People

Bishop David Vunagi, who served as assistant priest at St. Anselm's from 1996 to 1998, has been elected the Primate of the Anglican Church of Melanesia.

Bishop Vunagi will take the title of Archbishop when enthroned as the fifth Archbishop of Melanesia on May 31 in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

He came to Canada to obtain a Master of Theology degree from the Vancouver School of Theology, which he was awarded in 1998.

Bishop Vunagi became the bishop of the Diocese of Temotu in the Solomon Islands in 2000.

The new archbishop will become the fifth in succession since Melanesia was inaugurated in January 1975 as an independent ecclesiastical province from New Zealand.

The Province of Melanesia covers the Solomon Islands, the Republic of Vanuatu, and the French Trust Territory of New Caledonia. It has six dioceses in Solomon Islands and two in Vanuatu.

A biology teacher prior to his ordination, Bishop Vunagi has studied in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand, and taught at Bishop Patteson Theological College in the Solomon Islands. He and wife Mary have three children.

Judy Graves will hadd to her honours an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of British Columbia on May 26. This follows her receiving a Doctorate of Sacred Letters from Corpus Christi College, UBC, in 2008. She was also recently cited by the BC Civil Liberties Association. All this is in recognition of her caring work with the homeless, as coordinator of the City of Vancouver's Tenant Assistance Program.

Receiving wide notice in the Vancouver Sun on Good Friday last month was Christ Church Cathedral parishioner Lindsay Sutton, who was pictured on page 1 and interviewed about her recent baptism. "We've decided being Christian is punk rock, because it's so anti-establishment," she told the reporter, who maintained that reports of the death of the Church in highly secular BC have been exaggerated.

The Rev. Janice Lowell, assistant curate at St. Andrew's, Langley, is now spending time at Holy Trinity, White Rock, as well as at St. Andrew's, Langley, thanks to an agreement between the two parishes and with the approval of Bishop Michael Ingham.

The Sisterhood of St. John the Divine, which has many associates, clerical and lay, in the Diocese of New Westminster, celebrates its 125th anniversary on May 6. The Order's first mission was a hospital in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, to treat wounded soldiers in the Riel Rebellion. Since then it has operated hospitals, schools, homes, and other missions across the country. Among those gathering at the mother convent in Toronto for the celebration will be Heather Luccock, co-convenor of the order's local ward, a parishioner at St. Catherine's, North Vancouver.

Phoning the Diocesan Synod Office, you now may get the cheerful voice of receptionist Wilna Parry on Tuesday through Thursday, rather than Wednesday through Friday. For budgetary reasons, the office has no receptionist answering the phone Mondays and Fridays, although messages left will be returned. One can directly contact Synod Office staff by calling their locals, which are posted on the diocesan website, www.vancouver.anglican.ca.