Grounded in Guadalcanal
Diocesan Press Service. January 14, 1966 [XXXIX-8]
Ralph S. Dean, Executive Officer, Anglican Communion
My flying visit to the South Pacific region took me first to Polynesia and then to the Diocese of Melanesia. This diocese is a great deal smaller -- only a mere three quarters of a million square miles in area -- but its problems and challenges are no less great, and those of communications are probably even greater. The islands in the Diocese of Polynesia for the most part are linked by air transportation, while those in Melanesia depend almost entirely on ocean going transportation. This means that in the Diocese of Melanesia there is an Anglican fleet of which we may well be proud. There is what might be called the flag ship -- "The Southern Cross" 85 ft. long and displacing 100 tons -- which is used for the most part by the diocesan bishop, the Right Reverend A. T. Hill, and his Melanesian suffragans, Leonard Alufurai and Dudley Tuti -- and it might be said in passing that Dudley is seasick almost every time he goes to sea. There is the 55 ft. long "Baddeley" used for cargo, the 70 ft. medical ship called the "Faubu Toomey" and the 55 ft. "Selwyn" which sails round the distant New Hebrides. Quite a fleet! For my part I sailed in the "Southern Cross" and so I am able to say that while the show "South Pacific" may seem to be very romantic the reality is anything but that. Work in the Diocese of Melanesia is hard, tough and demanding, and its work is not nearly as well known as it should be. There are heroes of the Cross, unhonoured and unsung in this diocese. I think of the bishop, Alfred Hill, who owns a mariner's ticket, and has worked for thirty-five years in the diocese, eleven of them as the bishop. I think of Archdeacon Harry Reynolds who also has served for thirty-five years, and it was truly astonishing to meet Canon C. E. Fox, aged eighty-eight, who has served in the diocese for no less than sixty-two years! This "do it yourself" diocese as Howard Johnson called it in "Global Odyssey" has 124 clergy of whom 112 are Melanesians. It also has no less than 850 Melanesian catechists who are paid up to about $ per year, and also 55 members of the famous Melanesian Brothers and 15 novices in training. There are also 50 students training to be catechists, and in the fine schools of Pawa, and Alangauna, I saw evidence of many other young men who no doubt one day will find their places in the service of Christ in this diocese. I spent thirteen days in this diocese, although eight of them were in hospital on Guadalcanal where I was grounded for eight days having been attacked by a virus pneumonia. I was not the first to discover that God often puts a man on his back in order that he may look up, and I had time to think and reflect. To be entirely dependent on other people is a great way of finding out exactly what kind of people they are, and certainly the European and Solomon Island doctors and nurses treated me with kindness that could not have been surpassed any- where. The five days during which I was mobile provided me with unforgettable experiences. The Melanesian Brotherhood, for example, is perhaps the organization closest to the pattern of the New Testament that I have so far seen. Started in 1925 by a Melanesian -- Ini Kopuria -- the Brothers bind themselves by annual vows to abstain from marriage and other such commitments, and after a period of training become wandering evangelists, visiting island after island. I visited their headquarters on Guadalcanal, and understood what Canon Fox had said to me when he had told me that for eleven years he had been a member of that Brotherhood and, as he said, owned nothing but a singlet and a loin cloth, and yet "I felt I owned the world". It all seemed a far cry from our Western organization and our dependence on possessions.
Since my views on the building of cathedrals are apparently well-known, my critics may be surprised to read that I feel that the Diocese of Melanesia does need a new cathedral! The present one at Honiara is in fact two war surplus Quonset huts put together, and is a totally inadequate structure for the crowds of people who attend worship not only on Sunday but on weekdays too. So plans are afoot for the building of a new cathedral, but the authorities have turned down an architect's scheme which calls for a cathedral costing $40, 000! The Cathedral Chapter had decided that $25,000 is the maximum that ought to be spent on a building! No wonder I felt at home in the joyful contagious happiness of this remarkable diocese. Thinking about the need of a cathedral, surely there must be a number of Episcopalian G. I.'s who slogged it out in the "living green hell" of Guadalcanal who would be prepared to make a new cathedral possible.
My space is gone and I have said nothing about the four European staffed hospitals, the two leper colonies, the schools scattered throughout the diocese, the printing press and the little ships which make up the means of transport in this remarkable diocese. It is a great adventure to go to the Diocese of Melanesia and I eagerly look forward to the chance of going there again.