The Cook Islands Christian Church traces its beginnings to the Tahitian missionary Papeiha, who was brought to the southern island of Aitutaki in 1821 by John Williams of the London Missionary Society. The Gospel was successfully introduced. In the following years Charles Pitman, John Williams, Aaron Buzacott, and others undertook Bible translation and trained many Cook Islander missionaries at the Tacamoa Theological College. They went for the LMS to Samoa, Niué, Vanuatu, Loyalty Islands,Torres Straits, and Papua New Guinea while at the same time all the Cook Islands came under the overall care of the LMS. In the 20th century, the Cook Islands churches kept ethnic and linguistic identification with their mother church in Tahiti, but they became dependent on New Zealand, particularly between the two world wars. After churches within the Congregational Union of New Zealand united with the NZ Presbyterian Church in 1970, the church accepted a presb form of government.
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