SSEC Has New Bishop

The South Seas Evangelic Church (SSEC) after a long day of elections announced its new bishop last night.

The newly elected Bishop, Mathias Lima from Weathercoast, Guadalcanal, replaces the late Bishop Festus Suruma who passed away on the 12 of July this year.

Mathias Lima was one of six candidates who contested, winning with a total of 60 votes while Acting Bishop Eric Takila was the runner up with 55 votes.

More than 300 delegates that included Regional Superintendents from the Provinces, chief elders and all associations in the Provinces witnessed the election.
The church also has a new vice bishop, Stanley Aitorea, who takes over from outgoing vice Bishop Andrew Fanasia.

The election, held every four years, took place at Mataruka village in the Malango district, east of Honiara.

The ordination of the two new bishops will be held at the Honiara Central Church on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Church's one-week General Conference with the theme 'Growing A Matured Church to Impact the Nation and to Touch the World,' ended yesterday.

Speaking to Solomon Times the outgoing acting bishop Eric Takila said the conference was a time for every head of departments in Honiara and the provinces to report what has been going on in their churches.

Reverend Takila also said that they talked about a lot of issues in the conference and the expectation is that discussions and decisions they made must be implemented after the conference.