All Saints Anglican Church, Darnley Island

All Saints Anglican Church is a heritage-listed church at Darnley Island, Torres Strait Island Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1919 to 1938. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

The first Christian missionary, representing the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), arrived at the newly established settlement of Somerset, Cape York Peninsula, on 15 March 1867. Rev F.C. Jagg came with his family. A young English schoolteacher, W.T. Kennett, funded by the Queensland Government to establish a school at Somerset, accompanied Rev Jagg and started a mission school on 1 October 1867. A lack of funding, lack of support from the government administration, and dismay at the brutality of the police resulted in the mission being closed by June 1868. In 1871 representatives of the London Missionary Society (LMS) arrived in the Torres Straits on the schooner Surprise, which had been chartered by the LMS, after the French Government had demanded their removal from the Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia in 1869. They decided to expand into the Torres Straits and New Guinea. They were represented by two Englishmen, Revs S. Macfarlane and Archibald Wright Murray, and eight Lifu (Loyalty Islander) evangelists: Tapeso, Elia, Mataika, Guchong, Kerisidui, Wauaded, Sevine and Josaia, and their wives. The missionaries reached Erub (Darnley Island) on 1 July 1871, an event that came to be known as the "Coming of the Light". Dabad, one of the tribal elders of the island, met them at Kemus Beach. Dabad befriended the missionaries and introduced them to Amani, another tribal elder, and the rest of the Erub Islanders. His role in the bringing of Christianity to the Torres Straits is memorialised by Dabad's Monument at Badog. The inscription reads "In loving memory of Dabad 1871: A man who denied his tribal laws and accepted the good news of salvation". South Sea Islanders had an important role working in the beche-de-mer and pearl farming industries in the Torres Straits and had established trading relations with the islanders long before the arrival of Surprise. Rotuma Islanders working there, who had encountered Christian missions at Rotuma and believed the missionaries to be cruel, evil and capable of selling people into slavery, reportedly warned the people of Erub against them. Thorngreen, a European man, was living on Erub and accompanied Darnley Islanders on board Surprise the following day. As it was a Sunday, the missionaries held a service in Lifu language. This was the first recorded service in the Torres Straits (although Rev Jagg would have undoubtedly held services during his 12 months at Somerset). Two native evangelists, Mataika and Guchong, and their wives, were left on Erub on 5 July. Surprise went on to Tudu (Warrior) Island.The missionaries were welcomed at Tudu by Captain Banner, who had an established pearl shell fishery on the island. John Joseph, one of his employees, travelled with the missionaries as an interpreter to Dauan Island on 6 July.

Finding that most of the islanders were away on Saibai Island, they were taken to Saibai by Nudai, the chief of Dauan. Two Lifu evangelists, Josaia and Sevine, were left at Saibai and Dauan, respectively. It was 1881 before the first substantial building for Christian worship was constructed at Saibai. In the early 20th century, it was replaced by the Holy Trinity Church, on which construction began about 1919 and was completed by about 1938. Additional Lifu evangelists were left on Yorke and Yam Islands. With the English clergy still aboard, Surprise sailed to the newly established settlement at Somerset. The London Missionary Society (LMS) established temporary headquarters at Somerset, from where they could expand thei

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