The Anglican Diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands was originally established in 1861 as the Diocese of Nassau. Retitled the Diocese of Nassau and The Bahamas in 1942, it is now known as the Diocese of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is a diocese of the Church in the Province of the West Indies, a constituent province of the Anglican Communion.
When the Bahamas was granted to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina by the English Crown in 1670 one of the conditions was the establishment of the Anglican church on the islands. [1] The first Christ Church was built in Nassau between 1670 and 1684 to act as the Parish church of the colony. [1] This wooden structure and its successor were destroyed by the Spanish and a third wooden building was demolished to make way in 1754 for a stone built structure. This, in turn, was enlarged to become the present building in 1841.
In 1729, with the arrival of Woodes Rogers the first Royal Governor, the Bahamian church was established by law and came under the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. [1] In 1768, a second parish of St John's was created to serve Harbour Island and Eleuthera. [1] When the Diocese of Jamaica was created in 1824, the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands were incorporated into that diocese, [1] becoming, in 1844, a separate Archdeaconry.
On 4 November 1861, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands became a diocese in their own right [1] as the Diocese of Nassau. The township of Nassau was proclaimed a city and Christ Church made the diocesan cathedral. The Anglican church was disestablished in 1869.
In 1999, Angela Palacious was ordained as the first woman deacon in the Anglican Diocese of Nassau's 138-year history [2] and the following year, she became the first Bahamian woman to be ordained as an Anglican priest. [3]
The majority of the population of the Turks and Caicos Islands are Christian. They include Protestant 72.8%, Baptists 35.8%, Church of God 11.7%, Roman Catholics 11.4%, Anglicans 10%, Methodists 9.3%, Seventh-Day Adventists 6%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.8%, and Other 14%
Drexel Wellington Gomez is a Bahamian Anglican bishop.
Arthur Dion "A. D." Hanna was a Bahamian politician who served as the eighth governor-general of the Bahamas from 2006 to 2010.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nassau is an archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in the Caribbean. The archdiocese encompasses the islands of the former British dependency of the Bahamas. The archbishop is the metropolitan responsible for the suffragan diocese of Diocese of Hamilton in Bermuda and the Mission sui iuris of Turks and Caicos, and is a member of the Antilles Episcopal Conference.
Sir Alfred Étienne Jérôme Dupuch, OBE, KSG was a Bahamian journalist and politician.
The Church in the Province of the West Indies is one of 40 member provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church comprises eight dioceses spread out over much of the West Indies area. The present position of Archbishop and Primate of the West Indies is held by the current bishop of Jamaica, Howard Gregory. Gregory was elected as the thirteenth Archbishop of the Province by clergy and laity attending the 40th Synod of the CPWI at the Cascadia Hotel, in Port of Spain, Trinidad in May 2019, succeeding John Holder who retired in 2018. Drexel Gomez was the primate before Bishop Holder until 2009. The church is also part of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches.
Bahamians are people originating or having roots from The Commonwealth of The Bahamas. One can also become a Bahamian by acquiring citizenship.
The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
The following is a list of Anglican churches in the Americas.
The Catholic Church in the Bahamas is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Columbus landed on one of the islands of the Bahamas in 1492 which he named San Salvador.
The Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is a diocese of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. It was originally formed as the Diocese of Jamaica, within the Church of England, in 1824. At that time the diocese included the Bahamas and British Honduras ; in 1842, her jurisdiction was described as "Jamaica, British Honduras, the Bahamas". The Bahamas became a separate Diocese in 1861 and British Honduras in 1891. In 2001, the title of the Diocese of Jamaica was extended to include ‘and the Cayman Islands’ to recognise the growth of the Anglican Church in those islands, which had become part of the diocese of Jamaica in the 1960s.
The Bishop of Nassau was an episcopal title given to the Ordinary of the Anglican Diocese of Nassau, from its formation in 1861 until it was retitled the Diocese of Nassau and The Bahamas in 1942.
Henry Norris Churton was an Anglican colonial bishop in the 20th century.
Edward Townson Churton was an Anglican colonial bishop in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Spence Burton was an Anglican bishop in the mid 20th century and the first American to be consecrated a bishop in the Church of England.
Bernard Markham was an Anglican bishop in the 20th century.
Michael Hartley Eldon was an Anglican bishop in the 20th century.
Cornell Jerome Moss was the Bishop of Guyana from 8 December 2009 until his death.
Angela Palacious is a Bahamian minister of religion and author.
Dame Doris Sands Johnson was a Bahamian teacher, suffragette, and politician. She was the first Bahamian woman to contest an election in the Bahamas, the first female Senate appointee, and the first woman granted a leadership role in the Senate. Once in the legislature, she was the first woman to be made a government minister and then was elected as the first woman President of the Senate. She was the first woman to serve as Acting Governor General of the Bahamas, and was honored as Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.