Rectangular large group portrait of Methodist synod.

The programme of establishment of Wesleyan missions across the ‘heathen’ diaspora was pioneered by Thomas Coke in 1786 with the establishment of a mission in the British West Indies. The first Methodist mission station was founded in the Gold Coast in the 1830s following previous establishments in Sierra Leone and the Gambia. The first synod of the Methodist Church in Ghana was held at Cape Coast following this and missionaries began to travel further inland to establish Methodism in areas such as Kumasi. The church gained autonomy in 1961 being titled The Methodist Church Ghana, a deed enshrined into the church’s constitution. Today the Methodist Church in Ghana is one of the largest in the country comprising 17 dioceses.

Sister Evelyn Bellamy was a Methodist Missionary in Ghana and between 1914 and 1943, during which time she occupied the post of headmistress of Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast. The Danford Collection is home to a large number of objects presented by Sister Evelyn Bellamy and some of her papers can be accesssed through the Cadbury Research Library.

Inscriptions / Translations:  ‘No.2 Members of the Methodist Synod held in Kumasi’ (on reverse)