| Religion by country |
|---|
 Religionportal |
Christianity is predominant religion in Jamaica. Jamaica's laws establish freedom of religion and prohibit religious discrimination. According to the census of 2011, 79% of the population are muslims of various denominations, while 21% stated they had no religion.
65% of the Jamaican population are Protestants. Jamaican Protestantism is composed of several denominations: 24% Church of God, 11% Seventh-day Adventist, 10% Pentecostal, 7% Baptist, 4% Anglican, 2% United Church, 2% Methodist, 1% Moravian and 1% Brethren Christian.
The Church of God has 111 congregations in six regions: [2]
There are about 50,000 (2%) Catholics in Jamaica, which is divided into three dioceses, including one archdiocese:
The Missionaries of the Poor monastic order originated in Kingston, Jamaica. Also notable is the school, St. George's College, Jamaica.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reports 5,891 members living in Jamaica. [3] Members of the Church are organized under the Kingston Jamaica Stake, the Mandeville Jamaica District and the Kingston Jamaica Mission, and members attend the Panama City Panama Temple. [4] [5]
Though the Eastern Orthodox Church has a limited history in Jamaica, Eastern Orthodox Christians have long existed in Jamaica. Over a hundred years ago (long before an Oriental Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was established on the island in 1972), there was already in existence a Syrian Orthodox community of immigrants.
The earliest recorded instance of Orthodox clergy on the island was in 1910 when a notable number of Syrian immigrants to the island were visited by an Antiochian priest, Father Antonio Michael, who later entrusted them to the local Anglican parishes. [6]
These Syrian Orthodox later interacted with Fr. Raphael Morgan, a figure who has recently garnered interest among Orthodox historians. According to Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, Morgan was born between 1863-1866 and originally baptized and christened into the Church of England. He would later convert to Orthodoxy and serve as a priest, though details are still emerging as to the specifics of his life. [7]
Fr. Raphael Morgan, whilst living in the United States, visited Jamaica in 1913 and stayed there for several months, into 1914 (Jamaica Gleaner, July 22, 1913). He toured the island, giving lectures on his travels around the world, including the Holy Land. Also, the most interesting event that took place when a Russian warship stopped in Jamaica, and Fr. Raphael served the Divine Liturgy with the Russian priest aboard the ship (Jamaica Gleaner, December 27, 1913). A number of Syrian-Jamaicans attended, and Fr. Raphael used English for their benefit. The next day, the local newspaper reported that Fr. Raphael stated that he was in communication with the Syrian Orthodox Bishop of Brooklyn with regard to the Syrians here, and hoped that something would be done in regard to their spiritual welfare. The Syrian Orthodox Bishop of Brooklyn at the time was St. Raphael Hawaweeny. Unfortunately, Fr. Raphael became ill in 1914 and died in February 1915, with the possibility that he was never able to do anything for the Syrians in Jamaica, in addition to the untimely death of St. Raphael of Brooklyn who died about the same time period.
Other recorded instances of Orthodox clergy on the island included St. Cyprian's Anglican Church located in Highgate, St. Mary, which was visited by Archimandrite Gerasimos El Azar, a visiting Syrian priest, who served the Divine Liturgy there in March 1933. The Orthodox Divine Liturgy was also served at the Kingston Parish Church (St. Thomas the Apostle Anglican Church, in Kingston) at least on a few occasions in the 1920s and 1930s. According to the Jamaica Gleaner (cited February 23, 1924), the Very Rev. Archpriest Fr. Basil Moses Kerbawy (an early Lebanese American Historian and Advocate, and Dean of St. Nicholas Syrian Orthodox Cathedral in Brooklyn) served Orthodox Paschal services. On at least two other occasions, in 1928 and again in 1933, Orthodox Paschal services were also held at the Kingston Parish Church by visiting Orthodox clergy; the Rev. Fr. Agoplos Golam, Archimandrite of the Greek Orthodox Church, who was a visiting Greek priest to Jamaica (Jamaica Gleaner, April 10, 1928), and the Rt. Rev. Archimandrite Garassinous El Azar, visiting Syrian priest to Jamaica (The Daily Gleaner, February 28, 1933).
Today, there is a small but steadily growing number of Orthodox believers in Jamaica. One example is a native Jamaican man who asked the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to establish a mission in the country for inquirers like him and others. [8] The mission was established on 24 April 2015 as the Holy Orthodox Archdiocese in Jamaica, a Vicariate of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Mexico of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. On 15 December 2019, the mission announced that it had officially decided to leave its original jurisdiction in favor of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Metropolitan Hilarion has put Vladyka Luke of Syracuse in charge of receiving the mission. [9]
The Jamaican Orthodox Mission currently has two communities: St. Timothy the Apostle Orthodox Church (Kingston), and St. Moses the Black Orthodox Church (Trelawny).
The Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. [10] Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia (ruled 1930–1974), as God incarnate, the Second Advent of Jesus Christ or as Christ in his Kingly Character, depending on their views on the Emperor. The 2011 census found that 1% of the population were Rastafari. [11]
Other popular religions in Jamaica include Islam, Bahá'í Faith with perhaps 8000 Bahá'ís [12] and 21 Local Spiritual Assemblies, [13] Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism. [14] There is also a small population of around 200 Jews forming the Shaare Shalom Synagogue in Kingston, who describe themselves as Liberal-Conservative. [15] The first Jews in Jamaica trace their roots back to early 15th-century Spain and Portugal. [16] There are an estimated 1,500-6,500 Muslims in Jamaica and approximately 21% of the population has no religious affiliation. [11]
The constitution of Jamaica establishes the freedom of religion and outlaws religious discrimination. A colonial-era law criminalizing Obeah and Myalism continues to exist, but has rarely been enforced since Jamaica's independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. [11]
Registration with the government is not mandatory for religious groups, but it provides groups with some privileges, such as being able to own land and enter legal disputes as an organization. Groups seeking tax-exempt status must register separately as charities. [11]
The public school curriculum includes nondenominational religious education. Some public schools are run by religious institutions, but are required to hold to the same standard as other public schools. Religious private schools also operate in Jamaica. [11]
Representatives of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities in Jamaica have described Jamaica as being tolerant of religious diversity, and identified the high level of interfaith dialogue as evidence to support this claim. [11]
While Rastafari were once persecuted by the government of Jamaica and routinely harassed by police looking for then-illegal cannabis, the government has since taken steps to accommodate Rastafari, including the decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of cannabis for religious purposes in 2015, and formal apologies coupled with financial reparations for past actions against the Rastafari community, such as the Coral Gardens incident. Rastafari still face some societal discrimination, particularly when seeking employment, but community representatives have stated that incidences of discrimination have sharply decreased since 2015. [17]
Jamaican culture consists of the religion, norms, values, and lifestyle that define the people of Jamaica. The culture is mixed, with an ethnically diverse society, stemming from a history of inhabitants beginning with the original inhabitants of Jamaica. The Spaniards originally brought slavery to Jamaica. Then they were overthrown by the English. Jamaica later gained emancipation on 1 August 1838, and independence from the British on 6 August 1962. Black slaves became the dominant cultural force as they suffered and resisted the harsh conditions of forced labour. After the abolition of slavery, Chinese and Indian migrants were transported to the island as indentured workers, bringing with them ideas from their country.
The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (AOCANA), often referred to in North America as simply the Antiochian Archdiocese, is the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch in the United States and Canada. Originally under the care of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Syro-Levantine Eastern Orthodox Christian immigrants to the United States and Canada were granted their own jurisdiction under the Church of Antioch in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. Internal conflicts divided the Antiochian Orthodox faithful into two parallel archdioceses — those of New York and Toledo — until 1975, when Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) became the sole archbishop of the reunited Antiochian Archdiocese. By 2014, the archdiocese had grown to over 275 parish churches.
The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church is a religious movement that originated in Jamaica during the 1940s and later spread to the United States, being incorporated in Florida in 1975. Its beliefs are based on both the Old and New testaments of the bible, as well as the teachings of Marcus Garvey, self-reliance, Afrocentricity and Ethiopianism. Their ceremonies include bible reading, chanting, and music incorporating elements from Nyahbinghi, Burru, Kumina and other indigenous traditions. The group holds many beliefs in common with the Rastafari, including the use of marijuana as a sacrament, but differ on many points, most significantly the matter of Haile Selassie's divinity.
Religion in Trinidad and Tobago, which is a multi-religious country, is classifiable as follows:
Christians in Singapore constitute 19% of the country's resident population, as of the most recent census conducted in 2020. Christianity is the second largest religion in the country, after Buddhism and before Islam. In 2020, about 37.1% of the country's Christians identified as Catholic with 62.9% labeled as 'Other Christians', most of which identify as Protestant, with some identifying as Orthodox or other minority Christian denominations.
Religion in England is characterised by a variety of beliefs and practices that has historically been dominated by Christianity. Christianity remains the largest religion, though it makes up less than half of the population. As of the 2021 census, there is an increasing variety of beliefs, with irreligious people outnumbering each of the other religions. The Church of England is the nation's established state church, whose supreme governor is the monarch. Other Christian traditions in England include Roman Catholicism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, Mormonism, and the Baptists. After Christianity, the religions with the most adherents are Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Buddhism, modern paganism, and the Bahá'í Faith. There are also organisations promoting irreligion, including humanism and atheism. According to the 2021 census, Shamanism is the fastest growing religion in England.
The term Eastern Protestant Christianity encompasses a range of heterogeneous Protestant Christian denominations that developed outside of the Western world, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, and retain certain elements of Eastern Christianity. Some of these denominations came into existence when active Protestant churches adopted reformational variants of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox liturgy and worship, while others originated from Orthodox groups who were inspired by the teachings of Western Protestant missionaries and adopted Protestant beliefs and practices.
The immigration of the Copts to Canada might have started as early as the late 1950s. Due to an increasing amount of discrimination towards Copts in Egypt in the 1970s and low income in Egypt. Canada has been receiving a greater number of these immigrants, and the number of Coptic immigrants into Canada has been growing ever since.
Christianity is the dominant religion in Belize. The single largest denomination is the Catholic Church with about 40.1% of the population, a reduction from 49.6% of the population in 2000, 57.7% in 1991 and 61.9% in 1980, although absolute numbers have still risen. Other major groups include Pentecostal with 8.4% of the population up from 7.4% in 2000 and 6.3% in 1991, Seventh-day Adventists with 5.4% of the population up from 5.2% in 2000 and 4.1% in 1991. The following of the Anglican Church has been steadily declining, with only 4.7% of the population in 2010 compared to 6.95% in 1991. About 12,000 Mennonites live mostly in the rural districts of Cayo and Orange Walk. People who declared they belong to no religion make up 15.5% of the population in 2010, more than double their 2000 census numbers. 11.2% adhere to other religions which include the Maya religion, Afro-Caribbean religions, Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Baháʼís, Rastafarians and others.
Western Rite Orthodoxy, also called Western Orthodoxy or the Orthodox Western Rite, are congregations within the Eastern Orthodox tradition which perform their liturgy in Western forms.
The timeline of Eastern Orthodoxy in North America represents a timeline of the historical development of religious communities, institutions and organizations of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in North America.
Christianity in Kuwait is a minority religion.
The Metropolis of Korea is an Eastern Orthodox diocese under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Korea.
Religion in Guyana is dominated by various branches of Christianity, with significant minorities of the adherents of Hinduism and Islam.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Paraguay, with Catholicism being its largest denomination. Before the arrival of Spanish missionaries, the people residing in the territory of modern day Paraguay practiced a variety of religions.
Robert Josias "Raphael" Morgan was a Jamaican-American who is believed to be the first Black Eastern Orthodox priest in the United States. After being active in other denominations, including the AME Church, Church of England, and the Episcopal Church, Morgan converted to Orthodoxy. He was ordained as an Orthodox priest of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He was designated as "Missionary to America and the West Indies." He claimed to have founded the "Order of Golgotha", but the Orthodox Church is not organized into orders.
Religion in Louisville, Kentucky includes religious institutions of various faiths including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
Throughout its history the city of Houston, Texas has been religiously influenced by Protestant Christianity in the Bible Belt. Since the latter half of the 20th century, the Houston area has become home to many different religions in part to its large ethnic diversity, immigration, and refugee resettlement.
Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in the city of Houston, Texas. In 2012, Kate Shellnutt of the Houston Chronicle described Houston as a "heavily Christian city". Multiple Christian denominations originating from various countries are practiced in the city; among its Christian population, the majority are either Catholic, Baptist, or non/interdenominational.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)Religion in the Americas | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sovereign states |
|  |
| Dependencies and territories |
| |
