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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% [1]
The Baptist denomination was organized in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1835 with its first church located in Grand Turk. [2] Today the Baptist churches operate under the guidance of the Turks and Caicos Islands Baptist Union.
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The first set of Sabbath keepers were discovered in the Turks and Caicos Islands on the island of Grand Turk in 1906 by a Jamaican colporteur (religious book salesman) as he sold books. The church's main periodical 'The Review and Herald' of 16 November 1905 noted that "A woman on one of the Turks Islands at the turn of the twentieth century had come to recognize the seventh-day Sabbath through reading her Bible".
In 1945 the territory saw the establishment of a permanent presence of the SDA church when Clyde Nebblett, another colporteur, migrated to Grand Turk with his wife and began a small prayer group that met in their home. Later that year the island of Grand Turk was devastated by the 1945 Homestead hurricane. This forced the Nedletts to move to Providenciales in the community of Blue Hills where 26 individuals were baptized through their efforts. In December of the same year the Turks and Caicos Islands along with Mayaguana of the Bahamas were organized into the Salt Cays Mission. In 1947 the believers on Grand Turk were organized into a church after an evangelistic campaign and Pastor Gordon Prenier purchased a warehouse and transformed it into the first Adventist Church building in the Turks and Caicos. Between 1950 and 1988 the territory fluctuated between mission and district categorization. "In January 1988 it reverted to mission status under the direction of West Indies Union".[4]When the mission was organized, it became a part of the West Indies Union Conference. West Indies Union comprised the conferences in Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands Mission, and the Cayman Islands Conference.
In November 2010 at Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, Jamaica, West Indies Union was dissolved and gave birth to the Atlantic Caribbean Union Mission and the Jamaica Union Conference. "The new configuration will see the formation of the Atlantic Caribbean Union Mission, comprising four Fields: the Bahamas Conference (now South Bahamas Conference), the North Bahamas Conference, the Cayman Islands Conference, and the Turks and Caicos Islands Mission, with approximately 25,000 members".
Seventh-day Adventism has moved in sync with the population growth of the Turks and Caicos Islands, hence Providenciales, the economic hub of the country has become the island that has seen the most growth over the years.
There are 10 churches in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Grand Turk has (2) Ebenezer and Antioch churches. Providenciales has (5) Bethel, Blue Hills, Ephesus, Filadelfia, Five Cays churches. There is a church on Salt Cay, Kews on North Caicos, and Maranatha on South Caicos.
The Turks and Caicos Islands belong to the Anglican Diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands within the Church in the Province of the West Indies. The Anglican Church has a significant presence in the islands and among many tourists.
As of January 2009, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) were officially established in the islands. However, the islands are under the jurisdiction of the New Providence, Bahamas District. Until August 2006, the district was presided over by mission president of the Florida Ft Lauderdale Mission. After August 2006, the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos were reassigned to the Jamaica Kingston Mission.
Prior to 1984, Turks and Caicos Islands was a part of Archdiocese of Nassau in the Bahamas. In 1984, it became a mission sui iuris (Independent Mission), the first Ecclesiastical Superior being Archbishop Lawrence Aloysius Burke. During that time the islands were served by a number of priests who stayed anywhere from a few months to a year and a half.
In the three years prior to 1998 the islands were served by a priest who came for some eight months of the year. The remaining six months of those last three years there was no priest present on the islands.
July 1998, at the request of the Holy See, the Archbishop of Newark provided two priests to serve on a full-time basis the Catholic community of the Turks and Caicos Islands. In the Fall of 1998 the Archbishop of Newark, Theodore McCarrick, assumed responsibility as Ecclesiastical Superior of the Mission Sui Iuris of Turks and Caicos Islands. On 9 October 2001 The Most Reverend John J. Myers succeeded Cardinal McCarrick as Archbishop and as Ecclesiastical Superior. Presently serving the Mission is the Reverend Monsignor Ronald J. Rozniak, the Archbishop's Vicar General for the mission, and two parochial priests.
There are about 51 Muslims living in Turks and Caicos Islands. [3]
There is a chabad house on the island, ran by Rabbi Shmulik and Mrs.Chaya Berkowitz. The website is Jewishtci.com
The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and northern West Indies. They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population in 2023 was estimated by The World Factbook at 59,367, making it the third-largest of the British overseas territories by population. However, according to a Department of Statistics estimate in 2022, the population was 47,720.
The Inter-American Division of Seventh-day Adventists is a sub-entity of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, which oversees the Church's work in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Northern South America.
Drexel Wellington Gomez is a Bahamian Anglican bishop.
Providenciales International Airport, on the island of Providenciales in the Caicos Islands, is the main international airport serving the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. It is operated by Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA). The territory's other international airport is JAGS McCartney International Airport on Grand Turk Island. Currently, there are more than 12,000 commercial aircraft operations per year.
Clement Howell was a politician from the Turks and Caicos Islands. He served on a four-member interim advisory council beginning in July 1986, after two previous chief ministers were forced to resign and the ministerial government in the territory was suspended.
JAGS McCartney International Airport, also known as Grand Turk International Airport, is an airport located 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Cockburn Town on Grand Turk Island in the Turks and Caicos Islands, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is the second largest airport in the territory, after Providenciales International Airport.
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.
The Turks and Caicos Islands are divided into five administrative districts, and the Island of Grand Turk; four of these are headed by District Commissioners, and Providenciales District is run by the Permanent Secretary of the Office of the Premier in Providenciales. The Island of Grand Turk is directly administered by the TCI Government.
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. The position was previously held by 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.
The Mission sui iuris of Turks and Caicos is a mission sui iuris of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in the Caribbean. The mission encompasses the entirety of the British dependency of Turks and Caicos. The mission is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Nassau and a member of the Antilles Episcopal Conference.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Turks and Caicos Islands:
The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Sir Patrick Linton Allen is a Jamaican statesman and former Seventh-day Adventist pastor, who has served as the sixth and current governor-general of Jamaica since 26 February 2009.
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.
Christianity was introduced by Spanish settlers who arrived in Jamaica in 1509. Thus, Roman Catholicism was the first Christian denomination to be established. Later, Protestant missions were very active, especially the Baptists, and played a key role in the abolition of slavery.
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.
Peter Baldacchino is a Maltese-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Since July 23, 2019, he has been serving as the bishop of the Diocese of Las Cruces in New Mexico. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Miami in Florida from 2014 to 2019.
Rosita Beatrice Missick-Butterfield, was a Turks and Caicos Islander who served as the first woman Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Our Lady of Divine Providence Church is a religious building that is linked to the Catholic Church and is located on Leeward Highway, on the island of Providenciales, part of the British overseas territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.
