In 1789, an American whaling ship, the Hunter, stopped in Nauru, and Captain Fearn named it the "Pleasant Island" because of the "pleasant appearance and manners of its inhabitants". Happy and peaceful Nauru, with abundant food supplies and native people showing no signs of hostility, became an occasional stop-over for American and European sailors.

All too soon, though, things were to change when the "worst dregs of humanity" infiltrated the Pacific over the 50 years from 1840, according to Solange Petit-Skinner, author of "The Nauruans". Nauruan life and culture changed forever under the influence of "rough, cunning and brutal beachcombers" – escaped convicts and plague-infected runaways who introduced new diseases, alcohol and firearms and generally endeavoured to suppress any development of the Nauruan people.

In 1888, three major events in Nauruan history took place: Eigamoioya, the Queen of Nauru, ended the 10-year civil war incited by the war-mongering European invaders; the German ship Eber arrived, raised the German flag and set up an administration; and a Gilbertese (from the Pacific nation now called Kiribati) pastor called Tabwia started a Protestant mission.

The Germans confiscated all guns from Nauru, bringing a new found peace to the land. Tabwia, meanwhile, conducted Christian services for the people at Orro. Tabwia and the missionaries that followed changed traditional clothing to European styles, tried to uplift morals by teaching Christian ethics, changed work practices from a traditional subsistence and barter system to one based on money, improved hygiene and health, and banned polygamy.

Listen up: Most children go to Sunday school, but an increasing number drop out as they grow up. © Jocelyn Carlin

More support for the mission came in 1899, when Rev Delaporte arrived from the US on the mission boat The Morning Star. He was German born so the local German administration readily accepted him, which helped the mission's work. With the help of Tabwia and another missionary, Williams Harris, he set about building up the church.

A time of change
Nauru began to change rapidly as the 20th century started. In 1900, Albert Ellis discovered vast quantities of phosphate, a top quality fertiliser, in Nauru (see story page 12). Mining started six years later and the first shipment left the island in 1907.

Nauru was becoming interesting to the world powers, and at the start of World War I, the Australians occupied the island, deporting the German inhabitants to Sydney. Delaporte, however, managed to escape to the US, and brought head chief Detudamo with him. In the three years he spent there, Detudamo was ordained a minister and helped Delaporte complete the translation of the bible into Nauruan and write up a Nauruan dictionary.

As the war drew to an end, the London Missionary Society (LMS) took over church matters in Nauru in 1917. For the next 20 years, until the outbreak of the next world war, Nauruans lived a quiet, peaceful life once again, only disrupted by the colonial powers digging away furiously at the phosphate and exporting it for huge profits.

The island's church structures became more formalised, with village and district churches set up and served by deacons who reported to LMS missionaries when they visited Nauru. Rev Percy Hannah was the first missionary appointed to Nauru, followed by Rev Clifford Welch, who organised the reunion of the district congregational churches in time for Jubilee celebrations in 1937 and the building of a Jubilee church that seated 1,000 people.

The end of an era
World War II, however, spelt the end of this time of peace. The Japanese invaded Nauru and decimated the nation and its people. The Jubilee church was used as a storage shed by the Japanese and then was bombed by allied forces.

After the war, Australia governed Nauru under a United Nations mandate and prepared it for independence, which finally came in 1968. Nauru's Congregational Church was also under Australian control, being part of the Congregational Union of Australia, although it, too, became independent. In 1981, it joined the Council for World Mission.

Today, the Nauru Congregational Church is struggling to stay relevant to a fast-changing society. Faced with the onslaught of modern culture and the increasing influx of new religious groups, it needs to adapt quickly to survive. And that's without taking into account the gradually rising sea level, owing to global warming, that threatens to sink the island and leave its inhabitants without a nation.

What about the children?
It's been said many times that Nauru's main resource is its people. It certainly is now, as its wealth is disappearing with its dwindling phosphate reserves. Family unity remains strong, community spirit is solid, especially within the Nauru Congregational Church (NCC), and very few leave the island permanently.

To leave the island to work, though, is not uncommon. Government subsidies for families have been cut back, so they send their young adults out from Nauru to work and to provide. Many go to New Zealand or Australia, where they come into contact with modern western culture. When they return, they're not as ready to accept the traditional way of life, which can lead to tension in families and the church.

Then there's the problem of an increasingly young population. Over half of Nauru's people are under 14. The school population will jump to 3,000 in 2012, from 2,220 in 1992 – an increase of more than a third. Nauru's total population, according to an estimate in July 2000, is 11,845, of which 9,000 are Nauruan nationals.

Forty additional teachers and classrooms are required – a massive investment for such a small nation. Students are now encouraged to receive as high an education as possible as they need to understand that, unlike their parents, they can't rely on phosphate royalties and investments for their future.

The same is true within the church. In 1987, at the celebrations marking the centenary of the Nauru Congregational Church, Rev Itubwa Amram, a key leader of the NCC, made the following astutely foreboding speech:

"It is essential that we give attention to training young leaders. The young people are the church of the future. We need to be challenged in new ways that will make the gospel relevant. Our church must be challenged to a new discipleship to Christ so that worshippers are enabled to exercise their ministry gifts in a programme of evangelism to the community which leads to church growth."

Today, many of Nauru's young people have lost interest in the mainline church, which they see as too traditional and stuck in its old ways. Some leave for newer, more lively church groups, like the Independent Church founded in 1976 by Pastor Lagi Harris, who broke away from the NCC.

This has caused problems. In the early days, people were lured to the Independent Church by its colourful evangelism. The congregation grew rapidly. Music and singing, demonstrative worship and speaking in tongues were the order of the day.

People were carried away by this behaviour and allowed it to seep from church worship out into the community, schools and working environments. They aggressively denigrated other churches, with family members from one church accusing family members from the other.

Harris saw the harm this was causing and asked his people to stop, but not before building a large following. Many families are still divided.