Anglican Church of Melanesia
Intro
The Anglican Church of Melanesia is the Anglican Communion province serving the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. It grew out of the Melanesian Mission, became an autonomous province in 1975, and now organizes its congregations through dioceses led by the Archbishop of Melanesia.
Structure
The province follows the usual Anglican episcopal pattern, with dioceses, parishes, clergy, and a metropolitan archbishop. Wikipedia identifies the Diocese of Central Melanesia as the metropolitan see and describes the province as maintaining a diocesan system across its island territories.
The current provincial framework described on Wikipedia includes ten dioceses, listed below in a cleaned form.
| Diocese | Notes |
|---|---|
| Central Melanesia | Metropolitan see of the Archbishop of Melanesia |
| Malaita | One of the dioceses created when the province became autonomous in 1975 |
| Vanuatu and New Caledonia | Extends across the province's western island territories |
| Ysabel | One of the original dioceses of the 1975 provincial structure |
| Temotu | Added in 1981 |
| Hanuato'o | Added in 1991 |
| Banks and Torres | Added in 1996 |
| Central Solomons | Added in 1997 |
| Guadalcanal | Added in 2013 |
| Southern Malaita and Sikaiana | Newest diocese listed in the current Wikipedia structure summary |
Source(s)
Source: No clearly free portrait of Leonard Dawea was located on Wikimedia Commons during verification, so this figure uses the flag of the Solomon Islands from Wikimedia Commons. The file is public domain as a national flag.
Source: Intro adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anglican Church of Melanesia". Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Source: Structure summary adapted from the Structure section of the Wikipedia article "Anglican Church of Melanesia". Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Title image uses the flag of the Solomon Islands from Wikimedia Commons, public domain as a national flag. It is used here as a practical fallback because no clearly free Anglican Church of Melanesia emblem was located on Commons during verification.