History
Missionaries
The first mission stations were established by French Marist Catholics on Woodlard Island in 1847 and Rooke Island in 1848. The French Catholics were replaced by Italians but neither group made any progress and when the missions closed in 1855 the Catholics had made no convers. Following several other unsuccessful attempts the Mission of the Sacred Heart finally established theCatholic communities in New Britain in 1882 and on Yule Island in 1885. The first permanent Protestant mission was established by the London Missionary Society (LMS) in Port Moresby in 1874 and this was shortly followed by the founding of a Methodist mission in the Duke of York Islands in 1875. The denomination which made greatest initial progress was the London Missionary Society. By 1884 there were 140 students at the Port Moresby mission and 1000 students at the twenty mission stations which had been established along the coast and in adjacent islands.
However, although the Christian missions were to have a significant influence on the lives and culture of many of the people, they were unable to consolidate their position until after formal colonisation by the British and the Germans in 1884.
The first German Lutheran mission, at Finschafen on the north coast was not established until 1886. In spite of the expanding influence of the Christian missions, for many people belief in the Christian religion coexisted with traditional beliefs in the spirit world and the power of magic and sorcery.
John Dademo Waiko
A Short History of Papua New Guinea
Oxford University Press, 1993