Figure 1.-The photo was taken after the First Communion Mass among a French Catholic congregation on Tahiti. It was a little group of nine girls and only two boys. The girls are wearing white dresses; the boys shirts and short pants. The girls are wearing sandals and the younger boy flip-flops.

Polynesians tend to take religion seriously, more seriously now than the Europeans that brought Christianity to them. The vast majority of Polynesians identify with a religious community. The Protestants were the first to reach Polynesia. Catholic priests began workin on the islands (1774), but fir some reason had only limited success. The first Protestant missionnaries from the London Missionary Society arrived in Tahiti seeking to evangelise the people throughout Polynesia (1797). Conversion proceeded very rapidly. And the straight-laced missionaries set out to also change Polynesian culture, seeing problems with the way the people, esecially the women, dressed and behaved. The Protestant missionaries converted the people on all five archipelagos in less than 30 years. This all ocurred decades before the French seized control of the islands. Catholic missionaries arrived after most of the population had already been converted (1830). They began on the Gambier Islands and gradually spread throughout the rest of Polynesia. Other religions like the Mormons, Sanitos and Adventists arrived in the late-19th century. Almost all Polynesians are Christians of various denominations: Protestants (50 percent), Catholics (35 percent), Mormons (5 percent), the Sanitos (5 percent), Adventistes (4 percent) and Jehovah Witnesses (2 percent). This varies regionally. The people on the Marquesas are mostly Catholic.

Created: 9:26 AM 11/18/2013
Last updated: 7:07 PM 5/22/2018