Brief History of United Church Madang Congregation

Brief History of United Church Madang Congregation.
(Excerpts taken from a documented brief account compiled by 2016-2018 Congregation Chairman Mr. Albert Ralai)

The Madang Methodist/LMS Church (now United Church Madang) was first established in 1966 and was fully completed in 1969. The formation of the church in Madang took place even before the United Church was formally established with the coming together of the Methodist Church and the London Missionary Society (LMS) known as Papua Ekalesia on 19th January 1968.

It took a while however, before land was secured to build a proper place of worship. It was the children of the first converts of Rev. William E Bromilow mainly the Dobuan speaking people who were recruited by the then Burns Philip (NG) Ltd from Samarai in 1952 and brought to Madang to work who made a formal request to their retiring missionary Minister Rev. Robinson who visited them in 1966 on his way back to Australia. Rev. Robinson approached the then District Administrator of Madang (they were known that time as M.H.A Member of House of Assembly, Jason GARRETT an Australian) who took him and the Dobuans to the current location of Madang United Church now United Church Madang and allocated the portion of land now Section 42, Allotment 10 & 11 to build their Church.

World War II left a lot of war wrecks and bomb craters in the area however the men put their minds and hearts to work and cut down, dug up all the coconut trees, burned and buried them together with the wrecks in the craters created by the dropped bombs of WWII.

The Dobuans, although had their hearts in the right place were not carpenters by trade. They made a lot of errors and on more than one occasion they had to remove complete walls to adjust the wall linings to square up. In the midst of their frustrations they asked the LMS brothers from Kerema Compound who were carpenters by trade to help them erect their Church building. The group also brought in a Suau man from the Kwato Mission, nicknamed “Saina” who was a qualified carpenter with the Madang Contractors to work. Saina was able to put his expertise to good use and together with the Kerema’s, they helped their Dobuan brothers to erect the Church building which was completed and dedicated in 1969.

There were also a few brethrens from Rabaul and Kavieng who joined them shortly after. The pulpit was designed and built by a man from Abau District. Those who were married had their wives cook for the men as they stood together to see the completion of the Church building. There were also expatriates at that time who lived and worked in Madang who have immensely contributed towards the completion of the Church building.

Pic: Dobuans who started the initial church building in 1966, and the completed church in 1970.
PC: Tweedy Malagian.

Dobuans who started the initial church building in 1966, standing with the bike is Late Petuel Malagian.

MUC-1970. Late Papa Joseph Zale standing facing camera

https://photos.app.goo.gl/69tegvAxBoYa1mp37