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Chapter 5 Part 1
The Caymanas Church Up To1839
The resolution of the "dependency question" is importantfor the reliable understanding of questions surrounding the establishmentof the Church in the Cayman Islands. In the last quarter of thetwentieth century there has been two separate versions of theAnglican witness in the Islands, each one, to some extent, appealingto history to justify its position.
One version recognizes the mark of Anglicanismin the Cayman Islands nowhere other than in churches acknowledgingthe jurisdiction of the Bishop of Jamaica. The other version appealsto "older laws" - in this case the constitutional historyof the Islands and the longstanding polity of the Church of Englandoverseas - to obtain its understanding and definition of an authenticallyAnglican Cayman Islands Church.
"In the beginning" the CaymanasChurch was a congregation of worshippers presided over by a "respectableInhabitant and it is notable that the Caymanas "Governor"William Bodden had a "house of Public worship" builtfor them.5.1 There is no question that the inhabitants took itfor granted that the Faith they practised was the Faith of theMother country, and they would have been within the ecclesiasticaljurisdiction of the Bishop of London. 5.2
Later, the See of Jamaica was erected andthe Rt. Rev. Christopher Lipscomb was installed as the Churchof England's first Bishop of Jamaica. It should not be forgottenthat the Church of England had already existed in Jamaica beforethat time for over two and a half centuries, but apparently hadformed no ministerial connection with the Caymanas Church fromthe time that it began independently.
The purpose of the Letters Patent issuedin 1824 for the new Bishopric of Jamaica was to "erect, found,ordain make and constitute the Island of Jamaica, the Bahama Islandsand the Settlements in the Bay of Honduras and their respectivedependencies, to be a Bishop's See".5.3 In 1825 the newBishop communicated with the "Governor of the Caymans"letting him know of his intent to establish the Church in "thatpart of his diocese".
At the same time Mr. James Coe Junior inthe Caymanas wrote a letter to the Rev'd Isaac Mann in Jamaicain which the feasibility of a clergyman being sent to the Caymanasfrom Jamaica was discussed. In December 1831, a Church of Englandclergyman arrived in the Caymanas from the Bishop of Jamaica,and until 1839 the Church in Caymanas manifested, in practicalterms, its willingness to receive the Bishop of Jamaica's pastoraloversight.
All this came to a decisive end by the summerof 1839, when, once again, the Caymanas Church became ministeriallydisconnected from the Church in Jamaica, and documentary sourcesfrom 1845 to 1970, all without exception, show that the CaymanIslands were not included in the Diocese of Jamaica.
If the question is asked: "Why wouldthe ministerial connection, formed for about seven years, betweenthe Caymanas Church and the Jamaica Church in the 1830's not constitutean 'establishment of the Church' or the 'establishment of theDiocese of Jamaica' in the Cayman Islands?" A reliable understandingof the dependency question becomes necessary for forming an accurateanswer.
This is so, because in the 1830's the Churchof England was established overseas, for example in Jamaica andthe Cayman Islands, not only by the missionary thrust of the workof the Church itself, but also by the passing of bills in a legislature.For in those days, the Church had taken the form of a "state"body, many of whose officers (the clergy) were stipended by theappropriate government.
If the Caymanas had been a Dependency ofJamaica, in the normal sense of it being subject to the Laws ofJamaica at that time, whatever acts being necessary for the establishmentof the Church in Jamaica that were passed by the Jamaican legislaturewould have applied also in the Caymanas. As we have clearly seen,this condition did not exist between Jamaica and the Caymanas,a state of affairs that was not always perceived or understoodat the time even in the Colonial Office.
The Letters Patent issued for the new Bishopof Jamaica certainly appear to have been understood by him inthe earlier years of his jurisdiction, and no doubt by others,as giving authority for the new Diocese of Jamaica to extend overthe Caymanas. However, legal authorities have shown that suchLetters Patent are not by themselves fully sufficient to establishan overseas diocese. 5.4
Wherever there is a legislature authorizedto pass laws for the territory, that legislature has to give itsstamp of approval by passing an act that regulates the relevantecclesiastical organization in its territory, confirming and establishingthere the legal status and authority of the Bishop.
The Letters Patent erecting the Dioceseof Jamaica explicitly defer to some such act or acts that shouldbe passed in the legislatures of the proposed Diocese, namelythose of Jamaica, the Bahama Islands and the Settlements in theBay of Honduras. The Letters Patent provide that "nothingherein contained shall extend or enure to derogate from or interferewith the force and effect of any act or acts relating to EcclesiasticalRegimen or to any matter or thing hereby regulated which shallhave been passed by the Governor Council and Assembly of any oreither of the above islands and Settlements [i.e. Jamaica, theBahama Islands and the Settlements in the Bay of Honduras] respectivelyand have received the Royal Confirmation so long as the said actor acts shall continue unrepealed or in force"... 5.5.
In Jamaica these acts were the "ClergyActs" 5.6. The Letters Patent, then, show what the Crownintended, but the local legislation is the test of whether thatintention had been achieved. However, the fact that the legislationof Jamaica, including the Clergy Acts, did not take effect inthe Cayman Islands meant that these Letters Patent also couldnot legally extend to them; but this was not understood, at leastat first, by the principals involved, who also, apparently, assumedthat the Caymanas fell within the category of "their respectivedependencies" in the Letters Patent, the possibility of whichwas foreclosed, as we have seen, by the Jamaican Legislature in1835.
Edward Corbet's report (21 June, 1802) andthe letter of William Bodden (28 August, 1805) to Governor Nugent,reproduced in the Cayman Islands National Archive's Our IslandsPast Volume 1, pp. 7 and 43, respectively.
They were provided for legally by an Orderby King Charles in 1634 (before the settlement of Caymanas), wherebyall British subjects in foreign parts were declared to be underthe jurisdiction of the Bishop of London (see Phillmore's EcclesiasticalLaw Second Edition 1895 Vol. II at page 1770.
Letters Patent of King George IV dated 24thJuly, 1824. 'quoted from Evans, E.L., A History of the Dioceseof Jamaica Appendix A, p. 141 (see also Phillmore Vol. II at page1790.
Thus in the case of In Re the Bishop ofNatal the Privy Council stated:- "When in 1824 a Bishop wasappointed in Jamaica by Letters Patent containing clauses similarto the present appellant it was thought necessary that the legalstatus and authority of the Bishop should be confirmed and establishedby an Act of the Colonial Legislature.
The consent of the Crown was given to thisColonial Act, which would have been an improper thing, as an injuryto the Crown's prerogative, unless the law advisers of Governmenthad been satisfied that the Colonial Statute was necessary togive full effect to the establishment of the Bishopric" Reportedin 3 Moore's P.C. Cases New Series 115. Evans, p. 141
Successive Acts passed by the Jamaican Legislatureeach of 11 years duration "to consolidate and amend the Lawsrelating to the clergy of this island, and to invest the Bishopof Jamaica with ecclesiastical jurisdiction", the first ofwhich was 6 George IV Cap passed in 1825.
The Dependency Question is published bythe Ecclesiastical Corporation, P.O. Box 719, Cayman Islands,is available for CI$15 from The Rev'd Nicholas Sykes, P.O. Box179, Grand Cayman and from Island Bookshops and other outlets.