[Anglican Communion News Service] The Pacific island nation of Tonga has its first official bishop. But ‘Afa Vaka, who was consecrated and installed on Sept. 17, is actually the third bishop to serve the 169 islands – or the 36 inhabited islands – that make up Tonga.

The first Anglican missionary to Tonga was Bishop Alfred Willis, who arrived in 1902.  And in the mid-1960s, Bishop Fine Halapua, the father of Archbishop Winston Halapua, lived in Tonga as he served as a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Polynesia. But now, after a gap of 50 years, Tonga has its third bishop – this time the first bishop of the newly constituted episcopal unit of Tonga.

Full article.