Antigua and Barbuda

Religious diversity in Antigua and Barbuda, an island nation located in the Leeward Islands of the northeastern Caribbean Sea, is the result of a long history of European colonization, the Atlantic [Page 45]slave trade, and subsequent Christian missions. Antigua is the largest island in the country, and about 98% of the population live there. Due to its status as a British colony from 1632 to 1981, most inhabitants of Antigua and Barbuda are Christian. According to the 2001 census, 74% are Christians; of the Christian population, 25.7% are Anglican, 12.3% Seventh-Day Adventist, 10.6% Pentecostal, 10.5% Moravian, 10.4% Roman Catholic, 7.9% Methodist, 4.9% Baptist, 4.5% Church of God, and 5.4% other Christians. Rastafarianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Baha'i are also represented, mostly as a result of 20th-century emigration from South Asia, the Middle East, and other Caribbean islands.

British colonists and traders settled the islands in the 17th century. Slaves imported from West Africa to work the sugar plantations practiced ancestral religious traditions, the remaining traces of which include ecstatic worship and remnants of obeah, a folk religion of the diaspora that includes beliefs in spirits and charms. Anglicanism was the official religion until the 18th century, but Anglicans ministered only to the White population and outlawed obeah practices as a threat to the social order.

From 1756, Moravian missionaries sought to convert slaves and teach them literacy. More than half of the slave population became Moravian by 1834, the date of the end of slavery in the British West Indies. Methodist missionaries also reached slave populations in the 18th century. Both Moravian and Methodist churches advocated obedience to plantation owners in an effort to assuage fears that the slaves would rebel. In the mid-19th century, Catholics and Anglicans also began converting slaves and free Blacks. To replace slave labor, indentured workers from India arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bringing Hinduism and Islam with them.

Fundamentalist churches have shown rapid growth in the past 50 years, a result of conservative American churches missionizing in the Caribbean after World War II. Many of the Antiguan church leaders combine the more conservative theology with distinctively Caribbean traits, such as shouting, charismatic worship, and the ritual experience of the Holy Spirit. Many Caribbean churches have asserted their independence from denominational control, forming separate Caribbean faith organizations and their own distinctive worship styles. For example, Seventh-Day Adventist, Pentecostal, Baptist, and Church of God churches belong to the United Evangelical Association.

Rastafarianism has also grown since the 1960s, counting 1,000 to 1,500 islanders today. Since the government outlaws marijuana, which is used in Rastafarian rituals, some Rastafarians claim that the state oppresses their religion.

While Antigua and Barbuda is a secular nation, the government maintains close ties with the Antiguan Christian Council, which recruits ministers to the islands and observes four religious holidays as national holidays (Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, and Christmas). In 2004, the prime minister took control of the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs. However, clergy members cannot run for political office.