Congregational Christian Church of Samoa

Huge numbers of people from simple and noble lineage soon offered themselves for overseas mission work.

In 1839, nine years after the arrival of the LMS, the first twelve Samoan missionaries left for mission work in Melanesia.

Many of these early Samoan missionaries never returned home; they occupy many of the unnamed and unmarked graves on islands throughout the Pacific.

By the 1980s Samoan missionaries could be found in Africa, evangelizing on the streets of London, and in remote villages of Jamaica.

The church community functions in the same way as the village, where five main groups – matai (titled men), spouses of matai, untitled men aumaga, unmarried women aualuma, and children – each have their own individual and corporate roles and responsibilities for the maintenance of order and welfare.

This legacy remains a motivating force in the nation's idealism as well as in the church's commitment to be active in social efforts.

It has become an international church with eight districts (synod or diocese) outside Samoa: one in the United States, one in Hawaii, three in Australia and three in New Zealand.

Samoan Congregational churches continue to play an active role in participating in ecumenical efforts that outreach to the world.

Within the first years of mission work, the LMS missionaries developed a Samoan alphabet and put the language into written form.

The setting-up of the first printing press in Samoa (1839), only the second in the Pacific region, was a mark of the missionary zeal to bring the people to understand the gospel through the written word.

This edition used Roman numerals and the word, "Ieova", or Jehovah, in reference to the Lord throughout the Old Testament text.