Changing Church Denomination at Rakotop village

 Changing Church Denomination: An observation of Rakotop Village.   Ismael K Isikel  

Introduction
This article is based on my personal observation of people changing from one church denomination to another at Rakotop village.  It is focused especially on people moving from one church denomination to another within the Christian faith.  This observation is based on where I live where over 40 years ago it was predominantly United Church with a minority portion of Catholics.  A brief historical background is provided as a prelude to my observation. This is followed by the various church denominations that are currently in existence at Rakotop village. Next is the main focus of this observation which gives some detail and thoughts on changing or moving from one denomination to another. Rivalry and discrimination between the various denominations exists and forms part of the final part of this observation. Conclusions based on this observation is presented at the end.

Historical background
The Catholic Mission was the first Church to establish its church at Rakotop Village at a spot called Tatigia. It forbade the practice of certain traditional practices by members. Some members objected to the control of traditional practices and broke away from the Catholic Church and joined the then Methodist Church which was first established at Ragapao. The Catholic Church moved its Church down to Kikitabu at a spot called Palnaparaparau. Eventually it moved again to Iatapal where it remains to the present. The Methodist Church relocated later to a spot known as Vunagumong where it has remained to this day. The church at Rakotop is known as Vunagumong United church.
Some of the early missionaries of the Methodist Church at Vunagumong from the earliest that I remember are presented next. The first that I remember was ToKiapgugu. I do not know where ToKiapgugu came from but he spoke Raluana dialect and i assume he came from one of the 
villages in Kokopo. Paula To Ruwin from Boawa village was another. The next was Savenat from Kabakada village who was married to Misarit and they had an only child by the name of Kakotoi. After his term of pastoral duty he retired and bought a piece of land next to the church. He settled there.  Elenas ToMarum from Kabakada village was the next. Elenas was a lively preacher. His wife IaTirmulai was also good in preaching. Tade replaced Elenas. ToKalepaia and ToGaius are two of the missionaries of the 1990s. When I returned in 2021 after 30 years away from home, the missionary was from Duke of York island.  Before he  departed Vunagumong United church he visited my home. He asked for a music book and I gave him one that my daughter purchased for  me a few years back.

Church denominations
Church denominations at Rakotop village consist of Catholic Mission, United Church, Sabath Keepers, CRC, and SDA. It started with only two denominations; the Methodist and Catholic.

Changing Church Denomination
Despite members shifting to other church denominations the United Church remains intact. The once minority portion of Catholics remains very steady and its membership has increased in numbers due to increase in their population. Intermarriage also contributes to the rise in population of the Catholic

The Christian Revival was one of the early faith movements to attract a good following. Many joined, especially the youth and were initially very active. There were some instances of disagreement within some families  as illustrated by this example.  A family rift resulted from some family members within a family joining the Christian Revival. They shifted from the United Church. The wife and children joined the Christian Revival. When the husband found out he disagreed vehemently and subsequently took his own life.  He committed suicide by drinking a heavy dose of gromoxzhone. Despie the suicide, shifting continued within this family and some extended family members have moved over to Sabbath Keepers.

The Christian Revival following gradually mellowed down over the years but it is still in existence. An interesting and baffling activity involved worship in the bushes,  under cocoa trees, while the lamps are switched off. I am baffled simply because I know very little of the Christian Revival. However, i respect their worship activities.  One night, around 1976, I witnessed an altercation between a bunch of drunken United Church members and a group of Christian Revival followers who were having a lively fellowship inside the United Church building. Upon hearing the singing inside the church two of the drunken men rushed into the church and told the worshipping group to leave the church building and worship away from the United Church premises.  They complied and vacated the United Church building.

Between the 70s and 80s the Mormons, Jehova Witness, tried spreading their religion into the village but were not successful. Actually they were chased away by members of both the Catholic and United Church.

The Sabbath Keepers faith has attracted a following and a good portion of the United Church members have shifted over.

An ex-high school mate moved from Catholic to SDA a few years after completing high school. Him and his family are now SDAs. His auntie, a former devoted Catholic, followed and I noticed a good number of the extended family are now SDAs.

Why do people leave their original church denomination and move to another?  A good question to think over. However, there is freedom of choice, freedom to choose which church denomination to move over to. There maybe other reasons including social discord between individuals or families. However, these need finding out. In the meantime time I share  a few instances based on social discord that I have personally observed.  Family break up may serve as a contributing factor. Members of a family moved away from the United Church after a break up of marriage. The wife took on a new husband, she, children, and new husband  moved over to the Sabbath Keepers.  Another case is that of a United Church pastor who was reprimanded for misconduct and was layed off for some time. Instead of waiting for the United Church authority to reassign him to pastoral duty he changed by joining the Sabbath Keepers.

As far as other religions are concerned I have yet to see. For example, people adopting Islam.

Rivalry and Discrimination
Rivalry and discrimination between the churche denominations occurs from time to time in verbal form. It exists but not in aggressive or violent behavior. In February 2024, the Ward Councilor and committee for law and order issued a warning and advice to the community on outreach preaching to be careful about their public preaching. It came about after people spread a story about a public preacher from Rakotop village mentioned something in his preaching against the Catholic and United Churches. He preached at Rabaul Market in Rabaul Town. Some people from Rakotop village were there at the same time and saw and heard what was said. Word spread around and the Ward Councilor also got wind of it. Hence the warning and advice.

Church discrimination sometimes occurs resulting from family arguments or disagreement. The case of Joel Jnr (not his real name) who is United Church married to Catholic woman is one example. The family of Joel Jnr recently had an argument and his sister mentioned something against the Catholic Church. The reason for the argument was caring for their old mother. Some Church elders and law and order committee group settled the matter at the family home. This occurred on February 2024. In fact members of a Catholic Church Parish were not happy with the discriminatory remarks. They were present at the family settlement of the matter. It was peacefully settled.

Conclusions

An important question is, Do people shift from one church denomination to another to find God? If that is so, why couldn't they find God in their former church? With God's omnipresence, I find this very difficult to digest. Worship in peace maybe the reasonable explanation. One of the reasons for this is that one of the causes is family rift however, it further raises the value of forgiveness. Perhaps they had forgiven the other and simply decided to keep their distance without grudges. Where rivalry and discrimination occur the Village people concerned have taken peaceful approaches to settle matters and maintain harmony. Wherever and when it occurs it should be resolved peacefully as early as possible.

End.

Note: This article is part of my continuing observation. It is written based on observations and needs to be substantiated further by using another method of collecting data such as the use of a questionnaire. Observation covers the period from the early 70s to 2024.


Ismael K. Isikel   26th June 2026.