United Church in the Solomon Islands

The United Church in the Solomon Islands used to be part of the former United Church in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, which was founded in 1968. In 1996 the general assembly of the UC-PNG/SI resolved that the existence of one united church covering two independent countries should no longer be maintained. Thus the United Church in the Solomon Islands came into being as an autonomous church on its own. Its history goes back to the Australian Methodist Church, now the Uniting Church in Australia, which began missionary work in Papua New Guinea in the 19th century, and in the Solomon Islands in 1902, in what is now the western province. The Methodists became the predominant denomination in that region. The Methodists together with the Papua Ekalesia and the Union Church in Port Moresby formed the United Church in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in 1968.

The western province of the Solomon Islands has remained the area of concentration of the United Church. In the 1980s the church started spreading out to other parts of the country, including the capital Honiara. The church runs several primary schools, a hospital and some clinics. It is involved in training people for mission, and in overcoming distances, ethnic and linguistic diversity in mission, particularly with Kiribati. Women participate in decision making at all levels of the church, and the United Women’s Fellowship is very active in the local congregations. The church supports the Boys and Girls’ Brigades, and youth camps. Programmes of the church include urban ministry among young people, skills training for school drop-outs and the unemployed, and the improvement of liter¬acy. The United Church is concerned with the issue of the damage done to the environment because of excessive logging.