Anglican Church of Melanesia, Vanuatu

The Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM) is part of the Anglican Communion and includes eight dioceses across Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

ACOM was formed in 1861 by Bishop George Selwyn under the Diocese of Melanesia, within the Church of the Province of New Zealand.

Today, there are nearly 200,000 Anglicans out of an estimated population of more than 800,000 people in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and a newly formed parish in Nouméa, New Caledonia.

The Anglican Church of Melanesia has a range of activities as an active church in the Pacific.

These include ministry and mission, social and community development, and strengthening the capacity of the organisation.

Social and community development work is overseen by the Board of Mission of the Anglican Church of Melanesia, and includes health, education (including adult literacy), community development, child protection, working with people with disabilities, gender programs, family violence programs, responding to climate change, and disaster risk reduction.

The Anglican Church of Melanesia in Vanuatu is part of the Vanuatu Church Partnership Program that is funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Its focus is on the delivery of water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure to communities within the two Vanuatu dioceses: the Diocese of Vanuatu and New Caledonia (Sanma and Penema Provinces) and the Diocese of Banks and Torres (Torba Province).

Anglican Overseas Aid has been partnering with the Anglican Church of Melanesia in Vanuatu since 2012.

The partnership began with Anglican Overseas Aid providing a small amount of funding for a pilot project to replicate the successful solar lights work that had been taking place in Solomon Islands. The pilot, called the Women and Youth Empowerment project, was a success and it was included in the Australian Government funding program in 2013-14.

In July 2019, AOA commenced work with the Anglican Church of Melanesia, Vanuatu (ACOMV) to deliver the Safe, Resilient Communities Program. This program transformed community knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and practices towards gender-based violence.

Communities also learned knowledge and skills by sharing information within their social networks. The program also prepared communities to respond to the impacts of disasters, focusing on the protection of vulnerable people.

AOA is now working with ACOMV on the Positive Parenting Program. This program has two main goals. They are:

1. Community leaders become advocates for healthy family relationships; and
2. Parents are empowered to respond to the process of growth and development of their children.

To achieve these goals, the program will maintain support networks in communities which have already been established, and establish additional networks in new communities.

The facilitators of the program ensure that networks within communities promote healthy relationships. This makes for greater wellbeing and creating safer and more cohesive communities as more equity exists within them.

Funding: The Positive Parenting Program is funded by small grants and by donations from the Australian public.