United Church in Papua New Guinea

The United Church in Papua New Guinea (UCPNG) has a membership of 600,000 organised into 2,700 congregations, 260 Circuits and 11 Regions.

There are 700 ordained ministers, 11 Bishops, and 1, 600 pastors and lay pastors.

The church has one Theological College, one Lay Leaders Training College, one Teachers College, and five Regional Pastors and Bible Colleges.

There area six provincial high schools, 400 primary and community schools, three vocational schools and many more elementary schools.

In health services there are 29 Health Centres, 31 Aid posts, one Community Health Worker training school and one Nursing School in partnership with Government, Catholic and Anglican agencies in Milne Bay Province.

The pastoral and administrative work of the UCPNG is divided into eleven regions: Western Region, Papuan Gulf Region, West Central Papua Region, East Central Papua Region, Urban Region, Papuan Islands Region, Niu Britain Region, Niu Ailan, Bougainville Region, Highlands Region and Hela Region.

The national body of the UCPNG is the Assembly Office.  The highest decision making body of the church at the Assembly level is the General Assembly.  The highest decision making body of the church at the Regional level is the Regional Synod.

The Moderator is the pastoral head of the church, appointed by the General Assembly for a term of four years.  The Bishops are elected by their respective Regional Synods for a term of six years.  Bishops are the pastoral heads of the regions.

Superintendent Ministers provide overall pastoral and administrative oversight over a Circuit and are appointed for three years.  A congregation Minister or Pastor has pastoral oversight over a congregation.  In a very few case the Minister/Pastor oversees two or three congregations.

The current ministries of the church include; Women’s Fellowship, Youth Fellowship (includes Boys and Girls Brigade), Sunday School and Christian Religious Education, Education, Health, Training Institutions (Rarongo Theological College, Gaulim Teachers College and Malmaluan TIMAL Center).

Other recent ministries are in the issues of HIV/AIDS, domestic violence awareness, poverty alleviation, water supply and sanitation, entrepreneurial training and other programmes to address other social issues such as anti drugs awareness, teenage pregnancy and so forth.

More recently (2007), the church has dedicated a development arm to initiate, administer and manage development activities within and through the church in partnership with church, government and development agencies.