Welcome

Welcome to our website, and to the Church Building Program page.

The site is to put you in touch with the progress of the churches being built in the Diocese of Aitape in the wake of the Tsunami of July 17,1998. You can access the reports for any month from the Archives, or the latest month Latest report.

There are other reports also available in the archives section. This section gives some background to the Church Building Program; please read on:

1. Where is Aitape?

Aitape is on the north coast of main land of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in Oceania in the South Pacific. Aitape lies in the Sandaun Province, and is located between the towns of Wewak and Vanimo.

Some information about the Aitape and the Sandaun Province can be found in the General Information.
Another map showing the location of the church site is included later.

2. What part does the Diocese of Aitape play in the Building Program?

The Diocese of Aitape is headed by the Catholic Bishop of Aitape, Bishop Austen Crapp, OFM. The Diocese administers the Church Building Program. It collects donations from those willing to support the projects, and oversees the spending on the churches. The Diocese employs a civil engineer lay missionary from New Zealand whose job it is to design and oversee the construction of these projects, and supply reports on progress.

As a mission church the Diocese is responsible for providing for the needs of the Catholic people in its Diocese. It provides priests, religious and lay people for the spiritual needs and where possible supplies services in health, education and welfare. Being a developing country, resources need to be shared over many needs and spent wisely. As funds permit, it is attempting to provide permanent material churches for those parishes that lost their church buildings in the Tsunami of July 17,1998.

For more indepth background information, please refer to:

The history of the Diocese can be found in: History of the Diocese

The history of the Catholic Church in PNG: Catholic Church History

Other information on the Diocese of Aitape: Home page

Reports on the Tsunami of 17th July,1998: Tsunami reports

3. Where do you start?

As a lay missionary working in a Catholic Diocese to buid churches, we must start with the Lord himself:he comes first. From him comes the funds, the inspiration, and to him goes the glory. We must play our part, in co-operation with his plan. There are at least ten churches that need to be constructed. The Bishop has received some donations to get the first stage of the building program underway. The lay missionary has started constructions of the first of these and has plans in the making for the other churches. The staging of the construction is set out later.

Photo of temporary church at Teles	Photo of the foundation of the old church

The photos show a present temporary church, made of leaf material found in the nearby bush. The adjacent photo is the foundation of the old Teles church after the church had been destroyed by the Tsunami. The people have been established on new inland sites soon after the Tsunami. Generally speaking the schools, teacher houses and health clinics have now been built at these new sites. Now that the communities are solidifying it is time to build the churches for these communities.

4. How do you organise it all?

The Bishop of Aitape proposed that each of the local sub-parishes meet together to discuss the best option for the new churches. Suitable sites have now been selected that meet the requirements in terms of size and location and engineering acceptibility.

The local people are asked to contribute free to the Diocese: land, timber and gravel for use in the new Church. Site visits were made to all parishes and discussions were held to come up with the best solution for each situation. The local people have now all signed a contract agreement with the Diocese of Aitape. This step was to ensure that the local people are clear on what they are entering into, and ensure all of the appropriate people have been consulted and have given their consent. That is the first step.

Next comes organising the stages of construction. This is determined by:

• The agreements signed and accepted by the people
• The available funding
• The difficulties in terms of location, access, availability of resources
• Preferences of the bishop and parish priests

Without faith, and without the strong support of the local community the projects would be impossible. There are many difficulties to be overcome. Some of these are set out later. It is hoped that during the building of the physical building of the Church there is also an opportunity for building good parish relationships, and helping the local people to gain some skills in the process. The local prayer leaders and catechists are a big asset in this regard.

Fr.Chinua with the Anrin parish	Grass cutters at Amu	Stripping the topsoil at Amu

Being conscious that the Sandaun Province is one of the poorest in PNG, and the lack of any opportunity for employment in the local villages, we have endeavoured to involve as many of the local community as possible in the building of their new church. Apart from providing land, gravel, and timber, the locals have organised themselves into labour groups to tackle the various tasks. Being remote and without the modern conveniences of life in the city, we have had recourse to simple methods of manual construction. This is also discussed in more detail later.

5. Where abouts are these churches being built?

The inset map shows the location of all of the places where new churches are planned. These places from East to West are: Teles, Aipokon, Ainrin, Amu, Pou, Arop1, Arop2, Barapu, Wuipom, Olbrum.

5. What Churches are planned in what stage?

The table sets out the churches planned on the coast(1-10), as well as others needing replacement or repair in the bush or in Aitape itself.

As at the time of writing, the stage 1 churches are Amu, Arop1, and Teles/Lampu.
Construction has recently begun on the foundations at Amu, and the timber is being cut.
Materials have been ordered for the first stage churches, and some have been delivered to the sites.

Full updates on progress can be found in Archives.