Staff
About 100 people attended St. Mary’s Church here Friday afternoon for World Day of Prayer 2009, joining millions across the world in praying for the women of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
The hour-long service, organized locally this year by Gemma Lamonato, featured about a dozen representatives from area churches reading through the World Day of Prayer program, which was prepared by the World Day of Prayer committee of Papua New Guinea.
It included information on PNG, along with prayers for the women who live there.
Fr. Francis Puddicherry of St. Mary’s Church gave a sermon on unity while celebrating differences and achieving “oneness in our diversity.” Meanwhile, Diane Maxey and a small choir consisting of Val Calder, Rosanna Tweedie, Lois Medhurst, Betty Ann LaRocque, and Frank Ball kept the proceedings lively with song.
The theme chosen for World Day of Prayer 2009, “In Christ There are Many Members Yet One Body,” was appropriate since PNG has many languages, cultures, traditions, and beliefs.
Papua New Guinea lies just below the equator on the western side of the Pacific Ocean. The island of New Guinea is the second-largest in the world (after Greenland).
More than 600 islands make up PNG, and there are more than 800 distinct languages in PNG.
The culture, as expected, is very diverse and complex. Each culture is expressed in unique ways, whether through art, dances, costumes, music, architecture, or customs.
However, PNG is not without many problems when it comes to women’s rights and gender inequality, and information relayed during World Day of Prayer 2009 was aimed at informing the rest of the world of their plight and taking action.
Women in PNG are given a low status in society, especially in rural villages. They are expected to tend to all family needs in addition to being child-bearers.
Access to education remains a serious problem for most.
There is a high incidence of violence against women in PNG, but few incidents are investigated, according to Amnesty International.
Since the law in PNG does not prohibit human trafficking, the country has become a destination for women and children from Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and China, who are being sent to brothels and isolated logging and mining camps.
Women also are trafficked internally.
