HOLY TRINITY ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL

Bula Vinaka and welcome to our very own web page. If you are reading this it is so good to have you.This page is still under construction therefore you will come across a few incomplete information and at times be denied access to a few pages, we regret the inconvenience.

Just a bit of History for you...

The Anglican Church in the Diocese of Polynesia was first established in Levuka in 1870 with the arrival of William Floyd from Melbourne. He arrived in response to a request by planters and Traders on Levuka for an Anglican priest to minister to them. Fiji was already under the Wesleyan Mission.
A later meeting of Mission Boards established the Comity of Missions where the Pacific was cut up as follows:
The London Missionary Society to work in Tahiti, Rarotonga, Samoa, Gilbert and Ellice Island, Niue
The Wesleyans in Tonga and Fiji
The Presbyterians in Vanuatu
The Anglicans in Solomon’s

This did not stop denominations from establishing themselves in countries already evangelized by the churches above.
Bishops from New Zealand, Australia and Melanesia visited the area what is now Polynesia and recommended some Episcopal oversight. The work in Fiji as from 1874 when the country was ceded to Queen Victoria meant that the colonial Government and its church affiliation with the Church of England needed to be recognized by the Church of England. It was the Church of England’s policy that where the Colonial administration needed a chaplain that priests were licenced by the Bishop of London. This meant that the area identified came under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Diocese of Polynesia was created with the consecration of its first Bishop at Lambeth Palace Chapel on 28th May 1908.
The area before that did not belong to the Australia, New Zealand or Melanesian jurisdiction. With the presence of Bishop Willis in 1902 in Tonga, there were jurisdiction issues. Who was he accountable to? After all he was the Bishop of Hawaii. Hawaii was annexed to the United States as one of its territories in 1898 with the overthrow of the Royal Family of which Bishop Willis was chaplain.
Bishop Willis who gave his oath to Queen Victoria when he was appointed to Hawaii was not going to give allegiance to the United States of America’s President. So he left and started the Anglican Church on Tonga. Before that he visited the area and dedicated the Pro-cathedral in Suva.
The Bishops in New Zealand and Australia were concerned about the Episcopal supervision of the area that was not under a Bishops jurisdiction. The presence of Bishop Willis in Tonga did not help. The Bishop of Nelson and Dunedin who visited the area felt that some Episcopal jurisdiction was needed.

The consecration of the First Bishop of Polynesia at Lambeth Chapel on May 28th 1908 seemed to overcome the question of Episcopal Oversight.
The new Bishop and the work needed funds for the Bishops Stipend, accommodation, stipend of Priests and Evangelism. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in London supported our work from the time Bishop Willis until we became an Associated Missionary Diocese of the Church of the Province of New Zealand.
Moves were made to put Polynesia as a Missionary Diocese of the Province of New Zealand like the Diocese of Melanesia because of Geographical reasons.

In 1925, the Primate and Archbishop of New Zealand visited the Diocese to officially accept the Diocese of Polynesia as a Missionary Diocese of the Church of the Province of New Zealand.
The Anglican Church was requested to work amongst the Indians in Vanua Levu who were brought from India as Indentured Laborers. There were already Solomon islanders who were brought to work in the Sugar Plantations.

This was also an opportunity for Bishop Kempthorne to establish the first Diocesan Synod of the Diocese of Polynesia.
• 1935 – a Bishops house was built
• A Chinese School was established in the 1930’s.
• In 1953 a cathedral was built with the lady Chapel and Levuka
• A school for Melanesians, St John’s was established in Suva
• Clergy were recruited from UK, Australia and New Zealand.
• Indigenous staff were slowly recruited
• The work in Samoa was a Chaplaincy, i.e., we minister only to our people. Most German families in Samoa were Lutherans and they became Anglicans.
• Tonga advanced because Bishop Willis translated the Book of Common Prayer and the bible and recruited Tongans quite early.
• Fiji lacked because the Colonial personnel were promoting segregations for Fijians, Indians and Europeans.
• Bishop Kempthorne started the indigenization of the Diocese of Polynesia by sending students to Te Auta College and St Stephens in New Zealand. Bishop Halapua was given time to train as an ordinand in Fiji. Tome Enikosuna, Meke Samisoni, Luke Oli, 2 Indians were given leading roles in our schools and Bishop Bryce to train as priest at St John’s in Auckland.

Bishop Vockler who became the 3rd Bishop of Polynesia attended the Pacific Conference of Churches first meeting in Malua in 1961. Our people met him and his name was put forward as the next Bishop of Polynesia.

At that stage our Missionary Diocese held an Electoral Synod which can only suggest 3 names and it was up to the Bishops in new Zealand to choose who should be our Bishop.
Bishop Vockler and Bishop Holland were chosen in that way. Bishop Kempthorne and Bishop Twitchell, we did not have any say, as the decisions were made by the Bishops of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Canon was changed in 1970 and Bishop Bryce became the First Bishop of Polynesia to be chosen by our Diocese.
• A Commission was set up in 1984 under the Chairmanship of the Bishop of Dunedin to upgrade the status of our Diocese.
• In 1990, the General Synod met in Suva, Fiji. It was the first time it met outside New Zealand.
• The Diocese of Polynesia was declared in 1990 as an Equal, Full and Integral Diocese of the province like any other Diocese in New Zealand.
• This meant that the Resources of the Church can be equally divided t6o Polynesia which it did not enjoy that privilege before, because it was outside New Zealand.
In 1992 the Church of the Province of New Zealand changed its constitution to allow three partners to have Full, Equal and Integral Partnership in the Life of this church. The Three Tikanga church came into being and the Diocese of Polynesia is a full partner.