ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author reviews several dimensions of the missionary presence in the Melanesian world. He discusses the evolving organisation of mission systems as they were formed on the ground behind an ever expanding mission frontier. The author turns to the key question of engagement between missionaries and Melanesians – ‘conversion’ in the broadest sense. He focuses on the period between early contact in the 1840s to the beginnings of late colonialism in the late 1950s. The missions relied to varying extents on financial support, personnel and direction from missionary societies and churches in home countries. The Polynesians, Fijians and Melanesians who largely staffed the out-stations often possessed only a tentative grasp of Christian theology and, like their white supervisors, tended to draw upon their own backgrounds in their assumptions of how Christians ought to live and behave. Melanesian teachers and clergy engaged in competitive exchanges and linked themselves to local families through marriages.
