Diocese of Barbados

Before that, the area was nominally part of the Bishop of London's responsibility, a situation that had been assumed to hold from 1660 onwards.

The following address was unanimously agreed to at a meeting of the Clergy of the Island of Barbados on Tuesday the 5th day of August, 1823: “The Clergy of Barbados, sensible of the benefits which must result to any society from extending religious Instruction to every member of it feel themselves called upon at this moment to submit to the country at large, some plan for the instruction of the Slave Population in the saving of truths of the Christian Religion and in moral virtue, as their best and only foundation of any improvement in their civil and moral condition.

They look with confidence to the cordial cooperation of every enlighten Master: and the soil which they have to work upon is so improved by the fostering care and indulgent treatment of the owner to its slaves, that they are sanguine in the hope of reaping the fruits of their labors at a very distant day."

Also included in the Clergy's address is their statement announcing the principle objective of religious instruction to the Negro slaves of Barbados, “In the second place, where the right of the Master over the slave is absolute, it is next to impossible to attempt the work of conversion on the latter without the aid of the former.” [2] In 1813, the then Bishop of London denied it was his responsibility, and so it turned out that appointments to the Church in the Colonies were recommended by the local governor, in this case of the Leeward Islands.

Originally consecrated in 1665, and then rebuilt in 1789, it was elevated to Cathedral status in 1825 with the appointment of William Coleridge as bishop of the newly created Diocese of Barbados and the Leeward Islands.