Five members of one Anglican parish in Nuku’alofa are lost at sea following the Tongan ferry disaster.

Those missing include a young man who was taking the Princess Ashika to his own wedding in the Ha’apai island group; two friends from his wedding-party; and the daughter and grandson of an Anglican priest.

All are members of All Saints, Fasi, which is in the Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa, and is the second largest Anglican parish in Tonga.

The three young men are all prominent in the life of All Saints: Sione Valele ’Elone – who was to be married at the weekend on Ha’apai – is a lay minister; his cousin Sione Veuveuso ’Elone is the church choirmaster as well as a lay minister; while Sione Matoni ’Aho is a youth leader at the church.

Fr ’Atu Taufa, who is the assistant priest at All Saints, has lost his married daughter and grandson. It’s also understood that his daughter’s husband, who comes from Ha’apai, is among the missing.

The effects of the tragedy are being keenly felt in the Tongan community in Auckland. Sione Veuveuso ’Elone’s mother and two sisters, for example, worship at Holy Trinity, Otahuhu, which is home to the Tongan Anglican community in Auckland. And Sione Matoni ’Aho had played senior rugby in Auckland.

The painfully slow surfacing of facts about the disaster is adding to the stress, says Bishop Winston Halapua, the Auckland-based Bishop of the Diocese of Polynesia in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Princess Ashika had no passenger manifest, so there is no certainty about how many people were on board – and therefore, how many are lost.

Since the disaster last Thursday night the missing tally has been climbing inexorably, and latest reports say 95 people are lost. So far, however, only two bodies have been found, and these are the only confirmed victims.

The Archdeacon of Tonga, The Ven Tui Finau, says he hopes more certainty will emerge this evening. He’s one of a number of Tongan church leaders who have been invited to a 6pm briefing in Nuku’alofa about the disaster.

The Rev Canon Epalahame Vea, priest in charge of All Saints Fasi, says members of his parish are trying “in every way possible – especially through prayer” to comfort and console the families of the missing parishioners. He also says New Zealand-based relatives of the victims have been arriving in Tonga to support their grieving families.

And Fr Hame has a request for the wider church: “Please remember us in your prayers. We really need the comfort of your prayers now.”

Meanwhile, Bishop Winston – who is Tongan himself – says the disaster will cause Tongan people to draw again on the simple hope that sustains so many of them.

“We are grateful for expressions of human sympathy,” he says. “But when deep things happen, we turn to the very core of our Christian faith. And in God’s eyes, in God’s care, we know that no one is lost.

“That is the hope we hold on to; that is the hope that sustains us.”