A former Archbishop of Melanesia has been chosen as next Governor General of the Solomon Islands. The Rt. Rev. David Vunagi was elected unopposed by the national parliament meeting in the capital Honiara. He was Bishop of Central Melanesia from 2009 until his retirement in 2015.
Vunagi gained his primary degrees in Honiara and then studied and worked in Canada, earning a Masters Degree from Vancouver School of Theology in 1998. He takes up his appointment on July 7. In retirement he has served on the staff of Selwyn College, an Anglican boarding school on Guadalcanal in the Solomons Islands.
In the British Commonwealth, Governors General are the local representative of the Queen. The role is largely ceremonial but they sign legislation into law.
The Solomons, located in the South Pacific west of New Guinea, consists of six major islands and 900 smaller islands. Anglicanism in Melanesia dates from 1849.
Anglicans in the province number 200,000. The province includes the neighboring island nation of Vanuatu.
John Martin
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
