Abstract: Distinctive forms of Christianity have emerged in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands since the late eighteenth century. With European and North American roots, they have successfully intermixed with local cultures, despite the influence of the colonizing powers and their missionaries. Pacific Island Christians, both the Melanesians and the Polynesians, have successfully retained a unitive religion and social order, though that was much less possible for Aborigines, Kanaks and Maori, because they were so outnumbered by their colonizers. Protestantism and Roman Catholicism have been the dominant forms of Christianity, though Orthodoxy has been significant in Australia since the 1950s. In two centuries, significant changes have occurred in worship, theology, and patterns of discipleship, as well as in relationships with government and in the public face of religion. Since the 1960s, there has been a major decline of numbers attending worship and professing denomination allegiance, especially in the under 40s. Widening roles for women, including ordination, ecumenical cooperation, reunion, a growing emphasis on social justice, and liberalized views on sexuality, marriage, and parenting have been divisive and underlined Christian pluralism. Migration has brought all the major world religions to Australia. The churches have continued to be major partners with governments in education, the social services, as well as the economy, with members contributing substantially to philanthropy, voluntary community service, and civil society.

Keywords: Aborigines, Ecumenism, Kanaks, Melanesians, Migration, Orthodoxy, Pluralism, Polynesians, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism