St Peters Church Speightstown Barbados
St Peters Church Speightstown is a striking old building that's located on Church St. just East of Queen St. in the Parish of St Peter, Speightstown, Barbados.
It's one of the oldest Churches in Barbados having been built sometime in the early 1600's.
The Church has had a history of being destroyed it was rebuilt the first time in the mid 1600's and then once again in 1837.
In the early 1980's a fire did damage to the original east window, pulpit and font. It was restored in 1983 and has been in constant use since then.
From the time of its colonization by the English Barbados has adopted its cultures and traditions such as language and other social etiquette.
Because it had been a colony of Britain for its entire history until independence in the 1960's, it's no surprise that religion has played an important role in the development of Barbados.
Because the Church of England was Anglican, the first official religion in Barbados was the Anglican church.
Slaves were forbidden to join the Church by the original plantation owners who were worried that the Church might weaken their hold over the workers and inspire them to rebel.
When slavery was finally abolished in 1838 many ex slaves took the opportunity to join the Anglican Church which was more popular than other early Christian Churches.
In 1871 it was noted that about 90% of parishioners were Anglican Church members whereas today that number has dropped to about 35%.
There are many different denominations active on the island of Barbados and in the Parish of St. Peter, today the most popular being:
- Anglican
- Seventh-day Adventists
- Episcopalian
- Methodist
- Roman Catholic
- Pentecostal
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