The Church of Ceylon, which is the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka, was established with the appointment of its first Bishop, Rt Rev James Chapman in 1845 as the Bishop of Colombo.
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The first services were held on the island in 1796 and missionaries were sent to Ceylon to begin work in 1818.[1] The Church now has two dioceses, one in Colombo (covering the Western, Southern, Eastern, Northern and Uva provinces and Ratnapura, Nuwara Eliya and Puttalam districts) and the other in Kurunegala (covering the North-Central province and Kurunegala, Kandy, Matale and Kegalla, Anuradapura, Polonnaruwa, districts).The Diocese of Colombo was founded in 1845 and the Diocese of Kurunegala was launched in 1950.[1]
Recently, there is a movement for the amalgamation of traditional Protestant Churches (including Church of Ceylon, Methodist Church, Lanka Baptist Sangamaya, Salvation Army, Presbyterian Church of Sri Lanka and the Dutch Reformed Church in Sri Lanka) into one body, namely the Church of Sri Lanka, for which a phased road map has been accepted and the process hoped to be started in 2008.
The Bishop of Colombo, Rt. Rev. Duleep De Chickera has under him four Archdeacons for Colombo, Galle, Jaffna and Upcountry & East. The Kurunegala diocese with its only Archdeacon in Kandy is headed by Rt.Rev. Kumara Illangasingha.
The Church of Ceylon with around 30,000 members, is the second largest group of Christians in Sri Lanka, with the Roman Catholic Church with 1,600,000 being the largest.
A photo selection of Parishes of the Church of Ceylon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ3Gl3C5M30&context=C3c266dbADOEgsToPDskIaayPIvh9fLcrAt7qN-t1G
In the early 20th century an Anglican Missionary,Reverend W.S.Senior arrived in Ceylon to work with the Church Missionary Society. He was Vice-Principal of Trinity College, Kandy for many years. Reverend Senior lived in Ceylon for three decades.[2] Reverend W.S.Senior wrote the 'Hymn for Ceylon,' sung to this day in churches on the island. The music for parts of this hymn was composed in 1950 by the leading Sri Lankan folk musician, the late Deva Suriya Sena.
You can view the 'Hymn for Ceylon' on You Tube:
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