The Melanesian Mission UK is an Anglican mission agency that provides support to the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM), through Prayer, People and Giving.
The Melanesian Mission UK 21 The Burlands, Feniton EX14 3UN
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Bishop John Coleridge Patterson
In 1855, John Coleridge Patteson answered Bishop Selwyn’s call for volunteers to go the South Pacific to preach the Gospel. He soon founded a school for the education of native Christian workers and, being adept at languages, he learned twenty-three of the languages spoken in the Polynesian and Melanesian Islands of the South Pacific.
Over the years the training college has moved from New Zealand out to the islands and is now known as Bishop Patteson Theological College, Kohimarama. Currently situated on Guadalcanal there are plans for a new site nearer Honiara.
After John Coleridge Patteson was consecrated Bishop of Melanesia in 1861, Edwin Nobbs and Fisher Young from Norfolk Island became the first Christian martyrs for Melanesia. They were killed at Graciosa Bay in 1864 after being attacked by islanders with poisoned arrows. The slave-trade was technically illegal in the South Pacific at that time, but the laws were only laxly enforced and in fact slave-raiding was a flourishing business. Patteson was actively engaged in the effort to stamp it out. However after slave-raiders had attacked the island of Nakapu, in the Santa Cruz group, Patteson and several companions visited the area in September 1871. They were assumed to be connected with the raiders and, after Patteson went ashore on his own to try and establish peace, his body was floated back to his ship with five hatchet wounds in the chest, one for each native who had been killed in the earlier raid. The death of Bishop Patteson caused an uproar back in England, and stimulated the British government to take firm measures to stamp out slavery and the slave trade in its Pacific territories. It was also the seed of a strong and vigorous Church in Melanesia today.
Soon after this tragic event the first Melanesian was ordained priest. His name was George Sarawia from Mota Island, New Hebrides (Vanuatu).
On the 150th anniversary of Bishop John Coleridge Patteson’s martyrdom, the charity has been asking what does Patteson mean to people today, both in Melanesia and in the UK.
http://www.mmuk.net/about/about-bjcp/
Patteson's Way
We invite you to make a pilgrimage with Bishop John Coleridge Patteson on a circular – ‘Patteson’s Way’. The eight mile pilgrimage visits the main sites associated with Bishop John Coleridge Patteson – Feniton, Alfington, Ottery St Mary and Patteson’s Cross in East Devon, and can be walked in a day or in four stages.
Patteson’s Way it’s an invitation to wander and wonder, as you journey with the story of one man’s life and legacy as your companion; experiencing the same sites and views that were the background to his life.
And as you walk, and reflect, on the ground Patteson trod, the hope of each of us who are pilgrims, is to deepen our own spirituality; allowing the divine influence behind both the story and countryside to impact on us.
Download the route booklet, or pick one up from the churches visited in Feniton, Alfington and Ottery St Mary.
Patteson’s Way was officially opened by the charity’s President The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury on Saturday 18th September 2021 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Patteson’s martyrdom
http://www.mmuk.net/getinvolved/getinvolved-pilgrimage/
Climate Justice
Walande was an artificial island - a rock platform made from lumps of coral gathered from the reef over several hundred years. In 1966 it had 200 inhabitants and the houses were built flat on the rock surface. In 2002, when visited by BBC Blue Peter presenter, Simon Thomas, the houses were built on tall stilts and there were 1,200 inhabitants. In recent years climate change has caused the sea level to rise and turbulence has all but destroyed the island. In 2016 there were only 4 inhabitants. Dr Ivan Haigh, Associate Professor at the National Oceanography Centre, assesses the impacts of Climate Change.
MMUK, which is based in Devon, also works to highlight the effects of climate change in Melanesia, where some islands are already succumbing to rising sea levels. Mark Rylands said the Melanesia link was an opportunity for Christians in the UK to make a difference in the fight against climate change “We, in MMUK, do all we can to help the people of Melanesia with disaster relief funding, resourcing vital research and facing the impact of global warming. We are a family 10,000 miles apart – brothers and sisters in Christ supporting one another.”
