Ini Kopuria (died June 1945) was a police officer from Maravovo, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands who founded the Melanesian Brotherhood in 1925. He and the Bishop of Melanesia, the Right Reverend John Manwaring Steward, realised Ini's dream by forming a band of brothers (known in the Mota language as 'Ira Reta Tasiu') to take the Gospel of Jesus to the non-Christian areas of Melanesia.
The Anglican Church of Melanesia and Church of England commemorate Kopuria on their calendars of saints.
Ini is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 6 June. [1]
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Sumba in the west to Tonga in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea and a few thousand islands.
Melanesians are the predominant and indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, in a wide area from the eastern of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea to as far east as the islands of Vanuatu and Fiji. Most speak either one of the many languages of the Austronesian language family, especially ones in the Oceanic branch, or from one of the many unrelated families of Papuan languages. Other languages are the several creoles of the region, such as Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, Solomon Islands Pijin, Bislama, Ambonese Malay and Papuan Malay.
John Coleridge Patteson was an English Anglican bishop, missionary to the South Sea Islands, and an accomplished linguist, learning 23 of the islands' more than 1,000 languages.
The Melanesian Brotherhood is an Anglican religious community of men in simple vows based primarily in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea.
Tabalia is the name of the Mother House of the Melanesian Brotherhood (MBH) on northeastern Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
Tumsisiro is community located near Saratamata on east Ambae Island, Vanuatu and is the headquarters of the Southern Region of the Melanesian Brotherhood, an Anglican religious community.
The Church of England commemorates many of the same saints as those in the General Roman Calendar, mostly on the same days, but also commemorates various notable Christians who have not been canonised by Rome, with a particular though not exclusive emphasis on those of English origin. There are differences in the calendars of other churches of the Anglican Communion.
The word saint derives from the Latin sanctus, meaning holy, and has long been used in Christianity to refer to a person who was recognized as having lived a holy life and as being an exemplar and model for other Christians. Beginning in the 10th century, the Catholic Church began to centralise and formalise the process of recognising saints; the process whereby an individual was added to the canon (list) of recognised saints became known as canonisation.
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.
Mota is an island in the Banks group of northern Vanuatu, with a population of about 700.
John Manwaring Steward (1874–1937) was the fifth Anglican Bishop of Melanesia, serving from 1919 to 1928. From 1924 he was assisted by Merivale Molyneux as assistant bishop. He was the son of Charles Edward Steward, also an Anglican priest. J.M. Steward was elected Bishop of Melanesia after 17 years of missionary work as a priest in the Melanesian Mission, which he joined in 1902.
John Richardson Selwyn was an Anglican priest who became the second Bishop of Melanesia and then the second Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge.
Cecil Wilson was an English county cricketer and Anglican bishop. He was the third missionary Anglican Bishop of Melanesia from 1894 to 1911, and subsequently, the second Bishop of Bunbury from 1918 to 1937.
Clement Marau was a Melanesian Anglican clergyman. He was made a deacon by Bishop John Richardson Selwyn in 1890, and ordained to the priesthood in 1903 by Bishop Cecil Wilson. Born on Merelava in the Banks Islands, he was taken to Norfolk Island for Christian education and ministerial training. He worked as a teacher and pastor in the Solomon Islands. Marau was removed from his clerical office following a 1907 charge of adultery, but restored in 1918 by Bishop Cecil Wood.
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.
Charles Elliot Fox was an Anglican missionary and teacher in Melanesia.
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.
The Melanesian Mission is an Anglican missionary agency supporting the work of local Anglican churches in Melanesia. It was founded in 1849 by George Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand.
Maravovo is a village on the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. It is located 57.6 kilometres (35.8 mi) by road northwest of Honiara. Mangakiki is in close proximity to Maravovo. The population is reportedly entirely Anglican. On 7 October 1942, during the Guadalcanal campaign, the Japanese established a small midget submarine base there. On 7 February 1943, when the first American troops reached the area, they only encountered slight resistance, and found out most of the Japanese had already been previously evacuated during Operation Ke. Wreck of one of the midget submarine still lies underwater in the bay facing the village.
William Alaha Pwaisiho is a Rector in the Church of England and a retired bishop of the Anglican Church of Melanesia.
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