Kiribati
POPULATION 100,000
ROMAN CATHOLIC 53.5 percent
KIRIBATI PROTESTANT 39.2 percent
BAHA'I 2.4 percent
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST 1.9 percent
MORMON 1.7 percent
CHURCH OF GOD, ASSEMBLY OF GOD 1.3 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The Republic of Kiribati is an independent nation in the central Pacific Ocean (between Hawaii and Australia) consisting of the Gilbert Islands, Phoenix Islands, Line Islands, and Banaba. For the I-Kiribati, or people of Kiribati, the environment produced a spiritual landscape shaped by the sea and a dynamic culture that survived centuries of scarcity and drought. Officially colonized by Britain in 1892, the Gilbert Islands achieved independence in 1979 and became the Republic of Kiribati.
In the late nineteenth century Protestant missionaries from the American Board of Christian Foreign Missions and the London Missionary Society arrived to convert the Gilbertese. Catholicism was introduced about a decade later to counter Protestantism's growing power. By 1945, 95 percent of the island group was Christian. Other Christians on Kiribati include Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, and members of the Church of God and the Assembly of God. There are also I-Kiribati who adhere to the Baha'i faith.
Most I-Kiribati continue to acknowledge the existence of the indigenous gods and spirits; Christianity and modernity are usually held in tandem with indigenous culture and spirituality.
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