Bishop Rowlington Zappo was conducting the ordination ceremony early yesterday when the wave hit the church on Simbo, near Gizo, in the Solomons' Western Province, a church spokesman said.
He and three other people died, but there were said to be up to 100 others in the congregation at the time.
Simbo was one of many islands hit when yesterday's magnitude 8.0 quake created a tsunami wave several metres high.
With around 20 people feared killed, witnesses to the tsunami that pounded into the Solomons Islands early Monday described how the towering waves swept over tiny villages before surging inland, wreaking destruction on its path.
A state of emergency was declared this morning, With officials saying an estimated 4,000 people were sheltering in the hills amid warnings that quake aftershocks could generate more tsunami waves in coming days.
Islanders were in desperate need of water, food and tents, Western Province Premier Alex Lokopio said.
"For the next three days or four days, if there is not anything coming from Honiara or any other parts of the world, there are people here in Gizo who will be sitting down underneath the trees day and night,'' he added.
A wall of water, triggered by a 8.0-magnitude undersea earthquake, swamped Gizo, capital of the western province popular with tourists for its pristine beaches and diving, locals reported.
"The sea is rising up to five metres high... the houses are sunk,'' ferry driver Nixon Silus told Australian radio.
"All the houses on the islands are under water and all the houses are being pulled down and most of their kitchen utensils and all things like that are floating on the sea.''
Silus, speaking about 60 kilometres northwest of Gizo, said the islanders were unsure of what to do when the giant wave hit.
"Some of the people ran out to the bush, some of the people on the islands don't know where to go at the moment,'' he said.
Residents said there was no warning of the approaching tsunami but reports indicated locals noticed significant changes in the sea level after the quake, a typical sign of an impending wave. Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the government had made an initial offer of up to $2 million in emergency and reconstruction assistance to the Solomon Islands government.
However, Australia is still waiting for advice from the Solomon Islands on what level of assistance it needs and the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has already been mobilised to help with the disaster.
This morning the death toll stood at 20, including two children.
The Pacific, from Hawaii to New Zealand, was put on alert for the tsunami as early as 7am yesterday.
Last night Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said he expected the toll would continue to climb.
The worst-hit regions include the town of Gizo, the capital of the Western Province, and the village of Sasamunga in the Choiseul Province.
Dorothy Parkinson, an Australian living in the popular dive centre of Gizo, said the wall of water had left a wide trail of devastation.
"It's a catastrophe,'' she said. ``(There was) very little warning. It was just a noise like an underground explosion and the next thing it just ... began rocking the whole hill. The wave came almost instantaneously.
"Everything that was standing is flattened. It threw a piano to the ground. Everything's on the ground smashed.''
Police said witnesses reported the waves triggering landslides after smashing inland.
Chief government spokesman Alfred Maesulia said islanders first noted a change in the sea level - a classic tsunami warning sign.
"People found out the sea was moving away and the shoreline was dry, and then people realised there would be a problem,'' he said.
Australia has offered $2 million in aid and the immediate dispatch of tarpaulins, blankets and clean water - while disaster teams could also be sent.
And Gary Gibson, a senior seismologist with the Seismology Research Centre in Melbourne, warned the Solomons should brace itself for a second big aftershock earthquake in the next few weeks.
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