A CHRONOLOGY OF PROTESTANT BEGINNINGS:
FALKLAND-MALVINAS ISLANDS

by Dr. Clifton L. Holland

(last revised on June 9, 2003)

Historical Overview:

Discovery by Spanish explorers:                                                                                      1520

Settled by British colonists:                                                                                            1690s

Territory disputed by Spain, France and Britain:                                                                1700s

Considered part of Argentina following its Independence from Spain:                                   1816

Occupation by the British:                                                                                              1833

United Nations recognizes Argentine sovereignty:                                                             1945

Britain retains control despite U.N. resolution; territory disputed:                                        1945-1982

Argentina invades and is repelled by the British, who remain in control:                               1982

Territorial dispute and official name of the Islands remains disputed:                                   1982-2003

 

Indicates European society*

Significant Protestant Beginnings or other Special Events:

     1690s     -    *British establish a colony and create the community of Port Egmont; Anglican chapel services begun.

 

     1700s     -    *Britain returned the islands to Spain, who renamed the community Port Soledad.

 

     1700s     -    French fisherman and seal hunters settle on the islands and rename them for Saint Malo, hence the name Malvinas.

 

     1833       -    *British settlements established by Anglicans from England, but an Anglican chaplain did not arrive until 1845; missionaries from the South American Missionary Society (Anglican) arrived in the 1850s; the Diocese of the Falkland Islands was created in 1869; in 1974, church jurisdiction of the islands passed to the hands of the South American Anglican Council, which led to the formation of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of America; the English-speaking Anglicans in the islands protested against their participation in a Spanish-speaking body, and in 1977 the Archbishop of Canterbury assumed authority over the Falkland Islands as part of the work of the Church of England.

 

     1857       -    *The Roman Catholic Church established among British expatriates, and this small work became attached to the Bishop of London, and remains so today.

 

     1872       -    * A Presbyterian minister arrived to provide pastoral care to British settlers, and this was the beginning of what became the United Free Church of the Falkland Islands; Lutherans and Baptists joined the Presbyterians to form this body, which has fraternal relations with the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian).

 

 

Date of Origin Unknown:

 

                        Finnish Lutheran Church

 

                        Seventh-day Adventist Church

 

 

NOTES:

(1)       Dates listed indicate the earliest recorded ministry or in case of discrepancies, the date most frequently indicated.

 

(2)       North American Agencies include U.S. and Canadian.

SOURCES:

(1) PROLADES (Latin American Socio-religious Studies Program), international headquarters in San José, Costa Rica: www.prolades.com, prolades@racsa.co.cr

(2) J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann, editors, Religions of the World (ABC-Clio Publishers, 2002)