Bishops of Freetown
- 1981–?1994 Prince Eustace Thompson (died 1994)
- 1996–2013 Julius O. Prince Lynch [3] [4]
- 2013–present Thomas Arnold Wilson (3rd bishop)
The Anglican Diocese of Freetown (Sierra Leone) is a diocese of the Church of the Province of West Africa, a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The current diocese, along with the Anglican Diocese of Bo, was formed in 1981 by the partition of the previous Diocese of Sierra Leone, which had been established in 1852. The diocese of Sierra Leone, together with the dioceses of Niger, Accra, Lagos and the Diocese of Gambia and the River Pongas, had been formed, with some local resistance, into the Province of West Africa in 1951. [1] [2]
The cathedral of the diocese is St. George's Cathedral, Freetown, Sierra Leone, which was built between 1817 and 1828.
The current (2015) Bishop of Freetown is the Right Reverend Thomas Arnold Wilson, the third Bishop of the Diocese.
The Church of the Province of West Africa is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 17 dioceses in eight countries of West Africa, specifically in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Ghana is the country with most dioceses, now numbering 11.
Samuel Crowther was a Yoruba linguist, clergyman, and the first African Anglican bishop of West Africa. Born in Osogun, he and his family were captured by Fulani slave raiders when he was about twelve years old. This took place during the Yoruba civil wars, notably the Owu wars of 1821–1829, where his village Osogun was ransacked. Ajayi was later on resold to Portuguese slave dealers, where he was put on board to be transported to the New World through the Atlantic.
The Archdiocese of Freetown is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Sierra Leone. Its episcopal see is the city of Freetown, the capital and most populous city of the African country. It is a metropolitan see with three suffragan dioceses in its ecclesiastical province.
The Catholic Church in Sierra Leone is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
The Anglican dioceses of Buganda are the Anglican presence in the Central Region, Uganda ; they are part of the Church of Uganda. The remaining dioceses of the Church are in the areas of Eastern Uganda, of Northern Uganda, of Ankole and Kigezi, and of Rwenzori.
The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) is a province of the Anglican Communion, and it is composed by 41 dioceses. The current Leader and Archbishop of Kenya is Jackson Ole Sapit. The Anglican Church of Kenya claims 5 million total members. According to a study published in the Journal of Anglican Studies and by Cambridge University Press, the ACK claims 5 million adherents, with no official definition of membership, with nearly 2 million officially affiliated members, and 310,000 active baptised members. The church became part of the Province of East Africa in 1960, but Kenya and Tanzania were divided into separate provinces in 1970.
Fourah Bay College is a public university in the neighbourhood of Mount Aureol in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded on 18 February 1827, it is the first western-style university built in Sub-Saharan Africa and, furthermore, the first university-level institution in Africa. It is a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone (USL) and was formerly affiliated with Durham University (1876–1967).
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Kenema is a diocese Catholic Church in the ecclesiastical province of Freetown in Sierra Leone. The region that the Diocese comprises are the border from Bo District to the west, the Republic of Liberia in the southeast, Tonkolili District and Kono District in the north, Guinea in the east.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Makeni is a diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Freetown in Sierra Leone. The cathedral is the Our Lady of Fatima Cathedral in Makeni.
The Diocese of Gambia and Guinea was founded in 1935 and had been renamed the Diocese of Gambia and The Rio Pongas by 1940. Today it is simply styled the Diocese of Gambia, is one of 17 dioceses in the Church of the Province of West Africa, and comprises The Gambia, Senegal, and the Cape Verde Islands. In 1985, French-speaking Guinea was split off from it to form the Anglican Diocese of Guinea.
The Anglican Diocese on the Niger is the mother diocese of the Church of Nigeria. It is one of 10 Anglican dioceses in the Anglican Province of the Niger within the Church of Nigeria. The diocese was created in 1864 as the 'Diocese of West African Territories Beyond the British Dominions' or 'Diocese of the Niger' with Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther as the bishop. At Crowther's death in 1891, the diocese was merged with the Lagos and Yoruba sections of the Nigerian mission which had been under the Diocese of Sierra Leone and renamed 'the Diocese of Western Equatorial Africa' with Bishop John Sidney Hill as bishop. He was succeeded by Bishop Herbert Tugwell. In 1920 the Diocese of Equatorial West Africa was divided into two: an eastern part and a western part. A part of the Diocese on the Niger was subsequently carved out in 1946 to create the Niger Delta Diocese.
The Inter-territorial Catholic Bishops' Conference of The Gambia and Sierra Leone (ITCABIC) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
Sierra Leone is officially a secular state, although Islam and Christianity are the two main and dominant religions in the country. The Sierra Leone Government is constitutionally forbidden from establishing a state religion, though Muslim and Christian prayers are usually held in the country at the beginning of major political occasions, including presidential inauguration.
The Sierra Leone Creole people are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African slaves who settled in the Western Area of Sierra Leone between 1787 and about 1885. The colony was established by the British, supported by abolitionists, under the Sierra Leone Company as a place for freedmen. The settlers called their new settlement Freetown. Today, the Sierra Leone Creoles are 1.2 percent of the population of Sierra Leone.
The Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos is one of the 14 ecclesiastical provinces of the Church of Nigeria. It comprises 13 dioceses:
The Anglican Diocese of Guinea is one of 17 dioceses in the Church of the Province of West Africa and comprises the nation of Guinea. It was created in 1985 by the partition of the Diocese of Gambia and Guinea into the English-speaking Diocese of Gambia and the French-speaking Diocese of Guinea.
The Anglican Diocese of Bo (Sierra Leone) is a diocese of the Church of the Province of West Africa, a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its partner diocese is Chichester, England.
Thomas Arnold Ikunika Wilson is an Anglican bishop and scholar in Sierra Leone: he is the current Bishop of Freetown.
The Anglican Diocese of Lagos is one of 13 dioceses within the Anglican Province of Lagos, itself one of 14 provinces within the Church of Nigeria. The current bishop is Ifedola Senasu Gabriel Okupevi who succeeded the late Humphrey Bamisebi Olumakaiye.
The Anglican Diocese of Sierra Leone was founded in 1852. In 1981 it was divided into the new dioceses of Freetown and Bo.
