Upcoming mission to Solomon Islands: SOMA US & NZ working together

A Province Equipped: Returning to the Solomon Islands

Last year we reported on SOMA’s mission in Honiara, Solomon Islands where a SOMA Australian team worked alongside the clergy of the Diocese of Central Melanesia — a rich and encouraging time of ministry in the power of the Spirit. We’re now delighted to share the next step in that relationship, and it is a bigger step than anything we’ve previously attempted in the Solomon Islands.

In partnership with SOMA New Zealand, we are planning a Provincial Training Mission — an initiative designed not just to bless one diocese, but to equip the whole Church of Melanesia in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Here’s how it will work. The bishop and two selected clergy from each participating diocese will gather at a central location for two full days to receive SOMA’s Core Teaching and ministry workshops, delivered by a team drawn from SOMA Australia and New Zealand. From there, two missioners will travel back with each bishop and their clergy into their own diocese, delivering the same material to leaders, clergy, and laity through a series of two-day and one-day events. Throughout this process, the selected clergy are trained to progressively carry and deliver the teaching themselves — so that what begins with a visiting team ends with a diocese fully equipped to continue teaching and ministering in the Spirit long after we’ve returned home.

This is the heart of SOMA’s calling: we don’t come to do ministry for a diocese — we come to plant something that a diocese can sustain and multiply itself.

The practical details:

• SOMA Missioners are expected to raise their own airfare and bring an allowance for nominal daily expenses.  We are hoping for local hospitality for the team, however accommodation costs may be incurred.
• Allowing for travel, we anticipate nine days on the ground for each team.
• We’re aiming for late June 2027, which gives us time to recruit and prepare enough missioners to cover every participating diocese.

Over the past few years SOMA has developed a simple seven-sheet booklet entitled “SOMA’s Core Teaching on the Holy Spirit” which is designed to be reproduced cheaply on any office photocopier with a built-in stapler, and given freely, without copyright, to every parish and leader who receives it. It has already been used to renew and equip Anglican dioceses widely around the world, and is currently available in six languages. As part of this mission, we would hope to see it translated into Pijin or Bislama, so that it can take root in the heart language of the communities we’re serving.

This is where you come in. A mission of this scale — training an entire province — needs a genuine team: teachers, ministry workers, encouragers, people with a heart for the practical things of the Spirit and a willingness to travel simply and stay humbly. If reading this stirs something in you, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch to express your interest in being part of this mission, even at this early stage — the sooner we know who might be available, the sooner we can plan well for every diocese involved. Please also hold this mission in prayer over the coming weeks, as decisions are being finalised and dates confirmed. Pray for the bishops and dioceses of the province as they discern their participation, for the international team as it comes together, and for the Core Teaching material itself — that wherever it lands, in whatever language, it would bring genuine renewal in the power of the Holy Spirit.