Solomon Islands
Requiem for Seven Brothers
Slain Melanesian Brothers Mourned
The Melanesian Brotherhood is an Anglican religious order of men founded in 1925 by Ini Kopuria. The young men take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and work for social justice and development in culturally congruent Melanesian ways. The brothers served as peacemakers and intermediaries, an sometimes as messengers between feuding factions, most recently between the Guadalcanal Liberation Front and the Malaita Eagle Force.
Last spring, the head brother, Nathanial Sado, went to meet with GLF leader Harold Keke on the Weather Coast of Guadalcanal. Nothing more was heard of him. On Apr. 23, 2003 six brothers went into Keke territory to find him. Neither he, nor the six were seen alive again. Keke kidnapped an additional six brothers in June, but they were released.
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After Keke surrendered to RAMSI forces in August, the remains of the seven slain brothers were located, exhumed and taken to Honiara for forensic investigations. In October, the bodies were release to the Melanesian Brotherhood and relatives for burial.
On Oct. 24, a blessing was held at St. Barnabas Cathedral in Honiara, then the bodies of the seven were driven through flower-strewn streets and along the Kukum Highway to the Brotherhood headquarters at Tabalia, West Guadalcanal where the they were buried.
At a Sunday service after the funeral, 48 new brothers who had completed their novitiate and training, were sent into the community to take up their peacemaking work.
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