No Establishment in a Long Anglican Tradition: Antigua and Barbuda

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

The constitution guarantees freedom of religion and conscience and establishes no state church, consistent with the pattern across the former British Leeward Islands, so nearly four centuries of continuous Anglican presence has never translated into a formal constitutional privilege for the church. Article 9 of the Small Charges Act criminalizes the use of abusive, blasphemous, indecent, insulting, profane or threatening language, punishable by a fine or a month's imprisonment, but the provision is not enforced for blasphemy.

Antigua and Barbuda has never concluded a concordat with the Holy See; its Apostolic Nunciature was established by papal brief on 15 December 1986 and, as with the country's other diplomatic missions from Rome, is held by the prelate appointed to Trinidad and Tobago, the same shared nunciature arrangement several of its Eastern Caribbean neighbors use rather than a treaty of its own.