Tonga, the Pacific island nation dubbed “the Friendly Isles” by Captain James Cook, now has an Anglican bishop.
A congregation of 300 witnessed the consecration of the Rt. Rev. ‘Afa Vaka. He will lead a newly constituted episcopal unit in the Diocese of Polynesia.
Anglican mission work began in Tonga in 1902 under an English bishop, the Rt. Rev Alfred Willis.
Anglicans represent a small proportion of Christians in a nation comprising 169 islands and a population of just over 100,000. The Wesleyan Methodist Church is the established state church of Tonga, although both Roman Catholics and Mormons outnumber Methodists.
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.
