Sola Youth Mission to Solomon Islands

MELANESIAN MESSENGER 071210-1 December 10, 2007

[Melanesian Messenger - Melanesia] Forty youth members of Sola Parish in the Diocese of Banks and Torres in Vanuatu are to arrive in Solomon Islands this weekend for a special Christmas mission to Vura parish in Honiara and Longu on Guadalcanal.

Diocesan Bishop of Banks and Torres, the Rt Revd Nathan Tome, is already in Honiara finalizing the tour programme. He explained that the mission called "Sola Mission to Solomon Islands 2007" is here for three purposes:

"The group is here to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Vura Parish in Honiara in the Diocese of Central Melanesia, under an initiative taken to get the two parishes to establish a sister relationship within the two congregations."

Another aim of the mission is outreach in which they will perform various religious activities including Christmas carols, drama and skits and the "gospel dance", a new form of presenting the gospel using cultural and modern dance acts.

"We will also be using this time to try and raise funds which would go towards the effort to build a Diocesan Cathedral at Sola."

Bishop Tome said Sola youth members were looking forward to a fruitful and rewarding time with an opportunity to look and learn about the church life in Solomon Islands. The group returns to Sola on 21 December 2007.

Sola is the Diocesan headquarters of Banks and Torres, one of the two Anglican Dioceses in the Republic of Vanuatu.