HISTORY OF CHRISTIANS IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

CHRISTIANS IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Nestorian stele

Michael J. McClymond wrote in the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”:Christianity entered China through the Nestorians in the sixth century, the Franciscans in the fourteenth, and the Jesuits in the sixteenth. Yet it was only with the arrival of Protestant missionaries in the mid-1800s that an enduring Chinese church was established. Communist persecution since 1949 seems only to have enhanced the growth of Christianity, and today the number of Chinese Christians may be between 70 million and 100 million. Many belong to unregistered "house churches" rather than official denominations. Following Francis Xavier's visit to Japan in 1549, large numbers converted to Christianity, and by 1600 there may have been 300,000 Christians. In the early 1600s Japanese Christians experienced severe persecution, and Japan cut off contact with foreigners until the mid-1800s. During the twentieth century there has been a numerically small but influential Christian community in Japan. Korean Christianity, especially in its Presbyterian and Pentecostal forms, expanded rapidly during the twentieth century to become one of the world's most dynamic movements. The largest Christian congregation in the world is located in Seoul, and Korean churches send missionaries throughout the world. [Source: Michael J. McClymond, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

The Philippines have long been the only predominantly Christian nation in Asia. The Spanish arrived in 1538, remained in power for three and a half centuries, and established a form of Roman Catholicism that is much like that of Latin America. Vietnam is predominantly Buddhist but has a strong Catholic minority. In Burma, Baptist missionaries in the 1800s spread Christianity among the non-Burmese minority. Indonesia is the nation with the largest number of Muslims converting to Christianity. In part this arose as a reaction to the violence committed by Muslims against real or suspected Communists in the failed coup of 1965. Since that time millions have converted to Christianity, including the Bataks of Sumatra. In India, Christian origins go back to the fourth, second, or perhaps first century. According to early tradition, the apostle Thomas took Christianity to India. Since the 1800s outcaste groups with little stake in Hindu society and non-Hindu tribal peoples, such as the Naga, have entered the Christian church in growing numbers.

Anglicanism spread to Australia and New Zealand in the late 1700s, followed by other Protestant groups and Roman Catholicism. Christianity is now the religion of almost all of the original inhabitants of the Pacific Islands. Typically the dominant form of Christianity is that of the first missionaries to arrive—for example, Congregationalism in Hawaii and Methodism in Fiji. The Pacific Islanders converted in "people movements" (also found in Africa and Asia and among Latin-American Indians), in which the tribal leaders and entire society entered the church at the same time. New Guinea received missionaries in the late 1800s and early 1900s from Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga and today is over-whelmingly Christian.

Early Christianity in China

Despite the Catholic and Protestant missionaries, who began arriving in large numbers in China in the middle of the nineteenth century, Christianity has managed to gain only a handful of converts. Christians are mostly concentrated in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai and are most numerous in Wenzhou and Zhejiang province. [Source: Eleanor Stanford, Countries and Their Cultures, Gale Group Inc., 2001]

20080220-Early Christians Socdigest, cross and Chinese charactr. 8th .jpg
8th century cross in China The Chinese were exposed to Christianity and Islam during the A.D. 7th and 8th century. The earliest traces of Christianity date back to a 7th-century visit by a Syrian named Raban, who presented Christian scriptures to the imperial court. But ultimately they found both Islam and Christianity unappealing as they did with Zoroastrianism and Manicheanism” the belief that good and evil exists in all humans, and that life is a struggle between the spirit and the flesh. All these faiths arrived in China on Silk Road. Emperors during the Tang dynasty (618-907) for the most part tolerated members all sorts of religious sects — Taoist and Confucian scholars, Christian missionaries, Zoroastrian priests, and Buddhist monks. On his trip to China in the 13th century Marco Polo wrote: "The people are for the most part idolaters, but there are also some Nestorian Christians and Saracens [Muslims]."

Nestorian Christians (a sect originally from Syria) arrived in China on the Silk Road in the A.D. 7th century. According to the Nestorian Stone, a 10-meter-high tablet discovered in the 17th century and dated to A.D. 781, Nestorian missionaries, led by one Bishop Alopen, arrived from present-day Afghanistan in A.D. 635. Nestorian Christianity is largely extinct but at one time it was quite a powerful Christian sect and was at the center of important doctrinal controversies.

Christian Missionaries in Southern China in the 1900s

On the activity of Protestant missionaries in southern China in the early 1900s, Samuel R. Clarke wrote in “Among the Tribes of South-west China”: “It is a remarkable fact that in the provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, where work among the Chinese has been notoriously barren and unfruitful, this great work of grace among the non-Chinese tribes should have broken out. Communities which a few years ago were ignorant, degraded, and immoral, are now pure and Christian. Scores of villages have become wholly Christian, and hundreds of other villages are nominally Christian. One worker has estimated that, as the result of the work of the last seven or eight years, there are now some 50,000 of these people at least nominally Christian. [Source: “Among the Tribes of South-west China” by Samuel R. Clarke (China Inland Mission, 1911). Clarke served as a missionary in China for 33 years, 20 of those in Guizhou]

The strain upon those engaged in this work is not small. The area over which the work extends is many thousands of square miles, and the country is mountainous, some of the villages being situated about 8000 feet above sea-level Anshun, with its 16 out-stations, has only 9 workers (5 men, 3 wives, and i single lady). Yet in this district, about one hundred and fifty miles from north to south, 1480 aborigines were baptized in 1906, more than 500 in 1907, 800 during 1908, 356 during 1909, and 260 during 1910. At the close of 19 10 the total number of Communicants, not to speak of adherents, was 3500.

History of Spanish Catholicism in the Philippines

When the Spanish took over the Philippines , they brought their long tradition of Catholicism with them. It was part of the Spanish conquest to convert all the natives to Christ through their Catholic tradition. Today as a result, the Catholic church still remains a very powerful force in the Philippines. For example, divorce is illegal there because of the Catholic church’s influence in the government and law-making. Filipinos still celebrate and participate in many Catholic holidays and customs. Practically everywhere you go you will see big Catholic cathedrals. In many homes, you’ll see pictures of the virgin Mary or the last supper, and many people carry around rosaries with them. On public transportation are plastered posters of Jesus and Mary and religious sayings. Because of the Spanish conquest, there is a strong tradition of Christianity among the Filipino people. [Source: by Rebecca, Philippines Baguio Mission, 2009-2011, the missionary website, preparetoserve.com \=/]

Spanish colonialism had, from its formal inception in 1565 with the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi, as its principal raison d'être the conversion of the inhabitants to Christianity. When Legazpi embarked on his conversion efforts, most Filipinos were still practicing a form of polytheism, although some as far north as Manila had converted to Islam. For the majority, religion still consisted of sacrifices and incantations to spirits believed to be inhabiting field and sky, home and garden, and other dwelling places both human and natural. Malevolent spirits could bring harm in the form of illness or accident, whereas benevolent spirits, such as those of one's ancestors, could bring prosperity in the form of good weather and bountiful crops. Shamans were called upon to communicate with these spirits on behalf of village and family, and propitiation ceremonies were a common part of village life and ritual. Such beliefs continued to influence the religious practices of many upland tribal groups in the modern period. [Source: Library of Congress *]

Filipino Catholicism

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St. Xavier dying Catholicism, as practiced in the Philippines in the 1990s, blended official doctrine with folk observance. In an intensely personal way, God the Father was worshiped as a father figure and Jesus as the loving son who died for the sins of each individual, and the Virgin was venerated as a compassionate mother. In the words of scholar David J. Steinberg, "This framework established a cosmic compadrazgo, and an utang na loob to Christ, for his sacrifice transcended any possible repayment . . . . To the devout Filipino, Christ died to save him; there could be no limit to an individual's thanksgiving." As in other Catholic countries, Filipinos attended official church services (men usually not as regularly as women) such as Masses, novenas, baptisms, weddings, and funerals. They supplemented these official services with a number of folk-religious ceremonies basic to the community's social and religious calendar and involving just about everyone in the community. [Source: Library of Congress, 1991]

Perhaps the single event most conducive to community solidarity each year is the fiesta. Celebrated on the special day of the patron saint of a town or barangay, the fiesta is a time for general feasting. Houses are opened to guests, and food is served in abundance. The fiesta always includes a Mass, but its purpose is unabashedly social. The biggest events include a parade, dance, basketball tournament, cockfights, and other contests, and perhaps a carnival, in addition to much visiting and feasting. *

Christmas is celebrated in a manner that blends Catholic, Chinese, Philippine, and American customs. For nine days, people attend misas de gallo (early morning Christmas Mass). They hang elaborate lanterns (originally patterned after the Chinese lanterns) and other decorations in their homes and join with friends in caroling. On Christmas Eve, everyone attends midnight Mass, the climax of the misas de gallo and the year's high point of church attendance. After the service, it is traditional to return home for a grand family meal. The remaining days of the Christmas season are spent visiting kin, especially on New Year's Day and Epiphany, January 6. The Christmas season is a time of visiting and receiving guests. It is also a time for reunion with all types of kin — blood, affinal, and ceremonial. Children especially are urged to visit godparents. *

History of Christianity in Japan

Christianity in Japan can be clearly divided into three periods: the initial encounter with Christianity beginning in the mid-16th century; the reintroduction of Christianity, after more than 200 years of national seclusion ended in the mid-19th century; and the post-World War II period.

The Spanish Jesuit missionary Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552), cofounder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), landed in Kagoshima in 1549. At that time Nagasaki was an important trade center between Japan and Portugal and the Jesuits established a headquarters there.

Christianity advanced very quickly, especially in southern Japan. Jesuit missionary activities were centered in Kyushu, the southernmost of the four major Japanese islands. By 1579 six “daimyo “(regional military lords) had been converted and there were an estimated 100,000 Christians. One daimyo even sent a delegation to visit Pope Gregory XIII in Rome. As was the case with early Buddhist sects, Christianity spread quickly because of political unrest, weak government and lack of central authority.

By 1600, the number of Christians reached 300,000 and peaked in the 1630s, when as many as 750,000 Japanese, or 10 percent of the population were born in Christian families or had converted to Christianity. The Portuguese also brought primitive muskets called harquebuses. Before the Portuguese arrived, the Japanese had never seen muskets or any other kind of firearm. Firearms and Christianity complicated the already complicated feudal war between the daimyos.

History of Christianity in Korea

Missionaries in China in 1860

Jane Lampman wrote in the Christian Science Monitor: “While Christianity's explosive growth has swept through much of the Southern Hemisphere – particularly across Africa – another dramatic story has unfolded in Asia. Some have dubbed it the "Korean miracle."” Seoul “boasts 10 of the 11 largest Christian congregations in the world. And South Korea sends more missionaries abroad to spread the word than any other country except the United States. “Christianity has grown from a few hundred adherents in the late 19th century to "about 9 million Protestants and 3 to 4 million Catholics in South Korea today," says the Rev. Samuel Moffett, professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. [Source: Jane Lampman, Christian Science Monitor, March 7, 2007]

“The dynamism of Korean Christianity, many observers agree, is an outgrowth of the peninsula's unique history as well as the early role of indigenous leadership. Christian teachings were first brought to Korea not by foreigners, but by Korean diplomats who came in contact with Roman Catholicism in Japan and Manchuria. An active lay movement developed, but it led to controversy and periods of great persecution.”

Donald N. Clark wrote in “Culture and Customs of Korea”: “Catholic Christianity first entered Korea via China, when Korean travelers there made contact with Jesuit missionaries from the West and Chinese Catholics and returned home with some of their ideas to found the first Catholic congregation in Seoul. That was in 1784. Protestant Christianity took root many decades later, first with believers who had met Scottish Presbyterian missionaries in Manchuria, to the north, and then in the 1880s with the arrival of numbers of Protestant missionaries mainly from the United States. [Source: “Culture and Customs of Korea” by Donald N. Clark, Greenwood Press, 2000]

“Until the 1880s, Christianity was outlawed in Korea. This was because Christians were known to disapprove of the most important Confucian family ritual, namely the chesa. The argument over whether Chinese Christians should be allowed to continue their ancestral rituals had raged for more than 100 years in the 1600s and 1700s until the pope decided that the Chinese had to stop what he regarded as heathen spirit worship. The Chinese authorities were incensed that the pope, who knew nothing about China and the benefits of Confucian morality, would dare to label Chinese civilization as heathen.

“This makes South Korea the "most Christian" country in Asia, apart from the Philippines which was ruled for 300 years by Catholic Spain and then by the United States. People often ask for an explanation for Christian "success" in South Korea when only 2 percent of Chinese and only 2.5 percent of Japanese are Christians. The answer lies in history: in the suffering and sacrifice of Korean Christians and the circumstances of modern Korea that made Christianity a refuge and force for reform.

Why Christianity Caught On in Korea and Not Elsewhere in Asia

Christianity failed to take hold in Japan and China, where 19th-century missionaries were seen as agents of Western imperialism. But it spread quickly in Korea, where American missionaries introduced education and health care to people neglected by their own government and helped Korean nationalists fight against Japanese colonial rulers.

The Economist reported: “Asia is mostly stony ground for Christianity. Spanish rule left the Philippines strongly Catholic, but Korea is less simple. In the 18th century curious intellectuals encountered Catholicism in Beijing and smuggled it home. Confucian monarchs, brooking no rival allegiance, executed most early converts: hence all those martyrs, ranking Korea fourth globally for quantity of saints. Protestantism came later and fared better. By the 1880s Korea was opening up, and the mainly American missionaries made two astute moves: opening the first modern schools, which admitted girls; and translating the Bible into the vernacular Hangul Korean alphabet, then viewed as infra dig, rather than the Chinese characters favoured by literati. [Source: The Economist, August 13, 2014]

“The seeds thus sown incubated under Japan’s rule (1910-45), and have sprouted wildly since. The trauma of Japanese conquest eroded faith in Confucian or Buddhist traditions: Koreans could relate to Israel’s sufferings in the Old Testament (no Chosen jokes, please). Yet by 1945 only 2 percent of Koreans were Christian. The recent explosive growth accompanied that of the economy. Cue Weber’s Protestant ethic: for the conservative majority, worldly success connotes God’s blessing. But Korea also bred its own liberation theology (minjung), lauding the poor and oppressed. Rapid social change often produces spiritual ferment and entrepreneurs like Moon and Yoo: saviours for some, to others charlatans. Prophet and profit can blur: both men did time for fraud. Even Yoido’s founder, David Cho, was convicted in February of embezzling US$12m. But these are rare outliers.

History of Christianity in North Korea

No one knows how many Christians remain in North Korea. Two-thirds of Korean Christians lived there before the war, but many fled to the south to escape Communist rule. Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, was the son of pious Christians. Communists loyal to Kim Il Sung persecuted Christians along with rightists and Japanese collaborators. This small Christian community in North Korea has generated enough interest overseas to attract visits from such prominent Christian leaders as Billy Graham, who visited Pyongyang twice and, in 1992, preached at the Catholic church in Pyongyang and at one of the Protestant churches there.

ncredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio

Respected Korean historian Andrei Lankov said that Christianity found such a large following in the north that t by the 1920s Pyongyang was known among missionaries as “the Jerusalem of the East.” Before the Korean War, Pyongyang was a Christian missionary center for all of northeast Asia. There were an estimated 3,000 churches before the Korean War in 1950-53.Kim Il Sung’s parents and first wife were Christians. The first wife was the mother of Kim Jong Il. Kim Il Sung is said have played a church organ in his youth. Kim Il Sung’s mother — Kang Pan-sok — was a Presbyterian named after St Peter (Pan-sok means "rock").

Before the Korean war a large number of Christians lived in the northern part of the peninsula where Confucian influence was not as strong as in the south. Before 1948 one-sixth of the population of Pyongyang, a city of about 300,000 people, were Christians. Christianity played an important role in organizing anti-Japanese resistance during the colonial period. Ruth Graham, the wife of American Christian leader, Billy Graham, attended Christian boarding school in Pyongyang as a teen in the 1920s. [Source: Christian Caryl, Newsweek, September 15, 2007]

When the Communist government come to power in North Korea it closed most the churches. Between 1945, when Soviet forces first occupied the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and the end of the Korean War in 1953, many Christians, considered "bad elements" by North Korean authorities, fled to South Korea to escape the socialist regime's antireligious policies. In 1950, at the beginning of the Korean War, as many as 5 million Christians in the north fled to the South, before the border was closed.

Christians in India

There are about 30 million Christians in India. Making up roughly three percent of the population, they make up the third largest religious group in India after Hindus and Muslims. The Indian Christian community includes about 17 million Catholics and 11 million Protestants.

Many Christians are tribals or members of lower castes such as the Dalits (Untouchables). Many Christians live in the so called "tribal belt," which extends across the center of India from Pakistan in the west to Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. Mizoram, India's only predominately Christian state, is in northwest India.

Although there is little evidence to back up the assertion, some people believe that Christ's apostle, St. Thomas, went to India. Saint Thomas is the famous "doubting Thomas" of the New Testamen According to tradition he landed in A.D. 52 at Maliankara near Cranganore on the Malabar Coast of India. It is said he preached the gospels, traveled through southern Indian and converted many Hindu, including some upper-caste Brahmins. After evangelizing and performing miracles in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, he is believed to have been martyred in Madras and buried on the site of San Thomé Cathedral..

The Portuguese introduced Catholicism and brought Portuguese and Italian priests with them. Under Portuguese rule, many Indians were converted to Christianity. Great churches and cathedrals were built under the Portuguese. In 1557 Goa was became an archbishopric. Catholicism displaced Syrian Christianity a the dominant form of Christianity on the Malabar Coast. But when the Portuguese left the influence of the Catholic Church weakened and Syrian Christians were able ro reassert themselves in Kerala.

The Spanish devoted more attention to Christianizing the local population than the Portuguese. St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552), the famous Spanish Jesuit missionary who devoted his life spreading Christianity in Asia, led the effort to convert local people on places controlled by the Portuguese. Known as the sainted Apostle of the Indies, he was born the youngest son of a Basque aristocrat. When he was 28 he helped found the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He arrived in Goa 1542 and buried many dead Portuguese voyagers in India. He went to Japan in 1549 and helped Christianity advance there very quickly, especially in southern Japan. He also went to Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Early History of Roman Catholicism in Vietnam

Important dates in Roman Catholicism in Vietnam in the 16th Century: 1533: The Edict of Le-Trang-Ton that forbade the introduction of Catholicism into the province of Nam Dinh, (now in North Vietnam) . 1550: The landing of Gaspar de Santa Cruz, a Roman Catholic Priest, at Con-Cao in the province of Ha-Tien, South Vietnam, after sailing from Malacca. 1580: While South Vietnam was still largely peopled by the Chams and Khmers, Franciscans came from the Philippines and settled in Central Vietnam. [Source: The Religions of South Vietnam in Faith and Fact, US Navy, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Chaplains Division ,1967 ++]

Important dates in Roman Catholicism in Vietnam in the early 17th Century: 1615: Establishment by the Society of Jesus of a mission in Central Vietnam, staffed by Jesuits from Japan. 1624: Arrival in Central Vietnam of the Jesuit priest, Alexandre de Rhodes, the author of the current Vietnamese alphabet and an important figure in Vietnamese history. 1625: King Sai-Vuong issued an edict against missionaries. 1627: Alexandre de Rhodes moved to Tonkin (in North Vietnam); his mission seemed extremely successful. 1629: Trinh-Trang, King of Tonkin, forbade conversion to Christianity upon pain of death; and in 1630 expelled Alexandre de Rhodes, who returned to Central Vietnam. 1645: Some Roman Catholics are martyred and Alexandre de Rhodes is expelled from Cochinchina. 1646: With the encouragement and support of a Catholic Viceroy of Kwangsi (China), Roman Catholicism is defended in Tonkin; a number of conversions take place. 1650: Alexandre de Rhodes urges the Society of Congregation for Propagation of the Faith to send Bishops to Vietnam in order to establish churches and train Vietnamese clergy. ++

Missionaries embarking on a journey in Laos in 1903

There are much fewer Protestants in Vietnam than Catholics. Most Vietnamese Protestants live in the Central Highlands. Many are members of ethnic minorities. The number of Protestants living in Vietnam is estimated at 400,000. Protestants, numbered between 100,000 and 200,000 in the early 1980s, and were found mostly among the Montagnard communities inhabiting the South's central highlands. Because of their alleged close association with American missionaries of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Protestants were reported to have suffered more than Catholics after 1975. *

History of Christianity in Indonesia

Christianity has a long history in the islands of what is now Indonesia. The Portuguese introduced Catholicism in the 16th century to some islands but the religion didn’t make much headway in the archipelago as a whole . The Dutch were mostly interested in trade and their version of Protestantism didn’t take hold either accept in the Moluccas and some other places. Mostly Christianity was introduced by various missionary groups that began arriving in significant numbers in the 19th century and made the greatest intrusions in Flores, parts of Sumatra and Sulawesi and later in Kalimantan and West Papua (Irian Jaya, on New Guinea).

Portuguese Jesuits and Dominicans began operating in Maluku, southern Sulawesi, and Timor in the 16th century. When the Dutch defeated Portuguese forces in 1605 and began what was to be more than 350 years of Dutch presence in the Indonesian archipelago, however, the Catholic missionaries were expelled, and the Dutch Reformed Church, a Calvinist denomination, became the dominant Christian presence in the region, as it would be until Indonesia became independent. [Source: Library of Congress *]

Because the United East Indies Company (VOC) was a secular enterprise, and Calvinism was a strict and intellectually uncompromising interpretation of Christianity that demanded a thorough understanding of what, for Indonesians, were foreign scriptures, Christianity advanced little in Indonesia until the nineteenth century. Only a few small communities endured, in Java, Maluku, northern Sulawesi, and Nusa Tenggara (primarily on the islands of Roti and Timor). After the dissolution of the VOC in 1799, and the adoption of a more comprehensive view of their mission in the archipelago, the Dutch permitted Christian proselytizing in the territory. This evangelical freedom was put to use by the more tolerant German Lutherans, who began work in Sumatra among the Toba Batak in 1861, and by the Dutch Rhenish Mission in central Kalimantan in 1845. In addition, Jesuits established successful Catholic missions, schools, and hospitals throughout the islands of Flores, Timor, and Alor in the late nineteenth century. *

History of Christianity in Sri Lanka

According to Christian traditions, the Apostle Thomas was active in Sri Lanka as well as southern India during the first century. Small Christian communities existed on the coasts of Sri Lanka during the succeeding centuries, flourishing on the edges of the Indian Ocean trade routes as Islam did in later times. Christianity made significant inroads only after the fifteenth century, as aggressive Portuguese missionary efforts led to many conversions, especially among the Karava and other low-country castes. When the Dutch took control of Sri Lanka, they encouraged their own missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church. Under their patronage, 21 percent of the population in the low country was officially Christian by 1722. The British, in turn, allowed Anglican and other Protestant missionaries to proselytize. [Source: Russell R. Ross and Andrea Matles Savada, Library of Congress, 1988 *]

Professor Mathew Schmalz wrote: “Sri Lanka’s Christians have a long history that reflects the dynamics of colonialism as well as present-day ethnic and religious tensions. It was Portuguese colonialism that opened the door for Roman Catholicism into the island nation. In 1505, the Portuguese came to Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then called, in a trade agreement with King Vira Parakramabahu VII and later intervened in succession struggles in local kingdoms. Among those converted included Don Juan Dharmapala, the king of Kotte, a small kingdom near present-day Colombo on Sri Lanka’s southwestern coast. [Source: Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy Cross, The Conversation, April 22, 2019]

“Later, when the Dutch and the Dutch East India Company displaced the Portuguese, Roman Catholicism was revived through the efforts of St. Joseph Vaz. Vaz was a priest from Goa, Portugal’s colony in India, and arrived in Sri Lanka in 1687. Popular folklore credits Vaz with a number of miracles, such as bringing rain during a drought and taming a rogue elephant. Pope Francis made Joseph Vaz a saint in 2015.

Early History of Christianity in the Pacific Islands

Christianity was brought to the Pacific Islands by missionaries from Western Europe. According to Encyclopedia.com: From the 1660s Spanish Roman Catholic priests, from their base in the Philippines, began missionary work in several island groups of the North Pacific. In the South Pacific, missionary activity was dominated by evangelical Protestantism. The first permanent mission was commenced by British missionaries of the London Missionary Society (LMS), which sent its first agents to eastern Polynesia in 1797. During the nineteenth century, many other branches of Western Christianity established missions in the Pacific Islands. These included Anglicans, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, French Reformed, Lutherans, and Seventh-day Adventists. [Source: Encyclopedia.com]

The great majority of Protestant missionaries of this period were British and American; Roman Catholics were mainly French. Having already been exposed to Western trading contact, the islanders embraced Christianity, largely by choice and for reasons that seemed valid to them at the time. Through the agency of Pacific Island teachers, Christianity spread rapidly in the eastern and central Pacific (Polynesia and Micronesia). In each island group, the first mission to introduce Christianity usually received the support of the majority of the population. The evangelization of the more populous and fragmented societies of the southwest Pacific (Melanesia) was a much slower process and, in the island of New Guinea, is incomplete at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

With the exception of Australia, Christianity was planted in the region before the extension of European colonial rule. In Australia, the founding of the first convict colony in 1788 was accompanied by the introduction of British Christianity and the beginnings of missionary work, on a small scale and initially with little success, among the Aboriginal people.

Image Sources:

Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia.com, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated February 2024