The role of the local church in PNG in delivering education

caption: a pic showing St. Fidelis College in Madang. This is a catholic seminary college run by the Capuchin Friars based in Mendi, SHP. image credit: Christopher Papiali BY CHRISTOPHER PAPIALI The role of the local church in PNG in delivering education The active participation of our local churches in developing PNG cannot be questioned and the world over, churches have always played an important role in development and evangelization process. When imperial powers scrambled for colonies and new territories accompanying them were new wave of migration of missionaries and evangelists for one purpose: to Christianize the heathens. The early missionaries proselytized the heathens by giving salt, tobacco, tinned fish, axe, etc… As one Capuchin Friar teaching us at St. Fidelis College put it: ‘it was part of Cultural Relativism. This school of thought says that cultural or religious practices or other customs that were practiced or done in different place in a different time cannot be compared to a different time and different place. What was practiced and done at that time at that place was deemed acceptable and relevant’. That Capuchin Friar was true to his words and none of us would want to dispute that for we knew Churches have planted seed in our soil. We were all products of intensive missionary activities. Over almost two centuries, we have seen what churches with various structures and administrations have strived to grow PNG in par with the rest of world where Christianity was held as the true religion. And PNG did not escape the dominance of western influenced religion disregarding our various religious worships that were seen as polytheism similar to most African and other South American countries. PNG had the garden gods, fertility gods, rain gods and fish gods and it was the faith and belief in these gods that our ancestors and even other current surviving communities revered such deity worship as supernatural and meaningful. Western influenced religion based on monotheism and the consideration of polytheism worships played a significant role in shaping and reshaping the worldview of our people and now our people, Papua New Guineans, tend to defend what they believe is right although there may be opposing views. One formidable view is that through God people succeed in all facets in life. There are blessings and these blessings come about if people revere Yahweh, the God of Abraham and Moses. The early missionaries believed that in order to promote their evangelical expansionism model establishing church schools were very important because they knew through formal education process their evangelical work would be sustained. Church education is nothing but giving Christian value based education to our children. Therefore, churches believe that having a holistic development of a child is very vital in order for that child to grow up and become a strong believer of God, living and practicing Christian values and these values ought to be centred around love, forgiveness, respect, trust and understanding. Nearly all Papua New Guineans belong to a member of a church, sect, or denomination. Our church leaders tell us to be God fearing person and such church sermons or teachings are part of the informal education process where we are challenged to live Christ-like life, being holy and pious. When the churches, led by the Catholic Bishop Conference asked the O’Neill government why they were not consulted in relation to the scrapping of OBE, what the CBC wanted was the quality education system that the CBC viewed was affordable and accessible but more so how the new national education policy would have an adverse effect on the church’s well established, historical, educational structures and institutions. The CBC has a point here: the Catholic Church has 1700 elementary schools with an enrolment of 116,395 students in all 21 provinces. And there are 1102 primary schools with 181,721 students and 15,000 students in secondary schools in 20 provinces. This suggests that the Catholic Church is the leading church education provider in PNG. In the higher education sector, churches have been involved and we cannot deny that through the successful running of the universities like Divine Word University and Pacific Adventist University. Divine Word University in its efforts to cultivate Christian values, harnessing community outreach and academic excellence is leading the way. Divine Word University continues to innovate holistic learning and teaching with much of its foundation drawn from moral, ethical, and theological thought. When asked about the progress of DWU, Br. Andrew Simpson replied: ‘we want to maintain our traditions and we are innovating change and our Rural Health programs will have our students studying in Australia this year. With an enrolment of estimate 1400 students this year we believe DWU is doing its best to support the government of PNG to deliver quality education’. The community has an obligation to look after church run institutions and we have heard Peter O’Neill, the Prime Minister of PNG, making an undertaking that his government is willing to support the work of the churches. When we are talking about supporting the work of the church, we are also talking about our roles and responsibilities in understanding how land was acquired before from our ancestors and grandparents on which these buildings and other types of infrastructures are built and located. The young generation of leaders cannot hold the view that because a certain portion of land was not properly compensated or bought by the church where the school or clinic is, they should go ahead and loot and destroy the infrastructure or take the church to the court. As discussed in the preceding paragraph, we have to resort to the school of thought based on cultural relativism. It would also seem as ‘unacceptable’ when the church gives away a very prime portion of land to a third party purchaser for a very lucrative amount if the money is not used equitably to benefit the nucleus church members or parishioners. In respect to the delivery of quality education, the local church cannot operate in isolation. There is urgency for them to network so that there is unified syllabus and pedagogy. I remember what one of my friends told me: ‘churches seem to compete to build their empires but not the souls’. I am not sure whether this statement was more currently fitting for the local church in Papua New Guinea. End/. Words: 1033 You can contact the author on 72111918, edwebconsultants@yahoo.com.au