From the Solomon Islands, with love

Visiting four religious communities, four schools and St Barnabas cathedral in Honiara, talking with clergy, Mothers’ Union and the brothers and sisters occupied nearly all of my time in the Solomon Islands very well!

My husband George enjoyed engaging with clergy undertaking the Bachelor of Theology degrees at Tabalia, where the Melanesian Brothers offered wonderful hospitality to us both. Out of all my experiences, I thought you might like to hear about the visit to the cathedral.

On 16 June we attended the cathedral in Honiara: it was a celebration of Trinity Sunday, St Barnabas and their 50^th anniversary of the cathedral.

We arrived at 7.30 am for the main service of the morning at 8.00 am. There were 200 people attending the earlier 7.00am Eucharist and we waited until they left. They all left very quickly because there are many openings alongside the cathedral for them to use as an exit. The cathedral was decorated with vibrant flowers and the service was led by a choir of 70 with no organ. The Eucharist, celebrated by the Senior Bishop, was conducted with dignity and reverence and the Bishop of Ysabel preached on the theme of ‘love one another’. There were about 1000 people present with many young families: the overflow was catered for with extra chairs outside at the back of the cathedral. The Melanesian Brothers sang and danced traditional tribal dances bringing up the gospel in a small canoe which had, ‘Christ in culture’ written on the side. The Bishop read the gospel from the Bible which was open in the canoe.

One of the canoes

The offertory of bread and wine was also carried up in a canoe accompanied by a vigorous and colourful dance by the Sunday school (selected from its 200 members). I thought you might be interested to know that the congregation bring their own Hymn books to the service.

After the service, there were speeches and then everyone went to the covered area next door for lunch. 800 were served lunch with a system of efficiency only to be admired. Meanwhile groups from the cathedral sang or danced on the stage enthusiastically and with joy. The groups included Sunday School (who sang the Lord’s Prayer), Mothers’ Union, Men’s Fellowship Group (who were mostly female!), the choir, the Melanesian Brothers and more. The Dean cut a cake for the 50 years of the cathedral - even though the cathedral intends to celebrate the 50 years properly in 2020. It was a wonderful day and I can’t see how they can improve on the celebrations next year. We finished at 3.00pm.

Thank you to you all for your prayers while we were there.

Canon Jane Brooke
July 2019