The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians, so the origins of the people of Tuvalu can be traced to the spread of humans out of Southeast Asia, from Taiwan, via Melanesia and across the Pacific islands of Polynesia.
The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. They constitute the main part of the nation of Kiribati.
Congregational churches are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs.
The Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the Pacific Ocean were part of the British Empire from 1892 to 1976. They were a protectorate from 1892 to 12 January 1916, and then a colony until 1 January 1976. The history of the colony was mainly characterized by phosphate mining on Ocean Island. In October 1975, these islands were divided by force of law into two separate colonies, and they became independent nations shortly thereafter: the Ellice Islands became Tuvalu in 1978, and the Gilbert Islands became part of Kiribati in 1979.
A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations.
Niutao is a reef island in the northern part of Tuvalu. It is one of the nine districts (islands) of Tuvalu. It is also one of the three districts that consist of only one island - not counting the three islets inside the closed lagoon. Niutao has a population of 582.
Arorae is an atoll in Kiribati located near the equator. Arorae is the southernmost island in the Gilbert Islands group. It has a population of just over a thousand inhabitants on 9.5 square kilometres.
The United Church in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands is United church in Methodist and the Reformed tradition.
Protestants in Tuvalu- Tuvalu is one of the most heavily Protestant nations in the world. The Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu,, is the de facto state church of Tuvalu, the only established church in the Reformed tradition in the world. Its adherents comprise about 94% of the 12,000 inhabitants of the archipelago, and theologicly it is part of the Reformed tradition.
The Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu, commonly the Church of Tuvalu, is a Christian Church which is the state church of Tuvalu, although this status merely entitles it to "the privilege of performing special services on major national events". Its adherents comprise about 97% of the ~11,000 inhabitants of the archipelago, and theologically, it is part of the Calvinist tradition.
Nikunau is a low coral atoll in the Gilbert Islands that forms a council district of the Republic of Kiribati. It consists of two parts, with the larger in the northwest, joined by an isthmus about 150 metres (490 ft) wide.
The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Calvinist churches in the world. It has 230 member denominations in 108 countries, together claiming an estimated 80 million people, thus being the fourth-largest Christian communion in the world after the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. This ecumenical Christian body was formed in June 2010 by the union of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC).
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Tuvalu:
According to 2020 government statistics, Christian groups form about 96% of the Kiribati population by census counts, most of whom are either Catholic or members of the new Kiribati Uniting Church and Kiribati Protestant Church. Persons with no religious affiliation account for about 0.03% of the population. Members of the Catholic Church are concentrated in the northern islands, while Protestants are the majority in the southern islands.
The Congregational Christian Church Samoa (CCCS) is an international evangelical Christian Church originally established in Samoa by missionaries of the London Missionary Society.
The Catholic Church in Kiribati is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, which, inspired by the life, death and teachings of Jesus Christ, and under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and Roman curia in the Vatican City is the largest Christian church in the world. Koru Tito is Bishop of Tarawa and Nauru, with see in Kiribati.
The Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (CEPAC) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church that includes the bishops of several islands in Oceania. The CEPAC is a member of the Federation of Catholic Bishops' Conferences of Oceania, FCBCO.
Gerd Koch was a German cultural anthropologist best known for his studies on the material culture of Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Santa Cruz Islands in the Pacific. He was associated with the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. His field work was directed to researching and recording the use of artefacts in their indigenous context, to begin to understand these societies.
The Kiribati Protestant Church (KPC) and earlier, the Gilbert Islands Protestant Church, is a Protestant Christian denomination in Kiribati. With approximately 10,000 members, and 136 congregations, the KPC was the second-largest religious group in Kiribati before creation of the new Kiribati Uniting Church and accounts now for approximately 8 percent of the population of the country.