The 61st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu is presently meeting, beginning last Sunday and continuing for the week.

While I have a professional interest in the island nation of Vanuatu and the region, it is helpful to review their Presbyterian heritage.  The one summary available on-line is the informative, but dated, profile from the World Council of Churches.  That profile talks about the beginning as a mission synod with ties to Presbyterian churches in Scotland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Nova Scotia (Canada).  A similarly dated description from Reformed Online provides some more historical details and includes statistical details including that there are 500 conventional parishes and 450 house churches.  This with 121 ordained clergy which are increased by an average of three per year from their ministerial training facility.  The Presbyterian Church is the largest denomination in Vanuatu with slightly over one-third of the 215,000 inhabitants as members.  Because of the educational system the Presbyterian church has established Presbyterians have been influential and numerous in the country’s leadership.  The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand has affirmed the PCV as their “primary mission relationship” and the PCV also has relationships with the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Uniting Church in Australia, and PC(USA), among others.

However, tracking the GA turns out to be a bit difficult.  While the church has a web site, we get a page saying “Website Coming Soon.”  No sign of activity on Twitter or in the blogosphere.

Because of the speech by the General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Mr. Setri Nyomi, there has been some press coverage of his comments.  Mr. Nyomi is reported to have spoken both to the Assembly as well as to a study group.  His comments both times were principally related to the care of creation but in the study group he tied in the comments of John Calvin on the subject.

It is also reported in the articles that the country’s acting president and the prime minister spoke to the Assembly affirming church and state working together for the good of the nation.  And it is reported that Mr. Moses Obed was elected Moderator of the General Assembly.

That’s about all I see at this time.  I’ll post next week if any additional information about the Assembly becomes available.