Methodism

===Caribbean===
Methodism came to the Caribbean in 1760 when the planter, lawyer and Speaker of the Antiguan House of Assembly, [[Nathaniel Gilbert]] (c. 1719–1774), returned to his sugar estate home in Antigua.<ref name="blackman_300">Blackman, Francis 'Woodie'. ''John Wesley 300: Pioneers, Preachers and Practitioners'' (Barbados: Dalkeith Methodist Church, 2003, {{ISBN|976-8080-61-2}}).</ref> A Methodist revival spread in the [[British West Indies]] due to the work of British missionaries.<ref name="caribbean" /> Missionaries established societies which would later become the [[Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas]] (MCCA). The MCCA has about 62,000 members in over 700 congregations, ministered by 168 pastors.<ref name="caribbean">{{cite web|title=Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas|url=https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/methodist-church-in-the-caribbean-and-the-americas|website=oikoumene.org|date=January 1967 |publisher=World Council of Churches|access-date=20 January 2017}}</ref> There are smaller Methodist denominations that have seceded from the parent church.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

====Antigua====
[[File:Baxter Memorial Methodist Church - panoramio.jpg|thumb|Baxter Memorial Church in [[English Harbour]]]]

The story is often told that in 1755, Nathaniel Gilbert, while convalescing, read a treatise of John Wesley, ''An Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion'' sent to him by his brother Francis. As a result of having read this book Gilbert, two years later, journeyed to England with three of his slaves and there in a drawing room meeting arranged in Wandsworth on 15 January 1759, met the preacher John Wesley. He returned to the Caribbean that same year and on his subsequent return began to preach to his slaves in Antigua.<ref name="blackman_300"/>

When Gilbert died in 1774 his work in Antigua was continued by his brother Francis Gilbert to approximately 200 Methodists. However, within a year Francis took ill and returned to Britain and the work was carried on by Sophia Campbell ("a Negress") and Mary Alley ("a Mulatto"), two devoted women who kept the flock together with class and [[prayer meeting]]s as best as they could.<ref name="caribbean" />

On 2 April 1778, John Baxter, <!--(born, died)--> a local preacher and skilled shipwright from [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]] in [[Kent]], England, landed at [[English Harbour]] in Antigua (now called Nelson's Dockyard) where he was offered a post at the naval dockyard. Baxter was a Methodist and had heard of the work of the Gilberts and their need for a new preacher. He began preaching and meeting with the Methodist leaders, and within a year the Methodist community had grown to 600 persons. By 1783, the first Methodist chapel was built in Antigua, with John Baxter as the local preacher, its wooden structure seating some 2,000 people.<ref>{{cite web|title=Baxter Memorial|url=http://methodistchurchantigua.org/new/congregations/baxter-memorial/|website=methodistchurchantigua.org|publisher=Methodist Church of Antigua & Barbuda|access-date=20 January 2017|archive-date=28 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128233540/http://methodistchurchantigua.org/new/congregations/baxter-memorial/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

====St. Bart's====
In 1785, William Turton (1761–1817) a Barbadian son of a planter, met John Baxter in Antigua, and later, as layman, assisted in the Methodist work in the Swedish colony of St. Bartholomew from 1796.<ref name="blackman_300"/>

In 1786, the missionary endeavour in the Caribbean was officially recognized by the Methodist Conference in England, and that same year [[Thomas Coke (bishop)|Thomas Coke]], having been made Superintendent of the church two years previously in America by Wesley, was travelling to [[Nova Scotia]], but weather forced his ship to Antigua.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

====Jamaica====
In 1818 Edward Fraser (1798 – aft. 1850), a privileged Barbadian slave, moved to Bermuda and subsequently met the new minister James Dunbar. The Nova Scotia Methodist Minister noted young Fraser's sincerity and commitment to his congregation and encouraged him by appointing him as assistant. By 1827 Fraser assisted in building a new chapel. He was later freed and admitted to the Methodist Ministry to serve in Antigua and Jamaica.<ref name="blackman_300"/>

====Barbados====
Following [[William Shrewsbury|William J. Shrewsbury's]] preaching in the 1820s, [[Sarah Ann Gill]] (1779–1866), a free-born black woman, used [[civil disobedience]] in an attempt to thwart magistrate rulings that prevented parishioners holding prayer meetings. In hopes of building a new chapel, she paid an extraordinary £1,700-0s–0d and ended up having militia appointed by the Governor to protect her home from demolition.<ref name="blackman_gill">Blackman, Francis. ''National heroine of Barbados: Sarah Ann Gill'' (Barbados: Methodist Church, 1998, 27 pp.).</ref>

In 1884 an attempt was made at autonomy with the formation of two West Indian Conferences, however by 1903 the venture had failed. It was not until the 1960s that another attempt was made at autonomy. This second attempt resulted in the emergence of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas in May 1967.<ref name="caribbean" />

[[Francis George Godson|Francis Godson]] (1864–1953), a Methodist minister, who having served briefly in several of the Caribbean islands, eventually immersed himself in helping those in hardship of the [[First World War]] in Barbados. He was later appointed to the [[Legislative Council of Barbados]], and fought for the rights of [[pensioner]]s. He was later followed by renowned Barbadian [[Augustus Rawle Parkinson]] (1864–1932),<ref>Clarke, S., [http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/13182/black-history-augustus-rawle-parkinson Black History Month: Augustus Rawle Parkinson ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160517105937/http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/13182/black-history-augustus-rawle-parkinson |date=17 May 2016 }}, Nation News (Barbados), 24 February 2014, accessed 17 June 2016</ref> who also was the first principal of the Wesley Hall School, [[Bridgetown, Barbados|Bridgetown]] in Barbados (which celebrated its 125th anniversary in September 2009).<ref name="blackman_300"/>

In more recent times in Barbados, Victor Alphonso Cooke (born 1930) and Lawrence Vernon Harcourt Lewis (born 1932) are strong influences on the Methodist Church on the island.<ref name="blackman_300"/> Their contemporary and late member of the Dalkeith Methodist Church, was the former secretary of the [[University of the West Indies]], consultant of the ''Canadian Training Aid Programme'' and a man of letters – Francis Woodbine Blackman (1922–2010). It was his research and published works that enlightened much of this information on Caribbean Methodism.<ref>Blackman, Francis. ''Methodism: 200 Years in British Virgin Islands'' (British Virgin Islands: Methodist Church, 1989, 151 pp., {{ISBN|976-8001-36-4}}).</ref><ref>Blackman, Francis. ''Methodism, 200 years in Barbados'' (Barbados: Caribbean Contact, 1988).</ref>