The CaymanasChurch and Our Time
By The Rev'd NicholasSykes
In 1983 some attempts to make reforms tothe government of the Anglican Mission in the Cayman Islands uncoveredthe apparent anomaly that the Diocesan jurisdiction that had beenoffered by the Anglican Church in Jamaica in 1970 and acceptedby the Cayman congregation at that time was in conflict with principlesof ecclesiastical order that formed part of historic Anglicanism.
Though this was an outcome wholly unsoughtby the original reforming efforts, it became the key factor inthe recovery of the Church of England in the Cayman Islands inlate 1983. The radical nature of this discovery and its practicalconsequences were difficult for many, both within and outsidethe Cayman Islands.
As a result, from 1983 Anglicanism in theCayman Islands has been represented by two Anglican organisationsindependent of one another, one looking to the current Churchin Jamaica in the Province of the West Indies and the other lookingto the historic Church of England. The Church looking to Jamaica(the 20th century St. George's) continued to receive the pastoraloversight from the Bishop of Jamaica that had begun in 1970, whilethe Church claiming a historic Church of England polity (St. Alban'sin Grand Cayman with St. Mary's in Cayman Brac) in spite of yearsof effort continuing up to 1992 did not receive the oversightfrom the Bishop of London or the Church of England to which itlaid title.
It is instructive that through those yearsthe Church of England in the Cayman Islands always utterly resistedany suggestion that it should renounce its identity, which wasdetermined not by a Bishop's oversight but by its fundamentalpolity supported by history and law.
In November 1992 the General Synod of theChurch of England agreed to the idea of the ordination of womento the Presbyterate, an idea which conflicts dangerously withthe historic and catholic order of the Church of England and,it has been successfully shown, with the scriptural foundationsof the priestly ministry of the Church. After that time, therefore,no further attempts by the Church of England in the Cayman Islandsto receive oversight from the Bishop of London or the EstablishedChurch of England were made, in spite of the continuing claimby the Cayman Church to such entitlement.
Very soon afterwards, the Episcopal needsof the Cayman Church began to be met by Dr. A. Donald Davies,the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church, whichhad become independent of the Protestant Episcopal Church in theU.S.A. as a direct result of the 1992 Church of England GeneralSynod decision.
The 1992 Church of England General Synoddecision seemed inevitably to lead sooner or later to a conditionof there being two organisations in England each claiming to bethe Church of England, one by virtue of continuity of establishmentand local episcopal succession, the other by virtue of continuitywith the traditional norms of doctrine, order and polity of theChurch of England, which the other party arguably abandoned. Forthe time being, however, the major parts of these two divisionsfunction rather like a "Church within a Church"; perhaps,with the English genius for compromise and making do, this arrangementwill last.
The effect of Cayman's history has beento produce in Cayman Islands Anglicanism one particular versionof things to come throughout the Anglican world beginning in England:our example of accepting the oversight of a soundly traditionalBishop in the course of attempting to adhere to our God-givenand fundamental polity can be compared with the use in Englandof the Provincial Episcopal Visitors.
These so-called "flying bishops"are allowed and expected to be an Episcopal resource throughoutthe two Provinces of the Church of England for traditional Anglicanswho have been alienated from bishops hitherto uniquely establishedin their own areas. Anglican churches throughout the world willbe wise to follow this example of the Church of England at least,by allowing to their traditionalists the structures they needto be a blessing and a leaven to their churches.
In the Cayman Islands such a structure isprovided by adhering to the constitutional character of the Church,which descends to us from the very heart of the history of theIslands; however, our understanding of Cayman Islands historyhinges upon our understanding of the burning question that exercisedand vexed the minds of successive governors and their peers, thedependency question.
It is contended that this matter has beenshut away for years, largely unconsciously, into an amnesiacalcloset. Its recovery in the pages of this book may be for somepeople like the disclosure of the proverbial skeleton; be thatas it may, the exercise is entirely necessary.
The character of the Church of the Islandsis derived indelibly from the original nature of the CaymanasChurch, which first emerged into the historical record no laterthan 1802. The Caymanas Church was quite simply the Island expressionof the Church of England, just as the Church of England itselforiginated quite simply as the English expression of the "trueand apostolic Church of Christ". For the first four decadesof its life, the Caymanas Church, though gravely deficient inmany ways, was unchallenged by any sectarian presence.
Later, with the advent of the Wesleyan mission,which failed after six years, and then of the Scottish Presbyterianmission, which prevailed, the original character of the CaymanasChurch became obscured. The pastoral oversight provided in thelast seven years of the Caymanas Church's unchallenged existencehad been entwined with a degree of anomaly shown in the precedingchapters of this work, and this was the principal cause of thecessation of the oversight.
The ecclesiastical anomaly, however, wasrooted in the dependency question at the heart of the historyof the Islands, and throughout the years of the Caymanas Church'sexistence, from its emergence into history until the present time,ecclesiastical jurisdiction has continued to be provided for bylaw received in the Islands.
The 1830s oversight afforded to the CaymanasChurch by the first Bishop of Jamaica and ending in 1839 was anomalousto the extent that it may have purported to originate an ecclesiasticaljurisdiction over the Islands that was independent of law receivedin the Cayman Islands.
Today also, any pastoral oversight affordedto a congregation in the Cayman Islands that purports to originatean ecclesiastical jurisdiction will still be anomalous in respectof being independent of received law, excepting the case of suchoversight being afforded by the Bishop of London.
For the time being the Church of the Islandswill continue to exist in several "integrities" or "prelatures",a situation which, while the manner of its formation has beenunique to a degree, parallels the current and differently-structuredsituation obtaining in the Church of the mother-country herself.
From this situation may the Cayman Churchbe raised, with its inherited character forged, tried and strengthened,a testimony to the character of Christ Himself, with the scarsof its many wounds and the glory of His power to surmount them.
The 1830s oversight afforded to the CaymanasChurch by the first Bishop of Jamaica and ending in 1839 was anomalousto the extent that it may have purported to originate an ecclesiasticaljurisdiction over the Islands that was independent of law receivedin the Cayman Islands.
Today also, any pastoral oversight affordedto a congregation in the Cayman Islands that purports to originatean ecclesiastical jurisdiction will still be anomalous in respectof being independent of received law, excepting the case of suchoversight being afforded by the Bishop of London.
For the time being the Church of the Islandswill continue to exist in several "integrities" or "prelatures",a situation which, while the manner of its formation has beenunique to a degree, parallels the current and differently-structuredsituation obtaining in the Church of the mother-country herself.
From this situation may the Cayman Churchbe raised, with its inherited character forged, tried and strengthened,a testimony to the character of Christ Himself, with the scarsof its many wounds and the glory of His power to surmount them.