Bruce and Patsy Missionary Blog: The Three Church Cultures in the Pacific Area

A village in Papua New Guinea

The Pacific Area includes 17 countries that have Church congregations, and stretches 9000 miles east to west and 5000 miles north to south. The Area includes eight time zones and straddles the International Dateline. There is also a total of 14 Church schools which operate in Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati and Fiji; combined they have more than 5,500 students. In addition to the Area Office, there are eight Service Centers located in key countries throughout the Pacific. Within the Pacific Area, there are more than 38.5 million people. Of these, 23.5 million live in Australia, 7.5 million live in Papua New Guinea, 4.5 million live in New Zealand, and the remaining 3 million live in various Pacific island nations.

Here's a map of the area which includes 10 temples, 17 missions, 130 stakes, and 37 districts.

Socially, the Area consists of essentially four distinct cultures. There is (1) the European-derived culture (Australia and New Zealand); (2) the culture of Melanesia (the ‘dark islands’: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia); (3) the culture of Polynesia (‘many islands’: Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Niue, Tuvalu, Nauru and French Polynesia); and (4) the culture of Micronesia (‘the little islands’: Marshall Islands and Kiribati). Within each of these cultures are many sub-cultures.

The Area Presidency thinks of the area as having 3 different church cultures: the “mature church”, the “growing church”, and the “emerging church”:
1) The “mature church” includes Australia and New Zealand, where the quality of life consistently ranks them among the top ten countries in the world.
2) The “growing church” consists of countries such as Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga where economic conditions are slowly improving in urban areas, but are still quite impoverished in rural areas.
3) The “emerging church” includes 3rd world nations such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Kiribati, where the people live largely subsistence lifestyles and have limited educational, health care, and employment opportunities.

Elder and Sister Nielsen just got back from a mission tour to Papua New Guinea and a new mission president orientation in Vanuatu. This is the “emerging church”, so I thought I'd include a few photos from them since we don't usually see members from this part of the world.