Diocese of Barbados

The Diocese of Barbados is one of eight dioceses of the Anglican Communion that is part of the Province of the West Indies.

History

The diocese was established in 1824 as one of a pair, the other being the Diocese of Jamaica, which covered the whole Caribbean. Before that, the area was nominally part of the Bishop of London's responsibility, a situation that had been assumed to hold from 1660 onwards. The Bishops of London were regarded as having responsibility for the churches in the colonies in the early seventeenth century; but it was not until 1675 that a Bishop of London formally undertook that task, making recommendations through the Board for Trade and Plantations. His involvement resulted in clergy being part of the vestries for the first time in 1681. Prior to 1824, the functions of the Bishop of London were limited to ordaining those candidates who presented themselves, and licensing Clergy. The appointment of bishops provided coordination for the work of the Church in each diocese. Efforts which depended on the will of each minister, now came to be part of a strategy for the whole diocese. A major component of this strategy was the religious instruction of Negro slaves in Barbados. The following address was unanimously agreed to at a meeting of the Clergy of the Island of Barbados on Tuesday the 5th day of August, 1823: “The Clergy of Barbados, sensible of the benefits which must result to any society from extending religious Instruction to every member of it feel themselves called upon at this moment to submit to the country at large, some plan for the instruction of the Slave Population in the saving of truths of the Christian Religion and in moral virtue, as their best and only foundation of any improvement in their civil and moral condition.