Papua New Guinea
Our overseas link with the church in Papua New Guinea was introduced through Jim Cheeseman, who, when head of a primary school in Rotherhithe, forged links with the Martyrs Memorial School. By a strange coincidence both schools used the tune of The British Grenadiers for their school song and, incidentally, had the same school colours.
- Bishop Nathan
A few years later an appeal was launched to build a second Secondary School which was to be sited in the Diocese of Aipo Rongo at Aiome and we at St. John’s then responded from our overseas fund. We were fortunate to have as a guest in the parish the Suffragan Bishop of Aipo, Nathan Ingen. He told us that the only car in the diocese, a jeep, belonged to the Archbishop and that he tramped around his diocese barefooted, with his Episcopal robes in a pack on his back. He also told us that it is a wonderfully fertile country but because of poor transport the cost of getting produce to the world market makes it far too expensive for anyone to purchase it.
Papua New Guinea is a Christian country with a far higher percentage of the population than in the UK actively following their religion. It has a population 5 million, 96% of whom are Christian. Most families are subsistence gardeners and nearly 9 out of 10 live in isolated villages and have no formal employment. More than 800 different languages are spoken, with English as the official language of government and business.
St. John’s has now for a number of years supported them with our overseas giving through the Papua New Guinea Church Partnership. We have also had visits from Brother Jonas, a Franciscan friar from the Solomon Islands, and Fr Peter Ramsden, who is now Bishop of Port Moresby.