During the 1960s mission organizations of the mainstream Christian churches backed away from "foreign control." This allowed for the formation of national Protestant churches. Among these, to illustrate, were l'Église évangélique in New Caledonia (1960), the Cook Islands Christian Church (1965), and the United Church in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands (1968), all originating from a London Missionary Society base. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea is of interest for its stage-by-stage securing of complete autonomy between 1956 and 1976, as is the Pacific Christian Church (a Protestant concern independent in Papua New Guinea by 1966) in setting the goal for its Irian Jaya counterpart to pass beyond "mission status." In the Catholic sphere, Vatican II had the effect of generating a new council of bishops for the Pacific region (1966 for Polynesia and Melanesia; 1984 for Micronesia...