We went to church twice in Nanumea, the first time with True Blue V and the second time with Navire and EOS II. The services were a tolerable 1 hour in duration, and they were typical services that we couldn’t understand with amazing singing.
But the interesting thing about church in Nanumea is that there is only one church. I don’t remember the denomination, but it was one of the more ceremonial protestant varieties. We originally thought that having just one church is a good thing, because then there isn’t arbitrary social division across the village due to different church affiliations. But then we learned that having only once church is achieved by having the backing of the local government.
A supply ship had arrived, but we hadn’t taken much notice of it. After church the second time we heard from several people that there was mayhem brewing down by the wharf. Apparently, there were some men who had come on the supply ship (which was also a people ferry), and these men belonged to another church, and they had asked if they could congregate for their own church service Sunday morning. This was a huge controversy. They were told absolutely not, because there is only one church in Nanumea. From the perspective of many of the villagers that we met, these men could not get out of Nanumea soon enough.
Gresham Family Exodus 