Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga
(Methodist Church)
The Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga (FWCT; Tongan: Siasi Uēsiliana Tau‘atāina ‘o Tonga) is a Methodist denomination in Tonga. It is the largest Christian denomination in the nation and is often mistaken to be its state church.
The Church defines its work as:
- To respond to the call of Jesus in faith amid the rapid changes of this 21st Century.
- To strengthen and transform the church’s ministry, worship and services to better sustain all members.
- To express faith, worship, prayer, teaching and ministry in ways designed to effectively meet the different needs of diverse groups of people.
The relation between the Tongan monarch and the Free Wesleyan Church has been strong since the foundation of modern Tonga, and the influence of the monarch and the hereditary nobility remains strong in the church, influencing it in matters related to politics, society and culture.
Education and evangelism are strong features of the work of the church, and at the secondary level it caters for the needs of 60% of the students on the Island.
Tonga Factfile
1977
Autonomy
438
Ministers
38,500
Members
History
The Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga has its roots in the arrival of the first missionaries from the London Missionary Society and the ministry of the Wesleyan Methodist Mission Society.
The first Methodist missionaries arrived in Tonga in 1822 and by the middle of the 19th century the whole population was Christianized.
Tonga was a conference within the Methodist Church of Australasia until 1977 when the Uniting Church in Australia was formed, and the Free Wesleyan Church gained its autonomy.