Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
by KEITH A. FRANCIS
I
N 1993, commenting on the changing proportion of Christians in
the major regions of the world, John V. Taylor (1914-2001), a past
General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society (1963-74) and
later Anglican bishop of Winchester (1975-85), wrote:
The most striking fact to emerge . . . is the speed with which the
number of Christian adherents in Latin America, Africa, and Asia
has overtaken that of Europe, North America, and the former
USSR. For the first time since the seventh century, when there
were large Nestorian and Syrian churches in parts of Asia, the
majority of Christians in the world are not of European origin
Moreover, this swing to the 'South' has, it would seem, only just
got going, since the birth rate in those regions is at present so much
higher than in the developed 'North', and lapses from religion are
almost negligible compared with Europe. By the middle of the
next century, therefore, Christianity as a world religion will
patently have its centre of gravity in the Equatorial and Southern
latitudes, and every major denomination, except possibly the
Orthodox Church, will be bound to regard those areas as its
heartlands, and embody that fact in its administration.1
Taylor was drawing attention to a phenomenon which has fascinated
historians and sociologists of religion for more than a decade. The
advance of Christianity in the Global South - and its relative decline in
the 'North' - has been stated most forcefully and persuasively by Philip
Jenkins in The Next Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity
published in 2002. As Jenkins notes:
Although we might be tempted to despair about any attempt at
1
John V. Taylor, The Future of Christianity', in John McManners, ed., The Oxford
History ofChristianity (Oxford, 1993), 651 and 6s 3.
388
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
Revival, Caribbean Style
2
Jenkins, The Next Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford, 2002), 89.
3
See David Aikman,y««5 in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing
the Global Balance ofPower (Washington, DC, 2003); Samuel Escobar, A Time for Mission: the
Challenge for Global Christianity (Leicester, 2003); and Lamin O. Sanneh, Whose Religion is
Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West (Grand Rapids, MI, 2003).
4
The following are examples: 'Next Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity'
in March 2004, sponsored by the Center for Free Inquiry at Hanover College, Indiana; the G.
Arthur Keogh Lectures in April 2005, given by Jenkins at Columbia Union College, Mary-
land; the Pruit Symposium 'Global Christianity: Challenging Modernity and the West' in
November 2005, held at Baylor University, Texas.
5
Jenkins, Next Christendom, 220.
6
Ibid., 172-5. See also Brian Murphy, 'Christianity's Second Wave? - Close Up', The
Seattle Times, 26 March 2006, A3 and A14.
389
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
KEITH A. FRANCIS
7
Using David Bebbington's definition, the Church is evangelical - Seventh-day
Adventists emphasize conversion, Christ's atonement is central to their theology, they
respect the text of the Bible, and expect members to be active in evangelism - but, like
Jenkins's description of Southern Christianity, much of Seventh-day Adventist theology has
an apocalyptic bent. See Bebbington, 'Evangelicalism in Its Settings: the British and Amer-
ican Movements since 1940', in Mark A. Noll, David W. Bebbington, and George A. Rawlyk,
eds, Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles,
andBeyond, tjoo-iggo (Oxford, 1994), 366-7 and 381 and Jenkins, 217-20. Useful sources on
the early history and theology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are: Ronald L. Numbers
and Jonathan M. Butler, eds, The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth
Century (Indianapolis, IN, 1987); Richard W. Schwarz and Floyd Greenleaf Light Bearers: a
History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (rev., Nampa, ID, 2000); Malcolm Bull and Keith
Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream (2nd edn,
Bloomington, IN, 2006); Keith A. Francis, 'Adventists Discover the Seventh-day Sabbath:
How to Deal with the Jewish "Problem"', in Diana Wood, ed., Christianity and Judaism, SCH
29 (Oxford, 1992), 373-8.
8
See Anthony A. Hoekema, The Four Major Cults (Grand Rapids, MI, 1963), 89-169;
Louis T. Talbot, What's Wrong with Seventh-day Adventism? (Findlay, OH, 1956); Jan K. Van
Baalen, The Chaos ofthe Cults: a Study of Present-Day Isms (Grand Rapids, MI, 1956), 204-30.
9
Mark A. Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids,
MI, 1992), 465-6. For a list of characteristics which suggest the Seventh-day Adventist
Church is part of mainstream Protestantism, see George M. Marsden, 'Defining American
Fundamentalism', in Norman J. Cohen, ed., The Fundamentalist Phenomenon (Grand Rapids,
MI, 1990), 22-37.
10
See Table 1. There are more than a billion Catholics.
390
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
Revival, Caribbean Style
Windward Islands and approximately 150 miles off the coast of Vene-
zuela, is typical of the growth experienced by evangelical Protestant
churches throughout the West Indies.
The island of Grenada is approximately 133 square miles - slightly
larger than the city of Birmingham" - twenty-five miles in length and
ten miles in width at its maximum points. The population has been
close to 100,000 for the last decade - about one-third of the city of
Cardiff. Grenada's GDP and economy - which rely heavily on tourism
and the sale of agricultural products such as bananas, cocoa, and
nutmeg - place it squarely in the developing world.
Grenada may be a poor and small island but the church-growth
statistics for the Seventh-day Adventist Church are impressive. In 1983
the number of Seventh-day Adventists on Grenada was 4,682; twenty
years later the number was 10,227. I n 1983 there were twenty-four
Seventh-day Adventist churches on the island; in 2004 there were
thirty-eight plus four companies, groups of members meeting regularly
but not organized formally as a church with their own building. 12 The
number of Seventh-day Adventists as a percentage of the population
has increased steadily over the last twenty years: in 2004 it passed 10
percent. 13
But Grenada is not a typical West Indian island. It is one of two
islands - Cuba is the other 14 - which has experienced a one-person
dictatorship since the Second World War, the rule of Eric Gairy
(1922-97) between 1974 and 1979. It is the only island to experience a
Marxist revolution in the last thirty years, the People's Revolution of
March 1979. It is also the only island to be invaded by the United States
or any major world power since the Second World War. 15 In
September 2004 Hurricane Ivan struck the island; subsequent to the last
hurricane to cause similar damage, Hurricane Janet in September 1955,
Grenada experienced the largest migration in its history. 16
To be specific, the growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has
1
' London is 620 square miles and Cardiff is 54 square miles.
12
See Table 2.
13
See Tables 2 and 3.
14
The term West Indian is generally used by peoples in the Caribbean islands to refer to
those islands which were former British colonies. Cuba is not usually referred to as West
Indian.
15
The Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in April 1961 was not an official invasion by the
United States.
16
Beverley A. Steele, Grenada: a History oflts People (Oxford, 1983), 342-4.
391
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
KEITH A. FRANCIS
17
Apart from Steele's book, the best history of Grenada prior to 1983 is George Brizan's
Grenada: bland ofConflict (London, 1998). The best histories of Grenada in the yearsjust prior
and after 1983 include: Anthony Payne, Paul Sutton, and Tony Thorndyke, Grenada - Revo-
lution and Invasion (New York, 1984); Gregory Sandford and Richard Vigilante, Grenada: the
Untold Story (London, 1984); and Eileen Gentle, Before the Sunset (Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue,
Que., 1989).
18
The headquarters of the Church was in Washington, D.C. then and is in Silver Spring,
Maryland now.
19
See Table 1.
20
Office of Archives and Statistics, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists,
Silver Spring, Maryland, 142nd Annual Statistical Report - 2004, 18, 20 and 22. For Inter-
America, the increase in membership represented the maintenance of same percentage of
Seventh-day Adventists as compared to the Church in the rest of the world: 18.71% in 1983
and 18.12% in 2004. In North America the increase in membership reflected a drop in the
percentage: 15.94% in 1983 and 7.22% in 2004.
392
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
Revival, Caribbean Style
Indians 'deeply religious' and the West Indian theologian, Noel Titus,
notes that 'one of the most significant elements in Caribbean culture is
religion'.21 In other words, Christianity does not need to 'come to'
Grenada or the West Indies: it is already ingrained in the culture. What
is different about the growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is
the adoption by significant numbers of Grenadians (and West Indians)
of a new Church affiliation: Seventh-day Adventist as opposed to
Roman Catholic or, in fewer cases, Anglican.22
In the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology 'revivalism' is defined as:
A movement within the Christian tradition which emphasizes the
appeal of religions to the emotional and affectional nature of indi-
viduals as well as to their intellectual and rational nature. It believes
that vital Christianity begins with a response of the whole being to
the gospel's call for repentance and spiritual rebirth by faith in
Jesus Christ. This experience results in a personal relationship with
God.23
While it may be difficult for a historian to assess whether a person or
group had undergone spiritual rebirth using the critical tools of the
discipline, personal commitment is much easier to analyse. One differ-
ence between a Grenadian Catholic and a Grenadian Seventh-day
Adventist is the level of commitment required and given to the
Church. For Seventh-day Adventists their commitment is a seven-
day-a-week task. For the majority of Catholics their commitment is
one day per week, generally less - at least, so Grenadians believe.24 The
Seventh-day Adventist Church in Grenada has found a way to persuade
people whose adherence to the Christian Church is an important part
of their culture to transform their membership into active and regular
21
Jan Rogoziriski, A BriefHistory of the Caribbean:from the Arawak and Carib to the Present
(rev. edn, New York, 2000), 359; and Noel Titus, 'Our Caribbean Reality (1)', in Howard
Gregory, ed., Caribbean Theology: Preparingfor the Challenges Ahead (Kingston, Jamaica, 1995),
60.
22
There is a strong strain of anti-Catholicism in Seventh-day Adventist theology; see P.
Gerard Damsteegt, Foundations ofthe Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission (Grand Rapids,
Ml, J 977), 179-213. Interestingly, in the oral interviews the author conducted, antipathy
toward Catholicism was not mentioned as a motivating factor for new converts from the
Roman Catholic Church nor by Seventh-day Adventists trying to convert Roman Catholics.
23
Walter A. Elwell, ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Basingstoke, 1985), 948.
24
Telfer Garcia, interview by author, 5 January 2004, Mt Nesbit, Grenada, tape
recording, Baylor University Oral History Institute, Waco, Texas (hereafter: BUOHI).
393
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
KEITH A. FRANCIS
25
Clinton Lewis, President of the Grenada Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, inter-
view by author, 5 January 2004, Grenville, Grenada, tape recording, BUOHI and Emmanuel
Francis, interview by author, 6 January 2004, Mt Nesbit, Grenada.
26
See Paul Seabury and Walter A. McDougall, The Grenada Papers (San Francisco, CA,
1984), 136 and Secretaria Status Rationarum Generale Ecclesiae, Statistical Yearbook of the
Church 1 gg6 (Citta del Vaticano, 1998), 36.
27
A mission is the smallest unit of administration in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
A Mission can act independently of other administrative units in the Church - for example,
institute policies specific to itself- but its officers are elected by the next largest administra-
tive body, usually a Conference or a Division. See 'Mission', in Don F. Neufeld, ed.,
Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (rev. edn, Washington, DC, 1976), 907.
28
See Seabury and McDougall, Grenada Papers, 128-49 atl d Clinton Lewis, interview by
author, 5 January 2004.
2
» See Table 2.
394
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
Revival, Caribbean Style
interviews conducted by the author, there are seven major reasons for
the revival in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Grenada. Some are
exactly as suggested in the Jenkins Thesis; others, unsurprisingly, are
unique to Grenada.
First, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is a young Church. The
majority of members, particularly new ones, are under the age of forty.
This has meant the inculcation of youth culture into church worship,
for example, with West Indian styles of music such as reggae and
calypso being used in conjunction with nineteenth-century hymns.30
Second, the Church emphasizes the social gospel. The majority of its
members are poor but they learn frugality, partly through being
encouraged to give fixed sums of their income to the Church and partly
through being made responsible for their fellow-Grenadians in an even
more penurious position than they. There is no Welfare State in
Grenada and the Church acts like a charitable NGO to compensate for
this. Like the Methodist Church and the Salvation Army in England in
the nineteenth century, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is known in
Grenada as the institution to turn to for anyone with economic needs.31
Related to the Church's social gospel is its social outreach. Seventh-
day Adventists aim to convert their family and friends first: new
converts, in particular, are encouraged to do this. The majority of evan-
gelistic efforts are one-to-one between individuals who are familiar to
each other, a much easier task on a small island.
More particular to Grenada (and the West Indies) is the impact of
former immigrants to Britain. Having left the island in the 1950s and
early 1960s, these Grenadians began returning in small numbers in the
late 1970s and much larger numbers in the 1990s. A significant number
of these returnees had become Seventh-day Adventists while in Britain:
not only did they boost the membership numbers, particularly in 1997
and 1998,32 but they brought organizational skills which they had
learnt in Britain and extra money.33
The professional approach to evangelism is perhaps the most impor-
30
Joseph Bowen, pastor, interview by author, 1 January 2004, Mt Granby, Grenada, tape
recording, BUOHI.
31
Joan Britton, interview by author, 31 December 2003, Hermitage, Grenada, tape
recording, BUOHI and Agnes Francis, interview by author, 6 January 2004, Mt Nesbit,
Grenada.
32
See Table 2.
33
Fred Francis, interview by author, 6 January 2004, Industry, Grenada, tape recording,
BUOHI.
395
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
KEITH A. FRANCIS
tant factor in the revival. With the support of the Church leadership,
every local church is encouraged to have a least one evangelistic
campaign per year. The Church provides money for lay members to
learn preaching, how to give Bible studies, and administration. Each
local church is expected to think of the pastor as a special-skilled leader
but not the full-time leader of the church's evangelistic efforts: these
are lay-driven. New churches are built by members with the appro-
priate expertise and located in prominent positions in the towns or
villages.34
Much is expected of the Seventh-day Adventist laity: in complete
contrast to the Catholic Church, for example. The Seventh-day Adven-
tist Church seems to have filled a vacuum in the life of Grenadian
society. While the Catholic Church lacks the priests to pastor the
twenty parishes on the island, new converts to Seventh-day Adventism
are encouraged to run their local church. The ennui of Grenadians -
partly a characteristic of West Indian culture and partly due to the
island's recent troubled history - is combated by the energy and direc-
tion of the rising number of Seventh-day Adventists on the island.35
Rodney Stark's comment that religious groups with high growth rates
demand greater commitment certainly applies.36
It is a young, poor, evangelical, and active Church. Remove the
'evangelical' and this description of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
in Grenada could be applied to the whole of Christianity in the Global
South. In the case of Grenada, and the West Indies, Philip Jenkins
appears to be correct: this is the future of the Church. However,
numbers are no guarantee of the future status of the Christian Church
- a point the first two hundred years of the Church's history confirms.
Furthermore, revivals cannot be sustained forever; they are, by their
nature, transient.
Is the Caribbean-style revival in the Seventh-day Adventist Church
in Grenada unique? Probably not. Some of the characteristics of Chris-
tianity in Africa and Asia described by Jenkins are similar to those of
Seventh-day Adventism in Grenada. Wide-spread appeal to all ages,
particularly the young, transforming Christianity by inculcating it with
34
Clinton Lewis, interview by author, 5 January 2004.
35
David Sinclair, interview by author, 4 January 2004, Mt. Nesbit, Grenada, tape
recording, BUOHI.
36
Stark, The Rise of Christianity: a Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton, Nf, 1996),
177-9.
396
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
Revival, Caribbean Style
397
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
KEITH A. FRANCIS
37
Unless stated otherwise, statistical information in the tables is taken from: Office of
Archives and Statistics, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Washington, DC,
Annual Statistical Reports, 1983-1987 and Office of Archives and Statistics, General Conference
of Seventh-day Adventists, Silver Spring, Maryland, 126th-i 42nd Annual Statistical Reports,
1988-2004.
398
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
Revival, Caribbean Style
38
This figure includes members who died, were dropped from local church member-
ship records, or sent letters asking for their membership to be removed. In the latter case,
they might be attending another Seventh-day Adventist Church in Grenada or another
country, or had left the Church entirely. Internal membership transfers are the reason why
the membership at the end of a given year is not simply a combination of the additions and
subtractions during the year plus the previous year's membership.
39
Includes three companies.
40
Includes seventy-seven members added by letter; that is, transferring their member-
ship from one church to another - probably another country in most cases.
41
Includes six companies.
42
Includes 162 members added by letter.
43
Includes three companies.
44
Includes four companies.
45
Includes two companies.
399
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
KEITH A. FRANCIS
Table 2: (cont.)
46
2002 38 487 56 9,838
2003 39 47 586 197 10,227
48
2004 42 482 138 10,571
46
Includes four companies.
47
Includes three companies.
48
Includes four companies.
49
Population statistics taken from: Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Finance,
Grenada, Annual Abstract of Statistics lggi (St George's, Grenada, 1992), 10; Statistics Division,
Ministry of Finance, Grenada, Vital Statistics Report igg8 (St George's, Grenada, 1999), 8;
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, 2000 Demographic Yearbook
(New York, 2002), 144; Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, Statis-
tical Yearbook 2002-2004 (New York, 2005), 34. Statistics based on mid-year population esti-
mates except in the census years 1991 and 2001.
400
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739
Revival, Caribbean Style
Table 3: (cont.)
401
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 146.83.168.50, on 01 Mar 2019 at 14:16:26, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400003739