Caribbean Worship

Although Christians have worshiped on the Caribbean Islands for many decades, patterns of worship that reflect local culture have only arisen in recent years. This article describes this process and calls for further attention to cultural issues and provides both a brief introduction to worship in this cultural tradition and a helpful point of comparison for churches that are struggling with cultural issues in other settings. Contemporary Caribbean worship is an adventure of the spirit. But the road to an indigenous form of Caribbean worship has been arduous. The European colonizers brought to the West Indies (as well as to the rest of the world) their cultural heritage. There was only one-way cultural communication: from the rich and dominant Europeans to the backward and primitive non-Northerners. The mores of the Arawak and Carib Indian, and even more those of the African slaves, were denigrated and European things were promoted and idolized. The former were considered pagan, the …