Message From·The Archbishop of Melanesia to The
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MESSAGE FROM · THE ARCHBISHOP OF MELANESIA TO THE PROVINCE To all God's People in Melanesia : - We as the Independent Church of Melanesia have a great responsibility ahead of us. We all have a duty to do for God's Church and the Country. Soon our Country will become independent and everybody is expected to contri bute something. What is our contribution t o the Country? 1. The C.O.M. has inherited a goodly tradition from the past, both the Anglican tradition and our own Melanesian tradition. We must combine the two in order to give strength and meaning to our worship. 2. We must thank our Founders, Bishops Selwyn and Patteson and the great men and women of tbe past, especially our first Archbishop for planning and preparing our Church to be:.ome a Province. Each one of us must be willing to work hard, work together and believe in God for what He wants His Church to be in the future. J. The many changes that have come to our Islands have caused confusion and doubts in the minds of some of our people. They ar~ involved in many different kinds of work and activities which are very good, but as a re sult these involvements weaken the work of the Church in some parts. What we need today, more than ever is the awakening or developing of the spiritual life of our People, and the training of our people to have a right attitude to life and work~ Also to have a better understanding and relationship with each othero 4. The spirit of unity of the Church in the Province must be built up in our respective Dioceses. We must look at one another, help ~ ne another, and share with one anQther our ideas and planning. There is no place for self-centredness in the Church. All our plans and work must be centred in the service and glory of God. We are one in the body of Christ and part of the whole Church of Christ in the world. As we strengthen our oneness in the Province wo mus t also work closely together with other Churches wit~in the Provincea Por Christ is one. 5. 'The Church that live s by itself will also die by itself.' This was said by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey. Sometimes we for ge-t that God has richly blessed us in many ways in these islands. We don't understand what it means to be hun ~ ry or poor. Many countries in the world today suffer from too many people and not enough food, or they h~ve not got what we have. These are the people that we should help in our praye ~r and giving. The Church ot Melanesia should be an outward looki ng Church, that is a sending and giving Church, eg. Melanesian Brothers wo~king overseas. Let us look outside and think seriously about those who need help and see what we can do for them. The Lord be our helper. Your Father in God + Norman Melanesia '~ . - 2 - " MESSAGE ' FROM THE PACIFIC CONFERENCE OF CHURCHES which took place in Papua New Guinea in January of this year. 'Wo declare that God is concerned for the life of the people in the Pacific Islands. Wo believe this because of Jesus Christ who shows us God's care. So the Assembly of the Pacific Conference of Churches calls its members to share in the loving concern of God for people. 'Churches are not chiefly concerned for themselves, to increase their power and enlarge their buildings. Ministers and Priests and Church Officers are not chiefly concerned t~ keep their status in society. We are not working as a Confer ~ ~f Churches because we seek a bigger name for ourselves. If we do these things we betray the Lord who was born in humility and who died in shame. 'Rather we seek first to love a·nd serve people. We o"'fer the Word of God and the Way of Jesus, that many may find peace of heart in Him. We challenge those forms of society which permit and encourage bad uses of power. We seek to change conditi6ns of life which break up families. We question those forms of economic development which press Island people into foreign styles of life. We rejoice to support all people of good will who help our Communitic~ to live in peace and to grow towards full haman development. If we do these things we begin to fulfil the loving and healing purpose of our Lord. 'At this Assembly we have received the South Pacific Bishops' Conference of the Roman Catholic Church as a full member. We confess with sorrow that in t:.e past there has sometimes been a bad spirit bot ween · diff-erent parts of Christ 1 s Church in the Islands. We take this new oppor tunity of co-operation to ch~llengc all Christian people in the .Pacific to work together for Christ'$ sake. •WQ believe as we work and pray together so we discover more about God's purpose for the Pacific todayo He loves peopleo He cares more for people than for Doctrine, for in Jesus Christ He gave Himself for those who did not know the truth. As we together offer our work to him, we believe He will show us more of His Glory. So we praise our wonderful God, who a lways leads us forward io~o life.' MISS KATHLEEN HOLGATE Miss Kathleen Holgate left the Solomons on leave after spending eleven years in the Solomons. She had taught at Pamua and Selwyn College and had helped to start secondary education for girls in the Diocese of Melanesia . On the deat~ of Miss BeglGn, she became Diocesan Education Adviser and was for a period Acting Diocesan Secretary in Honiara as well. She gave valuable help in the Parish of Honiara, especially in the Rove-White River area. Her last appointment was as Adviser in Christian Education, first as Head of the Provincial Department of Christian Education, then as a member of staff of the Provincial Department of Evangelism and Co~munity Education, in charge of the Christian Education Section. She had been seeking for a person to take over this work and' wrote to the Bishops to ask if they wanted her to return after leave for ahother 18 months until a Melanesian could be found to take over from her. The Council of Bishops decided that the post should be localised as soon as possible and so she will not be returning to Melanesia after leave in Australia and England. THE ARCHBISHOP WRITES The Church of Melanesia ha.s so much to thank God for and especially for the men and women of the past who dedicated their lives in obedience to the call of God. Am ~ .::.('· them I would like to mention Kathleen Holgate who gave 11 years of faithful and dedicated work to the people of these islands especially in the field of education. We are extremely grateful for what she has done and her love for Melanesian people. We wish her God's blessing for the future. - 3 - DIOCESE OF YSABEL At the time of writing thiti new~,Bishop Dudley was nearing the end of his tour of the West and of' Gela 7 . .Savo and the Russells region•· He left Buala on Santa Ysabel on March 20th, 1976. The tour commenced at Gizo where' Fr. Hudson Lagusu, the Chaplain of the Western area is based Fro Hudson accompanied the Bishop on his visit through tho o.rea. Most of the Diocese is in the vi~? .. 1e life setting, but the Western area is made up of several different types of settlements. Gizo at the far westis a busy Commercial and Administeriel town with a population of rnixed races and could be classed os an urbr. n area whero the Pastoral Care needs are quite different from the vil.l::ages. At Ringgi Cove on the Island of Kolombangara the settlement two miles inland by road was formed by Lever Brothers Logging Division. Over two hundred families arc housed in lines of joined aluminum houses each with two rooms and a verandah, with electrict light supplied, and communal bath houses and toilets prov:ded. There is a large Community Club building and a joint Church built of concrete. Some of the men work in the bush felling trees, each man felling at least twenty-five trees a day, others cart the logs down to the coast where they are stacked in big piles. \./hen a ship comes froo Japan the logs are dropped into the sea by large cranes and towed out to tho ship by launches and loaded by the ship's winches. · The new settlement at Noro on the Hawthorne Sound, whore Solomon Taiyo's Catcher ships' arc coming and going everyday, supplying the large modern fish freezer, is another of Fr. Hudsons pastoral careso Here the Church is not yet built but Services are held in a h~t on the hill nbove the wharf. 0 As there is no Church bell 0 the commencing the Service is. nnnounced by men with lusty voices calling people in. /\ Munda, New Georgia is a small neat Administerial centre where a few Anglican families are stationedo Here our people sometimes join with the United Church Folk at their Church and also gather in one of their own homes for worship. Rendovu.· Harbour i s the s ite of a plantation village. The p lantation is owned by Commander Scott-Elliot and run by Melanesians.