SL Colombo asv2020-01 img01 Wolvendaal Church

According to the 2012 census, 6% of the population of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

was Christian; of these, one in ten was

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

, showing that there were approximately six Protestants for every 1,000 Sri Lankans. Later estimates suggest that this share has doubled in less than ten years.

History

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

and other Protestant missionaries arrived in

during the early 19th century, when the British took control of Sri Lanka from the Dutch. The oldest Protestant church in Sri Lanka is the

Christian Reformed Church in Sri Lanka The Christian Reformed Church of Sri Lanka (formerly known as the Dutch Reformed Church of Sri Lanka) is the oldest Protestant church on the island. History Beginnings and development On 6 October 1642, the first Protestant church service w ...

, formerly the Dutch Reformed Church in Sri Lanka, has over 30 congregations and more than 5,000 members. In 1842 the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...

established St. Andrew's Church, Colombo and in 1845 opened a second church in Kandy. These two Scottish church communities forming the Presbytery of Ceylon. The Dutch Reformed Church subsequently joined the Presbytery of Ceylon however in 1952 doctrinal controversies occurred in the Dutch Reformed Church, which led to a split. The dissenting group forming the Presbyterian Church Colombo, with the Presbytery of Ceylon eventually folding. In 1954 the Presbyterian Church Colombo was joined by the Scots Kirk, Kandy to form the Presbytery of Lanka. The St. Andrew's Church, Colombo continues to operate as part of the

, under the jurisdiction of the International Presbytery. Salvation Army Church Kandy

The

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...

established themselves in Ceylon on 26 January 1883 under the leadership of Captain William Gladwin. He was joined in 1885 by

Frederick Booth-Tucker Commissioner Frederick St. George de Lautour Booth-Tucker, (21 March 1853 – 17 July 1929) was a senior Salvation Army officer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the son-in-law of Willam and Catherine Booth, the Army's f ...

(the son-in-law of

William Booth William Booth (10 April 182920 August 1912) was an English Methodist preacher who, along with his wife, Catherine, founded the Salvation Army and became its first " General" (1878–1912). His 1890 book In Darkest England and The Way Out o ...

, the Salvation Army's founder). In 1909 the Salvation Army established a territorial headquarters in Colombo. Up until 1920 Ceylon was administered as a sub-territory of South India. In 1921 it was granted full territorial status, with Colonel Millner appointed as its first territorial commander. The Lanka Lutheran Church was founded in 1978 but went defunct in the mid-2000s. It was replaced in 2017 by the Ceylon Evangelical Lutheran Church (CELC). The CELC has fifteen congregations and about 1,200 members.

Freedom of religion

In 2023, the country was scored 2 out of 4 for religious freedom.Freedom House website, retrieved 2023-08-08
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References

{{Christianity in Sri Lanka

History of the Dutch East India Company

History

Freedom of religion

See also

References