).

(4) Jean-Jacques Bauswein and Lukas Vischer, The Reformed Family Worldwide (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999).

(5) Clifton L. Holland, editor, World Christianity:  Central America and the Caribbean (MARC-World Vision International, 1981)

(6) J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann, editors, Religions of the World (ABC-Clio Publishers, 2002)