Praying for Independence

The establishment of the Presbyterian Church of the New Hebrides in 1948 as an independent church was viewed by some participants as a step towards the independence of the nation, which occurred some 32 years later. This paper argues that the church was slow to promote an anticolonial perspective through the 1950s, though, as Indigenous clergy took on more senior roles in the church, there was a corresponding increase in political consciousness. The trans-colonial experiences of many young clergy – for education around the region or for meetings in the newly formed Pacific Conference of Churches in the 1960s – exposed participants to anticolonial theologies and the decolonising Pacific. When Indigenous clergy gained full control over the Presbyterian Church in 1973, they simultaneously demanded the end to the Condominium.