The Anglican Church of Melanesia will have a new Primate later this year when the Bishop of Temotu, Leonard Dawea, is installed at St Barnabas Provincial Cathedral on 15 September.
The Archbishop-elect was chosen as the new Primate during a meeting of the Provincial Electoral Board last week.
Bishop Leonard, whose current diocese is in the Solomon Islands, will take over from Archbishop George Takeli, who retired in May. Before training for the priesthood he spent 12 years as a monk with the Melanesian Brotherhood.
Bishop Leonard, who comes from the Reefs islands in Temotu, and his wife Dorah, who hails from Guadalcanal, have two children.
The Anglican Province of Melanesia covers three independent nations: the Solomon Islands, the Republic of Vanuatu, and the French Trust Territory of New Caledonia.
Its Provincial Headquarters is in Honiara with a sub-Provincial Administration Office at Luganville on Santo in Vanuatu. It has seven dioceses in Solomon Islands and two in Vanuatu.
Bishop Nathan Tome, the senior bishop of the Province, is calling on all members of the Church to pray for Bishop Leonard and family “as he prepares to take on this highest position within the Church of Melanesia.”
Source: anglicannews.org