Whilst I was at Lajamanu I was fortunate enough to attend a Baptist service in which Bishop Haigazoun Najarian and Deacon Nishan Basmajian from the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy Resurrection in Chatswood, Sydney gifted and blessed two Armenian khachkars (or cross stones) to the indigenous Baptist Church, under Jerry Jangala Patrick, the local pastor.
Baptist missionaries had visited Hooker Creek from the early 1950s to teach their version of Christianity to the Warlpiri, then they were resident from 1962. In 1978 settlement was handed to Aboriginal community control and renamed Lajamanu. The Church was an example of an Indigenous Baptist church in Australia; one that is culturally ‘hybrid’, with a local identity. The bible on the lectern, for instance, was written in Warlpiri.
Jesus is the light of the world
I did not know the relationship between Warlpiri cosmology and the Baptist Christian one; nor do I know whether much work has been done on the relationship between Aboriginal cosmogony and the full breadth of biblical creation theology. This is important because the cultural aspects of Baptist ceremony and ministry lose their relevance unless they are anchored in the Warlpiri’s beliefs, customs and values. Cosmology is the prime mover in Warlpiri society.
The Long Road to the North 