Christian Congregational Church of Samoa

Ekalesia Fa'apotopotoga Kerisiano i Samoa
Classification	Protestant
Orientation	Presbyterian
Polity	Congregational-Presbyterian polity
Geographical areas	New Zealand
Origin	1839 Manono Island, Western Samoa
Branched from	London Missionary Society
Congregations	325
Members	70,000

The Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (CCCS) is an international Christian Church originally established in Samoa by missionaries of the London Missionary Society.

History

CCCS traces its beginnings to the arrival in 1830 of missionaries sent by the London Missionary Society (LMS), accompanied by missionary teachers from Tahiti and the Cook Islands and a Samoan couple from Tonga.

They arrived at a time of fierce warfare and fighting between local chiefs, and the people who were weary of violence and bloodshed readily received the missionary's gospel of peace.

When a renowned paramount chief of a much respected family lineage officially accepted the new religion, all his followers and kinsfolk immediately followed suit. Within a few years, virtually the whole of Samoa was converted to Christianity. Huge numbers of people soon offered themselves for overseas mission work. In 1839, only nine years after the arrival of the LMS, the first twelve Samoan missionaries left for mission work in Melanesia. Ever since then, Samoans have continued to take the gospel message to other Pacific islands, e.g. Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Niue, Tokelau, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Wallis and Futuna. Many of these early Samoan missionaries never returned home; they occupy many of the un-named and unmarked graves in the islands of the Pacific.

Malua Theological College was established in 1844, with the main objective to teach and educate local students so that each village of Samoa would eventually have a theologically educated pastor as spiritual leader. By the end of the 19th century, a pattern of ministry had emerged. It was modeled on the Samoan village structural organization and aimed at preserving, as much as possible, the value systems of the Samoan way of life. The church community functions in the same way as the village, where five main groups – matais (titled men), spouses of matais, untitled men, unmarried women, and children – each have their own individual and corporate roles and responsibilities for the maintenance of order and welfare. The village congregation is the basic unit of the CCCS with the pastor as the spiritual leader.

Church's focus

The Samoan church during the missionary period engaged itself in the "social redemption of humanity". This vision was based on the church's understanding of God's sovereignty. It saw the divine purpose of redemption not in individual terms only but also in corporate, social and political terms. The newly acquired faith had its focus on the transformation of life and society. That legacy remains a motivating force in the nation's idealism as well as in the church's commitment to active social efforts. The church has been able to maintain five high schools, one girls' college and one theological college.

Relationships with other churches

Since the second half of the 20th century, the Samoan church has continued to forge ecumenical relationships with other churches locally, regionally and internationally. Now it has become a transnational church with eight districts (synod or diocese) outside Samoa: one in the USA, one in Hawaii, three in Australia and three in New Zealand. It has one congregation each in Fiji and American Samoa.

Bible

Within the first years of their work, the LMS missionaries developed a Samoan alphabet and put the language into written form. The setting-up of the first printing press in Samoa (1839), only the second in the Pacific region, was a mark of the missionary zeal to bring the people to understand the gospel through the written word.

The London Missionary Society missionaries, working with prominent and well-versed Samoan orators in the local vernacular, translated the Christian Bible into the Samoan language, and this Bible translation, "O le Tusi Pa'ia", is still in constant use today. It provides an important grounding in the philosophical usage of the Samoan language. By 1855 the whole Bible was translated into Samoan. The missionaries also introduced a monthly journal – the Church Chronicle – which continues to this day.

The London Missionary Society established a printing press (firstly in the village of Avao, Savaii and then in Malua, Upolu), and a theological college at Malua,^[1] where the main centre of the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa is today with its main offices in the main town of Apia, Samoa. The Congregational Christian Church in American Samoa (CCCAS) has its headquarters and theological training seminary at Kanana Fou (New Canaan) on Tutuila Island in the US territory of American Samoa.^[2]

References

1. ^ Talofa Lava, and Welcome to the Website of Malua Theological College
2. ^ Malama Meleisea, Lagaga: a short history of Western Samoa ([e-mail], 1987) ISBN 9820200296, 9789820200296

External links

• The church's own website