Guadeloupe

   Following the establishment of French rule, Roman Catholicism became the dominant religious influence on the island, whose main population are descendants of African slaves.

   Protestant influence came to Guadeloupe with the arrival of Moravian missionaries in the 1750s. More substantial response was accorded the Reformed Church of France, though both churches were eclipsed by the Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventist Church in the last half of the 20th century. The former now claims more than half of those professing religion outside of the Roman Catholic Church in Guadeloupe.

   See also Caribbean.

   Further reading:

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

   ■ Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, Operation World, 21st Century Edition (Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: Paternoster, 2001).