Churches of Providenciales
The island of Providenciales certainly does not lack churches. With one of the higher church per capita ratios among developed islands in the north Atlantic and Caribbean, Providenciales roughly has 1 church for every 3,000 inhabitants.
Christianity is the majority religion, and several branches of the domination have worship centers on the island, including Baptists, Anglicans, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Methodists. Providenciales is also home to small Muslim and Jewish communities.
Many of the island’s churches are found in one of the three original settlements of Blue Hills, The Bight, and Five Cays.
Churches Throughout the Turks and Caicos
Providenciales did not support the thriving sea salt industries that Grand Turk, Salt Cay, and South Caicos had. Likewise, it never had the extensive Loyalist cotton and sisal plantations of North Caicos and Middle Caicos. As a result, the island's income in past centuries was rather poor.
Churches of the time often reflected the current society and economic stability. Until the advent of the modern tourism industry in the 1980s, Providenciales was a very quiet island and simply couldn’t afford to build the larger places of worship that were constructed on the salt-producing islands.
Grand Turk is home to many historical churches, some of which were constructed from Bermudian-cut limestone and tropical hardwoods.
The Turks and Caicos has long been a British territory, so from the 1700s to 1866 the Anglican Church was sponsored (to a small degree) by the government.
Unlike the colonial-era churches on Grand Turk, South Caicos, and Salt Cay, nearly all of the Providenciales places of worship are modern. Today, the largest churches in the country are found on Providenciales, and include such sites as the Faith Tabernacle Church of God and the Holy Cross Catholic Church near Downtown, and the Paradise Baptist Church in Five Cays.
Churches on Providenciales
