Church of the Province of Melanesia

The Church of the Province of Melanesia is a member church of the Anglican Communion . It became independent in 1975 and extends over Vanuatu , New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands .

Today it has around 250,000 members. It became its own church in 1975. Until then she was part of the New Zealand Church . Today it has eight dioceses with an archbishop in Honiara . There are also two religious orders for men - the Melanesian Brotherhood and the Society of Saint Francis - and two sister orders - the Sisters of the Church and the Sisters of Melanesia .

The Church of the Province of Melanesia has no ordination of women . She is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Pacific Conference of Churches

The province comprises 8 dioceses in three countries:

diocese	Country	bishop
Banks & Torres	Vanuatu , Sola	Patteson Worek
Guadalcanal	Solomon Islands , Honiara	Nathan Tome
Hanuato'o	Solomon Islands , Kirakira	Alfred Karibongi
Isabel	Solomon Islands , Buala	Ellison Quity
Malaita	Solomon Islands , Auki	Samuel Sahu
Temotu	Solomon Islands , Lata
Vanuatu and New Caledonia	Vanuatu , Luganville	James Marvin Ligo
Central Solomon Islands	Solomon Islands , Tulagi	Ben Seka

Primates

St. Barnabas Anglican Cathedral, Honiara, Solomon Islands

• John Wallace Chisholm (1967-1975)
• Norman Kitchener Palmer MBE (1975-1987)
• Amos Stanley Waiaru OBE (1988-1993)
• Sir Ellison Leslie Pogo CFU (1994-2008)
• David Vunagi (2009-2016)
• George Takeli (since 2016)

Web links

• Church site
• Entry on the website of the WCC
• Book of Common Prayer of the Church of the Province of Melanesia