Chaplain Rev Henry Matthews, Australian Army Chaplains Department A.C.M.F, from Ararat, Victoria, age 66, was Priest at Port Moresby. He stayed, he was shot or drowned, when a boat in which he was taking a group of half-castes to safety at Daru was attacked by a Japanese submarine, on August 7th, 1942. He is listed on the Port Moresby Memorial.

Leslie Gariadi, Papuan Evangelist (from Boianai), trained at St. Aidan's College, was assisting Rev Henry Matthews at Port Moresby. He was with Rev Henry Matthews in the boat and died with him.

New Guinea has difficult terrain and is home to many isolated tribes, many different cultures and at least 500 languages. Christian missionaries arrived in the 1860's, but proceeded slowly. Anglican missionaries from Australia arrived in 1891. Then during WWII the Japanese invaded New Guinea. Most foreigners had been evacuated to Australia, but both the Roman Catholic bishop, Alain de Boismeau, and the Anglican bishop, Philip Strong, encouraged their staff to remain. Bishop Strong, expressing the general feeling amongst the staff:

"We must endeavour to carry on our work. God expects this of us. The church at home, which sent us out, will surely expect it of us. The universal church expects it of us. The people whom we serve expect it of us. We could never hold up our faces again if, for our own safety, we all forsook Him and fled, when the shadows of the Passion began to gather around Him in His spiritual and mystical body, the Church in Papua."

Mrs Mae Frame, great-niece, of martyr Mavis Parkinson, with students from Ipswich Girls Grammar School remembering the Martyrs of Papua New Guinea.

They stayed, and 333 died:
12 Anglicans
189 Roman Catholics,
20 Lutherans,
26 Methodists,
2 Seventh Day Adventists,
23 of The Salvation Army
Today we honour the memory of them all. The representatives of which are the 12 Anglican martyrs beginning here and noted thoughout our prayer pages today.

All faithful unto death, they chose to remain with their flocks rather than desert them in their hour of danger. They were Martyrs for the Christian Faith. Their deaths were not in vain, inspiring the Papuan Church, and it remained firm. Recovery after the war was rapid, had they deserted much of the work would have had to begin all over again. But they were faithful unto death, and we honour them. Once again the blood of the Martyrs became the seed of the Church.