The Community of the Sisters of Melanesia, more usually called The Sisters of Melanesia, is the third order for women to be established in the Church of Melanesia, which is the Anglican Church of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
The first women's order was the defunct Sisters of the Holy Cross, whose members transferred to the Roman Catholic Church in 1950.
In the late 1960s, the then bishop of the Diocese of Melanesia hoped to establish a group of women Franciscans in Honiara. They could not come, but the Community of the Sisters of the Church came and prospered.
A little more than a decade later, one woman named Nesta Tiboe felt that there was room for a community of sisters working in the Solomon Islands which followed the ideals and structures of the Melanesian Brotherhood. This turned out to be the Sisters of Melanesia.
There are about 110 sisters and over 50 novices at Verana'aso, Maravovo, Western Guadalcanal. The Head Sister is Sister Catherine Rosa. Besides Verana'aso, they have households in Honiara, CDC, Auki and South Malaita.
The novices wear a blue dress and upon admittance into the Sisterhood change into a green dress with a white veil with a green trim. The sisters wear a heart-shaped medal around their necks.
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent. The term is often used interchangeably with religious sisters who do take simple vows but live an active vocation of prayer and charitable work.
The Melanesian Brotherhood is an Anglican religious community of men in simple vows based primarily in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea.
The Society of Saint Francis (SSF) is an international Franciscan religious order within the Anglican Communion. It is the main recognised Anglican Franciscan order, but there are also other Franciscan orders in the Anglican Communion.
Anglican religious orders are communities of men or women in the Anglican Communion who live under a common rule of life. The members of religious orders take vows which often include the traditional monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, or the ancient vow of stability, or sometimes a modern interpretation of some or all of these vows. Members may be laity or clergy, but most commonly include a mixture of both. They lead a common life of work and prayer, sometimes on a single site, sometimes spread over multiple locations. Though many Anglicans are members of religious orders recognized by the Anglican Communion, others may be members of ecumenical Protestant or Old Catholic religious orders while maintaining their Anglican identity and parochial membership in Anglican churches.
The Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM), also known as the Church of the Province of Melanesia and the Church of Melanesia (COM), is a church of the Anglican Communion and includes nine dioceses in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The Archbishop of Melanesia is Leonard Dawea. He succeeds the retired archbishop George Takeli.
The Community of the Sisters of the Church is a religious order of women in various Anglican provinces who live the vowed life of poverty, chastity and obedience. In 2012 the order had 105 sisters living in community, together with an extensive network of associates.
Southern Cross is the name given to each of a succession of ships serving the Melanesian Mission of the Anglican Church and the Church of the Province of Melanesia. The first ship having this name succeeded the Undine, a 21-ton schooner built at Auckland and in service from 1849 to 1857.
The Archbishop of Melanesia is the spiritual head of the Church of the Province of Melanesia, which is a province of the Anglican Communion in the South Pacific region, covering the nations of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. From 1861 until the inauguration of Church of the Province of Melanesia in 1975, the Bishop of Melanesia was the head of the Diocese of Melanesia.
Honiara is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. As of 2021, it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and lies along the Kukum Highway.
Amos Stanley Waiaru OBE was a Solomon Islands divine from Nafinuatog who served as the third Archbishop of the Province of Melanesia.
Sir David Okete Vuvuiri Vunagi,, is a retired Solomon Islands Anglican bishop and incumbent governor-general of Solomon Islands. He was the archbishop of Melanesia and bishop of the Diocese of Central Melanesia from 2009 to 2015.
The St. Barnabas' Anglican Cathedral, Honiara is one of three Anglican cathedrals built in the Solomon Islands. The St. Luke's Cathedral was the first to be built in 1920s at Siota, Nggela but it was destroyed in World War II. The second was the All Saints Cathedral, a temporary structure built in the 1950s which was replaced by the St. Barnabas' Anglican Cathedral, Honiara, named after the St. Barnabas' Chapel and School on Norfolk Island, in the 1960s; the planning to build it started in 1961. The foundation stone for the new cathedral was laid on 6 January 1968 by Bishop Alfred Hill. A dedication service was held on 15 December 1968 which was attended by 1500 people. The cathedral was formally consecrated on 16 June 1969 when 2000 people attended the ceremony and it was dedicated by Bishops Chisholm and Alufurai.
Kakabona (Kakambona) is a peri-urban suburb on the fringe of Honiara, Solomon Islands and is located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of the main center and west of White River on the Tandai Highway. Kakabona borders the Honiara City Council ward of Nggosi. Refugees from Bouganville settled following the conflict.
William Alaha Pwaisiho is a retired Anglican bishop who served as a bishop of the Anglican Church of Melanesia and then a priest in the Church of England.
The Diocese of Guadalcanal is one of the nine current dioceses of the Anglican Church of Melanesia. It was founded on 23 June 2013.
The Diocese of Hanuato'o is one of the nine current dioceses of the Anglican Church of Melanesia; it was erected in 1991 and inaugurated at St George's Church, Kirakira on St Peter's Day, 29 June 1991. That church is now her cathedral, rededicated as St Peter's Cathedral; the diocese is divided into fifteen parishes.
The Diocese of Malaita is one of the nine current dioceses of the Anglican Church of Melanesia. One of the four original ACOM dioceses, Malaita diocese was erected in January 1975; it is currently subdivided into six regions of 46 parishes.
George Angus Takeli is a Solomon Islands Anglican bishop. He was Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Melanesia and Bishop of the Diocese of Central Melanesia from April 2016 to May 2019. He was first married to Lilian, who died in 2014. He got married a second time to June in December 2015.
The Holy Cross Cathedral, also referred to as the Catholic Cathedral of Honiara, is the cathedral church and seat of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Honiara. It is located in the city of Honiara, which is on Guadalcanal Island and is the capital of the Solomon Islands, a country in the southwest Pacific Ocean.
