Equatorial Guinea

   Equatorial Guinea, a small West African country, is over 80 percent Roman Catholic as a result of two centuries of Spanish rule. Indigenous religions appear to be waging a losing battle for survival.

   Presbyterians began work on the island of Corisco in 1858 and moved onto the mainland in the 1860s. Methodists arrived in 1870. The first substantial non-Catholic activity dates to the 1930s, when the Worldwide Evangelism Crusade (now WEC International) began to evangelize the Fang people, the largest native group in the country. The WEC, the Presbyterian Church, and the Methodists merged to form the Reformed Church of Equatorial Guinea. In the 1990s, the name was changed to the Council of Evangelical Churches in Equatorial Guinea. The council, currently the largest Protestant body, is a member of the World Council of Churches.

   over the course of the 20th century, a spectrum of Protestant churches began work in the relatively small country. of these, the German-based New Apostolic Church has had the most success, followed by the Free Protestant Episcopal Church, an import from Nigeria and Sierra Leone, and the Jehovah's Witnesses; they are the only bodies with more than 2,000 members.

   Further reading:

   ■ David Barrett, The Encyclopedia of World Christianity, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)

   ■ Jean-Jacques Bauswein and Lukas Vischer, eds., The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1999).