Catholic and Methodist missionaries in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea, 1930-80
Creators: name: Mackay, Ross
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 1999

description: This thesis is divided into four sections. The first focuses on the missionaries: who they were, the leaders under whom they worked, and how their labours succeeded. All white missionaries (except for a relative few in the Methodist Mission after 1968) were Australian, the Methodists predominantly middle class, the Catholics mostly from working class backgrounds. They brought with them aspects of the sectarian divide of their homeland. The period up to the mid-sixties was a time ofpo1arised and acrimonious sectarian division in Australia. Doctrines of papal infallibility and the sinlessness of Mary horrified many Protestants, and the foundational debate ofthe primacy of Scripture over that of the Church ensured a high level of argument and debate. While these debates did not take place among the missionaries in Papua, relations between the competing missionaries reflected the fact there was little fratemisation and dialogue, though there was no outright hostility or physical confrontation. When there was a problem it was usually a personality clash between individuals. The nature and details of the sectarian divide are dealt with in chapter one, as is the major political issue of separate spheres of influence. The second section examines the Catholic and Methodist Missions irom 1930 up to, and including what was the most serious issue they faced, the evacuation of the white missionaries in January 1942. This decade was the period of establishment of the Catholic Mission, and of growing conservatism, reflected in the leadership, in the Methodist work. A chapter is devoted to the events that created the evacuation controversy and what happened among the Papuan people when the missionaries departed, including why the Methodists left behind their Pacific Island colleagues. The third section takes up the story from when the missionaries returned in 1945 up until 1980. For the Catholics these were years of expansion into new areas as the hindrance of' spheres of influence' broke down. The progress from a small, struggling church to one that, by the mid-fifties, had spread across the whole province are examined as is the important organisational changes that took place until this mission became part of a national church. As well, it was a period in which the directions they had spent so long in setting were sorely tested, especially their emphasis on school education. In the Methodist Mission the post-war period began with entrenched conservatism but, in the space of a couple of years in the mid-sixties, underwent such a powerful period of change that, by 1970, they were a truly national church with independence in an absolute sense. Rapid strides to an autonomous, independent church are analysed as are the factors that had held the process back for so long. The fourth section deals with Papuan responses to the missionaries' efforts. Cultural effects, both in the area of traditional beliefs in marriage and magic as well as millenarian movements, are examined in two different chapters. The other two chapters look at the responses through the 'outward' contributions of education, medical and technical services with the final chapter looking at the 'inward' responses as seen in 'ownership' of the missions and their messages as measured by attendances at worship and the development oflocalleaders. The conclusion claims the self-evidence of certain facts: that Christianity is a deep and permanent factor in the lives of these people and that the Methodist/United Church is the preferred church by the great majority for one main reason: it was the first to be there and the experience of the people was sufficiently positive for there to be no reason to change allegiance when the Catholics arrived. At the same time, it is acknowledged the Catholic Church is also a permanent and welcome institution in the lives of the Massim people.