A letter from Bishop Gilles Côté, s.m.m.

Friends,

For the last 46 years some missionaries (priests, religious and lay people) have teamed up to bring the Good News in one of the most remote and under-developed corner of the world. Considering the huge size of the diocese (42,000 square miles), the roughness of the landscape, the impossibility to build road in most places, the people who were still living a very primitive life style, the challenge had been and still is today enormous.

The purpose of creating a web site for the diocese is to share our story with people who would be interested to hear it.

Our story in also the story of our people. Melanesian people belonging to so many different tribes, speaking many different dialects, having a great variety of sub-cultures. People who were traditionally enemies but who are now willing to journey together in faith as one people and take decisions together for the common good.

To journey together in faith is not about being rich or highly educated, male or female, living in towns or in villages, etc. It is about accepting our differences, the rich contribution that each clan or tribe bring to the larger group, promoting and living the same values that build us as persons and as communities.

It is above all sharing our faith in a God who is the source of all life and who loves us as his children. It is total trust in a provident God.

Our Diocesan Church is alive because of the people and their active participation is its life at all levels. We are Church Alive in Christ. We share a common vision and this makes us One People.

You are most welcome to our web site. The name of the web site www.missionfrontier.org gives you a fairly good idea about who we are, how we live, what are our actions, what is our task ahead.

Enjoy the moments spent reading our story and learning about us, and if you wish become part of that life-giving story.

One among others,

+ Gilles Côté, s.m.m.
Bishop of Daru-Kiunga