DURING WORLD WAR II, 12 Anglicans working in Papua New Guinea lost their lives and this year marks the 70th anniversary of their deaths.

The Anglican martyrs were Lilla Lashmar (teacher), Margery Brenchley (nurse), John Duffill (builder), Bernard Moore (priest), Mavis Parkinson (teacher), May Hayman (nurse), Vivian Redlich (priest), Lucian Tapiedi (evangelist and teacher), John Barge (priest), Henry Matthews (priest), Henry Holland (priest) and Leslie Gariardi (evangelist and teacher).

These brave people are remembered and celebrated each Martyrs’ Day on 2 September and this year the Anglican Board of Mission has launched a campaign to continue its work in PNG. The focus is on St Margaret’s Hospital in Ono Bay, north-east of Port Moresby.

In recent years, ABM has been working with the Anglican Church in PNG to upgrade St Margaret’s Health Clinic to a Level 5 hospital. The hospital will now operate as a satellite hospital to the state-run Popondetta General Hospital while recruiting staff and improving skills.

“We hope our supporters will be inspired by the Martyrs of PNG and contribute to the work of St Margaret’s Hospital,” said ABM fundraising manager, Christopher Brooks

“St Margaret’s has been undergoing refurbishment but the project, supported by ABM, is living up to PNG’s name as the ‘land of the unexpected’.”

There have been setbacks due to weather, sporadic riots, flooding and a lack of skilled professionals. Despite this, the staff of St Margaret’s continue to provide services.

For St Margaret’s to be fully operational and staffed, the Anglican Church of PNG will need to build 13 new houses over the next three years at a total cost of $780,000. The houses will be sourced in PNG and built by local people.

ABM encourages its supporters to remember the martyrs in prayer and contribute to the work of the Anglican Church in PNG through the Martyrs’ Day Campaign. You can donate online at www.donations.abmission.org.

Meanwhile, the Summer Institute of Linguistics has produced a new version of the Bible in the Marik language, spoken by several thousand people in the Madang region.

Translators had to learn the language, develop an alphabet and then teach the Marik people to read the language before beginning the translation process.

The translation took 36 years to complete.

SIL director Tim Lithgow said the translation developed an alphabet based on roman numerals to align with other major languages spoken in the region such as English and Tok Pisin.

Mr Lithgow said there is still more language development work to do in PNG. "A growing problem in PNG is age, so part of the task we've done in community development is translating age booklets into local languages," he said.