Lucian Tapiedi

Tapiedi was born around 1921, "the nephew of a suspected sorcerer of Taupota village in Milne Bay district",[1] on the north coast of Papua, and was educated at mission schools, where he was influenced by Nita Inman, the schoolteacher, and the Reverend Edwin Nuagoro,[2] a Papuan priest.

[3]Tapiedi and 10 others, evading the Japanese, came to a village inhabited by the Orokaiva people, and found themselves escorted away by men of that tribe.

[4] Another source says Tapiedi was "axed to death by the natives after he had returned to retrieve the station records box and some money.

"[5] A statue of Tapiedi is installed among the niches with other 20th-century Christian martyrs over the west door of Westminster Abbey in London.

However, the original building at Higatury was destroyed when Mount Lamington erupted on 21 January 1951 during a diocesan meeting, with considerable loss of life, so the church and center were rebuilt at Popondetta.