The indigenous population of Papua New Guinea is one of the most heterogeneous in the world. Papua New Guinea has several thousand separate communities, most with only a few hundred people. Divided by language, customs, and tradition, some of these communities have engaged in endemic warfare with their neighbors for centuries. It is the second most populous nation in Oceania, with a total population estimated variously as being between 9.5 and 10.1 million inhabitants.
Port Moresby, also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific outside of Australia and New Zealand. It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the south-western coast of the Papuan Peninsula of the island of New Guinea. The city emerged as a trade centre in the second half of the 19th century. During World War II, it was a prime objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43 as a staging point and air base to cut off Australia from Southeast Asia and the Americas.
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
Cargo cult is a term used to denote various spiritual and political movements that arose among indigenous Melanesians following Western colonisation of the region in the late 19th century. Although the term "cargo cult" has been used by anthropologists to "label almost any sort of organised, village-based social movement with religious and political aspirations", features common to most cargo cult groups include the presence of charismatic prophet figures foretelling an imminent cataclysm and/or a coming utopia for followers—a worldview known as millenarianism. Claims made by these prophets varied greatly from movement to movement, with some predicting the return of the dead or an abundance of food. Some movements sought to appease "ancestral spirits or other powerful beings" by either reviving ancestral traditions or adopting new rituals, such as ecstatic dancing or imitating the actions of colonists and military personnel. Some groups foretold the coming of a bounty of Western goods or money as part of their prophecy, although this was not a universal feature of such movements, with other prophets telling their followers to abandon Western goods. Anthropologists have described cargo cults as rooted in pre-existing aspects of Melanesian society, as a reaction to colonial oppression and inequality disrupting traditional village life, or both.
Joseph Freinademetz, was a Ladin Catholic priest and missionary in China. He was a member of the Society of the Divine Word.
Sanguma was a Papua New Guinean musical ensemble active from 1977 to 1985. They combined music from the cultural tradition of Papua New Guinea with Western instruments and were one of the first Papua New Guinean music groups to perform internationally. Sanguma formed at the National Arts School in 1977 and performed in their homeland at the South Pacific Festival of Arts in 1980. Sanguma were nurtured very closely in their early days by the Australian musician Ric Halstead, who was a lecturer at the National Arts School in Port Moresby from whence Sanguma originated and Les McLaren.
Goroka is the capital of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. It is a town of approximately 19,000 people (2000), 1,600 meters above sea level. It has an airport and is on the "Highlands Highway", about 285 km (177 mi) from Lae in Morobe province and 90 km (56 mi) from the nearby town of Kainantu also in the Eastern Highlands. Other nearby towns include Kundiawa in Simbu Province and Mount Hagen in Western Highlands Province. It has a mild climate, known as a "perpetual Spring".
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea is a Protestant church denomination located in Papua New Guinea that professes the Lutheran branch of the Christian faith. The Church is incorporated by a 1991 Act of the Parliament of Papua New Guinea and it has a baptized membership of approximately 900,000 members.
The Society of the Divine Word, abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men. As of 2020, it consisted of 5,965 members composed of priests and religious brothers working in more than 70 countries, now part of VIVAT international. It is one of the largest missionary congregations in the Catholic Church. Its members add the nominal letters SVD after their names to indicate membership in the Congregation. The superior general is Paul Boedhie Kleden who hails from Indonesia.
The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Papua New Guinea has approximately two million Catholic adherents, approximately 27% of the country's total population.
The Rhenish Missionary Society was one of the largest Protestant missionary societies in Germany. Formed from smaller missions founded as far back as 1799, the Society was amalgamated on 23 September 1828, and its first missionaries were ordained and sent off to South Africa by the end of the year.
The Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters are a Catholic religious institute. The nuns live a contemplative life, focused on perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, offering intercessory prayers for the world 24 hours a day. Inside the enclosure the nuns wear rose-colored tunics with their habits symbolizing their joy for the Holy Spirit. As a consequence of these habits, the nuns are known colloquially as the "pink sisters".
Christianity is the predominant religion in Kiribati, with Catholicism being its largest denomination.
This is a list of selected references for Christianity in China.
The Baháʼí Faith in Papua New Guinea begins after 1916 with a mention by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, that Baháʼís should take the religion there. The first Baháʼís move there in Papua New Guinea arrived there in 1954. With local converts the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1958. The first National Spiritual Assembly was then elected in 1969. According to the census of 2000 showed that the number of Baháʼís does not exceed 21000. But the Association of Religion Data Archives estimated three times more Baháʼís at 200.000 or 6% of the nation were Baháʼís in 2015 Either way it is the largest minority religion in Papua New Guinea, if a small one.
The Baháʼí Faith is a minority religion in all the countries of Oceania. Baháʼí Houses of Worship are present in Australia, Samoa, and Vanuatu, and another is under construction in Papua New Guinea. Malietoa Tanumafili II of Samoa was a follower of the Baháʼí Faith and the first Baháʼí head of state.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Papua New Guinea refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The first missionaries arrived in 1980. As of December 31, 2022, there were 36,626 members in 92 congregations, making it the largest body of LDS Church members in Melanesia and the fifth largest in Oceania.
Julienne Kaman, from Papua New Guinea (PNG), is Pro-Chancellor of the University of Goroka in PNG's Highlands Region.
Sir Ebia Olewale (1940–2009) was a politician in Papua New Guinea (PNG). He was elected as a member of the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea in 1968 and went on to hold several ministerial positions during the period of self-governance and after PNG's independence in 1975, including that of deputy prime minister. He was knighted in 1983 and served as chancellor of the University of Goroka from 2000 to 2006. From 2002 until his death, he was a director of the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program.
