Methodism

====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>