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Christ Church St Laurence Zephaniah 3 : 14 - 20

Sunday, 6th September, 2015 Psalm 130

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Romans 8 : 33 - 39 !

Martyrs of New Guinea!

John 12 : 20 - 32!

Thank you for your kind invitation on this special day, that is set aside to give thanks for the lives and work of the New Guinea Martyrs. I have worked in PNG for close on twenty years, though with the United Church in PNG, not the Anglican Church. But I have visited some of the Anglican mission areas, and have known some of the local Anglican people. My Australian history is that a good many years ago here in Sydney I was a Church Army sister, and then ordained to the diaconate, and later ordained priest in the Newcastle Diocese. At the moment I’m Assistant at St Luke’s, Mosman - part-time retired.!

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Like most, or all of you here, I too have known of these twelve men and women that we remember particularly today. And I have to confess that I have struggled with this sermon because it has created conflict within my mind.

This is because the United Church in PNG, well really the Methodist Church back then which looked after the area where I have worked, did during the war years, evacuate its missionaries where possible, whereas the Anglican Church in PNG under Bishop Strong, did not. !

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The Administration gave the evacuation order for all white women in PNG on the 17th December, 1941. On the 2nd January, 1942, just over two weeks later, Rabaul was bombed, and then between the 22nd and 24th Lae, Salamaua and Bulolo were also bombed. By the end of January 1942, the Bishop had shifted the mission headquarters from Samarai Island north to Dogura. Two days later a Japanese plane flew over Samarai, and that same day, I understand it would have been Saturday the 1st of February, at 3.30pm, the Bishop made a radio broadcast to mission staff. In that broadcast he said that he believed that if they left, and I quote, “our life in the future would be burdened with shame and we could not come back here and face our people again”, and he went on to quote from the Gospel of Matthew which is a parallel passage to ours today from John’s Gospel: “Whosoever will save his life will lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake and the Gospel’s shall find it.” !

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Now, those who were the forebears of missionaries on the islands where I worked, just a day’s boat trip across the sea over to the east of Dogura, the Methodists that is, they believed that by evacuating and saving missionary lives, then as soon as hostilities were over, that they would have personnel who were experienced, knew the language, and would be ready immediately to return to take up their roles again in the service of the Kingdom.

Today both that Methodist area, which is now known as the Papuan Islands Region of the United Church in PNG, and that area on the mainland which is the Anglican Church in PNG, - both areas have strong and vibrant congregations. I speak from experience.!

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The day after Bishop Strong made his broadcast, Port Moresby was raided. A few days later Samarai was bombed. And then on 12th February Civil Administration ceased and Martial Law was declared. On the 8th April when the Bishop was in Port Moresby, an Army Major and a Lieutenant demanded that women missionaries be evacuated, and the Bishop’s response was that he would not take the responsibility of telling them to go. Then the matter was taken to the Army’s Major-General who the next day - agreed with the Bishop. On the 21st July Papua was invaded from Gona to Buna, and almost all the Anglican work in the north was brought to a sudden end.!

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That then is some background for our memories. During the next month of August 1942, ten of the Anglicans who we remember today were killed, murdered, by the invading Japanese military forces. Another was murdered in 1943, and for another the date is unknown. These men and women, ten Australians and two Papuans, had been called to serve the people as Christian priests, teachers, nurses and general workers.!

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There was medical sister May Hayman and teacher Mavis Parkinson, both serving at Gona on the north-east coast of Papua, both bayoneted to death by the Japanese invaders.!

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There was the Rev’d Vivian Redlich, whose fiancé by the way was May Hayman, then also medical sister Margery Brenchley and teacher Lillar Lashmar, the Rev’d Henry Holland, and also John Duffill, a missionary carpenter, all serving in villages inland from Gona. When they were murdered, there were three others not from the mission with them: a Captain Austen, and Tony Gors with his little son. All were beheaded at Buna Beach, the little fellow last. A record in a Japanese war diary reads, “I turned away for the sight sickened me.” !

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Indigenous Papuan, Lucien Tapiedi “who had volunteered to go back and collect items left behind by the arrested missionaries,” was axed to death by the Japanese invaders. !

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The Rev’d Henry Matthew, and Leslie Gariadi, his Papuan assistant, were in a boat with about ninety mixed-race people travelling west from Port Moresby to Daru. The boat was bombed by Japanese aircraft and it sank. Then the people in the water were sprayed with machine-gun fire. That was on the 7th August, 1942. There was one survivor.!

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The Rev’d John Barge was shot and knifed by the Japanese later, in October of 1943, and the Rev’d Bernard Moore was presumed murdered too, both of them on the south-coast of New Britain. That brings us to the twelve remembered today.!

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This is the tragedy and the horror of war. I am reminded of the beheading videos that we have seen with ISIS recently. And let’s remember as well today the other 260 church workers of the other five denominations (including 26 Methodists most of them I think from the Rabaul area) who were killed during that Japanese occupation.

Weren’t they martyrs too, because they all witnessed to their faith by having died for it? But given the decision and the experience of the Methodist church on the Papuan Islands quite close to the Anglican area, were the five women and perhaps the men too, who we remember particularly today, martyred in vain? That is a question that I find difficult to answer. However, maybe pondering that question is not really our agenda, but rather today we acknowledge that they were faithful unto death, and hence our honouring of them.!

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We prayed earlier today in the Collect, that we too might be given courage to live in faithful witness to God. We heard the words from St John’s Gospel, chapter 12, verses 24 & 25, that it seems were close to Bishop Strong’s heart, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Should we read these verses believing that our Lord is suggesting here that martyrdom may well be required of his followers? I’ve read that Saint Ignatius for instance, as he went to his martyr’s death - this was in the Colosseum in about 107AD - cried out, “I am God’s grain.” Taking it literally, he was one who was willing to hate his life in this world in order to live eternally,!

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This section in John’s Gospel is part of the teaching discourse of our Lord to his disciples as He leads up to His own impending death on the cross. These verses are an announcement that Jesus Himself is the one who had to die in order to bring others to life. And a second aspect is that yes, we should be prepared to imitate him. !

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And I certainly do see the imitation of Christ in the lives of Papuans who I know. But not because they have died, but rather because of the generosity of their lives, the way their lives are bearing much fruit. They are the health workers, the teachers, the priests, the carpenters and workers who are the body of Christ today. They are following exactly in the steps of those gone before, both in the steps of Christ and in the steps of those early missionaries, both those who were martyred and those who lived. Today there is well and truly a national church of many denominations might I add. And how has this come about? Not by their own power, human power, but through God’s grace as the national Christians have been obedient to their Lord. Indeed, neither is it their hold on Christ that makes them victorious, but rather His hold on them - not our hold on Christ, but His hold on us. “In all these things” writes St Paul in Romans chapter 8, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

The Lord be with you. Amen! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Rev’d Lu Piper OAM !

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