Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea
Encyclopedia
The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea became a discrete province of the Anglican Communion
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...

 when the Anglican Province of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 was separated from the Anglican ecclesiastical Province of Queensland, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, in 1976 following Papua New Guinea's independence from Australia in 1975. Its first Archbishop and Primate
Primate (religion)
Primate is a title or rank bestowed on some bishops in certain Christian churches. Depending on the particular tradition, it can denote either jurisdictional authority or ceremonial precedence ....

 was the Most Revd Sir David Hand
David Hand
Grand Chief the Most Reverend Geoffrey David Hand KBE GCL was the first Anglican Archbishop of Papua New Guinea.-Childhood and education:...

, the Bishop of Port Moresby
Port Moresby
Port Moresby , or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea . It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea, which made it a prime objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43...

. The current Primate is Archbishop Joseph Kopapa, the bishop of the diocese of Popondota in the civil province of Oro
Oro Province
Oro Province, formerly Northern Province, is a coastal province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Popondetta. The province covers 22,800 km², and has 133,065 inhabitants ....

.

Founding of the Anglican mission

Britain assumed sovereignty over southeast New Guinea in 1888 and the General Synod of the Church of England in Australia (now the Anglican Church of Australia
Anglican Church of Australia
The Anglican Church of Australia is a member church of the Anglican Communion. It was previously officially known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania...

) then resolved that "...the recent annexation of portion of New Guinea imposes direct obligation upon the Church to provide for the spiritual welfare both of the natives and the settlers." In 1889 the Revd A.A. Maclaren was appointed the first Anglican missionary to the region and in 1890 visited with the Revd Copland King. They purchased land at Samarai
Samarai
Samarai is an island and former administrative capital in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. Located off the south-eastern tip of New Guinea in the China Strait Samarai has an area of just ....

 for a mission station but Maclaren died at the end of 1891 and King withdrew to Australia; in 1892 King returned to Dogura and built a mission house and two South Sea Islands teachers joined him in 1893 and were placed at Taupota and Awaiama; in 1894 a teacher was placed at Boiani. The Right Revd Montagu John Stone-Wigg was appointed Bishop of New Guinea and spent 10 years there, establishing stations at Wanigela and Mukawa on Collingwood Bay in 1898 and Mamba at the mouth of the Mambare River in 1899: by 1901 there were eleven stations along the coast of north Papua (in what are now Northern (Oro) and Milne Bay Provinces) and Anglican influence had extended along 480 km of coast. The Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul in Dogura, Milne Bay Province, is the largest Anglican church in Papua New Guinea. It seats 800, was consecrated in 1939 three years before the outbreak of war in the South Pacific and survived the traumatic Japanese occupation of Papua New Guinea during World War II.

Second World War and recovery

The Japanese had put ashore troops in Papua near Gona by July 1942 with a view to taking Lae and Salamaua. The Japanese did not harass or occupy Dogura mission itself and services continued in the cathedral throughout the war, with congregations amply enlarged by visitors from the Australian and American armed forces. However, the Anglican Church elsewhere fared less well. In Anglican terminology the New Guinea Martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

s were eight Anglican clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....

, teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

s and medical missionaries killed by the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese in 1942, the Anglican Bishop of New Guinea (then a diocese of the ecclesiastical Province of Queensland) Philip Strong having instructed Anglican missionaries to remain at their posts despite the Japanese invasion. Three hundred thirty-three church workers of various denominations were killed during the Japanese occupation of New Guinea.

A statue of Lucian Tapiedi
Lucian Tapiedi
Lucian Tapiedi was a Papuan Anglican teacher who was one of the "New Guinea Martyrs." The Martyrs were eight Anglican clergy, teachers, and medical missionaries killed by the Japanese in 1942 .-Early life:Tapiedi was born around 1921,“the nephew of a suspected sorcerer of Taupota...

, the one indigenous Papuan among the Anglican martyrs of New Guinea, is installed among the niches with other 20th century Christian martyrs from the wider Church, over the west door of Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

 in London.

Postwar recovery was hindered by the eruption on 21 January 1951 of Mount Lamington
Mount Lamington
Mount Lamington is an andesitic stratovolcano in the Oro Province of Papua New Guinea. The forested peak of the volcano had not been recognised as such until its devastating eruption in 1951 that caused about 3,000 deaths....

, which devastated Higatura, which contained the Martyrs' School and the main mission centre, where a diocesan synod was in progress — both were destroyed — and Sangara, the Northern District Headquarters, where everyone was killed.

Martyrs' School was subsequently re-established at Popondetta, where its eponym for obvious reasons came generally to refer to the hundreds of victims of the Mount Lamington eruption who died precisely because they were involved in church work at the time of the eruption.

Today

The Most Revd Sir David Hand
David Hand
Grand Chief the Most Reverend Geoffrey David Hand KBE GCL was the first Anglican Archbishop of Papua New Guinea.-Childhood and education:...

 served as archbishop from 1977 until 1983. The Most Rev'd George Ambo
George Ambo
Bishop Sir George Ambo , originally named Ambo Arukaba after his father and grandfather, was an Anglican archbishop who was "the first South Pacific native to be made a bishop", in 1960...

 succeeded him from 1983 to 1989, becoming the first indigenous Papua New Guinean to hold the position. The Most Rev'd Joseph Kopapa has served in that role since 2010.

Since it was historically part of the ecclesiastical province of Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, the Anglican Board of Mission—Australia (ABM-A) (previously Australian Board of Mission) has provided ongoing personnel and material support to the church. Today that support takes the form of funding for theological training, ministry, evangelism and building the church's capacity for community development and enhanced provision of vital social services such as education and health, including HIV/Aids.

The Anglican mission was not well funded in years past and it did not compare favourably with other Christian denominations in Papua New Guinea in terms of health and education services. Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Congregationalist and Methodist missions elsewhere in the country established plantations and other commercial enterprises by way of funding mission activities and were able to recruit Polynesian mission staff from elsewhere in the South Pacific. The Anglican mission, centred in Oro and Milne Bay, which were in early years less amenable to commercial enterprise, and without a substantial mission presence elsewhere in the South Pacific, lacked these resources and depended on mission funds and personnel in Australia and England.

There are two church-affiliated high schools, Martyrs' Memorial School in Popondetta, Northern (Oro) Province and Holy Name School in Dogura, Milne Bay Province, and numerous primary schools in Northern and Milne Bay Provinces. The church operates Newton College, a theological seminary for the training of clergy in Popondetta and, in co-operation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea is a Protestant church denomination located in Papua New Guinea that professes the Lutheran branch of the Christian faith...

 and the Gutnius Lutheran Church
Gutnius Lutheran Church
The Gutnius Lutheran Church, formerly the Wabag Lutheran Church, is a Lutheran body existing in Papua New Guinea. It was established by the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod in 1948 shortly after the Australian administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea permitted missionary activity to...

 (i.e. Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod), Balob Teachers' College in Lae.

Membership

In accordance with early concordats among European missionaries by which they agreed not to engage in undue competition with each other, Anglican missionary activity was largely confined to the Northern and Milne Bay Districts of Papua; the Oro
Oro Province
Oro Province, formerly Northern Province, is a coastal province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Popondetta. The province covers 22,800 km², and has 133,065 inhabitants ....

 (Northern) Province remains the only civil province of Papua New Guinea of which a majority of the population are Anglican.

There are pockets of Anglicans in the Western Highlands
Western Highlands (Papua New Guinea)
Western Highlands is a province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Mount Hagen. The province covers an area of 8,500 km², and there are 440,025 inhabitants , making the Western Highlands one of the most densely populated provinces. Tea and coffee are grown in the Western Highlands...

 (and Archbishop James Ayong
James Ayong
James Simon Ayong, born in a cave in Kumbun, West New Britain in 1944, has been the Anglican Archbishop of Papua New Guinea since 19 June 1996. As Archbishop, Ayong also is the Primate of The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea...

 of the diocese of Aipo-Rongo — Mount Hagen — is the current primate), in the western extremity of West New Britain
West New Britain
West New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea on the islands of New Britain. The provincial capital is Kimbe. The area of the province in 21,000 km², and there are 184,508 inhabitants . West New Britain produces palm oil for export...

 and of course, significantly, in Port Moresby
Port Moresby
Port Moresby , or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea . It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea, which made it a prime objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43...

 where the core constituency of Oro and Wedau people is supplemented by foreign residents of the city.

Structure

The polity of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea is episcopalian, as with all Anglican churches. The church maintains a system of geographical parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

es organised into diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

s. There are five of these, each headed by a bishop. There are no metropolitical dioceses as such and the Primate and Archbishop of Papua New Guinea may be any one of the five diocesan bishops, who concurrently retains his designation as bishop of his diocese. (Unlike in some other Anglican provinces, all clergy and bishops are male.)

The dioceses are:
  • Aipo Rongo (with its see city in Mount Hagen, Western Highlands);
  • the New Guinea Islands (with its see city formerly in Rabaul
    Rabaul
    Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of metres into the air and the...

    , though since Rabaul's destruction by volcanic eruption in 1992 the de facto see city has been Kokopo, ENB;
  • Port Moresby, including the entirety of Papua (i.e. the former British New Guinea, the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea) apart from Milne Bay and Northern (Oro) provinces;
  • Popondota (the authentic Orokaiva pronunciation of Popondetta) with its see city in Popondetta, Northern (Oro) Province; and
  • Dogura, taking in Milne Bay Province. Dogura is the location of the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul, the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea's only traditional European-style cathedral of substantial size and built of masonry. It was consecrated on 29 October 1939.

Worship and liturgy

Liturgical translations into local languages, such as Wedau
Wedau
The Wedau Regatta Course is an artificial rowing/canoeing lake in Duisburg, Germany.The Course was built in 1935 and has hosted numerous international watersports events since its construction. Including the 1983 World Rowing Championships...

, Ubir, Mukawa and Binandere, were an early part of the first missionaries' work. Today, a local variant of the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...

 is used, couched in the simplified English of the Good News Bible
Good News Bible
The Good News Bible , also called the Good News Translation , is an English language translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society, first published as the New Testament under the name Good News for Modern Man in 1966...

 and with similar illustrations. A conundrum for the Church has been the question of an appropriate common liturgical language in the Papua New Guinean environment of radical, indeed extreme, multiculturalism. New Guinea Pidgin is an official language of the country and is spoken and understood by more Papua New Guineans than any other, but it is little known in the Anglican heartland of Oro and Milne Bay Provinces. An anglphone Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea hymn book was published in the early 1980s which contains a strictly limited number of hymns from a variety of traditions.

The churchmanship
Churchmanship
Within Anglicanism the term churchmanship is sometimes used to refer to distinct understandings of church doctrine and liturgical practice by members of the Church of England and other churches of the Anglican communion...

, as amply demonstrated by the Papua New Guinea Prayer Book, is Anglo-Catholic: the normative Sunday service is the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

, commonly referred to as "Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

"; Mattins is virtually unknown; clergy are addressed as "Father" (there are no women clergy, although the United Church has ordained women for many years, substantially based as it is among New Guinea Islands cultures which have a tradition of strong women leaders and matrilineal inheritance). Religious orders — the Melanesian Brothers and the Anglican Franciscans — play a considerable role in the life of the church. Oro tapa cloth is a characteristic feature of church decoration and liturgical vestments, as befits a denomination substantially characterised by Oro people, and church festivals are often marked by congregants appearing in traditional Oro dress, with Oro drumming and singing.

Ecumenical relations

The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea participates in the Melanesian Council of Churches and despite the obviously closer social and religious ties of overseas Anglicans with overseas equivalents of the United Church
United Church in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
The United Church in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands is a merged denomination dating from 1968 consisting of the former London Missionary Society , the relatively marginal Presbyterian church and the Methodist mission The United Church in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands is a...

 maintains especially close ties with the Evangelical Lutheran and Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

es.

With both the Lutherans and Roman Catholics the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea has entered into formal mutual recognition of baptism and Anglican Papua New Guineans seeking membership in the Roman Catholic Church therefore not submit to conditional baptism
Conditional baptism
Mainline Christian theology has traditionally held that only one baptism is valid to confer the benefits of this sacrament. In particular, the Council of Trent defined a dogma that it is forbidden to baptize a person who is already baptized, because baptism makes an indelible mark on the soul...

 as in some other parts of the world. However, unlike the Roman Catholics, the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea practises open communion
Open communion
Open communion is the practice of Christian churches that allow individuals other than members of that church to receive Holy Communion...

 and as in many other national Anglican bodies world-wide, baptized Christians of other confessions — typically spouses of Anglican Papua New Guineans, but also foreign residents of Papua New Guinea — are welcome to participate fully in the life of the church, including communicating at Mass, without being required to obtain episcopal confirmation.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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