Tangalle Methodist Church
Photo credit: Google Street View The Methodist Church in Tangalle (Sinhala: තංගල්ල මෙතොදිස්ත පල්ලිය) is situated near Old Dutch Fort in Hambantota District, Sri Lanka. History The history of the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka dates back to the early 19th century (Melton & Baumann, 2010). The Methodist Bishop Thomas Coke (1747-1814) who hoped to open Methodist missions in the East Indies, set sail for Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) on 30 December 1813 with six other missionaries including William Ault, Benjamin Clough, George Erskine, Thomas Hall Squance, William Martin Harvard, and James Lynch. However, during the voyage, Coke died and was buried at sea (Melton & Baumann, 2010). The six others, except for Harvard (he remained in Bombay, India due to family circumstances but arrived in Sri Lanka later), arrived in Galle on 29 June 1814, six months after they started their journey and one year before the fall down of the Kingdom of Kandy . This church in Tangalle was built by Methodist miss…
