Samoan Congregationalist Church

The 'Congregational Christian Church in Samoa' (CCCS) has been an independent church organization from the London Missionary Society (arrived in Samoa in August 1830) for over forty years, making it one of the oldest indigenous Christian churches of the South Pacific Islands. The origins of Congregationalism and Christianity in the Samoan Islands began with Polynesian missionaries from Tahiti and Rarotonga who made the first Christian converts in Samoa in the early 1800s in the Manu'a Islands of eastern Samoa, as well as in the western islands of Samoa. In 1830 John Williams of the London Missionary Society arrived at Sapapalii, Savaii, with a group of Tahitian and Rarotongan missionaries. The arrival of the missionaries marked the official beginning of the presence of Christendom in Samoa. The first major convert was paramount chief Malietoa Vaiinupo, whose influence was of great value to spread of Congregationalism in the larger islands of Samoa, Upolu and Savai'i. The paramount (supreme) chief of the Manu'a Islands of eastern Samoa, Tui Manua, was also converted to Christianity, and subsequently banned all other forms of Christian religious presence in Manu'a, a ban that is still very much influential in this day and age. The London Missionary Society missionaries, working with prominent and well-versed Samoan orators in the local vernacular, translated the Christian Bible into the Samoan language, and this Bible translation, "O le Tusi Pa'ia", is still in constant use today. It provides an important grounding in the philosophical usage of the Samoan language. The London Missionary Society, or L.M.S. as it was commonly known in the past, established a printing press (firstly in the village of Avao, Savaii and then in Malua, Upolu), and a theological college at Malua, Upolu, where the main centre of the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa is today with its main offices in the main town of Apia, Samoa. The Congregational Christian Church in American Samoa (CCCAS) has its headquarters and theological training seminary at Kanana Fou (New Canaan) on Tutuila Island in the US territory of American Samoa.

The church had fallen into some disrepair following a number of cyclones and was totally refurbished in the early 2000s. The church has its own website (http://www.sapapaliianewdawn.org/OurChurch.htm) where you can see some of the work that was undertaken and read about the fundraising that was required for this project.