Statement to the media by Rev. Tevita Banivanua, General Secretary, Methodist Church in Fiji - 25th September, 2014 Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and thank you for being here. I would like to begin by wishing you Happy Rosh Hashana – which is the Jewish New Year and extend well-wishes to all our Hindu friends in their festival of Navratri. I would like to respond to issues raised this week in the news media regarding a letter written by the Secretary for Christian Citizenship and Social Services, Rev. Iliesa Naivalu to Divisional Superintendents and Ministers on resolutions passed in the 2014 Annual Conference. I must admit that until this matter was highlighted in the news, I was unaware of the letter or its contents. I have read the letter and wish to make the following clarifying points: One of the roles of the Department of Christian Citizenship and Social Issues is to help our members be aware of current issues affecting our society and the Churches theological and practical reflection on them. This has been the practice of the department since its establishment. The issues raised in the letter are based on resolutions passed be the 2014 Conference in which 1000 clergy and lay members representing our 56 Divisions discussed, deliberated and voted on. The aim of the letter, for the attention of Divisional Superintendents and Ministers, was to give a background to the resolutions to show that these issues are not new and have been part of the Methodist Church’s social policy for some time. It was to place these resolutions in its proper context. For the sake of transparency, I have asked the Secretary for Communications to circulate this letter, in its original i-Taukei language and with an English translation for you. With the elections fast approaching we wanted to ensure that our members were aware of the conference resolutions and reflect on them before making their own mind up as to who to vote for. As you will see while there are references to past and present governments work and policies, there is no mention of any political party. My understanding of the situation is that Rev. Naivalu’s efforts were well intended. The language and tone of the letter is not adversarial as in political campaigns, but theological. However, this case, and again I thank you for bringing this to our attention, has shown us in the Church Connexional Office, a gap in our process of communication. As part of our downsizing the department has been without an assistant secretary for some time to help in the framing of such socially pastoral letters. As you know our communication department was only revived last year and as such departments are not used to having their communications vetted for language and context etc. They have followed a process for more than twenty years for direct communication with our ministers and members. We acknowledge that this gap in our process of disseminating any information needs to be resolved and the Secretary for Communications will be putting in place an internal communication policy for our Secretariat as we are now in a new era of public communication. I would now like to address the issue of the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service for the release of the Golan 45: I am sure many of you know that on the day which news of the capture of the Golan 45 was made public on Friday August 29th, the entire Conference of the Methodist Church in Fiji stopped its proceedings to pray for the safety of our peacekeepers and their release and for peace and strength for their families and comrades in peacekeeping duties around the world and in the RFMF. As you are aware the Methodist Church coordinated an ecumenical prayer vigil for the Golan 45, which was attended by family and friends of the captured peacekeepers, and members of different faith communities and society at large. Along with other faith communities we called on our community to continue to pray for the Golan 45 and their families and instructed our ministers to provide pastoral support for families and friends who were not easily accessible to the RFMF pastoral teams. On hearing of the release of our peacekeepers, the Methodist Church declared Sunday 14th September as Day of Thanksgiving for all its churches and called for special prayers of thanksgiving to be said in its 339 circuits around the country. Following an invitation for Methodist leaders to participate in the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, the Church responded a day before the service, respectfully declining the invitation. This was done to give the Prime Minister’s Office, which was organising the event, enough time to find another representative from the Christian community for the service. In declining the invitation, the Church felt that it had done its part in bringing the nation together and leading the prayer vigils for the safe return of our peacekeepers. We have concluded this by declaring, Sunday 14/9/14 as a Thanksgiving Sunday for all our churches. Furthermore with elections being held the following day, the Church was concerned with the timing of the event as it may be misconstrued as a political event. We would have preferred that this service be held after the elections, especially as the UN-sanctioned International Day of Peace fell on Sunday 21st September, 2014. The Methodist Church was represented, as it has been in earlier services involving the Republic of Fiji Military Forces – by the Methodist Church’s Military Chaplain. As long as there have been a need for chaplains to spiritually care for our disciplined forces, the Methodist Church has provided them as part of its pastoral care. These chaplains, whether they serve in appointments to the military, police, hospital, correctional services are ordained ministers of the Methodist Church first and foremost. They represent the Methodist Church and they reflect the Body of Christ in their appointed post. The same can be said for ministers who serve as voluntary chaplains for their local rugby team or even our local voyaging society. On the issue of Interfaith worship - One of the key strategic areas for the Methodist Church in Fiji is KSA #5: “Healing of the Nation through Strengthening Intra-Church, Inter-Church and Inter-Religious Relationships” Over the past year the Methodist Church has been working hard to restore relationships within our community and among other Christian communities. We have as a community of faith and as the wider Christian community begun to see the fruit of our collective efforts. The Church’s Agape Feast held last month as part of the Golden Jubilee National Celebrations was the beginning of our work to build relationships with the wider religious community. As a community of faith with a right to hold firm to our doctrines and theological perspectives we are able to share our faith and learn from other faith’s on our traditions that uphold the common good. We are able to work in partnership to address common issues of concern. However we have not yet developed a policy on multi-faith worship in our context. Until we do so, we are being cautious so as not to compromise our doctrinal beliefs and tradition for the sake of political expediency or political correctness. We regret that these issues has disturbed our working relationship with the state. I will be writing to the Prime Minister to congratulate him and affirm our earlier stance that we are willing to work together for the betterment of our beloved Fiji. The Church is beginning her new exodus, our Lako Yani Vou, just as our nation is embarking on “A new democracy.” Just as we pray for our nation and our government, we seek your prayers for us. Vinaka.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 06:06:55 +0000