Founding 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) 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, A. A. Maclaren was appointed the first Anglican missionary to the region and in 1890 visited with Copland King. They purchased land at
Samarai 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. In 1898
Montagu John Stone-Wigg was appointed Bishop of New Guinea and spent ten 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 of the coast. 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
Martyrs of New Guinea were eight Anglican
clergy,
teachers and medical
missionaries killed by the
Japanese in 1942, the Anglican Bishop of New Guinea (then still a diocese of the ecclesiastical Province of Queensland)
Philip Strong (Bishop from 1936 to 1962) 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. ,
Westminster Abbey A statue of
Lucian Tapiedi, the one indigenous Papuan among the Anglican martyrs of New Guinea, is installed among the niches with other
20th-century Christian martyrs, over the west door of
Westminster Abbey in London. The statue of Lucian Tapiedi stands second from right. The Martyrs of Papua New Guinea are
remembered in the
Church of England with a
commemoration on
2 September. Postwar recovery was hindered by the 21 January
1951 eruption of Mount Lamington, 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.
Present Since it was historically part of the ecclesiastical province of
Queensland, the
Anglican Board of Mission - Australia (ABM-A; previously the Australian Board of Missions) 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, Congregational 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) and Province and Holy Name School in Dogura, Milne Bay Province, and numerous primary schools in Northern and Milne Bay Provinces. The church operates
Newton Theological 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 (i.e. Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod), Balob Teachers' College in Lae. ==Membership==