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The Anglican Parish of Christ Church Brunswick |
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The Anglican Parish of Christ Church Brunswick |
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Date: Sunday 1 September 2002, High Mass Speaker: Mr Damien Farrer Occasion: Feast of the Martyrs of New Guinea |
The Friday before last at the MCG, I watched a very special game of football. Of course, most of you think I’m referring to the North Melbourne/ Hawthorn game, which was very special in its own right, but it was actually the curtain raiser to the game that I went to see. The final of the AFL International Cup saw Papua New Guinea playing on the MCG for the first time. After big wins over Great Britain, Denmark, Japan and Nauru, the PNG community here in Melbourne, the players themselves, and all of Papua New Guinea were very excited about the final. Unfortunately, they came up against an Irish team that was just a bit less overawed by the occasion and the PNG boys ended up losing the game.
Despite the loss, I saw the overall success of the team as a hugely positive thing for Papua New Guinea. In Australia, all we hear from PNG are the negative stories: the stories of corruption; of rapes, murders, and aggravated robberies; stories of gangs and riots; shocking poverty and health problems; of natural disasters. The country’s natural resources disappear quickly, virtually amidst genocide and civil war. More recently the five-yearly circus that is the National Elections with its bribery, irregularities, tribal warfare and contrived results. Papua New Guineans are not happy that these are the only things we hear about. (Although the media is blamed for the adverse coverage, we should hear about these things, because they all happen.) There is a sense of embarrassment in Papua New Guinea that Australia hears nothing but the bad stories. The bad things that happen are not accepted as normal occurrences in PNG. The people are ashamed of the negative stories that we hear because it is not a true reflection of what the country is all about.
I am biased because I have a great love for Papua New Guinea and its people. And this morning I have the unusual pleasure of being able to talk about my two favourite subjects – Papua New Guinea and myself. My love of PNG is a result of time I spent living there as a mission volunteer in the 1990s. I am still unsure exactly what it was that made me go to Papua New Guinea, but whatever it was, in 1995, I left a reasonably well paid job and potential career here in Melbourne to go to Dogura, a mission station in Milne Bay Province down the bottom end of the mainland. I went to Dogura under the auspices of ABM (the Anglican Board of Mission), and also, in a way, as a representative of this parish. The support I received from this wonderful place made the whole venture possible, and was a constant source of encouragement during some of the tougher times. The original plan was to go there for 6 months – it took me three years to come back. When I got to Holy Name High School I was expecting to work in administration, but because of a shortage of teachers, I was asked to teach for a couple of weeks. That couple of weeks became a couple of years until, at the start of 1997, I became bursar or administrator of the school, before returning to Australia the next year.
I pretty much hated the first few weeks in PNG. It was too hot and humid, there was no electricity or water, I didn’t know anyone, and I had been thrown into the classroom with no previous experience of teaching. Walking into a class of 45 students sharing text books with half the pages missing and with names such as Malchus, Churchill, Vinoria, Lovejoy, Dauyatne and almost every Biblical name possible, was a daunting prospect. To start with I had no idea what they were talking about and they had no idea what I was talking about. It took a lot of adjustment of my use of language to get in a position where I could understand and be understood. But gradually, Dogura became my home, and its lifestyle became my lifestyle, to the point where upon my return to Australia in 1998, my mum couldn’t understand what I was saying, and I couldn’t understand much of what was going on around me.
One of the turning points for me was the death of six of our students in an aeroplane crash in 1995. I still find it hard to explain that day and that situation, but on a personal level I found myself suddenly bonded with every single other person who was there at that time. A message of support from Christ Church Brunswick appeared on the staff room blackboard, and a gift from the parish – a huge ciborium fit for communicating the vast numbers of communicants – was dedicated to the memory of the six students.
One of the hardships of living at Dogura was the frequent lack of running water. Dogura is set on the top of a hill, and despite their best efforts the original missionaries could not have picked a worse place. They built a dam, but unfortunately it has never been terribly effective. Getting water up the hill has been a problem for many years, particularly during the very long dry seasons. For much of the school year, water for cooking and sanitation is carried up the steep hill in buckets by the students, usually the girls. Initially, the lack of water was an unbearable burden, but the search for and careful use of water became a normal situation, part of life.
Life in Dogura was incredibly difficult at times, but there was enough joy there to make the difficulties much less significant. In fact, I enjoyed myself so much that at one stage I began to feel guilty about it. Speaking one night to Fr Michael, a missionary from New Zealand, I was struggling with the fact that I was enjoying myself so much. Working for the Church in a developing country, shouldn’t I feel like I’m sacrificing a good life for a life of pain and terrible food? His reply was something to the effect that if I was not enjoying myself, I shouldn’t be there. I was happy to hear that, because despite the hardships, life was good, although I did get my fair share of terrible food.
Now it is rare that I think of such things as washing in the morning in half a bucket of water. I don’t dwell on laundry and saucepans left unwashed for a week because there was no water. I rarely think of the few unpleasant encounters with rascals.
The memories that do spring to mind are more often happy memories. Happy memories of people:
It is hard to explain the experience in a short period of time. I lived there for three years, and I could talk for three years about my life in Dogura, but one of the highlights of my time there was playing in the local cricket competition.
In late 1995, I helped form a new cricket club to enter the local village cricket association. The Bola Dolphins Cricket Club was made up of students and staff of Holy Name School most of whom had never played cricket before.
That inexperience showed in our first season when we were absolutely thrashed every week and came last. Things got better though, and we gradually improved to the point that, in our second season, due partly I must say to some excellent captaincy, we made it to the grand final and ended up winning handsomely.
During our celebrations we heard that some of the opposition players had gone around the village smashing up the houses of some of the old people who were our supporters, accusing us of witchcraft. I think that these men were none too pleased about being beaten by a bunch of school kids, and were looking for something to blame, but it was also an indication that, even after over 100 years of Anglican presence at Dogura, some of the traditional beliefs are not far below the surface.
PNG is a very Christian country. While Anglicans only make up around 5% of the population, the Anglican Church has been in Papua New Guinea since 1891, Dogura being the site of the first Anglican settlement. People at Dogura know how to do liturgy and traditions of the Church better than we do in Australia. Nowhere else have I been expected to pause for the Angelus while running in to send down another thunderbolt. The people also have a remarkable faith which they will defend at all costs.
The main focus of the Church, particularly in the rural areas, is the provision of education and health services. Across Papua New Guinea, the Anglican Health Service runs numerous hospitals, nursing schools, health centres and dozens of aid posts in remote areas. While the medical staff are paid by the government, the buildings, administrative stuff, equipment and supplies are usually the responsibility of the Church.
Similarly, the Anglican Education Service provides education in areas that would not otherwise have these services. There are three high schools at Dogura, Popondetta and at Aiome, and primary schools scattered all over the Anglican areas.
Holy Name School has been around for almost 50 years, set up by the sisters of the Community of the Holy Name from Melbourne. It was one of the first high schools for girls in the country, educating the Anglican girls of the Milne Bay and Oro Provinces and producing numerous prominent women.
While the girls would all travel to Holy Name School, the boys travelled to Martyrs Memorial School outside Popondetta. Martyrs is a just a couple of years older than Holy Name but has far more remarkable beginnings. As its name suggests, it was dedicated in honour of the 12 Anglican PNG Martyrs. These Martyrs were men and women, national and expatriate, who died because they would not leave their people during World War II. Today we commemorate Martyrs Day, and 60 years after the deaths of the Martyrs, this day is possibly the most important feast of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea. In a way, this feast commemorates the PNG Church’s growing up. While still part of the Province of Queensland until 1977, the identity of the Church was truly forged through the martyrdom of its own faithful. The sacrifice of the martyrs ensures that the message of Martyrs Day is an enduring message that goes out from, and far beyond those Martyrs; the message that sacrifice made in a pure heart is never in vain. Unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain.
The Anglican Church still serves the people of Papua New Guinea in times not as dramatic as those of war, but still extremely difficult. Both Martyrs School and Holy Name School have been forced to become fully co-educational and more recently have been forced to take in year 11 and year 12 students as a result of National Education Reforms. This has caused a variety of problems, not least being that a number of the long-standing teachers of the schools never actually did grade 11 themselves. At Dogura, the school has found it difficult to recruit new teachers to such a remote and under-developed place, particularly without housing to offer them. The teachers that do commit to working in such an inhospitable place as Dogura when they could be teaching in towns with better accommodation and better pay, may well be following in the sacrificial footsteps of the Martyrs.
ABM, the Anglican Board of Mission has worked with the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea since the first missionaries landed. In recent years, ABM has had to redesign its approach to PNG, basically because of the amount of money available to support the Church there. After leaving PNG, I worked for a couple of years in Brisbane as a youth officer for ABM. It was during that time that ABM had to respond to its own financial crisis. The PNG Church was not terribly excited by the new arrangements for provision of support from ABM on behalf of Australian Anglicans, but the organisations are working together to make the best of what is available. The support PNG receives from Australian Anglicans through ABM makes up a huge proportion of the Church’s income
The Chief, Sir Michael Somare, has just been elected Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea for the third time. I cannot claim to have much understanding of the complexities of PNG politics and therefore cannot say if his election is a good thing or not. The general feeling that I have gleaned is that Sir Michael’s government is the last great hope for a country with massive financial and social problems. But then again so was the previous Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta. Amongst some people that I know, there is a defeatist attitude towards the country’s prospects. The spotlight will be on the government more than ever, and the people are becoming less and less inclined to forgive those leaders who betray them and the country.
Two of my good friends are Papua New Guineans living and working here in Melbourne. Both in their mid-20s, one is a lawyer, the other works for one of the major banks. Discussing PNG current affairs with them, I am encouraged by their optimism for the future of their country. These guys are potential leaders, maybe potential politicians, determined that the Papua New Guinea they are proud of will recover from its state of desperation and earn its place as a leader in the Pacific. The country will continue to look to Australia not just for money, but for guidance. I hope we can give it.
The performance of the PNG national football team in the tournament in Melbourne recently may be a small thing, but for a country resigned to failure, it is a marvellous achievement. Let us hope that this sort of achievement can be translated from the sporting realms into the more essential social and political arena.
Almighty God, there is no greater love than to give our lives for your friends. Grant us and the people of Papua New Guinea the courage to make our own sacrifice. And may we, in the company of your Martyrs, gaze with joy upon the face of Christ. Amen
