Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea'

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effect that the Catholic Diocese of Aitape in the Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea, and by implication, the Catholic Church, has had on the lives of women, as assessed by women of the Diocese themselves. Much research has been done into how women can be, and/or become, empowered through development project approaches and through the agency of development agencies and people. Many such projects have been relatively short lived and have also been sector specific. If such projects are seen to have an impact upon the lives of women, a long standing institution such as the Catholic Diocese of Aitape which has such a great influence on the lives of the people living within the Diocese could also be expected to have an impact upon the lives of women. Women reflecting upon their own lives and the lives of their mothers and grandmothers and what differences there are and how the Diocese/Church has contributed to these changes has provided the data for analysis within this thesis. Based upon the reflections of women, selected as being representative of the women of the Diocese, the Diocese and the Catholic Church have indeed contributed to a degree of empowerment for women that these women may not have otherwise achieved within contemporary Papua New Guinea society. The various teaching, policies and practices of the Diocese and the Church have enabled a greater freedom of association, movement and opportunity for women to individually and collectively become empowered to some degree. The patriarchal nature of the Church hierarchy and the interaction between the Church and the Diocese however remains a barrier to true gender equality across all aspects of the Diocese and Church. While this remains so, increasing localisation of the Church within Melanesian society may well mean that gains made by women through the agency of the Catholic Diocese of Aitape, need to be defended from erosion by a more Melanesian version of that same Diocese. [Appendix 4 : STK THR 262.3093 D718]

Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia in 1975. However, as a developing nation, PNG has continued to depend on external assistance for its development programs. Extensive foreign aid has been expended primarily to enhance the quality of education. To explore the issue of foreign aid and its impact on PNG as a postcolonial society, the dependency and postcolonial theories were adopted to guide the discussion. The theorist Beeby argues that in order to improve the quality of education, the level of general education and training of teachers in developing countries must be raised. This has occurred in PNG but it has not significantly enhanced the quality of education. Consequently, the issue explored concerns the type of educational change occurring in PNG primary teachers’ colleges (PTCs) and its leadership. Globalization processes were adopted to guide the exploration of the education reform and its impact on the quality of education in primary teacher education in PNG. The following questions focused the content of the study:1. What is the quality of education being experienced in the Catholic Primary Teachers’ Colleges? 2. What are the lecturers’, students’, and recent graduates’ perceptions of the recent Primary and Secondary Teacher Education Project innovations occurring in the teachers’ colleges? 3. How is the curriculum in the teachers’ colleges perceived by the lecturers, students and recent graduates? 4. How is leadership demonstrated in the three Catholic Primary Teachers’ Colleges? The epistemological framework of the research was constructionism adopting an interpretivist approach. The specific interpretivist perspective employed was symbolic interactionism because symbolic interactionism places emphasis on the importance of understanding, interpretation and meaning. A case study approach was adopted as the methodology for this research because of the nature of the research purpose. This study involved a total of 166 participants consisting of staff and students from the three Catholic primary teachers’ colleges, representatives from the Catholic Church, National Department of Education (NDOE), Primary and Secondary Teacher Education Project (PASTEP) and other education officers. The data was gathered through a variety of methods including in-depth interviews, participant observation, focus groups, and documentary analysis. The major conclusions that emerged from this study revealed that educational change in primary teacher education has been implemented. However, the study concluded that the quality of leadership demonstrated to lead the educational change was disappointing. Inadequate leadership at the administration and curriculum levels had a negative influence on the quality of education. Achieving quality education was also hampered by inadequate funding, scarcity of resources and inappropriate infrastructure in all the institutions. The two-year trimester program has improved access and quantity but at the expense of quality. To assist primary teacher education implement the reform agenda, foreign aid was required. PASTEP was introduced and the contribution made by PASTEP was substantial. However, the study concluded that some of the strategies adopted by PASTEP to conduct its programs were questionable because there was evidence of hegemonic and colonial practices found among some of its workforce. In accepting foreign aid projects, PNG needs to establish strategies to ensure equitable partnerships with all stakeholders for sustainable development in education. In this respect, the findings of this study may serve as a guide for future decisions about educational leadership, curriculum innovation, donor funding agencies and policy generation.

This dissertation examines the ways in which a Papua New Guinean people, the Maisin of Collingwood Bay in Oro Province, have over the years responded to and appropriated a version of Christianity brought to them by Anglican missionaries. The Maisin treat Christianity not as a foreign imposition, but as an integral part of their total religious conceptions, activities and experiences. Almost a century of documented Maisin history reveals a consistency related to what is here called a "social ideology": a complex formed by idioms of asymmetry between senior and junior kin and allies, equivalence in exchanges between a range of social categories of persons, and complementarity between the sexes. Extensions of the social ideology to the developments of the post-contact society are explored in the contexts of a growing dependence on money and commodities, unequal access to education and jobs, large-scale out-migration, the material requirements of the local church, and church regulations concerning social behaviour. The social ideology is also extended to sorcerers, ancestral ghosts, bush spirits, and Christian divinities. The analysis shows that Maisin experience indigenous and Christian elements as realities that exist within a single religious field. Working from the premise that religion is an aspect of the people's total experience and not a separate cultural institution or sub-system, the thesis explores the modes by which the Maisin create and discover coherence between the various elements within the religious field. The most important points and occasions of religious coherence are those in which the moral precepts of the social ideology are joined with conceptions of spiritual entities towards the explanation and resolution of problems. Three "religious precipitates", as these moments of coherence are termed, are analysed: the village church, healing practices, and death rites. A major finding of this study is that Maisin articulate their assumptions about local sorcerers, ghosts, and spirits within idioms of conflict between kin and affinal groupings, but speak of God, Christ and the church as symbols of community solidarity. The village church is analysed as a point of convergence of the social ideology, economic aspirations, memories of past interactions with missionaries, and Christian teachings and forms. The primary religious importance of the church is as a condensed symbol of communitas that transcends the inherited divisions of the social order and the contradictions of present political and economic conditions.
Arts, Faculty of
Anthropology, Department of
Graduate

The Seventh-day Adventist Church, incorporated in the United States in 1863, was driven by the belief that it was God's 'remnant church' with the work of warning the world of the imminent return of Christ. When that mission was finished the second coming would occur. In 1886 following a visit by an elderly layman, John I Tay, the whole population of Pitcairn Island desired to join the SDA church. As a result in 1890 Adventist mission work began in the South Pacific Islands. By 1895 missions had been founded in six island groups. However difficulties, both within and without the mission's control, ensured that membership gains were painfully slow in the first decades of Adventist mission in Polynesia. However before World War II the Solomons became one of the most successful Adventist mission areas in the world. After 1945 Adventism also prospered in such places as Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Education provided the key to the gaining of accessions in a number of countries, while in others a health-medical emphasis proved important in attracting converts. Since World War II public evangelism and the use of various programmes such as welfare, radio evangelism, and the efforts of lay members contributed to sharp membership gains in most countries of the region. Of no small consequence in hindering Adventist growth was the opposition of other churches who regarded them as pariahs because of their theology and 'proselytizing'. Adventist communities tended to be introverted, esoteric and isolationist. Nevertheless Pacific islanders adapted aspects of the usually uncompromising Adventist culture. Unity of faith, practice and procedure was a valuable Adventist asset which was promoted by a centralized administration. After a century in the Pacific region its membership there has a reputation among other Adventists for its continued numeric growth and for the ferver its committment to Adventism. Nevertheless Adventism in the region faces a number of problems and its aim of finishing the Lord's work remains unfinished.
Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations