Vanuatu Congregations Welcome New Meetinghouses

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Port Vila, Vanuatu have new meetinghouses to meet in each week. To accommodate growth, two new meetinghouses were recently completed.

The Erakor meetinghouse was completed and hosts the Erakor Branch (congregation). 

The Fresh Wota meetinghouse began holding services last month and comprises two congregations.

These congregations are part of the Port Vila Vanuatu Stake. A stake is a group of congregations.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been in Vanuatu since 1973. The Church began in Vanuatu with a handful of missionaries and a few member families from Samoa and Tonga.

There are now close to 10,000 members of the Church in Vanuatu, in 35 congregations. They are part of a worldwide membership of over 16 million.

Latter-day Saints attend church every Sunday in meetinghouses throughout the world. Local congregations are geographically organized to bring neighbors and communities closer together and give them greater opportunities to serve each other.

As an illustration of what a typical service looks like, men, women and teenagers speak from the pulpit; sing hymns; offer extemporaneous, not recited, prayers; participate in the sacrament (similar to communion); attend scripture classes and engage in discussion; and share personal faith stories, or “testimonies.”

As there is no paid professional clergy, sharing congregational responsibilities and duties instills the value of community and fellowship. This cooperative participation means that lay members alternately preach sermons and listen to sermons, lead music and sing music, give advice and receive advice.

Sunday services are open to all who wish to attend, including those not of the faith.

Note: Worship services and other church gatherings are suspended in Vanuatu and around the world due COVID-19.

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