The Episcopal  Church in the Dominican Republic

History

The Anglican Church arrived in the Dominican Republic with English speaking immigrants from the West Indies who came to work in the sugar cane fields. The Dominican Episcopal Church was founded in San Pedro de Macoris in 1897 by the Rev. Benjamin Isaac Wilson. Initially, the church was part of the Haitian Diocese  whose Bishop was the Right Rev. James Holly, the first African-American Bishop in the Episcopal Church. Services were held primarily in English, with some services in Spanish. Today, all services are in Spanish with the exception of a service at Epiphany Church (Santo Domingo).

In 1918, the Rev. William Wylie arrived in Santo Domingo to serve as chaplain to the US armed forces. In the same year, the Anglican church arrived in Puerto Plata. The Puerto Plata church was under the direction of lay leaders until 1922.

On the night of July 26, 1939 the Rev. Charles Raymond Barnes became a martyr of the Dominican Church. Rev. Barnes was the priest at Epiphany Church. In 1937, the military, under orders from the dictator Rafael Trujillo, murdered hundreds of Haitians near the  Haitian border. Rev. Barnes was sending messages to the USA in an attempt to stop this genocide.

His messages were intercepted by Trujillo's agents. On July 26, three armed men knocked on the rectory door. Fr. Barnes was taken to a midnight meeting with the dictator. He was beaten to death and his body placed back in the rectory, where it was found the next morning. Police indicated the motive for the crime was robbery. However, the director of a Christian Hospital determined that the did not take place in the rectory.

Bishop Carlson wrote in the burial book, "Killed in the hands of a degenerate." Fr. Raymond Barnes is entombed under the floor of Epiphany Church.