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 Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

Church of

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

and

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of ...

. The first women's order was the defunct

Sisters of the Holy Cross The Sisters of the Holy Cross (CSC) are one of three Catholic congregations of religious sisters which trace their origins to the foundation of the Congregation of Holy Cross by the Blessed Basil Anthony Moreau, CSC, at Le Mans, France in 1837. ...

, whose members transferred to the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in 1950. In the late 1960s, the then

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

of the

Diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...

of Melanesia hoped to establish a group of women

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

s in

Honiara Honiara () is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. , it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and li ...

. They could not come, but the

Community of the Sisters of the Church 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 ne ...

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 The Melanesian Brotherhood is an Anglican religious community of men in simple vows based primarily in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea. History The Melanesian Brotherhood was formed in 1925 by Ini Kopuria, a policeman from Ma ...

. This turned out to be the Sisters of Melanesia. There are about 110 sisters and over 50 novices at Verana'aso, Maravovo, Western

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the se ...

. The

Head Sister A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals m ...

Sister Catherine Rosa A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

. Besides Verana'aso, they have households in Honiara, CDC,

Auki Auki is the provincial capital of Malaita Province, Solomon Islands. It is situated on the northern end of Langa Langa Lagoon on the north-west coast of Malaita Island. It is one of the largest provincial towns in Solomon Islands. It was establi ...

and South

Malaita Malaita is the primary island of Malaita Province in Solomon Islands. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with a population of 161,832 as of 2021, or more than a third of the entire national population. It is also the se ...

. The

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

s 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.

Sources

*Richard Toke
"Religious Order celebrates silver jubilee"
''Melanesian Messenger'' 060608-1, June 8, 2006. The Anglican Communion *

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

Church of Melanesia
*Kevin Ward, Andrew Wingate, Carrie Pemberton (eds.
''Anglicanism: a Global Communion''
pp. 48–49. Church Publishing, Inc., 1998. {{Anglican orders

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, V ...

Religious organizations established in the 1960s Anglican orders and communities 1960s establishments in Oceania Women in Oceania