James Ayong

The Most Reverend James Simon Ayong
Bishop of Aipo-Rongo and Archbishop of Papua New Guinea
Church	Anglican
See	Aipo-Rongo
In office	1996 — present
Predecessor	Bevan Meredith
Successor	incumbent
Orders
Ordination	1984
Consecration	1995
Personal details
Born	1944 Kumbun, West New Britain, Territory of New Guinea
Previous post	Bishop of Aipo-Rongo Bishop of Aipo-Rongo (incumbent)

James Simon Ayong (born in a cave in Kumbun, West New Britain in 1944) was the Anglican Archbishop of Papua New Guinea since 19 June 1996 to 2009. He has served as a parish priest in rural and metropolitan Papua New Guinea and, unusually among indigenous Papua New Guinean clergy, studied overseas, in England.

Archbishop Ayong is the first prelate in the church of Papua New Guinea to come from elsewhere in the country than the eastern Papuan heartland of the country's Anglican Church.

At the time of his birth Australian New Guinea (the northern half of eastern New Guinea and the New Guinea Islands) was under occupation by the forces of Japan during World War II and Japanese forces and Papuan tribesman sympathetic to the Japanese cause had recently executed the New Guinea Martyrs.

Education

In 1982, James Ayong earned his diploma in Theology from Newton College, in Papua New Guinea. He would earn a Bachelor of Theology from Martin Luther Seminary, in Lae. Martin Luther Seminary is a joint clergy-training venture of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea and the Gutnius Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea. He earned his Master of Arts degree from Chichester Theological College, in England, in 1994.

Career

• Local Government Officer
• Purchasing Officer and Radio Operator for the Anglican Diocesan Office in Lae, 1976–1980
• Ordination training at Newton College, 1980–1982
• Assistant priest, Lae, 1982–1987
• Lecturer in Old Testament Studies and Theology, Newton College, 1987–1989
• Principal, Newton College, 1989–1993
• Chichester Theological College, England, 1993–1994
• Parish Priest of Gerehu, 1994–1995
• Bishop of Aipo Rongo, 1995 to date
• Archbishop of Papua New Guinea 1996 to 2009

External links

• Profile of Ayong

See also

• Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea