200 years of service to Tobago: The Methodist Church 1818-2018

By Rita Pemberton

“…the history of the activities of the Methodist Church in Tobago mirrors important aspects of the history of Tobago itself and the records of this church, both oral and written, constitute a valuable repository of information on the island’s history.”

The provision of 200 years of uninterrupted service to Tobago is the cause celebre of the island’s Methodist community whose bicentenary celebrations were launched on Tuesday, July 17, at the Scarborough Library.

Based on the theme, Celebrating 200 Years of Methodist Heritage: Taking Flight in Transforming Lives, the celebrations will take the form of several activities across the island during the coming week in which the contribution of the Methodist church to the development of Tobago and its rich heritage will be highlighted. There are not many organisations in this country which have been able to maintain an uninterrupted existence over a 200- year period from its inception. That the Methodist church has survived and directed Tobago over the period is a significant achievement. The Methodist church is one of three organisations in Trinidad and Tobago which can boast of a continuous and functional 200-year service, the other two being the Anglican Church which came with British settlement in 1765, and the Trinidad Botanic Gardens which, like the Methodist establishment, was established in 1818.

As one of the oldest religious institutions to be established in Tobago, the Methodist church has contributed to the population of Tobago through the various stages of the island’s historical evolution. The Methodists worked closely with all segments of the population as the island evolved from a British plantation colony worked by enslaved Africans to a free society in 1838, through to union with Trinidad, independence and republican status to the present-day drive for autonomy. With its presence during critical periods of the island’s historical experience, the Methodist Church was intimately related to and involved in, the events which shaped the Tobago society. Therefore, the history of the activities of the Methodist Church in Tobago mirrors important aspects of the history of Tobago itself and the records of this church, both oral and written, constitute a valuable repository of information on the island’s history.

The Methodist presence in Tobago was an outgrowth of the church’s presence in the region. Driven by the conviction of Dr Thomas Coke, that contrary to popularly held beliefs, Africans were trainable and should be converted to Christianity, the Methodist mission in the British Caribbean was started. Through his devotion to the cause of Christianising and educating enslaved Africans, Coke was responsible for the establishment of the first missions to the Caribbean islands of St Vincent in 1787, Dominica in 1788 and Grenada in 1789.

The first Methodist presence in Tobago occurred at a time when, planters, some of them reluctantly, accepted the need for pastoral care for their enslaved charges. It was felt that the church’s influence was needed to mitigate the tendency of enslaved workers to seek freedom through costly rebellions and create a dutiful and obedient work force. When the London Missionary Society became defunct on the island, its planter members of requested Rev M Woodley, chair of the St Vincent Methodist District, who passed through the island on the mail boat in 1817, to send a minister to the island. In 1818, Reverend John Jonathan Rayner was sent to establish the first Methodist mission in Tobago.

The Methodist mission received considerable support from the large planters including the Hon James Keens and his family, other members of the Legislative Council and a newspaper editor who donated land for a chapel and mission at Mt St George. The first sermon preached by a minister stationed in Tobago on April 19, 1818 and a General Wesleyan Mission was formed in 1818, to raise funds to maintain missionary activity and support the church in Tobago and the Methodist Church created a system through which focused on educating and Christianising the African population.

During the period 1818 to 1827, the Methodist was the only mission which offered pastoral care to the enslaved population because the Anglicans remained centred on the ruling class and the Moravian mission was not re-organised until 1827.

Rev Rayner began conducting religious services in the chapel belonging to the London Missionary Society and within two years of its establishment, there occurred significant growth of its congregation which included both white and enslaved African members. Rev and Mrs John Smedley, and assistant missionary Rev Mr Larsom, were sent to replace Rayner but both Mrs Smedley and Rev Larsom died shortly after their arrival while Rev Smedley left Tobago. It was the next leader, Rev John Nelson, who spend four years in Tobago, who devoted his energies to church building. He was supported by a £100 grant from the Tobago House of Assembly and contributions of land from other members. These, with weekly contributions of the enslaved African converts raised enough funds for the church and mission which were constructed in 1826 with the enslaved labour donated by the supportive plantation owners. From then onwards, the Methodist community experienced significant growth.

The Methodists operated two churches one in Scarborough and the other in Mt St George was opened in 1823, but services were occasionally held on other estates in the Windward area. Church members identified areas where there was a need for the services of the mission which expanded its operations across the island. A chapel and school were built at Betsy’s Hope and at Mt Stewart, Man-o-War Bay. In addition, churches were established at Mason Hall, Castara, Ebenezer, Franklyn and Plymouth.

The Methodist missionaries were given strict instructions about how to conduct themselves in the colony. They were not to infuriate the planters, work on the estates only with permission, ensure that their classes caused no disruption of estate operations and avoid interfering in social matters. They preached the virtues of hard work, industry, honesty, faithfulness and obedience and so served the interests of the planters to provide stability and increase productive efficiency. Planters, therefore did not object to the conduct of classes on the estates and the Methodists were able to serve the interests of the enslave Africans through their education strategy.

The Methodist education programme was two-pronged, directed at children and adults. They believed that it was important for children to learn to read the Bible hence from the very start of their operations they established schools to teach Catechism, the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles Creed. The first schools they established were Sunday schools and day schools. In 1819, the first Sunday school which was founded in Scarborough, provided one of the first gateways to education for the enslaved children. Initially teaching was done by the Reverend, his wife and his assistant, however, such were the demands of an expanding mission that the limited mission staff proved inadequate. In addition, there were challenges posed by language and culture which made it necessary to educate adults who could communicate easily with the children and train them as assistant teachers. Thus, the mission solved its manpower problems while it nurtured the first generation of African Methodist teachers who were also used to recruit and supervise new converts.

Adults were first instructed in the basics of the Methodist faith and when they showed satisfactory progress, they were formed into classes which were taught either by the missionary or a “class leader” appointed by him. Weekly classes, in which the converts were expected to demonstrate strict Christian behaviour, as laid down by the rules of the church, were held. Then they were exposed to elementary education -Reading, Writing and Arithmetic - which was the groundwork for providing literacy and numeracy skills to the African population.

What was most significant was that even during enslavement, the doors for upward mobility and alternative employment were opened through the education programmes of the Methodist mission. Converts were trained for positions of responsibility and leadership as both teachers and preachers.

The activities of the Methodist mission were significantly increased after Emancipation when the different religious bodies competed with each other to win over the freed Africans to their congregation. Churchmen supported free village development around their churches to which schools were attached and Baptism and Marriages were encouraged. In August 1836, the Methodists made an attempt at starting a Day School in Mt St George, which operated in bursts of starts and stops because of funding problems. However, the Methodist community continued to grow and in 1867, Methodists were said to constitute a one third of the island’s population.

The centenary celebration will feature an exhibition entitled, A Rich Legacy, which through photographs, original artwork, artefacts, published works, and primary church records, chronicles the history and contribution of the Methodist church in Tobago from 1818 to the present and illustrates the wide ranging influence of the church on Tobago’s heritage. The exhibition is arranged in six sections which cover The Pioneering era of Methodism, Personalities who contributed to the church and its activities, the Built environment for Methodist activity, Methodist practices and values, Publications on Tobago and on Methodism on the island and in keeping with Tobago Circuit’s Bicentennial theme, the exhibition points to Possibilities- the way forward for the church and its vision for continuing integration in and transformation of, the lives of Tobago’s people.