U Leis

U Leis (c.1651-1701) was the principle founder of the A'ae Eil Church. He was born in the Indigenous Wishi community in the forest in the south-west of Limea island (now known as West Ariddia), and is thought never to have left the lands of his native people. Although little is known of his early years, records suggest that he was the eldest of three children, and he appears to be have been an “ordinary”, hard-working member of the Wishi’s communal society. By his late twenties he is thought to have had three children, by two different women.

His life changed in 1679 with the arrival on Wishi land of an Anglican missionary, Norman Foxwood. Leis exhibited a rare interest in Foxwood’s teachings. Foxwood wrote that Leis was extremely curious, very intelligent, and prone to questioning everything until he was satisfied that what he was being taught made rational sense. Leis and several other Wishi worked with Foxwood to translate the Bible into Wymgani. The original manuscripts still exist, and are of considerable historical value, particularly since they are written in a phonetic rendering of the Wymgani language, which predates Yves Noël’s standardised alphabet.

Foxwood died in 1682, and Leis became accepted by many Wishi as his spiritual disciple – an expert on Christianity. Preaching every day at the community’s small Church, Leis completed a translation of the New Testament, and suggested to his people his own interpretation of Scripture. He emphasised the similarities he perceived between Christ’s teachings and the traditional way of life and values of the (previously atheist) Wishi. He explained Wymgani traditions were supported by Christ, who had been the voice of the world’s inherent spirituality, and that a close study of Scripture would help the Wishi strengthen their traditions and come closer to a divinely ordained lifestyle. This marked the foundation of the A’ae Eil (literally, “strength from the sky”) Church.

Leis devoted the rest of his life to studying and interpreting the Bible, sharing his findings with his fellow Church members, and advising them on proper behaviour. He was instrumental in popularising the concept of marriage, and in abolishing the (rare) practice of cannibalism, but on the whole he suggested few changes to the Wishi’s ancestral way of life.

After Leis’ death in 1701, the Church lived on. Leis had encouraged his followers to devise their own interpretation of Scripture, and internal debate has provided a lively dynamic for the A’ae Eil Church to this very day.