Saimon Gaias ((c1920- ), first bishop of the United Church when it was established in 1968. Born in Valuana, ENB, and trained at the New Britain Methodist Theological College, Gaias worked among the Baining people in ENB before World War II and during the Japanese occupation. After the war he studied at Leigh Theological College in Sydney, Australia, before returning to the Baining people as an ordained minister of the Methodist church. He represented the Methodist (later the United) church at gatherings in Fiji, India, Africa, Britain and America. He was knighted in 1988.