I now turn to the life of the Church within the Diocese. First I would as briefly as possible review our course in the last six years.

Of the 41 who attended last Conference only 20 are with us today. Of the 21 no longer with us, 9 no longer remain in the Church Militant, and one more must be added to that number who, though a member of the staff, was not present at Conference. We have 17 who have joined us since our last Conference. Of the 16 white Clergy including those in Episcopal Orders, who made up our ranks in 1941, six are no longer with us, but we have five new clergy. Of the three laymen then with us, none are with us today, but we have four others now on our staff. Of the 24 women missionaries who made up our staff in 1941, 13 are no longer with us but we have 9 new members making a total today of 20. There were 10 laymembers of our staff engaged in teaching work at the time of our last meeting and there are only seven today. There were then 8 nursing sisters and only 5 today.

But those figures as a comparison do not give at all a true picture of our needs in the way of white staff. At our Conference in 1941 we met with depleted numbers. In the five months which preceded that meeting we had lost 8 members of our staff, mostly on account of ill health and family reasons. Two of these were priests, the Rev. W. T. Taylor, and the Rev. Harold Graham. [54/55] Three were teachers, Miss Blake, Miss Gibbon, and Miss Bechervaise, and two were nurses, Mrs. W.T. Taylor, and Miss Townson. The eighth was Mrs Matthews who had died in March. Thus at the beginning [of] 1941 with the recent arrival of Miss Parkinson our white clergy numbered 18, our European teaching staff 13, and nurses 10, and the total white staff 50, compared with our total today of 40.

Even so we considered ourselves under-staffed, and previous losses of priests, teachers, and nurses had not been made good. Stations that previously had white missionaries like Naniu and Ambasi remained without them. Some other stations were unmanned. Shortly after Conference was over Sister Charlton and two of our teaching staff, Miss Eather and Miss Downing left us for furlough. They were caught in Australia by the war and unable to get back. Mrs. Jones went down at the outbreak of war. Meanwhile Miss Williams as nurse and teacher had joined us but we entered the Japanese war period with a smaller staff even than at our 1941 Conference.

We had been looking forward to receiving a few recruits in January 1942, including a doctor in the person of Dr. Gordon Keys Smith to make good a few of the many gaps over the years that had not been filled up by the Home Church. The war, alas, dashed our hopes. Entry to the Territory was closed and none of them were able to come.

Depleted though we were [in] numbers it was however mentally and spiritually a very virile staff that met in 1941 and one that was fully alive to the responsibilities and opportunities at the time and of the pressing needs of the Papuan Church.

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The Jubilee Conference.

Before this Conference I read through again the Minutes of the last Conference. Our Secretary at that time was Fr. Redlich and he excelled in treating us to full and illuminating Minutes in which no point was missed, and where a spark of humour was permissible in [55/56] the recording of the proceedings he brought it in in his own inimitable way. I was amazed at the variety of the subjects discussed, the pertinent nature of the contributions made to the discussions, the constructiveness and soundness of the decisions arrived at. If we had been able to implement all that was decided then the Church in our diocese today would indeed be stronger. As it is, alas, most of it proved abortive on account of the cataclysm that was to fall on us so soon after our meeting and it would seem that we have almost got to start over again.

Not only was that 1941 Conference considered at the time the most valuable Conference we have had but it was held as it were on the crest of a wave and at a time of great thankfulness and exaltation, when we had been celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the coming of the Gospel of Christ to Papua, brought by our two pioneer missionary priests, Albert Maclaren and Copland King. As we look back we could see how in very truth Christ had planted His Holy Catholic Church in this land and how wonderfully He had tended and fostered its growth in that first half century of its life. We felt that the Motto of those first 50 years had been "Christ for Papua," for they had shown His desire to have a place here in the life of this country and in the hearts of its people. He had, as it were, stretched out His Love towards Papua. He had come to dwell here and to work here, in and through His Mystical Body the Church, and was living here as he had lived of old in Palestine, as he is living today in many other lands in and through His Church, for the Church is the extension of the Incarnation--the living out in all ages and in all lands the truth that the Incarnation enshrines--Emmanuel--God with us.

But the Jubilee brought home to us that though He had indeed come to Papua, though He had found a dwelling place here, not only in and through the European missionaries, but in Papuan Clergy and Papuan Christians and in the life of an increasingly growing Papuan branch of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, yet the Divine Touch of His Mystical Body had as yet reached but the fringe of the vast population of this native land. We saw [56/57] also that the multitudes who as yet had no contact with Him could only be brought into living touch through the lives and prayers of those already united with Him in the visible organisation of His Church, and so then our Motto was no longer to be "Christ for Papua," because He had already come to Papua, but it was to be "New Guinea--all of it for Christ."

With our hearts afire with the challenge of this solemn watchword and all it involved and all it meant, we dispersed after our Jubilee Conference to our several stations and works. So important was it that this new flame of evangelistic zeal, kindled by the Spirit of God at our Jubilee Celebrations should not be only in our own hearts, not only in the hearts of our Papuan Clergy and Teachers, but in the hearts of all our Christian people, that I felt led to follow up these Celebrations at Dogura by a Jubilee visitation to every district to pass on the message of the Challenge to as many as could be gathered together. As I travelled from district to district I could see clearly how the Holy Spirit was at work in the hearts of the people guiding and directing the Church and leading it into all truth. In every district there was some rather unexpected outcome which revealed that many of our people had a real grasp of the Church and a vision of what Christ was calling us to do for Him in the future. Everywhere there were indications of a real desire to help to make His Church in Papua strong. In some districts there were public confessions and renunciations of sorcery and witchcraft and in almost all districts pledges of a new onslaught against the domination of superstition and fear. In most districts too there were solemn resolves to undertake evangelistic campaigns among the heathen. In the Boianai area to the mountain people of Denewa; in the Menapi area to the island people behind Kolebagira; in the Wanigela area to the Doriri people; from Eroro to the Managalasi people and so on; and at Gona the Jubilee visitation witnessed a reconciliation of an ancient feud between two groups of villages, between which the mission station stood as a peacemaker.

It did seem that we had entered the second half-century of the Papuan Church's life with a new spirit and that we were on [57/58] the threshold of a great forward movement in which depleted as the white staff was in numbers, native evangelism would take a leading part, but, alas, little did we know then how soon again our hopes were to be dashed. We were indeed on the threshold of a new experience of testing and suffering calling for a larger measure of faith and endurance than any that had been demanded of the church in this land hitherto. The extension of the war to the Pacific and the rapid approach and onslaught of the invader to these shores not only made necessary the retarding of some of our work but it inevitably brought emotions of fear and unrest to our people; these tended to swallow up the good intentions of the Jubilee and to smother some of the seed then sown before they could take root; yet not entirely so, for God never leaves Himself without witness, and even when it seems that the forces of evil have taken control of events and are frustrating His Divine purposes He is able to over-rule the evil for good, and to make the light shine even in the darkness. As in the days of the persecution in the Acts of the Apostles the local frustration achieved by the Powers of evil brought about the scattering aboard of the Christians and so a new spread of the Gospel further afield and a strengthening of the Church more than if it had been confined to its former local setting. So the war brought the scattering all over New Guinea of scores of hundreds of our Christian boys animated with the truth of the Faith that was within them, in military encampments, on battle fields, on the slopes of the Owen Stanley Range, in the jungle, and on the high seas, and a new witness arose to the power of the Living Christ through the lives of faithful Papuan Christians, through the Christian kindness of native stretcher-bearers, through the faithfulness of Anglican boys to their religion in their daily gathering together for their prayers, to sing together their Evensong, a witness which, if it has not yet reached the Doriri or the Managalasi or other uncivilised people, was destined to shake the civilised world. "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform." "God is working His purpose out as year succeeds to year" but I am anticipating events.

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[59] A Faithful Staff.

I can never feel too thankful for the solidarity and faithfulness of the staff that God gave me during those critical days in the early months of 1942. Much has been said about my so-called "Broadcast Message" to the staff on January 30th 1942 just after we had removed our head-quarters of the Mission from Samarai to Dogura. I know indeed that that message was Divinely given me, but it was not that message which decided the issue of the staff remaining at their posts. In the Providence of God it may have helped to confirm faith in a decision made but the issue was already settled and the decision made. How truly so. I did not fully know when I voiced and wrote that message, but my letter file from the staff bears its testimony,--Letters written some of them before the message was given but received after it, and it would seem from those letters that for some purpose or other God had given me to say what was in the hearts of all. I felt in those days as I have often felt since that God must have willed us to have the uplifting experiences of the Jubilee in 1941 and of the Cathedral Consecration two years before in 1939 and that perhaps without the vision that these two great events had given us of the triumph of the Glory of Christ in His Church, we should not have been able to walk with Him in His Passion in Papua. In the Divine ordering of things it would seem that this opportunity was given to the Church to prepare it for its time of testing, and here I would recall words that I wrote in my Lenten Pastoral letter that year in 1942. "May we not compare it to the inspiration which the remembrance of His Baptism in the River Jordan must have been to our Lord during His forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, into which He was driven by the Spirit so unexpectedly, immediately after that time of exaltation? There in the wilderness when material means and consolation failed Him for a time, and He was confronted with the full onslaught of the powers of evil, He was given a special ministry of Angels. So we can well believe it will be with His Spiritual and Mystical Body the Church in Papua, that even though material aids may, for a time be withdrawn from us, and the powers of evil be strong in their onslaught, yet we shall not [59/60] be left alone, or without consolation. Whatever else may fail us the Presence of our Lord and the Ministry of Angels will not."

And later in the same Pastoral Letter, after sympathising with the staff in some of the conflicting messages that they had heard over the air at the time of the general evacuation of civilians I went on to say--

"I have no doubt whatsoever that the course we have adopted is the right one. Indeed I have never felt so certain about anything in my life as I do about this. In these critical days when we were faced with the evacuation of Samarai and the possibility of isolation in the future, I felt more than ever conscious of the Presence of our Lord with us, and of the clear and undoubted guidance of His Spirit, that we should stand firm and maintain our posts. By God's Grace we have done so in the hour of decision, and we shall have no cause to be ashamed if we hold fast to that upon which our hearts are set--namely, remaining faithful to the calling whereunto He has called us. Indeed, we may well feel that for, those of us who remain here, depleted as we are in numbers after our losses last year, it was for this very hour that he sent us here that we might hold this outpost of His Church as a beleaguered fort of the Kingdom of God until relief comes to us, as come it certainly will.

["]In the Church's liturgical Gospels we may say that the gate way into the solemn season of Lent is to be found at the beginning of the Gospel for Quinquagesima. "Behold we go up to Jerusalem." In another place it is said that our Lord steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, knowing fully the trials and afflictions which would await Him there, but unmoved by the thought of them- spurred on only by the desire to do the will of Him that sent Him.

"At each season of Lent, metaphorically we are called to go up to Jerusalem, but for us never more so than in this year. For we have entered not only the liturgical season of Lent with its annual call for discipline, penitence, self-denial, and a closer following of Christ through His Passion to the glory of His Resurrection--but [60/61] we have entered also what may well be the Lent of the Papuan Church. As we go up to Jerusalem we do not go alone for He is going before us as He went before His Disciples. Some, it may be, will walk no longer with Him when they realise all it involves, but we will follow in his footsteps.

"We can be quite sure that the Church at home will be upholding us in prayer in this time of strain and difficulty, and we can feel happy not only to be able to witness before the Papuans to the reality of our Faith in the Living Christ, but also to be able to witness to the Church at large that Missionary work is the most vital work in all the world and cannot be laid aside like other works."

I felt it to be my duty in those early months of 1942 to visit our mission stations as often as I could that I might strive to strengthen the hands of those who were carrying on nobly at their stations and yet in such isolation and possible danger. In my visits to all stations in January, March, and again in May and June to stations as far as Wanigela, I often felt humbled by the faith and courage and cheerfulness of the white staff at each station, and so far from strengthening them, I felt that my own weakness was being strengthened. In between time I felt it my duty to visit military centres and to make myself available to Service Chaplains for Quiet Days, Confirmations, and other ministrations; and so the month of April with Holy week and Easter was spent at Port Moresby when I was privileged to share with that faithful and gallant servant of God, Henry Matthews, in the camping life that he was at that time having to live.

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The Lent of the Papuan Church.

If the Lent of the Papuan church that I had spoken of in my Lenten Pastoral did not come fully during the liturgical season of Lent it came later in the year in July when Papua was invaded and the enemy landed at Gona.

Up to that time our Diocese had remained a Unity. Work as fully as was possible under the circumstances had been going on at [61/62] each station and in each district. I can never feel too thankful to God that this was so, even in the light of all that happened subsequently to our white staff at Gona, Sangara, and Isivita, and of the mission in general. It is a matter for deep, profound, and humble thankfulness that no part of our work was diminished in 1942 on the grounds of safety first, for those who had vowed their lives to God's service and to the service of God's children in Papua. Church and schools and hospitals were at work right up to the end. Though we may know a little now, I believe we cannot know fully in this life but we shall know thereafter all that that has meant and all that it will mean to the future building up the Church in Papua. Only, too, in the life of Eternity shall we be able to see what harm would have resulted to the Church and to Christ's little ones if the influence even of our women missionaries had been withdrawn during those fatal months. Who can tell but that the influence of our two women missionaries at Gona in those months when God was undoubtedly very near to them and working through them because they had counted not their lives dear to themselves but had elected to fling thoughts of self-preservation to the winds and to trust Him utterly, may prove to have been in the building up of His Church? Who can tell what the eternal significance of the influence exercised in the school at Gona by Mavis Parkinson in that first half of 1942 right up to July 21st may have been, or the influence of May Hayman over the sick she tended, or her influence with the Guild of St Mary women? We know that her presence there saved the life of an American airman and it may be the lives of many Papuans. It would seem already that vocations to work as Papuan teachers, if they have not sprung from these influences, have been strengthened by it and might have been wholly lost if these two women missionary martyrs had not been there in those impressionable and critical months. Our College today bears testimony to this. Who can tell but that a few Papuan priests, one, two, three, or even more may spring from those influences and perhaps thousands of souls in the future owe their union with God thereby, and a power of love be set in motion which will go on from generation to generation and find its [62/63] fruition only in eternity. However that may be, it has been a cause of immeasureable thankfulness to me that the work of God was going on at Gona and at the other stations right up to the last moment:--that at Gona on the fateful day of the enemy's landing the Holy Sacrifice had been offered in the morning at the Altar of All Souls' Church, the work of the school and hospital in full train and only ceased when the enemy came as it were smashing in the gates and it could then go on no longer. Those who represented Christ and His Church had been faithful to the end, and they had laboured to the uttermost, and though the enemy had then come to do evil in the Sanctuary the issues could be still left in the hands of God.

For a time the Church in Papua had to re-echo the words of the Psalmist, "Thine adversaries roar in the midst of Thy congregations: and set up their banners for tokens. He that hewed timber alone out of the thick trees: was known to bring it to an excellent work. But now they broke down all the carved work hereof: with axes and hammers. They have set fire upon Thy Holy Places: and have defiled the dwelling place of Thy Name, even unto the ground. Yea, they have said in their hearts, let us make havoc of them altogether: thus have they burnt up all the houses of God in the land. O God, how long shall the adversary do this dishonour: how long shall the enemy blaspheme Thy Name, for ever? Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy hath rebuked: and how the foolish people hath blasphemed Thy Name. O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the enemies: and forget not the congregation of the poor for ever. Look upon the covenant: for all the earth is full of darkness, and cruel habitations. O let not the simple go away ashamed: but let the poor and needy give praise unto Thy Name. Arise, O God, maintain Thine own cause: remember how the foolish man blasphemeth Thee daily. Forget not the voice of Thine enemies: the presumption of them that hate Thee increaseth ever more and more."

Or as it is expressed in Psalm 79:--"O God the heathen are come into Thine inheritance: Thy Holy Temple have they defiled, and made Jerusalem an heap of stones.

[64] The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the air: and the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the land. Their blood have they shed like water on every side of Jerusalem: and there was no man to bury them.

For they have devoured Jacob: and laid waste his dwelling-place. O let the vengeance of thy servants' blood that is shed: be openly shewed upon the heathen in our sight.

O let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before thee: according to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die. And for the blasphemy wherewith our neighbours have blasphemed thee: reward thou them O Lord seven fold unto their bosom.

So that we are thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, shall give thee thanks for ever: and will alway be shewing forth thy praise from generation to generation."

The invasion of Papua involved a real entry of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ in this land with Him into Gethsemane, and the weeks and the months that followed were to lead us deeper into fellowship with Him in His sufferings. Just as His own earthly ministry had seemed at one stage to be crowned with success on all sides and to rise almost to the crest of a wave in its triumphant progress and then the shadows began to gather round its course, as difficulties, obstacles, opposition, prejudices, and persecutions, arose and eventually He was led out from Gethsemane bound and a prisoner:--His freedom to go about doing good taken from Him, so in some measure it has been with the Church in Papua. The landing at Gona and Buna brought to a sudden end all our work in the North except at the Mamba where Archdeacon Gill was able for a time to continue. At Gona, Sangara, Isivita, and at Eroro the work was brought to a sudden cessation. The diocese was no longer a unity. The northern and southern parts of our mission area were severed one from the other. A curtain was drawn down over the north, and we in the south did not know what had befallen our fellow workers, what was becoming of our Papuan Christians, [64/65] and this suspense with its anguish and sorrow continued for months, heightened by the multitudinous rumours which brought more and more disquiet to our greatly troubled minds and souls. Some of you present today were behind that curtain during those dark, tragic months, but the greater number of our fellow workers who were then cut off from us are with us no longer in the Church on earth. Soon afterwards there followed the invasion of Milne Bay, which, though it did not bring collapse to the activities of our missionary work in the south to such an extent as in the north, yet did much to cripple them and to lessen their effectiveness and to limit our opportunities.

Time would forbid me to speak in detail of those historic days, of which many of us had our own part and our own somewhat harrowing experiences which differed considerably in individual cases. My purpose rather is to trace the course of the Church in its ups and downs, and in its downs and ups over a period which will leave its mark on the Church for many generations to come and which has left behind difficulties and problems that confront us today. Any reference I make to my own experience or doing I make now only because it is incidental to the purpose I have in mind.

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The Seal of Martyrdom.

It was with a heavy heart that I proceeded to Port Moresby in August 1942, nearly a month after the fall of Gona, in which it had been impossible to obtain news of our brethren or of the Church in the north. It was with an even heavier heart that I received on arrival, news of the death some three weeks before on the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, August 7th. of the Rev. Henry Matthews, and then, again, a few hours later, news of the landing of the Japanese at Milne Bay, which seemed likely to cut me off from the rest of my brethren. When the general evacuation of civilians had taken place in January, Henry Matthews, though well on in the 60's had refused to leave the parish where he had ministered for so many years and he insisted upon remaining on as a Chaplain [65/66] to do what he could for the representatives of Australia's manhood, mostly young and inexperienced soldiers, who were being sent up at that time to defend Port Moresby. In the months that followed he did most noble and self-sacrificing work and wherever he went he was beloved and admired, and he did good for his Master's cause. As time went on the Army Department in Melbourne discovered that there was a Chaplain serving in Port Moresby who was over 60, and as this was several years above the statutory age permitted to Chaplains overseas the decree went forth that his Chaplaincy was to cease on August 8th. Greatly distressed at this news, this dear, humble, faithful, devoted and self-surrendered servant of God, who desired nothing more than to serve Christ and his people and whose courage, fearlessness and complete disregard of his own personal safety I had witnessed and been humbled by in the previous April, sought permission to go on a boat to Daru which was removing some 90 halfcastes by military orders. He desired to see his son Adrian who was stationed there and to minister to those at Daru as well as to minister to and comfort the half-castes in their distress. The story of how that ship was set on fire and sunk by enemy action at sea is well known, and how they were machinegunned in the water and how this was on the day before his Chaplaincy was due to terminate, so that he was still on duty when he rendered up his life. With him there died his faithful attendant during those months, Leslie Gariadi, a former St. Aidan's College student who shared in the nobility of his sacrifice.

After days of uncertainty and anxiety accentuated by numerous rumours, there was handed to me one day a letter from Archdeacon Gill. It was during the days when the battle was nearing the back door of Port Moresby, and no one had seemed to know how that letter had come through, though it was clear that somehow or other it had passed right through the enemy's lines. It was handed to me by a Chaplain who said that it had been passed down from the front up in the Owen Stanley Range. The envelope was addressed to alternative people besides myself and marked "To be opened immediately in the event of my reported death or capture by the enemy." The letter [66/67] contained valuable information but it also brought me great consolation, for it told me not only that Archdeacon Gill was still among his flock though having to live in various hide-outs in the bush, designated x1 and x2 and so on, but it told me also that our Gona missionaries were safe at Siai. There was, however, no news of our Sangara and Isivita brethren, but ugly rumours of their being in enemy hands. Of our Eroro brethren too, I had had no news, but of their safety I was soon to learn. As far as our Gona missionaries were concerned, the comfort brought by Archdeacon Gill's letter was, within a few days, dispelled, when I was informed officially that a report, which the authorities believed to be authentic, had been received that they had since all been killed.

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Women Missionaries Evacuated.

Shortly after that I was able to return to Milne Bay and to Dogura. Mean-while the authorities demanded the evacuation of our remaining women missionaries because the whole area had now become an operational one, and was to be used shortly for an offensive against the Japanese. I did not feel that this order could be or should be resisted, because it was obvious that there should be then no hindrance placed in the way of the authorities in their determined efforts to rid the country of the invader. I felt that our women missionaries had made, during the previous nine months, a witness that had been necessary and that would not be forgotten and that their going at this stage would not have the same adverse effect on native morale and on the Papuan Church as if they had gone nine months earlier in December or January. By September and after the Milne Bay invasion and even before it, the native were being mobilized, and were all in the "business." Moreover it seemed that the continued presence of the women missionaries at that stage would have hindered the authorities, delayed the ultimate freeing of the country and so also put off the time when we could carry on our work again unhindered. It seemed therefore in some ways a providential opportunity for them all to have a much needed furlough after the harrowing experiences they had been through. Actually at the time I was [67/68] informed officially that the authorities were contemplating ordering a total evacuation of our staff from this area, but I made it very clear in Port Moresby that our men missionaries must remain and that in fact under the circumstances they would not leave except under force, and so the demand was not made. The departure of the women missionaries at that stage meant only one mission station in the southern part of the Diocese being left entirely without a white missionary. That was Boianai where sister Arliss and Miss Clarke had been. For the next two years, the work at Boianai was to depend entirely on Fr. Gregory Awui, his wife Melita and the local teachers, and one cannot but pay the highest tribute to the way in which they carried on with little encouragement, under much difficulty and in continued isolation. Although Wamira no longer had Miss Caswell it had regular visitations from Archdeacon Thompson who, for the time being was acting as parish priest though living at Dogura.

Taupota station was wholly occupied by our own military forces, but Fr. Jennings remained to minister to his people and to the troops, and daily school continued. Dogura was partially occupied by our troops but there the normal work of the station with its school continued throughout that time. It was not long before two more stations had to be added to those without white missionaries, Mukawa and Naniu. The Rev. Keith Clarke broke down in health and left Mukawa in November and in December the Rev. D.J. Taylor was removed to hospital first in Port Moresby and then to Australia. Wanigela had meanwhile become an armed camp of the Allied forces with fortifications, aerodrome and mechanical transport, and big ships were going in where formerly small ones had hesitated to go. The station was wholly occupied by the military. The Mission house was Headquarters for A.N.G.A.U. the priest's house a hospital for sick Australian soldiers with anything from 20 to 30 patients at a time. The people had been largely evacuated to their gardens, and school and ordinary mission work obviously could not continue under such circumstances. Some 200 or more labour boys were employed there and received together with [68/69] the white troops ministrations first from Fr. Taylor and latterly from Fr Randolph Namuri, and occasionally from Fr. Jones of Sefoa. It was important that the Mission should be represented by a European Missionary, and so Mr. Salzmann had to leave Naniu to its own devices and to take up his residence with A.N.G.A.U. in the Mission house.

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Transport Difficulties.

Our Mission schooner the "Maclaren King" had been taken from us by the military authorities in August and we were left without any boat for a time, except the little "Avina" at Dogura. This, of course, greatly handicapped me in my visitations and much had to be done on foot or by seizing an opportunity to get further afield on a passing army boat and hoping to find some similar means of getting back eventually. Up to the end of October we saw our old mission schooner occasionally when it called at Dogura under its new management. It was at about that time that it suffered its second attack from the enemy, the first having been at Buna in March when it was still in our hands. The second attack was whilst it was evacuating Australian wounded soldiers from Goodenough Island during which Francis Guise, a most promising and particularly loveable boy from St. Agnes' Home, was wounded and died shortly afterwards on a hospital ship on his way to Brisbane. The Chaplain from the hospital ship told me later of the very beautiful Christian end of this boy whom we believe would have served the Church and Mission well in the years to come if he had lived. Shortly after this the "Maclaren King" was sent up to Port Moresby, and at a later date it was wrecked off Korima and became a total loss and our hopes, that after the war was over it might return to us, were dashed.

In 1942 the Army made some reparation to us for the taking over of the "Maclaren King" by giving us a small tub called the "Una." We were thankful for small mercies, though some thought [69/70] the most manifest mercies were that this boat managed to keep afloat. Its condition as a seaworthy boat and the sate of its engine certainly spelt a large question mark each time it set out on a journey.

The Military Authorities had promised to keep us supplied but in those days we had many promises given us which took a long time to find fulfilment. The Mission's road in 1942 and 43 was littered with broken pledges and promises made by Military Authorities. It was not really till 1943 that any real system of supplies evolved and then it was far from satisfactory.

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Loss Upon Loss.

Much was lost in those years. Mission stations left without white Missionaries were looted and stripped of all their apparatus by white army personnel. A whole contingent of valuable Mission stores from Sydney melted away on the wharf at Port Moresby. A fraction of what was lost was discovered months later on Army dumps. Such necessities as Communion wine never reached us unless the prevailing war habit of camouflage was resorted to and even then some enterprising gluttonous men or wine-bibbers might discover the camouflage before it could be safely landed at the mission station. Had it not been for the ruling I had given at the beginning of 1942, encouraged thereby by the counsel of my Metropolitan, Archbishop Wand, that during the emergency period, communion should be given to the congregation in one kind only, the Anglican principle of two kinds being maintained in communicating all within the sanctuary with the Chalice, it would have been impossible for us to have continued the celebration and administration of the Holy Communion right through the period. In the matter of general supplies right up to the end [of] 1942 those stations that were still intact were living on their reserves. That these reserves lasted out and never reached exhaustion point was due to the wonderful foresight of Archdeacon Thompson who had built up reserves for the mission of vital commodities in the months that preceded the Japanese war.

[71] The end of 1942 presented a very different picture of the deployment of mission staff and activity to that of six months previously at the end of June. We had meanwhile been dealt by the forces of evil, ever out to hinder and frustrate Christ's work and to wound His Body, with what amounted to almost a knock-down blow, but, thank God, not quite.

With the exception of the Mamba, about which I shall speak presently our northern stations had all ceased to be. Gona, Sangara, Isivita, and Eroro were completely out of action and the fate of the staff at the first three was still unknown. Sefoa was still intact with the Rev. R. Jones. The United States troops were stationed near by, but not on the station, and as long as Fr. Jones remained they respected the mission and also welcomed his ministrations. Naniu, which had only recently been opened out again as a white missionary station, lay abandoned. Wanigela, though entirely under military occupation had a resident white missionary to keep watch over mission interests; Mukawa and Boianai left only to native agents; Menapi still had the faithful ministry of Fr. Lane. Dogura was carrying on but with many and constant interruptions. The College had been transferred from Laronai to Wamira, for escaping Japanese soldiers had penetrated the old College site and an action had been fought there and blood shed. Hioge had been for a short time in the hands of Japanese soldiers after their defeat at Milne Bay but Fr. Peter was still shepherding his flock. Taupota was wholly occupied by the military but it also had Fr. Jennings. And so mission work had ceased altogether in some districts, and in all the remaining districts it was only able to be spasmodic. Ministrations of the Sacraments were going on but School work where it was able to be continued off and on was entirely under native teachers and there were not mission boarders at any station.

Three things happened towards the end of 1942. Early in that month there took place the battle of the Mamba Mouth, and the landing of enemy forces below Duvira. Up to that time information that had been given to us indicated the enemy had [71/72] not penetrated into the Mamba District. Though we know that Archdeacon Gill and his fellow workers and his flock might often be the butt of aerial attack from friend and foe alike, we had good hopes that he was still alive and free and able to direct whatever efforts were possible for the church in that area in such troubled days, if not from Duvira itself, from one or other of his x's, Such hopes as far a Duvira was concerned had to be abandoned when news of the Mamba battle reached us and for some time we did not know what had happened to Archdeacon Gill and to the Church in those parts.

The second happening in December was, that when allied troops went forward to occupy Oro Bay, Fr. Newman was able to go with them that he might regain contact with his flock.

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A Notable Ordination.

The third happening was the Ordination to the Priesthood in the Cathedral at Dogura on St. Thomas' Day, of the Rev. Lester Rauela. This was an event of great significance, undertaken, we might almost say, in the face of the enemy, for the mopping of Japanese escapees from Milne Bay was still taking place in this area. Another enemy landing in this part of Papua was threatened and expected and there was always the uncertainty of aerial assault. As it was, the time of the Ordination was disturbed by considerable Allied activity and by the forced landing below Dogura station of a damaged bomber and the marvellous escape from what had seemed a few moments before almost certain death of some eight American airmen.

It was a singular mark of God's providential care for His Church that this Ordination was able to take place at such a time and in such circumstances, and a sign that the Church in Papua was not a dying Church. If it was sharing with its Lord in the fellowship of His Passion, it had in it in the midst of its sufferings, the seeds of new life and the perpetuation of the Resurrection life through the [72/73] native ministry. It was a Church robbed, battered, bruised, wounded but a living Church and a Church in action. The truth of this was seen further in the fact that right through the troubled period of the war, Ordinands were being prepared at Dogura without intermission or interruption--first one batch of men and then another. Altogether during that period the Native Ministry was increased by one priest and by six deacons, a higher ratio of growth then in any previous period of the mission's history.

Side by side with the training of ordinands, there was the training of native teachers for the future, going on at St. Aidan's College. Throughout this period St. Aidan's College had a full roll of students, and it continued its work daily. If the constant comings and goings at Dogura and the excitement of aircraft swooping down on the station inevitably interrupted other mission work, it did not affect the day to day routine of these two vital works, upon which the future internal strength of the Papuan Church will so largely depend. If the number of white missionaries still free and at work in the Diocese, apart from myself and Bishop Newton, had within six months been reduced in numbers from 32 to 9, Fr. Lester's ordination brought the number of Papuan Priests up from 10 to 11, and as far as could be known, all were carrying on nobly the work of ministering to their people and it seemed that more and more this work might have to depend upon them and upon their faithfulness therein.

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The Cross Still Stands.

In the early months of 1943 the enemy was completely driven out of Papua. One of the last and fiercest and bloodiest battles being fought on our beloved mission station of Gona. There, when the battle had been fought and won and the enemy had been driven forth there remained only of what had been before, three things, the Station Cross, the Predella upon which the Altar had [73/74] stood in the former Church of All Soul's [sic] Gona, and the stump of the Font. These last two witnessing to the two greater Sacraments, the one by which souls are born again and receive the new life, and the other by which that new life is fed and nourished. How wonderful that when all else had gone, those three things should remain as the marks, we might almost say, of the Lord Jesus, showing that it was indeed Holy Ground, that despite what man might do, the could not blot out the signs of God's love and of his grace, from the world.

As 1943 proceeded Papua become less and less an operational area and more and more a base for the offensive further afield in the Mandated Territory. This fact, however, did not make easier the work of the Mission. On the one side it increased the responsibilities of the Church and its work, for to a certain extent there fell upon us the duty of Ministering to many of our own race and colour as well as to hundreds of our Papuan boys organised in labour camps, but it made less easy the carrying on of education and other mission activities.

Early in 1943 I had the joy of meeting with Archdeacon Gill again in Port Moresby and learning his wonderful story of how God had preserved him, his fellow workers and his flock in the midst of so many and great dangers. There in Port Moresby and in the short visit to Australia which followed he was able to render great aid to the authorities through his knowledge of the country and the people. Within a few weeks he was back again at Iaudari, 40 miles up the Mamba River where he had established in December his temporary headquarters. I made many efforts to visit him there. It could only be done that time by air, but each time I was in the vicinity there was no aircraft available that could land in the airstrip at Ioma, and it was two years later before I could see him again when I was able to get up the Mamba River in an American barge in February 1945.

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[75] Martyrdom Again.

But if this joy of seeing Archdeacon Gill again was given to me early in 1943 there came also at the same time the great sorrow of having confirmed the reports of the suffering and death of our Gona, Sangara, and Isivita missionaries--learning a little of the harrowing experiences that had befallen them as they were called to drink of the cup that their Master had drunk of, and to be baptised with the baptism He had been baptised with, the baptism of blood and of a Martyr's death. Only of Fr. James Benson did there seem no certain news. For weeks and for months it had seemed certain that our brethren, if they had not suffered death, we being kept in prison and "Prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for them," that "whether they were still held in the bonds of the flesh or being delivered therefrom had passed into that which is to come," they might be kept in the love and peace of God. Of those who so suffered and of all that their suffering has meant and does mean and will mean for the Church I shall speak presently.

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Fidelity Of The Papuan Christians.

Early in May of that year I was able to visit for the first time the now freed but war scarred area and to do so again in December. At the first visit I was able to bless the graves at Sangara of the only three of our martyrs whose bodies had been recovered. The chief significance of these two visits was the revelation it brought to me of the love and devotion of the people of Gona, Sangara, and Isivita for the Mission, and that in spite of all the tribulation they had passed through, the light of Truth and the flame of Faith were still burning brightly in the hearts of Christians. It seemed indeed that the suffering through which they had passed and the outrage that they had seen committed against the Church of God, so far from drawing them back into heathenism and superstition as the powers of evil no doubt intended that it should do, made them the more anxious for the Christian Religion. It seemed too that the lavish [75/76] and generous gifts given by the people towards the re-establishment of their mission stations and their urgent requests that they should be re-established sprang from a purer and more disinterested motive than prompts many requests for the Mission that come to us, and that it was concerned more with the spiritual than the material benefits that they would receive thereby. I came away form those visits as I have come away from subsequent visits realising more than ever the imperishable germ of life that has been implanted in the Holy Church of God. That the Church like its Master may indeed be crucified but it will rise again, and rise to a newer and fuller life, and that the field in which these seeds were germinating was the field that had been bedewed with the blood of the martyrs, and that in very truth once again and so soon afterwards as it had been so often in the Church in past ages and in other lands, "The blood of the martyrs was proving to be the seed of the Church."

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Ministry To The Allied Forces.

During those war years it was necessary for me to be constantly on the move visiting mission stations whenever possible, though my means of reaching some of our mission stations was limited. There was need also for constant visitations of the labour camps to do what could be done for meeting the spiritual needs of the masses of men and boys away from their villages living and working in the atmosphere of war, and I could not divest myself of the responsibility that had fallen to me by the great influx of thousands of men from Australia and America into the Diocese. I desired that as far as was possible all of them who were members of our Anglican Communion should wherever and whenever possible realise their fellowship with the Church in this Diocese, and that the Priests who came as Chaplains should have every possible spiritual help and encouragement in their difficult work whilst it was being exercised in the bounds of the Diocese. Besides conducting a number of quiet Days and Devotional times for Chaplains, I gave, during the war period temporary licenses with permission to officiate, together with a personal blessing to 64 [76/77] priests of our Communion, Chaplains to the Forces working in the Diocese. Apart also from confirmation of our own Papuan Christians in our mission area, some 625 men of the Allied Forces were presented to me for Confirmation on some 36 occasions, the Sacrament of Confirmation being held in many different places and in all kinds of surroundings. The names of all those concerned with their home addresses and parishes were sent afterwards to the Bishops of the Home Dioceses, that if they returned when the war was over they might be welcomed back as confirmed and communicant members of the Church.

It was also necessary to have frequent contact with the Military Authorities to avoid misunderstandings and misguided rulings regarding our Mission work. This task was often a worrying and a wearisome one because of the constant change of personnel at head-quarters. A complete understanding which seemed to safeguard the rights and the liberties of the Mission and Church and of our Papuan Christians arrived at at one visit would be unknown perhaps on return to Headquarters a few weeks later, for in the meantime there might have been a complete change of personnel, and a new Pharaoh risen up in the person of an all powerful C.O.C. who knew not Joseph. Such was the position that confronted me in April 1943 just before my first visit to the war scarred mission stations. I had arrived to spend Good Friday and Easter at Port Moresby, and I found a changed attitude to Missions. A stubborn refusal to allow new Priests entry into the Territory, or these who had come down on sick leave to return, and a new and strange regulation prohibiting missionaries from going outside a radius of their station unless they had a special permit for each occasion. There was even talk also of clearing them all out of the Territory. Any one of these three things would have dealt a deadly blow at the rights of Christians not only in our villages but in the native labour camps, and would have deprived them of the ministrations which they valued and which they had a right to receive, and so I determined that all three of these things must be fought to the uttermost. For the whole of Holy Saturday morning I wrestled without success with the Pharaoh of [77/78] that time for the rights of our Papuan boys in labour camps and Papuan Christians in villages to have the ministrations of their religion. Anxious days and weeks followed. It seemed at such times that the continuance of the Church was even more at stake than in the days when the Japanese invasion threatened to wreck it. Fortunately more powerful influences were able to be brought to bear on the situation and the policy was soon reversed.

Before 1943 had drawn to an end our thin line of white staff had been reduced from 9 to 8, and in the first six months of 1944 it was to become thinner still and to reach its lowest ebb numerically since the early days of the Mission. This was partly due to furloughs. Most of those who had remained in 1942 and 1943 were overdue for these. All had suffered great strain and health was being affected. In one case after another it became imperative that a furlough should no longer be delayed. The danger that if one went away on sick leave one would be prevented from returning had ceased. By the end of 1943 also the possibility of a return of the enemy had passed but it was also obvious that until the war ended there would be little chance of reconstruction and advancement, so it seemed advisable that the furloughs should be taken then.

In May 1943 the Rev. Robert Jones left us on account of his wife's health in Australia, and Sefoa was added to the number of mission stations left without white missionaries. In September Fr. Bodger left for a long furlough, during which he made the Mission cause known extensively in the United States of America and England. He was away for fourteen months returning in November 1945. In November 1943 Fr. Jennings was removed to hospital in Milne Bay seriously ill to be transferred later to Australia and unable to return to us till the end of 1944. In December 1943 Fr. Lane went to Australia on furlough. These losses temporary and permanent were partly counteracted by the arrival during the last half of 1943 of two new priests, the Rev. Raymond Nicholls and [78/79] the Rev. Hugh Andrew from Victoria, and shortly after their arrival Fr. Dennis Taylor was able to return to Wanigela, which, by that time had ceased to be a military encampment, as also had Dogura and Taupota.

Early in 1944 Fr. Newman went on leave and when he reached Australia an operation was necessary and prolonged medical treatment which prevented his return till the end of the year. It was necessary also for Fr. Brady to leave us in January for a long furlough from which he returned in November, and in February I left for a five months visit to England returning to the Diocese in November after an absence of nine months.

And so during the first six months of 1944 there were only seven white missionaries left in the Diocese. Archdeacon Thompson, who acted as my Commissary and Administrator of the Diocese, was alone at Dogura with Bishop Newton; Fr. Nicholls, who was carrying on at Taupota in Fr. Jennings place; Fr. Andrew, acting as principal of St. Aidan's College; Mr. Salzmann at Menapi; Fr. Taylor, at Wanigela and Archdeacon Gill in the North at Iaudari. Before I left for England it had been lying heavily on my mind that we should endeavour to open out at Sangara again at the earliest possible moment; and feeling that we needed a missionary of some years experience there who could watch over the Gona and Isivita districts until we could put missionaries there again. I asked Fr. Dennis Taylor if he would go there. I am thankful that he was led to undertake this important and responsible work at a time when it was vital that the mission should be as strongly represented as possible in that area, even if it meant leaving a station further south unmanned. Thus Fr. Taylor moved up to Sangara, and Wanigela was then left without a white missionary until Fr. Andrew was free to take over the district after Fr. Brady's return in November.

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In the middle of that year 1944 we had the sad tidings of the death in Brisbane, just when he was preparing to return from his furlough to his work at Menapi, of the Rev. Frere Lane. The greater part of Frere Lane's ministry of 35 years had been spent in missionary work--first amongst the Australian Aborigines and latterly here in New Guinea. He came to this Diocese in 1920 and from that date to the time of his death he served as priest-in-charge of Menapi. In my successive visits to Menapi I always came away with the impression that there was at work there a faithful parish priest, a real pastor of souls, who knew his flock individually and intimately. This individual knowledge was all more remarkable because coming to the Diocese well on in years as he did, he was never able to master the language except for the purpose of taking services.

There was nothing spectacular or sensational about Frere Lane's work. There were no stunts or high water marks. It was a case of day to day steady persevering devotion to duty; the routine work of the station to every detail of which he gave his attention and in which he was most thorough; the work of the school to which he and Mrs. Lane devoted themselves day by day when he was not going around the district, and which in the year before the war had some reward in the fact that for the first time there were Standard V certificates awarded at Menapi school. He was a diligent visitor of his outstations and never let his own distaste for sea travel and the long uncomfortable journey by dinghy deter him from those visits when they were due. Above all else he was a man of God; faithful in his devotions and in the Sanctuary of God; and one felt not only that he was a good priest and a good missionary but a man of faith and of the Holy Ghost.

For years he had suffered from indifferent health and his intermittent illnesses caused us anxiety but never seemed to worry him unduly. At the first opportunity he would be up and out again. After [80/81] Mrs. Lane's evacuation with the other women missionaries to Australia in September 1942 he carried on at Menapi alone. His furlough was overdue, and he was being urged to take a furlough so that he could see his aged mother once again before it was too late. He obviously needed a furlough. Often times he looked desperately ill, thin and weak but he would not give in, and positively refused to leave Menapi unless there was somebody who could take his place there in his absence. In the state in which we were in it was obviously impossible for anyone to do this at that time and he felt the tremendous importance of holding the fort for as long as ever he could through those critical days. One can only bow in reverence before such courage, faith and self abandonment on behalf of a great cause. That kind of thing is hidden from the wider world, is unknown to most, and perhaps not appreciated by any but the one or two, but it is the kind of thing upon which the true life of the Church is built up. At last, in December 1943, after the arrival of two new priests to our staff I was able to arrange for relief for him, and he set off for his furlough, reluctant to leave his work and yet naturally desiring to see his wife again and his aged mother, but speaking of, and looking forward to his return at the earliest possible moment. Overjoyed at the thought that he could escape the agony of a sea journey to Australia by new and more modern methods of travel and experiencing for the first time air travel, he set forth by plane from Dogura for Milne Bay. Serious illness overtook him whilst he was in Australia, necessitating a long period in hospital but he seemed to have recovered and was actually making arrangements for his return when, with only a few days warning, the call came, and he passed into the nearer presence of the Lord and Master whom he had so faithfully served for so many years. May he rest in Peace.

His passing was a sad blow to us, for it meant at that time of shortage of staff when the plans for the Diocese had included his return to Menapi and the freeing of the one who had been carrying on there for other work, that Menapi would then have to be added to the stations without a white missionary. It continued to be so until August 1945, when Sister Kent accepted my call to take up resi-[81/82]dence there with her Half-caste girl helpers Ethel and Betty and did a fine work in rallying the people. Fr. Amos had meanwhile carried on faithfully, and there are many marks to be seen there of the faithful and devoted service of both Fr. Lane and Fr. Amos.

The latter part of 1944 brought back to the Diocese some of our women missionaries and when 1945 opened, it seemed then that the tide of our misfortunes had begun to change. Before I go on to speak of that, I want to pay a tribute to all those who carried on during the dark and trying days when none could foresee what might come to us from day to day. And I would speak also of our martyrs.

First I would pay a tribute to the women missionaries and what I believe to have been the great contribution they made to the life of the Church during that period. Of those who suffered and died I shall speak presently. Of the others though they were evacuated in September 1942 they had then been here through the most dangerous and difficult period. When I referred earlier in my address to the wonderful spirit I found at each station I visited in those first nine months of 1942, I had in my mind primarily the women missionaries, for it seemed to me that they exhibited all through that trying time a wonderful faith, balance, and cheerfulness. Great service was to be done in the time that followed by the few remaining men missionaries, but I verily believe that in that early period the women helped to hold our missionary Church together, if not more than the men at least equally so. It was their calm spirit, their fine faith and their consistent cheerfulness and stedfastness [sic] in the path of duty which helped so much. In saying this I am not thinking only of their own particular side of the work in the school or in the hospital or in connection with the Guild of St. Mary, but of the general effect they had on the whole life of the Church. Certainly I do believe that their remaining here during that time, when fear and many other emotions might have overwhelmed our Papuan Christians, did have an inestimable effect not only upon native morale, but more [82/83] particularly upon the faith, courage, and ideals of our Papuan women, and that this must have been a great strength to our Papuan women later on during the period that our women missionaries were absent, and when though largely freed from physical danger and fears, our Papuan women were more open to moral danger.

I ought to mention also that the work of caring for our half-caste children continued right through the period of the war. So great did we feel our responsibilities to be towards those children that when the order for the evacuation of the women missionaries was given from Port Moresby in September 1942, I made it clear that unless the authorities would provide facilities for them to take the half-caste children with them it would be necessary for one or more of our women missionaries to remain to care for them, because we would not abandon them to face unguarded and uncared for the great danger that might beset them in a time of war. The authorities agreed to do this and our half-caste girls and small children were taken out of the dangers of war to Brisbane. There, wonderful provision was made for them by Archbishop Wand and the Church in the Diocese of Brisbane. And here I must pay a very special tribute to the devotion of Miss Kekwick who looked after them in their temporary home in Scarborough for nearly two years and who, when eventually persuaded to visit her home in Adelaide, refused to stay there for a much needed furlough and rest, but insisted on returning to her charges eventually bringing them safely back to their own land. I am sure we all feel great admiration for Miss Kekwick's whole hearted devotion now over a number of years to the welfare and interest of the children of St. Agnes' Home and the love and wisdom she has shown in this most important work.

And now I would speak of those who carried on in the Diocese after September 1942.

As I have already intimated the life or at least the well being of the Church in the dark days from the middle of 1942 to the end of [83/84] 1944 seemed to be hanging on a thread. That the tread did not snap but that the life and witness and the continuity of the Church was maintained was due in no small measure under the providence of God to the high sense of duty of the few European missionaries who remained here and who struggled on day by day often in spite of ill health, and of many discouragements sometimes in isolated places, sometimes in uncongenial surroundings, with the constant strain upon strength and patience. I remember with pride and thankfulness the great services rendered to the Church by those men and I desire to place on record and to pay a tribute to the varying contributions they made. I believe that the services they rendered were contributions not only to the life of the Church but to the well-being of the Territory and to the wider cause in which we of the British Commonwealth of Nations and our Allies were engaged, and I believe that these contributions had in them unconsciously heroic and self sacrificing qualities.

First I think of Archdeacon Romney Gill who with the exception of Fr. Benson was more often under fire than any of us. I think of his devotion to his family of fellow workers and his flock--the devotion and faithfulness of a true shepherd--of the careful plans he made for their protection and their provision--of the leading them out of one place of danger after another and finally of his carrying them as it were from the face of the enemy 40 miles up the Mamba River--a story with features in it not unlike that of the deliverance of the Children of Israel from the Egyptians as they pursued the Israelites though the Red Sea. And then I think of his quiet carrying on for two years of the patient work of a missionary priest at Iaudari, preparing and baptising Catechumens, preparing Confirmation candidates in the hope that one day one of the barges or jeeps or planes which alone disturbed the peace of that out-station, converted into a Head Station, and which yet did not disturb the peace of God, might some day bring a Bishop to impart by the Laying on of Hands the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Or I think of the days before they reached Iaudari which must have seemed to them like a haven of rest, like the promised [84/85] land to the Children of Israel after their wanderings in the wilderness--of his carrying on even in the days of wanderings and danger, his translation work of the Liturgy. What it must have meant to the people of the Mamba District in their time of danger even when fear was the dominant emotion in their hearts, to have still among them their shepherd, their friend, confidant, guide and father, who knew them and their language better than any other living person. What it meant and will mean to the Church of God that their priest was with them throughout that time of crisis, what it meant to the native morale, to the safety of the Territory and of the Allied Forces and so to the cause of Freedom, that he was there at that critical time. And what his liturgical or translation work at that time may yet prove to mean to the Papuan Church cannot be estimated in words. The whole story must be told one day in its entirety, for it stands apart and it is in itself an epic not only in the history of Missions but in the history of the Territory.

Or I think of the Rev. R. L. Newman. There was of course the heroic and self sacrificing act that he and Mr. Salzmann performed in carrying half way across Papua, and that through some of the most difficult of its country, an American Journalist who was raving made [sic] from his days and weeks in the mountains after parachuting from a lost plane, and in connection with this I never could understand why, when he was brought in safety to Port Moresby he was immediately awarded a medal for gallantry, whilst the two men who had so gallantly saved him, and without whom he could not have lived, received no such reward. But apart from this I think of the fact that Fr. Newman and his good wife could have come away on the "Maclaren King" on the day after the Japanese landed at Gona but chose rather to remain, in the hope of being able to continue to minister to their people. And that though of necessity he had to leave shortly afterwards, I think of his faithfulness and devotion to duty as a missionary priest in returning to his flock at the first possible moment, almost in the vanguard of the Allied Forces that went forward to establish Oro Bay as an advanced base for the recapture of Buna. I think too of his conscientiousness [85/86] when, for over a year he lived on a mission station which was no longer his, but first an American Army Hospital and then a Base of the United States Army, and where he was permitted to share with many others a corner in a house which had once been his home, and in spite of an atmosphere which must have been continually uncongenial--and of his native flock having been uprooted from their villages and planted out in the bush some two or three miles away--of his constant journeys to them to seek them out to minister grace and comfort to them in their time of trial, and of how he gradually reinstated mission work amongst them and at the outstations, strengthening the influence of the teachers by his counsel and by his help. Though one high ranking intelligence officer, whose intelligence and insight must have been of a considerably lower order than his rank, did cause a lot of trouble by weaving a theory that this man who went around in a trilby hat and talked to the natives in a language which he personally could not understand and which he thought therefore must be Japanese, was a spy and an enemy agent. It was a very different estimate of him that the bulk of those who met him, formed. I, myself, on my visits was able to see clearly that he was looked upon by many hundreds of those temporary white residents of that huge Allied Base as a Christian missionary priest, and as such had won from them respect and admiration. As time went on he rendered conspicuous service to the Church in Papua not only by the ministrations which he gave to white troops, for which later he was granted a temporary appointment as Chaplain, but more particularly by his constant travelling round that huge area to visit the labour camps and minister to our native boys therein. When after his sick leave in 1944 he returned and was able to establish the out stations of Emo as his temporary headquarters, he still carried on that work as well as strengthening the Church in the out stations of Emo and Pongani. This too, did much not only for the Church in Papua but as a witness to the value and power of missionary work. One of my most moving experiences was the Administration of the Sacrament of Confirmation at Emo to both white and brown at one service--Papuan boys, girls, men and [86/87] women and soldiers of the American army. I think God that in those critical days we had a priest in that area faithful conscientious and self sacrificing, as well as courageous.

And then I cannot pass over the contribution made by the Rev. Robert Jones. Though he is no longer with us now he was with us sharing the life of the Church in the Diocese in some of the most critical days in its history, and during those days he was in posts of danger. In the months that followed the fall of Gona, Sefoa was the most advanced post of that part of the Diocese, which remained free and he must have been, during that period, the nearest European to the Japanese. During the whole of that time he clung steadfastly to his work and his vocation. He would not leave his station but insisted upon carrying on work amongst the people who were becoming more and more frightened, and yet his presence helped to calm their fears and even when the Government retired from Tufi to Wanigela the missionary remained at Sefoa. There is no doubt that Fr. Jones did much for the Church in Papua by his faithfulness to duty--by his fearless disregard of danger and his own safety and that because of his readiness for self sacrifice the Church in Sefoa District is stronger today than it would have been otherwise and that is even so in spite of the fact that it has been without a white missionary since he left in May 1943. Sad though it is that he could not return to us to carry on a work that he seemed so eminently suited to do, yet I cannot even now visit Sefoa without a very strong realisation that his influence and work has abided over this long time, and therefore must have been upon a sure and certain foundation. Latterly American troops were stationed nearby and his influence with them counted for much and the respect that they gained thereby for the mission and for the Church continued in a large measure after he had gone.

Or I think of the Rev. Dennis Taylor. Of the high sense of duty which took him back to the Wanigela flock after he had taken his wife and child safely across the interior of Papua and up from Abau to Port Moresby and of the influence that he had at Wanigela when Wanigela became an advanced Allied Post. A [87/88] testimony to this influence came to me a long time later from a high ranking officer whom I met in the course of my visits to military posts, who told me that he had been at Wanigela at the latter end of 1942 and of the deep impression that had been made upon him at seeing St. Peter's Church, Wanigela filled with Papuan Christian boys from the labour camps and the services that were being conducted for them by Fr. Taylor. But I think also of his readiness to return immediately a cure for his ailment had been effected and of his willingness then to respond to my call to leave the more settled conditions of Wanigela to reopen Sangara. I realised fully that it was asking much of a married man with a child to leave a station where in the past he had been able to have a happy home and to go to one that had been completely destroyed, where one could not expect to have anything but temporary buildings perhaps for some years to come and where at that time we were by no means certain that we should meet with favour either from the Military Authorities who were strong in that district or from the large native population after all the things that had happened. It was a great venture and Fr. Taylor in being ready to make that venture in faith for Christ's sake rendered to the Church in Papua a great service, which, will tell for many years to come. And I have no doubt myself that it was his willingness and steadiness to do this that has brought such abundant blessings from God upon the growth of the Church in that district since he went there. His being in that district and his influence there during that time when there were many adverse moral influences at work (for the huge Oro Bay Base was still in being) did much to protect the people, and the knowledge that he was there and working hard for the re-establishment of the Church was a great comfort to me. The way in which he took the three big districts of Sangara, Gona, and Isivita under his wing, organising the re-establishment of the out stations and visiting them as well as the centres, and directing and helping the teachers, and the way also in which he has enlarged the radius of our Mission area so that it extends now almost to Kokoda has evoked my highest admiration and gratitude.

[89] I have already spoken of Fr. Lane. I must not forget Mr. Salzmann's service in the Diocese in those critical days. His sticking to his post and his faithfulness to duty--his representing the mission in difficult times and in difficult places and his filling of gaps when others were sick, which saved the mission both from spiritual and from material loss.

Or I think of the Rev. A. P. Jennings and the special contribution he made in the latter months of 1943 when Taupota was a military station and when he and his fellow workers Miss Inman and Miss Mills had already been under fire before the two ladies were evacuated and when there was constant danger from escaping Japanese. I think of his cleaving steadfastly to his post carrying on his life and his work as a missionary priest day by day as best he could but doing more than that, taking the new opportunity that opened out to him to minister to Australian soldiers. I know how diffident he was of his power to do this, but perhaps because of that diffidence he was able to throw himself more than ever upon God and receive a strength from above. However it may have been, I know how greatly his ministrations were valued by the troops and how very real and deep was the influence extended by him personally and by the witness of his presence there and of the Church of St. Luke's with its daily services. So powerful was the influence of that meek man that when I visited there I found that they even used to come and ask permission to fire off a gun before they would do so. And as for swearing no one dared, and if anyone by chance forgot, there were profuse apologies afterwards and it was realised that this was as much for the sake of the Papuans as for his sake. By the life and work of this faithful priest the Church was commended to the men who were stationed there and was so greatly valued that later they contributed together to donate a very fine Altar Missal for the Altar of St. Luke's Church.

And then naturally there arises to one's mind Fr. Bodger's inimitable and conspicuous contribution to those war years in which as well as carrying on his pastoral, missionary and multitudinous activities on the head station he made Dogura a place of refreshment [89/90] and rest to war weary soldiers and air men, spending himself unreservedly and most self sacrificially in the service of those men who well deserved to have what he could given them so well and who must have benefited spiritually as well as mentally and physically thereby. Many have been the testimonies borne in different parts of the world to this contribution that Fr. Bodger rendered, and those contributions have shown that many lives have been made richer inwardly by their contact with him and with Dogura and by the influence that they came in contact with in their visits here, and that the outlook of many regarding missions was completely revolutionised by the enlightenment that they received. This and many other things Fr. Bodger did in those war years in which he was ready for all emergencies and equal to every occasion.

And I think too of the Rev. O. J. Brady who refused to allow the war to interfere in any way with the vital work in which he was engaged and to which he had been called, realising fully how much the continuance of that work might mean in the future for the wounded Church of Christ in Papua. It was a contribution perhaps less spectacular but as deep as any made to the true life of the Church, and it must be remembered that for the greater part of that time Fr. Brady was doing this work alone, for Mr. Buckland left us in May 1942 to join the army, resigning from the staff of the mission, and that was before the real testing time came upon us, and it was only four months after Fr. Brady had taken over the college from Fr. Jennings. Fr. Brady and his students were actually in the College grounds at Laronai when an action was fought against some escaping Japanese and the period that followed saw the College first moved to Wamira and then to its new site at Geragarena under his directing influence. I feel that it is one of the most outstanding marks of God's goodness and love towards us and perhaps the greatest witness to His Providential Care for His Church in Papua that the College was enabled to carry on during those years, and had in it such a fine body of men being trained for the work of the future, and moreover that Fr. Brady was endowed with strength both spiritually [90/91] and physically for the carrying on of that work. It can perhaps best help you to appreciate the fact that most of our vital work hung in those days upon a single thread and the anxiety that I felt many a time lest that thread might break, if I say that if Fr. Brady's health had broken down before the end of 1943 there would have been no one to carry on his work. The College students would have had to be dispersed and it might have been a long time before they could have been gathered together again and the College reinstated. We remember also how in our time of isolation in February 1942 when we seemed cut off from all means of supply and could see no way of keeping the College supplied and a decision had actually been reached that the college must be closed and the students sent back to their homes, that, on the day before they were to leave by the "Mclaren King" a case of dysentery was reported and it was felt that it would be wrong to distribute a possible epidemic up the coast, and so the "Maclaren King" left without them A few days later came the message from Port Moresby that the Military Authorities would see that we got supplies for our college students, and the dysentery proved to have been not dysentery. We can only feel that the hand of God was overruling at that time what human wisdom could not see. How very nearly it happened that this great work ceased in fact for the duration of the war.

And as one thinks of Fr. Brady, one thinks also of Bishop Newton and his work for Ordinands, which he carried on throughout this whole period. His consistency and dogged perseverence and determination to continue the work which he had undertaken to do will remain as an example to the Papuan Church for many generations to come.

Last but by no means least one thinks of Archdeacon Thomson who carried on continuously in the Diocese for six years without a furlough and upon whom undoubtedly fell a greater strain than upon any one else. Not only had he to face the cruel uprooting from Samarai in those tragic days of January 1942, but he had to carry constantly upon his mind and soul the anxiety and the burden of keeping the mission stations supplied when there was no means of [91/92] replenishing supplies, except what he could draw upon from the reserve stores that he had carefully built up by his foresight and wisdom for such a day as this, and when too there were few and only uncertain means of distributing even those supplies to the stations. But constantly also there fell upon him the burdens and responsibilities of administration when I was away from headquarters--not merely when I was out of the Diocese but when I was away visiting military centres in other parts of the diocese, for the lack of communication made it necessary for him to take responsibility in the mission area at such times as well as when in the course of my duty I had to go to Australia for Conferences and other purposes. Then almost throughout the whole of 1944 it fell to him to carry the burden of three men's work--his own as Archdeacon and secretary of the Mission, which was by no means small at that time, for it was the period of the paper war from Port Moresby, first under A.N.G.A.U. and then under that monstrosity, the Production Control Board, but he took also on his shoulders and upon his heart my work and the work of Fr Bodger. It was during that period that when in the course of his duty as Administrator he went to visit the stations as far as Tefi there came to him the alarming experience of the explosion at Tufi in which the boat, upon which he had been but a few minutes before with many others also, was blown up and with it much that was valuable to him. His life seemed verily at that time to be providently preserved to us as it was to be a year later in the lorry accident at Dogura.

I cannot close this tribute that I desire to pay to those who helped to hold the Church together in dark and dangerous and critical days without mentioning my gratitude also for the services of the two priests who came to us when the real dangers had passed but when the Church was still passing through difficult straits. I remember with special gratitude Fr. Andrews' services at Taupota and at St. Aidan's College when sickness had taken away the former heads of these two works. And Fr. Nicholls' services in the Menapi [92/93] and Mukawa district and his visits to other areas and to the north when ill health had taken from these places for a time their priests. These services did much I am convinced to help to keep our missionary Church together in difficult days when there were many evils and many obstacles and not a few enemies of Christian Missions abroad.

All these that I have spoken of are the living who are still with us but when I estimate how God has used individuals wonderfully to maintain the life of His Church over this period of Trial, I cannot pass on without remembering the dead, though they too are also the living, but living now in another part of the Communion of Saints.

Our feelings of sorrow regarding our brethren who perished at the hand of the enemy before long began to be transformed into feelings of pride and thankfulness. It was natural that at first when we heard of the end that seemed to have come so cruelly to their earthly life and work that it should seem to have loomed largely in our own minds as an unspeakable tragedy, but little by little we came to realise the truth of the words of St. Paul in this weeks Epistle "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us", and it dawned on us that what seemed from all worldly standards to be a tragedy was, when viewed in the light of Eternal principles and true values a triumph--a triumph of grace and courage, of faithfulness, of devotion, of love. A triumph that was to bring glory and strength to the Church rather than weakness and shame--that God had in very truth enriched by the witness of martyrs his infant Church of Papua in these early days of its life. Once again, it has been after all a reenacting in His spiritual and mystical Body of what happened in His Incarnate Body when the sorrow and the apparent shame and tragedy of Good Friday and the Cross was to be transformed for all succeeding ages into the means of salvation and glory and triumph for the Church.

[94] I will not speak in great detail of those individuals who we now think of as our martyrs, for there will be many opportunities in the future to recall the story of their faithfulness even unto death. For as long as the Church of God lasts on earth it will be remembered, and with increasing thankfulness and devotion as the years pass on.

I have already mentioned the two Gona sisters, Mavis and May. I was privileged to have their confidence and to be able to see clearly the purity of heart that was in them and the measure to which they counted the cost and their willingness and readiness to give up all for Christ's sake, and perhaps the day will come when I shall feel able to speak in greater detail of this. Suffice it to say now that I cannot think of it without being humbled by the thought of the disinterested selfless devotion of those two women martyrs, whose glory, I am sure, must have been unspeakable as soon as they had passed through their transient sufferings.

We shall ever be thankful that the story of Fr. Vivian Redlich's sacrifice, courage and devotion to duty has been preserved for us by an eye witness and that story today is enshrined in an honoured place in St. Paul's Cathedral London under the heading "A Modern Martyr".

Margery Brenchley and Lilla Lashmar had for years devoted themselves to the work of the mission at Sangara, and their scornful refusal and rejection of suggestions that they might go to safety was typical of their dogged determination and their whole hearted acceptance of their vocation as missionaries, and their refusal continued even on to the day after the Japanese landing had driven them out of Sangara Mission station, when an Australian officer at some risk to himself sought them out and offered to take them across the mountains to Port Moresby.

Margery Brenchley by her devoted care of the sick saved many lives and comforted many homes in the Sangara District and perhaps there could be no greater testimony to what her work had meant to the people than these words which were said to me in May 1943 when I was being told of some who had died during an epidemic, [94/95] "If Sister Brenchley had been here, they would not have died."

And there are students today being trained at our College who, almost certainly, would never had realized a vocation to the service of God and His Church had it not been for the work and influence of Lilla Lashmar, who, only a short time before the invasion in a letter to her Mother speaking of the uncertainties of life said "I only want to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

And then there was that devoted servant of God, Henry Holland, simple, sincere, but wholly surrendered, living, loving, and working only for his Master Jesus Christ, first as a lay apostle of Christ to the inland peoples of Sangara and Isivita and then, to the great joy of himself and his people, endowed only a few years before he was called to make the supreme sacrifice, with the gifts of Priesthood, that he might minister sacramentally to those whom he had led to the knowledge of Christ. Henry Holland it was well known had resolved that come what might he would never leave his station, and I am thankful that it was given to me [to] find on my first visit back to Isivita in May 1943 the reason why eventually he did so. It was because as time went on he began to realise that if he remained there and the enemy came it would not be his life only that would be taken, He was ready for that, but it would be the lives of his teachers, their wives and their children. When I accidentally as it were lighted upon this knowledge I could see at once the terrible inward conflict that there must have come to that humble and devoted servant of God to do what he had resolved he would never do, and what he disliked doing intensely, and yet to do it not to save his life but the lives of others.

The young layman John Duffill had only been with us a few years but in that short time he had shown a keen desire to serve and devote himself to the work of Christ and His Church and a conscientious application to each task that had been allotted to him. He had refused to go on furlough, when his furlough fell due. If he had done so he might not have been with us in those critical days and might not have been numbered now amongst the martyrs. He [95/96] was with me in March 1942 when the first enemy attack on the north east coast fell upon the mission, and manifested at that time a courage that was to be admired.

We have already thought of Henry Matthews and of his boy Leslie. There only remains now Lucian Tapiedi, though I sometimes wonder if we should not number amongst our martyrs also Francis Guise whom I have already mentioned. Lucien the young teacher only recently graduated from St. Aidans College beginning his work at Sangara and exhibiting there shining qualities of love for our Lord and faithfulness in his work carrying these forward by his adherence to the white missionaries in the hour of trial by his upholding their cause as being the cause of Christ before people of his own race, and suffering death at their hands because of this.

At the meeting of the Sacred Synod of the Diocese held in the Cathedral last August a Resolution was solemnly registered that there should be a day set apart for an annual commemoration of our New Guinea Martyrs and that this day should be a Red Letter Day in the life of the Papuan Church and a day of praise and thanksgiving for those whom we believe to have found through their baptism of blood a place in the Church Triumphant amongst the noble army of martyrs. The passing of that resolution was a moving moment in the Sacred Synod and we may say in the history [of] the Papuan Church, and as then all stood in silent prayer and thanksgiving culminating in the Gloria as an act of praise and the Collect for All Saints' Day, I think you the members of this Diocesan Conference, would wish to confirm that act of the Sacred Synod and to do it in a like manner.

I would like to speak further about the commemoration of our martyrs and first I would read some words spoken by His Grace the Archbishop of Brisbane in his Presidential address to Provincial Synod: "I am mindful of the fact that since our last session the Church in the Province has been enriched by the martyrdom of 12 [96/97] of its missionaries in New Guinea." His Grace was thinking not only of those who suffered in Papua but of those also who suffered in New Britain under the Diocese of Melanesia, Bernard Moore, Priest and John Barge Priest. After recording their names he went on to say that they will always be held in honour by the Church in this country and of this number six previously came from Queensland and their witness unto death is a challenge to the home Church to fill the gaps and to extend their work without delay. It is to be hoped that before long our Australian Church Calendar will be honoured by the inclusion of a day set apart to commemorate their sacrifice." Later I had an opportunity of telling the provincial Synod of the Resolution passed shortly before by our Sacred Synod at Dogura and the following resolution was unanimously passed by the Provincial Synod of Queensland:-

"That this Synod appreciates the reference in His Grace the President's inaugural address to the Missionary martyrs in the Diocese of New Guinea and Melanesia, and the hope expressed by His Grace that they might find a commemoration in the Church Calendar. The Synod is gratified to learn that the Clergy of the Diocese of New Guinea recently assembled in Synod, solemnly requested the Bishop to appoint a day for the annual Diocesan Commemoration of the Martyrs of New Guinea and a proper with special Collect, Epistle and Gospel for use on the same and that it is intended that September 1st. of each year shall be so observed. The Bishops, Clergy and laity of this Provincial Synod, mindful of the enrichment which God has given to His Church in this Province and throughout Australia and the Pacific by a new witness of Martyrs in our generation, commends the extension of the Diocesan observance of this day in New Guinea to the Church in this Province and to the wider Church beyond the Province".

September 2nd. is the day finally decided upon.

I have little doubt that eventually this day of commemoration of the triumph of the New Guinea martyrs will receive general [97/98] recognition at least in the Australian Church and probably in the wider Church,--whether it be a day of commemoration of the New Guinea martyr specifically, or of missionary martyrs in general. I had some conversation on this subject when I was in England in 1944 with the Dean of York the Very Rev. Eric Milner White, a well known ecclesiastical historian who had made a special study of the methods by which the Church comes to incorporate into its calendar of saints the names of those who are counted as worthy of the honour of liturgical commemoration on a special day each year. It seemed that the primitive and ancient way in which this came about was first by local commemoration in a diocese and that naturally in the Diocese which had been associated with those who were commemorated in their earthly life. This commemoration was made by the provision of a special Collect, Epistle and Gospel, called a Proper of "Common" for the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist of the Day; and the day set apart for commemoration would usually be the day of the birthday of the saint into "life"--that is to say, his death day; though other dates might be chosen, and would be if the dates of their passing into life were not known. When once that commemoration had been authorized then no longer would there be remembrance of those commemorated at Requiem celebrations of the Holy Communion, nor would prayers be offered for the repose of their souls for they were thought of as being associated more with the Church Triumphant than with the Church Expectant. The beginning of this observance in a Diocesan way was the universal practice in the undivided Church. Sometimes the Diocesan observance arose though a popular feeling and desire in the clergy and the laity which was eventually sanctioned by authority in the appointment of such a commemoration. Sometimes the observance of such a commemoration would emanate from the Diocesan authority in the first place. Usually the former was the case. Sooner or later it would appear whether the local observation of a church in a Diocese was likely to receive a wider acceptance in the church beyond its borders. If it did not do so then such a local observance might continue locally for some time but would probably eventually die out. If on the other hand it was to receive [98/99] a wider recognition in the Church the natural extension of a Diocesan observance would be in the province, a Provincial recognition, and from the province it might spread to the wider Church.

Most of the saints and martyrs observed in our calendar are of men and women who made their witness in the Church Militant many centuries ago and the observance of their days began locally and spread gradually or rapidly to a wider sphere. There are however a few names of those of more recent times. It should not be inferred from this that the ages of saints and martyrs lies back in the far distant past and that such have ceased in these more modern days. Nor should it be inferred that the post reformation period of the Church's life and in particular of the life of our Anglican Communion of the Holy Catholic Church has been bereft of the quality of holiness and saintliness. The exact opposite is the case. It has abounded in it. The causes for the lack of observance are otherwise and they are twofold. One reason is that in our Anglican communion there has been no generally accepted practice of declaring and establishing such recognition. A second reason is that in the matter of recognition of men and women of marked sanctity of life whom the Church desires to number in its calendar of saints the authorities of the church have quite rightly considered that some considerable time must elapse after their passing from this world before such recognition can be declared authoritatively and commemoration sanctioned so that it may be known whether the measure of the sanctity that was seen in them by their contemporaries was an undoubted and an enduring sanctity.

Arising out of these two causes I would point out, as the Dean of York pointed out to me, that the exercise of such recognition in the Church of England though largely dormant since the 16th. century until recent years has not been wholly so. For instance in 1662 a day was set apart for the commemoration of King Charles the Martyr which received at that time general acclamation and recognition both from Church and state, and even as late as the 19th. century a church in London was dedicated to King Charles the Martyr. Also [99/100] in 1662 there was added to the calendar the names of St. Alban the Martyr and the Venerable Bede, and in the 1928 Prayer Book there was added the name of King Alfred the confessor. There was also provided liturgical observance of such days though in the 1928 Prayer Book the name of King Charles the Martyr was dropped as this commemoration had probabl[y] ceased to obtain general recognition. The omission of this name meant that the calendar of saints in the 1928 book had no names of any who lived later than 1380 but in recent years the natural desire and urge in the hearts of many members of the Church of England to commemorate some of the many men and women of most outstanding saintliness of life in whom God's grace has been wonderfully manifested has found a practical expression and has been encouraged by high authority. In 1934 a church was dedicated by the Bishop of Southwark to Lancelot Andrews, Bishop and confessor, and on December 13th. 1936 a church was dedicated in London by the then Bishop of London to John Keble, and since that time the parish has always observed that day with a proper collect epistle and gospel and with great and growing devotion. In the middle of 1935 the 50th. anniversary of the consecration of Edward King Bishop was observed at Lincoln with remarkable devotion and at the Solemn Eucharist the Archbishop of Canterbury used a special Collect Epistle and Gospel and since that time the same Proper has been issued for use in the Diocese on March 8th. of each year.

In the South African Church the Province of South Africa has incorporated into its calendar a number of post-reformation Anglican Saints.

Turning now to the second cause I mentioned, it may be designated as the practice of delaying action. Such a long period of waiting is natural and right in the case of those who are to be commemorated for their sanctity of life, for as has already been stated only time can prove its genuineness and completeness but no such delayed action is needed in the case of martyrs. The Church has from its earliest days believed that those who laid down their lives for [100/101] Christ pass though the baptism of blood into the Church Triumphant. Where, then, there is no doubt that such people did lay down their lives in the service of Christ and of His Church, it is right and fitting that the Chruch Militant should take immediate steps to commemorate with thanksgiving and praise their triumph, and the glory that has come to them, as they have been joined through the sacrifice of their lives in their union with Christ to the noble army of martyrs.

There is no doubt about the sacrifice of those whom we now designate as our martyrs. They all of them died in the service of Christ and His Church. Each one could have saved his or her life if they had chosen to do so. It was because they elected to remain in the land to which they had been sent by God as missionaries rather than leaving it when they could have do so for their own personal safety, that their lives were eventually taken from them.

We had a very strong sense of the Presence and the Guidance of the Holy Spirit at our meeting of Sacred Synod last August. The suggestion that our martyrs should be so commemorated was not one which was imposed upon the Church from above--it came as it were from below, for the Resolution that such recognition should be given emanated from the clergy in the Sacred Synod, as a request to the Bishop that he would appoint and set apart such a day. I have a fairly strong feeling that this was the work of the Holy Spirit and was in accordance with the will of God, and the fact that it is seen to follow the ancient and traditional procedure of the primitive and the undivided Church, and the fact that this Diocesan commemoration has so soon been commended by the Provincial Synod to the Church in the Province, strengthens this conviction.

September 1st. was the date mentioned in the Resolution of Provincial Synod, but it has since been felt that the 2nd. of September is a better day and this has now been appointed. This date has been chosen for our Diocesan observance for local reasons. It would seem that all our martyrs suffered during the month of August probably between the dates of August 7th. and the 22nd. [101/102] round about the time of the Missionary Anniversary, a fact that in itself seems to have a special significance and sacredness for us. It was felt that it would be most appropriate to choose a date shortly after this period rather than one or other of the dates upon which it is thought they suffered. Actually it would appear that there were four different dates, one upon which Henry Matthews and Lesley Gariadi suffered [-] another the date upon which Lucian Tapiedi suffered--the day upon which Vivian Redlich, Henry Holland, John Duffil, Margery Brenchley and Lilla Lashmar suffered and the 4th the day upon which Mavis Parkinson and May Hayman suffered. It ought have seemed natural for us to have chosen a day in close proximity to St. Laurence's Day our Mission Anniversary, but it was felt at the Sacred Synod that it would be better for the observance of the Martyrs Day to be able to be kept locally in each district, and that this would be a greater inspiration and help for the church as a whole than a Diocesan Commemoration at Dogura. At St. Laurence's tide the native clergy and Lay delegates are away from their districts most years at Dogura for the Anniversary Commemorations. By the beginning of September all are back again and all would be able to join in such a commemoration of martyrs in their own districts.

There is s further matter that I would mention which will call for more consideration in the future, and that is the question of a suitable memorial of our martyrs. It is better perhaps that we should not be hurried in something which we would wish to be lasting and worthy. One naturally thinks of the possibility of a Martyrs' Chapel being added to our Cathedral here at Dogura, into which perhaps the mortal remains of those whose bodies were found might be reinterred and in which the names of those whose bodies have not be recovered could be suitable perpetuated. Such a Chapel might be built on the north side of the Cathedral, corresponding to the vestry on the other side, and it might well [102/103] prove to be not only a martyrs' Shrine to inspire all future generations with the same spirit of devotion and sacrifice that was manifested in those in whose honour it will be built and whose name it will bear, but would also increase the beauty of our Cathedral as a great building for the glory of God. From a practical point of view such a Memorial Chapel might well serve us for quiet days and retreats in a way in which the present transept chapels with their more exposed position cannot. On the other hand it may be felt that the resting place of the mortal remains of the three who are buried on the Sangara station should not be disturbed but remain where they are. In that case, the Church can hardly allow them to remain there without building over the present graves a permanent Church or Chapel and there would still remain the need for commemorating the other martyrs. As it so happens Lucian is the only one of the three who are buried at Sangara who was working at Sangara. Mavis and May were working of course at Gona whilst the other missionaries of Sangara are amongst those whose bodies have not been recovered.

I feel that this is not a matter in which a decision should be hurried but it is something to which our thoughts should be turned, for the Church in this generation and in future generations will desire to see some visible reminder of those who have suffered and died for our Lord in this land. Indeed, the generations of the future will desire this more than the present generation who still have the vivid remembrance of their visible presence.

Whatever Diocesan Memorial may be decided upon, and that there must be a Diocesan Memorial, is likely to be the united desire of all. I think it will be agreed that there should also be local memorials in each of the places where the Martyrs lived and laboured, for our Lord and His Church as long as it was possible to do so namely at Gona, Sangara, Isivita and Port Moresby. And just as the Church in Australia is likely to establish memorials of the individual martyrs in their home parishes, so also it would seem that eventually there should be some memorial at Boianai the home of Leslie and at Taupota the home of Lucian, the two Papuan martyrs.

[104] Further it would seem right and natural that there should eventually be some permanent memorial on the site where Mavis and May laid down their lives, this being the only actual spot that is known where our martyrs suffered. You are already aware no doubt that Fr. Taylor caused a cross to be erected on the site of their martyrdom and their first burial place at Popendetta. A Pilgrimage was made to that site last year in August during the visit of Bishop Cranswick, Chairman of the Australian Board of Missions, and was dedicated by him at my invitation in the presence of a great company of people from Gona and Sangara who shewed by their reverent demeanour their grateful remembrance of what these two sisters of the Mission had done for them, and for the Church of God. That cross, of course, was not intended to be permanent--it was rather a railing off of the ground as holy ground. There would of course, be the necessity of obtaining the ground for the Church from its owners, but one cannot imagine that there would be any difficulty about this.

Before I pass on from this subject I should perhaps mention that small sums of money have already been passed to us towards any memorial which may be decided upon in the future for some of our martyrs. Amongst these is a contribution from the Parish of St. Luke's, Prospect, towards a memorial to Lilla Lashmar and another from the Parish of Holy Trinity, Grenfell, towards a memorial for Henry Holland, and on the occasion of one of my visits to Australia I had the privilege of dedicating a tablet which had been put up in Holy Trinity, Grenfell, to commemorate Henry Holland's sacrifice. The parish of Holy Trinity felt that they would rather have this tablet only in their Church and give the greater part of the money that they had contributed to go towards a memorial at Isivita. There has also been a small contribution towards a memorial to Henry Matthews in St. John's Church, Port Moresby.

This would seem a suitable place for me to say with what thankfulness and joy we have received back into our fellowship Fr. [104/105] James Benson. I have already mentioned that from August 1942 onwards that he was the only one of whom we had no certain information and of whom we did not know whether he was dead or alive. Great then was our joy when we learnt shortly after the end of the Japanese war that Fr. Benson was alive and well, but our hearts were greatly stirred as we learnt somethings [sic] of the bitter experiences that he had passed through during the previous three years of tragedy. Just as Archdeacon Gill's story is one which needs telling separately and in its entirety, so it is with the story of Fr. Benson's experiences. These have already been made known and are likely to be available soon in permanent form. Such a tale of sorrow, privation and suffering and yet also of a most wonderful providential care and preservation, as well as of witness, cannot fail to stir us both to thanksgiving and to increase our faith. Fr. Benson was not called to share with our Lord in the baptism of blood but he was certainly called to share with Him in His sufferings of Gethsemane and in the sufferings which he endured on the night before He died on the Cross, when He was led from place to place as a prisoner, and bound. Though he was not called to martyrdom of blood he was certainly called to a martyrdom of will like blessed John the Apostle. Reading through the lines of the story which he has revealed to us we are able to see that he was, throughout his sufferings, sustained by a wonderful sense of God's presence and by the power of the Holy Ghost. We have all felt that Fr. Benson is as one who has come back to us from the dead, as one who has been very near to our Lord and who has seen something and experienced something which none of us have seen or experienced, which has enriched him and enabled him already by his influence to lead others to Christ. We give thanks to God that He has brought back to us and to His Church in Papua James Benson and we believe that verily God has preserved his life for our benefit and for the benefit of the Church as a whole. It is well known that after over a year of unspeakable sufferings his endurance of which has amazed us and which we know he could not have endured without special grace and strength he was permitted to join the Roman [105/106] Catholic Missionaries in their internment camp at Vunapope, and found there in the two years that he remained with them until the war ended, in spite of the hardships which they were all enduring and the constant bombing from Allied planes, as well as the petty indignities they suffered at the hands of the enemy, a true paradise of God. The Christian charity which they shewed towards our brother is something which we can never forget and for which we must ever be grateful to the Roman Catholic Bishop and members of the Mission at Vunapope.

Shortly after the release of Fr. Benson I wrote to Bishop Sharmack, the Vicar Apostolic of Rabaul, to thank him for all the kindness shown by himself and by the Fathers and Sisters towards Fr. Benson as well as to sympathise with him and the mission in the great losses which they had themselves suffered. I feel that I should pass on to you the beautiful reply which Bishop Sharmack wrote in answer to my letter. It was as follows--

"I was indeed glad to have good news of my friend, the Rev. James Benson. We were happy to have him with us after his dreadful experiences. We all admired his truly Christian fortitude, his devotion to prayer and his unobtrusive humility. He shared in our labours and sufferings, and was a delightfully cheerful and entertaining companion during our periods of recreation. We hope to have the pleasure of renewing our friendship with him under happier circumstances later on. I am deeply grateful for your kind expressions of sympathy with us in our losses during the war, my Lord. Altogether forty seven of our personnel have gone to their reward. I sincerely regret the loss of so many of your own devoted Missionaries. Please God our mutual sacrifices will draw us all closer together and bring additional blessings on our work for God and souls."

If the end of 1945 brought back to us Fr. Benson it took from us Florence Nita Inman. She was one I had particularly in mind when I spoke of the faith that was manifested in the letters I received from [106/107] members of my staff in the early days of the war. I have treasured a letter she wrote me in December 1941 when at the outset of the Japanese war opportunities for evacuation were offered to the women missionaries. She wrote:-

"I wish to remain at my post as I believe we can do a lot to help the morale of our people by our example. Another thing I feel is that God has called us to this work and if He had wished us to lay it down, we would not have been exempt from compulsory evacuation. Personally, I never have any doubt as to the ultimate end of all this distress, although I realise that we may be called upon to suffer in fact we have no right to expect otherwise but we can go on with the full assurance that we are not alone, that a Higher Power is with us sustaining us in our work. It is a testing time for us all, and God grant that we may be kept faithful to the end and face whatever may come to us in sure and certain hope that He will be with us to the end." The direct, downright and simple faith exhibited in those lines in a critical hour moved me greatly at the time. It was typical of her life and of her devotion throughout her nearly 23 years of service in the diocese. When in October 1942 the women missionaries were compulsorily evacuated it was with a sore heart that she went, but she had made her witness; she had helped her people in their gravest hour of trial; and she had been under fire herself and had shared their dangers with them.

All her time in Australia she was longing to come back. Soon after her return her health began to fail but she bravely carried on for over a year, then it was necessary for her to go again to Australia. The merciful kindness of God towards His faithful servant was shewn in His preserving her from a long a painful illness and from what might have been years of infirmity. In the early part of her illness she had still in her heart the great hope of returning and in a true spirit of humility and self surrender her one idea was to use her illness to fit her soul more perfectly for service. In one of the last letters she was able to write to me she wrote:--"This is a time of trial for me, but I think I deserve it, as looking back now on the [107/108] past months, I see where I have failed. I was trying to get things done in my own strength and did not rely enough on the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. Pray for me that I may be given the strength and patience I need at present and that this time of inactivity may be used to make me a patient and humble follower of our Lord, that in contact with others I may be enabled to reveal His great Love." Some disappointments had attended her work at Taupota after her return in 1944. This was due to the effects of the war generally and in particular to the close proximity to the people of Taupota of the big Allied base at Milne Bay but it was typical of the humility of Nita Inman that she should look inwards into her soul and blame herself for the apathy and irresponsiveness she found among her people and seek to make herself a more worthy instrument of our Lord. It was soon apparent that her illness was not to be a preparation for more service on earth but for call to higher service. It was perhaps a happy coincidence that one who in health had ever rejoiced to be present at each Sundays Eucharist should pass to the full vision of her Lord and to her eternal Sabbath in the early hours of a Sunday morning and but two days before the happy festival of the Incarnation. Fr. Benson who officiated at the funeral in Sydney recalled how some year ago when the mission finances were low she and her fellow worker had voluntarily cut down their own living expenses in order to be able to carry on the work, and he beautifully expressed the truth as we all feel it that Nita Inman walked with Jesus in Papua and had shown Him in Church, school and village and now walked with him in Paradise. Perhaps her most lasting work for the Church in this Diocese will prove to have been the fostering of the growth of the Guild of St. Mary from its inception till the present time. She was the Guild's first secretary and continued to be so till the days of her death. I shall have something to say about the Guild presently, but perhaps the strengthening of the Guild and the cultivation of its ideals among Papua wives, mothers and girls will be the best memorial that the Diocese can make to her. Working in the early days at Manapi and then for many years at Taupota she has left a mark on many [108/109] lives of the influence of her example and faithful devotion. By he now [sic, her own?] request her ashes were laid to rest in our Cathedral garth and Bishop Newton, who had known her for over forty years and for whom when he was Bishop of Carpentaria she had kept house at Thursday Island, suggested in his address at the time of the committal that in asking that her ashes might be mingled with the soil of the country she had made her own she was as it were thinking sacramentally of the truth that so her soul would care for and pray for the people she loved. And certainly those of us who were her fellow workers here on earth will always remember her soul with prayer and thanksgiving before God.

In speaking of the return of Fr. Benson and the passing of Miss Inman at the end of 1945 I have been somewhat anticipating events.

The greater part of what I have revealed to you so far has concerned the momentous years of 1942 and 1943 and the very lean year as far as mission staff is concerned of 1944. I have already mentioned that the women missionaries who had been evacuated in September 1942 returned in July and August 1944, and that this seemed to be a turning of the tide and to open the door to the re-establishment of our educational and medical work and the reopening of some of our stations to white missionaries. Our women missionaries had been eagerly waiting in Australia for the day of their return. This had been promised to me by the Military Authorities as far back as 1943 but it took another six or seven months before they completed the machinery which brought the promise to fulfilment.

The war, of course, still in progress and there were many restrictions and regulations before even people who had been in the Territory before could enter it at that time. Of those who had been evacuated in September 1942 the following returned to the Diocese [109/110] then. Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Lane, Miss Mills, Miss Tomkins, Miss Kent, Miss Caswell, Miss Devitt, Miss Inman, Miss Somerville, Miss Kekwick, and the half caste children. Miss Downing who was not here during the invasion period but who had left for her furlough just before it in 1941 returned with them. Some of those who were with us in September 1942 were not able to return. Sister Arliss and Miss Edith Williams had meanwhile resigned from the staff. Miss Clarke had under-taken work at the A.B.M. Hostel and it was thought better that she should continue there for the time being. We were glad to welcome her back a few months ago after she had been in England on furlough. Sister Willoughby and Sister Charlton who had left on furlough a few months before the invasion period and who had both hoped to return with the others were unable to do so on account of ill health. Sister Willoughby had rendered long and valuable service to the mission primarily as a nurse but she had also from time engaged in teaching work as well. Sister Charlton though she had only been with us three years had rendered a great contribution during that time and had given herself unsparingly.

Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Newman were unable to return with the others because the northern area was not yet open to women missionaries but they did so a year later in 1945.

With the returning missionaries there came up also for the first time Mrs. Nicholls and Miss Cates. Miss Cates had to leave us again for health reasons in 1945 and she has not yet been able to return. Mrs. Nicholls' arrival to join her husband made it possible for Mukawa once again to receive white missionaries and for the evil influence that had been at work there through the frequent calling in of army boats to be counteracted. Mrs. Nicholls, in addition to her medical work at Mukawa has banded together the women and girls of the district and has shown herself a keen and devoted missionary. I have already mentioned the arrival of the Rev. Raymond Nicholls in 1943, who after being trained and taking his Th. L. at St. Columb's Hall, Wangaratta and being ordained in that Diocese in [110/111] 1940 worked first as curate of Holy Trinity Cathedral Wangaratta then as Priest in charge of St. Stephen's Rutherglen. Here I would extend a very warm welcome to them both, though certainly a belated one, for they have already had their first furlough, from which they have recently returned, and it would perhaps be more appropriate to welcome them back from that. Both of them have done much to revive and strengthen the Church in the Mukawa district and we hope that they will long be able to carry on that important work.

Other stations which received women missionaries again at that time were Taupota, Wamira