Slough and Anguilla

On a visit to Anguilla, Chris Sugden, Director of Academic Affairs of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, found to his surprise that many Anguillans have visited Slough or know people there.

One Caribbean Island has very strong links with the Oxford Diocese, but is probably unheard of by most members of the Diocese. That island is Anguilla at the north east corner of the arc of islands that stretches around from Cuba to Trinidad off the coast of South America. It measures 13 by three miles and has a population of 10,000 people.

Many Anguillans have settled in Slough, and are faithful Anglicans and Methodists. Many more have come to the United Kingdom as visitors and have been to Slough or have relatives there.

The west of Anguilla, mainly Anglican, is served by three churches, St Mary's (pictured below) in the centre, St Andrew's in Island (originally Ireland) Harbour , first populated by shipwrecked Irish sailors, and St Augustine's East End. The latter is a beautiful church with wonderful coloured glass set in the East Wall donated by St Mary's, Slough.

The Anglican Church came to the West Indies in 1825 as a prelude to the abolition of slavery, realised in 1834 and celebrated every year on the first Sunday of August. The celebrations take the form of sailing races, calypso competitions and a carnival. The Methodists came at about the same time, and last year celebrated 175 years of their first church building, built by the slaves themselves.

A large proportion of the population attends church, either Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Pentecostal or Seventh Day Adventist. The island's resident priest is Errol Brooks, who was recently created Bishop of the North Caribbean and Aruba. Though he travels incessantly around his island studded diocese, he resolutely retains his base in St Mary's Anguilla to keep his ministry rooted in the parish. His wife, Rosena, a schools advisor, is completing a London University research degree.

It is a miracle of history, that the descendants of people who endured such ruthless exploitation from the Atlantic slave trade and the sugar plantation system, should be able to share and make their own religion of their slave masters, and welcome warmly to their home their descendants from the UK. If the unity of Jews and Gentiles in the early Church was evidence of the reality of the Spirit to make all one in Christ Jesus, then the welcome of Anguillans, a proud and independent people, to those from the UK provides similar evidence today. They are an important part of the rich tapestry of peoples in the Oxford Diocese.