South Pacific Division

Sydney, Australia
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

This challenge could be divided into two main segments:

1. In keeping with trends in the rest of the world, we are experiencing the challenge of the "urban drift" here in this division. In Australia for instance, some 66 percent of the population live in the big cities. In some states, it’s as high as 75 percent. This migration to the cities is also true to a large degree in many parts of our island territory. As a result, cities represent the major portion of our population and a particular environment that they engender.

2. Australia and New Zealand are very much secular societies composed of people who are materialistically minded and who, in the main, have little time for, or understanding of, spiritual things.

It’s a challenge indeed for the church to know how to interact and penetrate in a meaningful way the growing millions of secular people that are swarming into our cities. The impact this has on country churches, which in a number of cases are declining or dying, and how to apportion resources between the country and cities is a constant challenge.

Laurie Evans
president, South Pacific Division