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Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean southwest of the Bay of Bengal and southeast of the Arabian Sea. Sri Lanka has been called “The pearl of the Indian ocean” because of its shape and location. It is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital, and Colombo is its largest city and centre of commerce.
The free-market economy of Sri Lanka is worth $92.111 billion by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and $321.856 billion by purchasing power parity (PPP). The country has experienced an annual growth of 6.4 percent from 2003 to 2012, well above its regional peers. With an income per capita of 12,811 PPP Dollars or 4,103 nominal US dollars, Sri Lanka is an upper middle income nation. The main economic sectors of the country are tourism, tea export, apparel, textile, rice production and other agricultural products. In addition to these economic sectors, overseas employment contributes highly in foreign exchange.
The Dutch Reformed Church was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation until 1930. It was the foremost Protestant denomination, and—since 1892—one of the two major Reformed denominations along with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.
Amarasiri Dodangoda was a Sri Lankan politician, the former Minister of Justice and Law Reforms (2005–2009) and the second Chief Minister of the Southern Province (1993–1994).
In Sri Lanka, districts are the second-level administrative divisions, and are included in a province. There are 25 districts organized into 9 provinces. Each district is administered under a district secretary, who is appointed by the central government. The main tasks of the district secretariat involve coordinating communications and activities of the central government and divisional secretariats. The district secretariat is also responsible for implementing and monitoring development projects at the district level and assisting lower-level subdivisions in their activities, as well as revenue collection and coordination of elections in the district. A district is divided into a number of Divisional Secretary's Divisions, which are in turn subdivided into 14,022 grama niladhari divisions. There are 331 DS divisions in the country.
Matara is a major city in Sri Lanka, on the southern coast of Southern Province. It is the second largest city in Southern Province. It is 160 km (99 mi) from Colombo. It is a major commercial hub, and it is the administrative capital and largest city of Matara District.
The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the pope in Rome. The country comes under the province of Colombo and is made up of 12 dioceses including one archdiocese. There are approximately 1.2 million Catholics in Sri Lanka representing around 6.1% of the total population.
The extra-provincial Anglican churches are a group of small, semi-independent church entities within the Anglican Communion. Unlike the larger member churches of the Communion, extra-provincial churches are not part of an ecclesiastical province and are subject to the metropolitical oversight of the Archbishop of Canterbury or theorically of another bishop. As of 2018 there are five extra-provincial churches. In almost every case, these churches consist of just one diocese, although the Church of Ceylon is an exception, having two.
Christianity is a minority religion in Sri Lanka. Christianity was introduced to the island in first century, probably in AD 72. Traditionally, after Thomas the Apostle's visit in Kerala in AD 52, Christianity is said to have been introduced via India because of its close geographical and commercial ties. According to Christian traditions, the apostle Thomas preached the Gospel in Sri Lanka. Records suggest that St. Thomas Christians and Nestorian Christians lived in Sri Lanka. Anuradhapura cross is one of the archaeological claims that suggest Christianity in Sri Lanka before the Portuguese. Roman Catholicism was introduced by the Portuguese in 1505. There were conversions by Dutch persons in the 17th century, which resulted in a percentage of church members in excess of 10%.
Anglican and other Protestant missionaries arrived at Sri Lanka during the early 19th century, when the British took control of Sri Lanka from the Dutch. The oldest Protestant church in Sri Lanka is the Christian Reformed Church in Sri Lanka, formerly the Dutch Reformed Church in Sri Lanka, has over 30 congregations and more than 5,000 members.
The Jaffna Diocese is the Church of South India diocese for northern Sri Lanka. The current bishop is Daniel Thiagarajah.
The Church of Ceylon is the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka. It is an extra-provincial jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who serves as its Metropolitan. It was established in 1845 with the appointment of the first Bishop of Colombo, James Chapman, and until 1950 it consisted of a single diocese; in that year a second diocese was established at Kurunegala.
Pallewatte Gamaralalage Maithripala Yapa Sirisena is a Sri Lankan politician, who served as the seventh President of Sri Lanka from 9 January 2015 to 18 November 2019. Sirisena is Sri Lanka's first president from the North Central Province of the country and does not belong to the traditional Sri Lankan political elite. He is currently a member of parliament from Polonnaruwa.
Unnanthi Piyankara Jayaratne, MP is a Sri Lankan politician and a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Galle Fort, in the Bay of Galle on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, was built first in 1588 by the Portuguese, then extensively fortified by the Dutch during the 17th century from 1649 onwards. It is a historical, archaeological and architectural heritage monument, which even after more than 432 years maintains a polished appearance, due to extensive reconstruction work done by Archaeological Department of Sri Lanka.
The Christian Reformed Church of Sri Lanka is the oldest Protestant church on the island.
Wolvendaal Church is located in Pettah, a neighbourhood of Colombo. It is one of the most important Dutch Colonial era buildings in Sri Lanka, and is one of the oldest Protestant churches still in use in the country.
On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated Islamic terrorist suicide bombings. Later that day, there were smaller explosions at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest house in Dehiwala. A total of 267 people were killed, including at least 45 foreign nationals, three police officers, and eight bombers, and at least 500 were injured. The church bombings were carried out during Easter services in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo; the hotels that were bombed were the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Tropical Inn. According to the State Intelligence Service, a second wave of attacks was planned, but was stopped as a result of government raids.
Union Church, is an interdenominational church, located on Old Uddpussalawa Road in Nuwara Eliya.
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