Our Story
A look back at 150+ years of Presbyterianism in Trinidad and Tobago
A Historical Survey of the Presbyterian Presence in Trinidad and Tobago
by Archivist Rev Ken Kalloo.
The earliest known documentation of a Presbyterian presence in Trinidad occurs in October 1833, when a group known as the ‘Trinidad Presbyterian Association’ dispatched a memorial to Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, the Governor, requesting that provision for Presbyterian churches and clergy be made available to the colony of Trinidad.
The Presbyterian Church in Trinidad and Tobago (PCTT) belongs to that system of church government that was founded in the mid-sixteenth century by John Calvin.
Calvin was instrumental in organizing the leaders at Geneva to formulate a democratic form of church government. By 1559 an ‘ACADEMY’ was functioning sending out teachers, preachers, and scholars to further the missionary enterprise of the Protestant Reformation initially started by Martin Luther with the publication of his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517.
In 1555 Calvin produced the first edition of his monumental work, ‘The Institutes of the Christian Religion,’ that defined the Presbyterian ‘Way of Life.’ This book went through several editions and was based on Calvin’s close study of theWord of God.
Calvinism spread rapidly through Western Europe, England, Scotland and eventually to North America.
In what was then known as the Presbyterian Church of the Maritime Provinces of Canada, the Calvinistic spirit of missionary endeavour soon influenced men like John Geddie, John Morton and Kenneth J. Grant – men who gave their lives in response to the Great Commission:‘Go then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always to the end of the Age’ (Matthew 28:19 ).
The earliest known documentation of a Presbyterian presence in Trinidad occurs in October 1833, when a group known as the ‘Trinidad Presbyterian Association’ dispatched a memorial to Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, the Governor, requesting that provision for Presbyterian churches and clergy be made available to the colony of Trinidad.
It was out of this initiative that the first Presbyterian Minister in Trinidad arrived – Rev. Alexander Kennedy, on 31st January 1837. The first formally constituted congregation became a reality on 31st May 1937 – the Greyfriars Church, so named because the Rev. Kennedy had been sent out as a missionary from the Greyfriars Church in Glasgow, Scotland.
There were however a number of other Presbyterian ‘Missions’ that developed in Trinidad over the following decades.
In 1843, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of the United States began a mission among the newly emancipated slaves. Emancipation had taken place throughout the British West Indian islands between 1834-1838.This effort was located at Iere Village and was referred to as the ‘America Mission.’ Unfortunately this endeavour ended ten years later (1853) due to the terrible hardships suffered by the missionary personnel. On the church grounds at Iere Village Memorial Presbyterian Church there is still to be seen the tombstones of two of these American pioneers.
It was in fact this little plant at Iere Village that became the nucleus for the ‘Canadian Mission,’ that was initiated by Rev. John Morton in 1868.
Another stream of Presbyterianism flowed out of the troubled water of Madeira. Dr. Kalley, a Scottish medical doctor, led a spiritual revival there. Being subjected to ‘fierce persecution’ by the Roman Catholic authorities the converts fled to Trinidad. At first, in the year 1846, they were accommodated by Greyfriars, but later established their own congregation in what is known today as the St. Ann’s Church of Scotland, on Charlotte Street in Port of Spain. It was so named because the location was
then known as St. Ann’s Road.
There was another ‘Mission’ in the history of Presbyterianism in Trinidad.
In 1870, Dr. N.H. McGhirk, a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church from Missouri, USA, who lived and worked in Trinidad, invited his home church to send a missionary to Trinidad. The Rev. S. Thomas Anderson was appointed to Trinidad and Venezuela in November 1873, while Dr. McGhirk was appointed ‘lay helper.’
After Anderson’s arrival in Trinidad, however, there was a dire need for a ‘supply pastor’ at the Presbyterian Mission Church on High Street, San Fernando. This congregation was sponsored by the Free Church of Scotland. Anderson was thus ‘converted’ to fill this need and eventually in 1877 the Board of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church recalled Anderson.
In the meantime the Scottish Churches had established other congregations in Trinidad, at Belmont, Carenage, Dry River and Arouca in 1842 and finally in Sangre Grande in 1904. The last two are still very much alive. In South Trinidad, in addition to High Street, San Fernando, Scottish Churches were established at St. Madeleine, Vistabella, Marabella and Manzanilla (Kennedy Memorial).
On 3rd October 1845, the original ‘Presbytery of Trinidad’ was duly
constituted. One of its first acts was the ordination of Rev. James Robertson.
Robertson was a Scottish school teacher in Trinidad who had been encouraged to return to Scotland and complete his theological education. After his ordination he was assigned to work in the High Street Church in San Fernando and later to Carenage.
On 18th January 1848, a Madeiran, Arsenio Nicos De Silva, was sent out as a missionary to the Madeiran refugees in Trinidad and was duly ordained by the Presbytery of Trinidad as a Minister of the Word and Sacraments.
In 1864 John Morton, a young Canadian Presbyterian Minister, travelling in the West Indies while recuperating from a ‘throat infection,’ became aware of the East Indians in the colony of Trinidad.
“To think,” Morton would say later, “of these people living in a Christian community for years making money and returning to India without hearing the Gospel of Christ! What a stain on our Christianity.” Morton offered himself as a Missionary to Trinidad, arrived there on 3rd January 1868. The ‘sending church’ was The Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces of British North America.
Morton had inherited the little American Mission at Iere Village, with its outstation at Mt. Stewart. There was a little church building, a manse, and an African former slave congregation, which was Morton’s ‘first duty.’ He was duly inducted to the Iere Village Pastoral Charge by the Presbytery of Trinidad, of which Morton had become a member. This event occurred on the 29th January 1868, and constituted the official genesis of the “Canadian Mission,” which has become the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago (PCTT).
The early growth of the Canadian Mission was propelled by evangelistic outreach and the establishment of an educational network. In 1870, Morton was joined by Rev. K.J. Grant, and until 1975 the Canadian Church sent out a stream of ministers, women workers, educators and administrators, as well as provided financial grants, that all led to a vigorous and well established missionary enterprise. During the course of its existence and up to the present time, the PCTT developed into a Church with twenty-three (23) Pastoral Regions, with a total of one hundred and eight (108) congregations, seventy-two (72) primary schools, five (5) Secondary Schools, one (1) Teacher Training College (closed by the government in 1975 due to its
centralizing policy), a Vocational Institute (now transformed into a private Secondary School), Iere Home for girls (now a pre-school) and a Theological College. This latter institution, St. Andrew’s Theological College, has been in continuous existence since 1892.
