Partners in mission and development
As a visible sign of his commitment to the partnership between the Dioceses of Bathurst and Ysobel, The Bishop of Bathurst Ian Palmer will attend the consecration of The Reverend Ellison Quity as the 6th Bishop of the Diocese of Ysabel in Jejevo in the Solomon Islands on February 7th.
Representatives of the two dioceses formally signed the agreement in October last year.
However, Bishop Ian has had a connection with the people of Ysabel since 2008, when he first visited the diocese as an Archdeacon in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn when that diocese had a link agreement with Ysabel.
That trip led to a further visit four years later, and marked thebeginning of strong friendships with some of the local clergy – including Fr Ellison Quity. A few years later, when the link agreement between Canberra-Goulburn and Ysabel Dioceses had run its course and Archdeacon Palmer had become Bishop of Bathurst, he was keen to re-establish the connection.
This desire for a partnership with the Ysabel Diocese was supported by The Reverend Mal Dunnett, currently Rector of the Parish of Orange (Bathurst Diocese), who had made several trips to Ysabel while serving as a priest in Canberra-Goulburn Diocese. In fact, it was Mal Dunnett who signed the Partnership Agreement on behalf of Bishop Palmer last October, when just days after the Bathurst Synod had agreed to the proposal, he led a team from Orange on a brief trip to the Solomon Islands.
Mal Dunnett will be accompanying Bishop Ian at next month’s consecration, as will Mrs Liz Palmer.
The partnership between the two dioceses is for an initial period of three years, and calls on each diocese to commit to ‘a relationship that is sustainable and empowering for both parties’. Initially the focus will be on developing programmes that facilitate the training and development of clergy and young people, and particularly training lay leaders in pastoral care.
In the coming year it is hoped that a priest will come to Bathurst Diocese from Ysabel for a time of experience in one of the parishes of the diocese, and a lay person will come from Ysabel for training in administration.
Plans are already under way for a group of young people from Bathurst Diocese to visit Ysabel next October, to encourage the faith and commitment of young people of both dioceses.
Reverend Ellison Quity, who comes from Biluro village in the Hograno district in Isabel Province, has served as the Principal of Mano Wadrokol School of Theology and Ministry at Tasia, Diocese of Ysabel since 2011.
He graduated with a Masters of Theology from the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji in 2010. He and his wife Jessie have six children.
Before joining the Anglican Priesthood, Rev’d Quity was an Agriculturalist by profession.
Ellison Quity, 53, succeeds Bishop Richard Naramana who officially retired in September 2015. The Diocese of Ysabel covers the Anglican communities in Ysabel, Choiseul, Western Provinces and the Russell Islands in Central Islands Province. The church currently has seven dioceses in Solomon Islands and two in Vanuatu and New Caledonia.