Methodist Church in the Caribbean and Americas

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Coordinates: 17 ° 7 ′ 14 ″  N , 61 ° 50 ′ 29 ″  W The Methodist Church in the Caribbean and Americas  (WCCA) , German Methodist Church in the Caribbean and Latin America , is an autonomous conference (denomination, church) of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and Central America . It has a good 60,000 members.

history

The beginnings of Methodism go back to the year 1759, when the Antiguan planter Nathaniel Gilbert, lawyer and chairman of the Antiguan House of Assembly , returned from a trip to England on which he met John Wesley , the founder of the Methodist religious practice (hence also Wesleyan Church ), and began to proselytize. There were about 200 Methodists around 1774 when Gilbert died. In 1778 the preacher John Baxter came to Antigua, in 1784 he was appointed head of the Antiguan Methodists by the Baltimore Conference . The first Methodist chapel was built in St. John's in 1783 ; it already had 2000 seats. In the 1780s the faith began to spread to the other Caribbean islands, so in 1786 more British pastors came to Antigua, St. Kitts and St, Vincent.

The Methodists were particularly involved in the poor mission and took care of the colored slaves, while the Anglican Church of England was until the late 19th century primarily the churches of the white settler families, and the Presbyterian Church of Scotland that of the privateers. Even after the abolition of slavery, Anglicanism continued to show class arrogance in some places.

The Methodists paid particular attention to school education, and in 1812 the first school for slave children in the Caribbean was built in what is now Bethesda (Antigua) . The Wesleyans ran numerous village schools until the middle of the 20th century.

Around 1850, for example, Methodism in Antigua was the third largest religious community with 3000 followers behind Anglicanism (almost 7000) and the Moravian Church ( Moravian Church , almost 5000).

In 1884 two West Indian Conferences were formed and attempts were made to gain independence from the Methodist Church of Great Britain , which was the mother church.

In May 1967 an autonomous Methodist Church was founded for the Caribbean and the adjacent areas of both Americas. In 1971 the pastoral care area of ​​the church was divided into 8  districts (dioceses). In 1997 a church reform was carried out in the direction of strengthening regional structures

Today the Church has about 62,000 members,

organization

The basis of the church are the congregations , the parishes of the faithful. Ministers ( pastor, pastor , official title Reverend ) usually look after several parishes. In principle, the congregations (older Society ) are once again organized in circles in the manner of school classes ( Methodist Class System ) , in which particularly close contact is maintained. This form, which goes back to the early days of Methodism, is hardly practiced today.

The lowest administrative level is made up of the Circuits (church districts), which are presided over by a superintendent , one of the pastors. Administrative bodies are the Circuit Pastoral Council and Circuit Council .

The 8  Districts are headed by a District President (roughly equivalent to a bishop). The governing body is the District Conference .

The whole church is led analogously by a joint conference, the Connexional Conference as head of the church, which is presided over by a Connexional President . The Rev. Dr. George MacD. Mulrain. The conference is attended equally by lay people and clergy. The Connexional Council is the executive body.

The Methodist Church in the Caribbean and Americas currently has 700  congregations and around 170 pastors.

List of Districts

Ang ... relatives (does not correspond to the number of members)
S / C… stations / circuits
Since ... the beginning of the mission
Conference countries Ang. Seat S / C since
Bahamas / Turks and Caicos Islands District (BTCI) BahamasBahamas Bahamas , Turks and Caicos IslandsTurks Islands and Caicos IslandsTurks and Caicos Islands  09/ 08
Belize / Honduras District BelizeBelize Belize , HondurasHondurasHonduras  07/ 07
Guyana District GuyanaGuyana Guyana 20,000 Georgetown 06th
Haiti District (Eglise Méthodiste d'Haiti) HaitiHaiti Haiti 30,000 11 1817
Jamaica District JamaicaJamaica Jamaica 60,000 Kingston 33/27 1789
Leeward Islands District Antigua and BarbudaAntigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda , Dominica , France , Netherlands , St. Kitts and Nevis , USA , UKDominicaDominica FranceFrance NetherlandsNetherlands Saint Kitts NevisSt. Kitts and Nevis United StatesUnited States United KingdomUnited Kingdom  St. John's (ATG) 16/15 1759/60 (Antigua)
Panama / Costa Rica District PanamaPanama Panama , Costa RicaCosta RicaCosta Rica  11,000 05/ 05 around 1820 (Panama)
South Caribbean District BarbadosBarbados Barbados , Grenada , St. Lucia , St. Vincent and the Grenadines , Trinidad and TobagoGrenadaGrenada Saint LuciaSt. Lucia Saint Vincent GrenadinesSt. Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and TobagoTrinidad and Tobago  Bridgetown (BRB) 11/10 1787 (Saint Vincent)

activities

Today, the church is primarily active in local pastoral care, since the management of schools has ceased to exist due to the expansion of the state school system in the area.

It is particularly closely associated with the United Methodist Church of the United States and the United Church of Canada . It is also very close to the ecumenical commitment, and a founding member of the Caribbean Conference of Churches  (CCC) and the World Methodist Council (Methodist World Council Churches ,  WMC represented), and since 1967 the World Council of Churches (World Council of Churches , WCC / WCC ).

Web links

  1. ↑ BTCI District Conference (btcicmcca.org) ( Memento from April 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - currently not available (3/2014)
  2. ↑ Guyana District (on mccalive.org) ( Memento of August 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Jamaica District (jamaicamethodist.org) ( Memento from May 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Leeward Islands District (mcca-lid.org) ( Memento from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) - currently unavailable (3/2014)
  5. ↑ South Caribbean District (mcca-southcaribbean.org) ( Memento of 2 August 2012 at the Internet Archive )
  1. ↑ Methodist Church of Antigua & Barbuda (methodistchurchantigua.org)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Our History and Heritage. ( Memento of August 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) mccalive.org; the early history in more detail Our history , methodistchurchantigua.org (4 parts).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas , World Council of Churches, oikoumene.org → Member Churches , accessed March 22, 2014.
  3. ^ History of Methodism in Antigua , methodistchurchantigua.org
  4. ↑ Census 1856; according to The Report of the Registrar General of Births and Deaths of the Census taken November 17, 1856… Enclosure in No. 17. In: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (Ed.): Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons . Table No 4 Religious Denomination of the total Population , p. 72 ( Google eBook, full view - Ordered to be printed 1858).
  5. ^ Our Church: Structure of the District. ( Memento of October 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) mcca-southcaribbean.org
  6. ↑ a b 1997 the districts were given greater responsibility, so the District Synod was renamed Conference and the head of the Chairman of the District was renamed President . Our History and Heritage. ( Memento of August 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) mccalive.org
  7. ↑ a b c Our Structure. ( Memento of November 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) mccalive.org
  8. ^ Class Structure - The Methodist Class System - An Instrument of Survival , methodistchurchantigua.org
  9. ↑ Some of the Presidents also call themselves Bishop .
  10. ↑ a b Connexional Conference. ( Memento of March 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) mccalive.org
  11. ↑ a b The Connexional Council. ( Memento of November 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) mccalive.org
  12. ↑ Methodist Church in Haiti: A Small Church with a Big Heart ( Memento June 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Mary Beth Coudal, at gbgm-umc.org, accessed March 23, 2014.
  13. ^ Leslie John Griffiths: A History of Methodism in Haiti 1817-1916. Diploma thesis, University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, 1986.
  14. ^ History ( Memento from January 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), jamaicamethodist.org
  15. ↑ there also the United Methodist Church (USA) resident
  16. ↑ the Methodist Church of Costa Rica is an offshoot of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States . zirkelministrycostarica.com ( Memento from September 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ Charles Yrigoyen Jr., Susan E. Warrick: Historical Dictionary of Methodism . Series Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements Series . 3. Edition. Scarecrow Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-7894-5 , pp. 222 (Panama) and 223 (Costa Rica) ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  18. ^ Clifton L. Holland: Status of Christianity Country Profile: Panama . Chapter Eight of the Latin american socio-religious studies project (PROLADES). 1981, 4.2.2 The Wesleyan Methodists and Figure 21 Chronological table of Protestant origins in panama, 1698-1980 , p. 29 (and f) ( prolades.com [PDF] Original Draft; October 1981, Last Revised: November 2012).
  19. ^ Methodism in the Caribbean. ( Memento of October 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) mcca-southcaribbean.org