Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea

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The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea came into existence as a discrete province of the Anglican Communion when the Anglican Province of Papua New Guinea was separated from the Anglican ecclesiastical Province of Brisbane, Australia, in 1976 following PNG's independence. Its first Archbishop and Primate was David Hand, the Bishop of Port Moresby. The current Primate is Archbishop James Ayong, the bishop of Aipo-Rongo, centred in Mount Hagen.

1 Distribution
2 The New Guinea Martyrs
3 Dioceses
4 Schools and seminaries
5 Overseas affiliations
6 Relations with other PNG denominations
7 External links

[edit] Distribution

Papua New Guinea

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 (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 (and Archbishop James Ayong of the diocese of Aipo-Rongo — Mount Hagen — is the current primate), in the western extremity of West New Britain and of course, significantly, in Port Moresby where the core constituency of Oro and Wedau people is supplemented by foreign residents of the city.

[edit] The New Guinea Martyrs

In Anglican terminology the New Guinea Martyrs were eight Anglican clergy, teachers and medical missionaries killed by the Japanese in 1942, although 333 church workers of various denominations, the largest number Roman Catholic, were killed. A statue of Lucien Tapiedi, one of the Anglican martyrs, is installed among the niches with other 20th century Christian martyrs over the west door of Westminster Abbey in London.

[edit] Dioceses

There are five dioceses; 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. The dioceses are:

Aipo Rongo (with its see city in Mount Hagen, Western Highlands);
the New Guinea Islands;
Port Moresby, including the entirety of Papua (ie 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 in 1939.

[edit] Schools and seminaries

Historically the Anglican mission was not well funded and it did not compare favourably with other denominations in terms of health and education services. 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 and the Gutnius Lutheran Church, Balob Teachers' College in Lae.

[edit] Overseas affiliations

Although it was historically part of the ecclesiastical province of Brisbane, today its overseas support appears to be substantially from England, notably by the Papua New Guinea Church Partnership, formerly the New Guinea Mission.

[edit] Relations with other PNG denominations

The churchmanship is Anglo-Catholic; the Anglican Church participates in the Melanesian Council of Churches and maintains especially close ties with the Evangelical Lutheran and Roman Catholic Churches. With both of the latter it 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 as in other parts of the world.