Presented at the Missions Fundraising Dinner Night.
12 July 2025 | Lae International Hotel
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Happy Anniversary Celebration of our Church!
Today marks 139 years of the journey of ELCPNG. It began on July 12th 1886 in Simbang by a single Missionary from Germany. He came with one purpose in mind: to extend the Gospel to the untouched people who had never heard about Christ. With this purpose mind he said, I would rather go to this great island, not yet trembled by white settlers, untouched by the Gospel.
He was inspired, motivated and convinced by his faith to cross the sea and landed in Simbang. All that had happened after that is history today. That is the reason why we celebrate our history. From 12th July 1886 we have come a long way with great achievements but also with challenges and setbacks. The stories of our mission growth and expansion from the cost to the highlands is deep and wide. We embrace those stories and pass them down to the next generation.
Our celebration today is not only a mark of our past but also a reminder to move on into the future with determination and goal. Our past shaped us to be what we are today and to create the kind of church we enjoy today. We celebrate our history today to reaffirm our commitment to shape the church for our children tomorrow.
We celebrate on the foundation others laid. We worship in church buildings others built. We share the joy of mission others began. They were champions in their own right and time. Some of them have been called home by our father. Ohers are still awaiting their call. Therefore, we owe those who went before us great respect and gratitude.
Today it is our turn to build the future for our children who are with us and those who are not yet born. We must take this task of building the future as an important Christian obligation. We must not fail this duty because the future of the church does not come but it must be shaped or created. This is the task of everyone, not only missionaries, pastors and evangelists, but every member of the church because God calls every baptized Christian into witness and service in different ways in different contexts.
Today on this occasion of our 139 years of our celebration, I want to emphasize our role in promoting justice, peace, freedom and human wellbeing. Since the Gospel landed on our soil, the message of peace and love was preached, people were baptized and converted, congregations were created and people of many tribes, ethnical groups and languages were united into the Body of Christ and became God’s family.
The Gospel transformed many lives, communities and societies. People turned away from their past life and accepted the Gospel. It was a new beginning and a new orientation to life. The Gospel illuminated the darkness. Transformation began in the communities from the cost to the highlands, and from the valleys to the mountains.
139 years later, we are facing a new threat of reverting to our dark past. Communities that were transformed by the Gospel and lived together in peace are beginning to be fragmented and divided because we are confronted with different forces of darkness. Violence, war, injustice, social fragmentation and disorder are confronting us aggressively and threatening our peace and freedom.
At the global level, war is erupting in Europe, Middle East and in some parts of Africa, threatening millions of lives, thousands of families and communities. Social fragmentation in the form of violence, hatred, racism and class division between the poor and the rich, between the developed countries and the developing and underdeveloped countries are widening. The more the gap widens and the more social fragmentation increases human suffering increases.
The church is confronted with these realties. Christians are not living in a separate world but in the same world where others are also living, as Christ said, the wheat and the weeds are growing together in the same field. This is how complicated the world is. God and evil exist together. Peace and violence exist together. Love and hatred exist together in the same world.
At the local context, we have experience violence at home and within our communities. We hear and read regularly about violence, ethnic conflicts, accusation, torture and murder of innocent lives, especially women and girls. We hear and read about sexual abuse and human exploitation. We hear and read about climate crisis, ecological disorder, environmental pollution and contamination of sea and rivers due to resource extraction and exploitation.
Therefore, we have not been silent but reacted against those forces. We continue:
- our campaign against the dumping of mine waste into the sea, here in Huon Gulf because we have a duty to care for human lives and God’s creation
- our campaign against deep-sea mining because the sea is our livelihood
- our campaign against violence in all forms because human life is a gift from God and is sacred
- our campaign against carbon emission and pollution because the world is our home
- our campaign against air and water pollution through mine waste because God’s creation is our survival
- our campaign against resource exploitation because resources are God’s gift for the benefit of our people and our country
- our campaign against human trafficking and exploitation because human beings are not commodities
We as Christians and as church have a duty of care. We care for God’s people and God’s creation. It is our mandate to stand up and raise our prophetic voice for justice, peace, reconciliation and unity. The church is an important instruction to create balance in society where there are imbalances, to give hope where is despair, to shed light where there is darkness, to heal where there is brokenness and fragmentation in society.
To be silent on the realities confronting us is a denial of our existence as an institution of God on earth mandated by God for the sake of peace and order on earth. To refuse to confront the evils of our society is a rejection of our mandate of our prophetic role in the world. To neglect the responsibility of care towards people and creation affected by negative forces is an ignorance of our true calling as followers of Christ.
Christ calls us to be salt and light in a broken world that is constantly challenged by dark forces. Jesus reminds us to be agents of hope, healing and restoration where sin and negative forces continue to inflict suffering on humanity and creation.
When Christ, the great light of the world, said you are salt and light, he is reminding us that we are an extension of the great light and we have a duty to extend the light and make it shine in the world. He transformed us to transform the world. The power of transformation is within us as Jesus said; you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world to transform human life, families, communities and societies. We live as salt that heals and restores and light that dispels the darkness.
We are God’s chosen people, called to be agent of transformation. To live as Christians is to be conscious of our Christian duty to shine as light in the world, to add goodness to the bitterness that inflict humanity and to bring healing and hope to those affected by negative forces and unfavorable human conditions and to restore creation.
We are called to give hope to people and maintain balance in society where there are imbalances and bitterness. With the celebration theme: Let the light of Christ continue to shine (Matthew 5:15) we reaffirm our Christian duty of witness and service and continue to be the catalyst of hope for the world. Let the light shine!
Thankyou!
Rt. Rev. Dr. Jack Urame
Head Bishop
