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Sri Lanka Christianity
According to Christian traditions, the Apostle Thomas was
active in Sri Lanka as well as southern India during the first
century A.D. Small Christian communities existed on the coasts of
Sri Lanka during the succeeding centuries, flourishing on the
edges of the Indian Ocean trade routes as Islam did in later
times. Christianity made significant inroads only after the
fifteenth century, as aggressive Portuguese missionary efforts
led to many conversions, especially among the Karava and other
low-country castes. When the Dutch took control of Sri Lanka,
they encouraged their own missionaries of the Dutch Reformed
Church. Under their patronage, 21 percent of the population in
the low country was officially Christian by 1722. The British, in
turn, allowed Anglican and other Protestant missionaries to
proselytize.
The relative number of Christians in Sri Lanka has declined
steadily since the end of colonial rule. In 1900 a reported
378,859 people, or 10.6 percent of the population, were
officially Christians. Although in 1980, the number of Christians
had increased to 1,283,600, the percentage of Christians in the
total population had declined to approximately 8 percent. This
decline occurred primarily because the non-Christian population
expanded at a faster rate. Emigration abroad, conversions of some
Christians to Buddhism and fewer conversions to Christianity
among Buddhists, Hindus, or Muslims also were reasons for the
decline. In the 1980s, Christians still were concentrated heavily
in the low country in the southwest. They comprised 30 percent of
the population in Colombo.
Some 88 percent of the Christians were Roman Catholics who
traced their religious heritage directly to the Portuguese. The
Roman Catholic Church has a well-established organization that
encompasses the entire island. In 1985 there were 9 dioceses
comprising 313 parishes, 682 priests, and 15 bishops (including
two archbishops and a cardinal). The remainder of Christians were
almost evenly split between the Anglican Church of Ceylon (with
two dioceses) and other Protestant faiths. The Dutch Reformed
Church, now the Presbytery of Ceylon, consisted mostly of
Burghers, and its numbers were shrinking because of emigration.
Other Christian communities--Congregationalists, Methodists, and
Baptists--were small in number. Since the 1970s, there has been a
movement of all Protestant Churches to join together in a united
Church of Sri Lanka. The Sinhalese community, however, has
strenuously opposed this movement.
Data as of October 1988
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