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PRIMARY CHARGE,

ADDRESSED TO THE

CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE

OF

BARBADOS AND THE LEEWARD ISLANDS,

AND DELIVERED IN THE ISLANDS OF

BARBADOS, ANTIGUA, AND ST. CHRISTOPHER,

IN

1830 & 1831.

F

PRIMARY CHARGE.

MY REVEREND BRETHREN,

IF I have delayed for so long a period to call you thus publicly together, my apology

must be found in the peculiar cir

1830-31.

cumstances of a recently-constituted Diocese. I was anxious to become personally acquainted with my Clergy in the scenes of their respective labours, and to ascertain for myself the nature and extent of your difficulties, and to supply, as far as might be in my power, the necessary means for the more effective and satisfactory discharge of your ministerial duties.

In almost every instance-I am speaking with reference to the Diocese generally—I found the several Parishes, from the amount, or condition, or locality of their population, far exceeding the physical powers of their respective Ministers. In too many cases the Parishes were inconveniently or inadequately provided with proper edifices for the public worship of God; or those edifices had been suffered to fall into considerable decay, or were insufficiently furnished with "things apper

taining to Churches." In some even of endowed Parishes there was neither Church nor incumbent, nor residence for the Minister. Daily Schools at the public expence, and Sunday Schools for the instruction of the young and adult, were, with a few highly creditable exceptions, either unknown or very inefficiently conducted. The free-coloured, and slave population, were not necessarily regarded as forming any regular part of the parochial Minister's care, except where the Rector or Curate of the Parish was acting in the capacity also of Chaplain to the Society for the Conversion and Religious Instruction of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands. By the exertions of this Society, and its Chaplains, and at the instance, or under the superintendence, of Proprietors themselves, religious instruction had been introduced on some estates; but even this instruction, where conceded, was for the most part restricted, in its mode, to oral communication. The Christian Sabbath was a day of much labour, open traffic, and riotous amusement; little had been effected towards inducing the Negro to forego his African customs and superstitions. The faithful Minister of Christ had to contend in all classes with much ignorance, much prejudice, much immorality, and, as a necessary consequence, with much opposition'. The Diocese was without any accredited

1 See Appendix A.

establishment for the ministerial preparation of the West Indian youth; and every candidate for Holy Orders, was under the necessity of visiting the mother country for education, or for ordination.

It would be more than presumption in me to assert, that the Ecclesiastical wants of the Diocese have in all these respects been supplied, or that the spiritual evils under which it was labouring, have been removed; much yet remains to be gradually effected, under God, by the more general and hearty co-operation of an enlightened and moral Laity, and by the zealous and discreet perseverance of a faithful, intelligent, and affectionate ministry: yet thus much I may say, in all thankfulness to the Giver of every good, that we assemble this day under more favourable circumstances, and with more enlarged means of usefulness, and with higher prospects, and, if I may judge of your feelings by my own, with more confidence in each other, and more reciprocity of kindness, than we could have assembled on any former occasion.

Through the liberality of the local Legislatures, the incomes of the Parochial Clergy have in most of the Colonies been placed on a footing more commensurate with the actual wants of the Clergy, and with the respectability of the station which they hold in society. From the annual and

occasional grants of the Imperial Parliament, and from the pecuniary assistance afforded by the

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