Religion in Kiribati

[3] Hiram Bingham II of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions arrived in Abaiang in 1857.

[3] Societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice occur, but are relatively infrequent.

[3] Over the period from 1990 to 2020, some changes have been recorded across the Kiribati population with a 6% increase in affiliation with the Catholic Church.

Religion is always very active in urban and rural island communities, providing pastoral care, youth faith programmes, women's activities, support for overseas workers, chaplaincy work as well as vocational training for young men and women.

It is becoming common for church groups to build maneabas, a traditional style meeting house, particularly in the larger villages’ settlements and especially in South Tarawa (Wincup 2010).

While lacking the deep cultural significance and use, the church groups utilise these large space buildings for a range of community activities.

At the Senior High School level, the Catholic Church (4) and KUC (2) contribute an important part of the education sector and the community (MoE 2022).

The remaining structure today is the Diocese of Tarawa and Nauru and was led by elected Bishop Koru Tito until his death.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints claims 17,462 members in 26 congregations on December 31, 2016,[5] though the 2020 census had only 6,720 people (5.6%) identifying as Mormon.

[17] Two islands in Kiribati, Arorae and Tamana, maintain a "one-church-only" tradition, refusing to build any religious structures other than a single church.

According to officials, this custom is in deference to the Protestant missionaries that arrived on those islands in the 19th century.

Residents of other religions on those islands are able to worship freely in their homes, and the government has received no reports of complaints about this policy.