On 5 March 1797 the Gospel came
215 years ago, eighteen British missionaries landed in Tahiti in Matavai Bay.
The evangelization of Polynesia had just begun…
In march, 1797, a British
crown flag vessel anchored in Matavai Bay, just a stone’s throw from the beach
at Venus Point, on the east coast of Tahiti.
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| The meeting between the “savages” and the English in Tahiti |
Ordered
by the explorer James Wilson, the same ship, the Duff will later stop in the archipelago of Gambier, giving its name also to the highest peak on the
island of Rikitea. But then, these are French Catholic missionaries who landed…
The day which
transformed the Polynesians
Eighteen out of the thirty
missionaries of the London Missionary Society who were aboard The Duff,
were assigned to land onto Tahiti, to establish a mission for
evangelizing the “savages” who inhabited this already mythical island.
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| The plaque with the name of the first 18 missionaries |
The evangelical mission was
headed by Pastor John Jefferson. Out of the eighteen members of the group, only
four were considered literate and educated. Other missionaries, although they
can all read and write, were relegated to low-level, manual jobs.
On the beach, the welcoming
committee was headed by the young King Pomare II and his wife, the beautiful
Tetua-nui Taro-vahine (known as Tetua Tetua), both standing on the shoulders of
strong young men…
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| The Beach of Pointe Venus today |
But success of this mission
of evangelization, now undeniable, was slow to emerge.
Henry Nott,
the man who converted King
Among the eighteen men who
landed from The Duff, there was one who
changed the destiny of Polynesia and the Polynesians: Henry Nott, a bricklayer
by trade.
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| Henry Nott, the person who brought the gospel |
His first achievement was
undoubtedly he had obtained the conversion of King Pomare II. It’s indeed this
conversion, slowly but surely, that’s spreading. Thus it caused drastic deep shifts
of Polynesian societies.
But Henry Nott is known
above all, helped in his task by another missionary, John Davies and Tuahine, a
Polynesian (originally from Raiatea), for having translated the Bible into
Tahitian language.
Pomare II, the
first converted
It took many years before
the work of our first missionaries bear fruit. But the result is now
indisputable. Almost all the Polynesian population is either catholic or protestant,
or a member of one or other of these Churches derived from this common core
(Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, Adventists, etc…)
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| King Pomare II after his conversion |
For King Pomare II, who took
the plunge in denying the beliefs of his ancestors, things were however not
easy. He had to fight against all to impose his choice. He succeeded mainly due
to a major element in the new doctrine, which was totally new to the
Polynesians: forgiveness.
The subjects of the young
king, seduced by the new faith, but also probably for staying in the good
graces of their sovereign, were more and more likely to convert. The
representatives of traditional religions, didn’t agree with this phenomenon, of
course.
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| The private property of Pomare: picture of Cyprian Bridge in June 1846 |
Conflicts multiplied and
gained in violence. At such a bloody game and of religious war, the Christians of
Pomare prevailed. And it is at this point that Pomare destroyed all the hopes
of his opponents. Because, contrary to the custom of the time in such
circumstances, it prohibits pillage, capture of defeated and even the massacre
that would have happened… He went so far to organize a worship of thanksgiving…
The die was cast.
On March 5th,
today in Polynesia
In 2012, in French Polynesia,
this anniversary of the arrival of the Gospel is a statutory holiday, like
Christmas or May 1.
If it’s, originally, an
event for members of Protestants Churches, it’s now the subject of numerous
ecumenical ceremonies and many events, meetings, services and cults of all
kinds.
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| A commemorative ceremony in Tahiti |
However, the most important ritual,
of course, meets annually on-site of the arrival, that is to say, on the beach
at Venus Point in Mahina. More than a thousand faithful gathered to commemorate
the event with the Ma’ohi Protestant Church.
The Polynesia
completely evangelized
A little more than two
centuries after the landing of the first missionaries of The Duff, the Polynesia (became French in the
meantime) is a rare example of a complete evangelization. In fact, out of all
one hundred and seventy-eight Polynesian islands, people who reject the
Christian faith or are indifferent can be considered negligible amounts.
By contrast, a phenomenon is
revealing: some movements regarded as sects elsewhere, and prohibited for this
reason, are here recognized as full-fledged Churches. Thus, for example,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormon Church, etc.
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| The Paofai Temple in Papeete |
It is also interesting to
note that in French Polynesia, while poverty affects every day more and more
people, temples and churches are always full and they are, by far, the
buildings the best maintained across the whole country…
.
An article
of Julien Gué
Translated from French by Monak
Copyright
Julien Gué. Ask for the author’s agreement before any reproduction of the
text or the images on Internet or traditional press.
Some sources:
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