February 25 will mark solidarity with oppressed Church
Methodists across Great Britain and Ireland are being urged to participate in a day of prayer and fasting, in solidarity with the Methodist Church in Fiji.
People are being asked to abstain from food and to consider donating the money they would have spent on food to the World Mission Fund, which will be offering long term support to the Church in Fiji. The Fijian Church has nominated February as a month for prayer and fasting. The Methodist Prayer Handbook remembers Fiji on February 25 and Methodists in Britain and Ireland are invited to join in the prayer and fasting on that date. Methodists are asked to pray for the people, churches and government in Fiji, and a special prayer is available here: http://www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=opentogod.content&cmid=3016.
The Fijian Methodist Church is under increasing pressure from the country’s government, led by Commodore Bainimarama, which has forced the Church to cancel its annual Conference and choir festivals until 2014. Local districts and circuits are also having their activities restricted, with administrative meetings banned.
Revd Stephen Poxon, ex-president of the British Methodist Conference and Secretary of the Methodist Missionary Society, said; “In the UK, it’s easy to take our religious freedoms for granted. The Methodist Church in Fiji simply desires to worship God and serve the people of Fiji with their ministry, but the government’s unreasonable restrictions are making the Church’s daily life almost impossible. Through fasting and prayer, we want to show our solidarity with our Fijian brothers and sisters.”All members of the Fiji Methodist Church Standing Committee have been charged with attending an unauthorized meeting (held last April), and have been held for questioning by police. A number of church ministers have also been accused of spying on the government, although the allegations have yet to be substantiated.
The Fijian Church has requested a meeting with the government to discuss the ban and explore alternatives. ‘We are a people who believe in knocking,’ said one minister, ‘even ’til midnight!’ However one superintendent was overheard saying he would hold meetings anyway, and was reported to the military, who took him in for questioning.
Despite the pressures, the Fijian Church’s chaplains continue to serve the police and the military, leading devotions frequently in churches and barracks.
Under new legislation, speaking out against the government is deemed treason, and sending criticisms of the regime to or from abroad will be regarded as sedition. As any such criticism (whether made in Fiji or abroad) is now being treated as a criminal act.
People can donate to the World Mission Fund online at http://www.justgiving.co.uk/fast-for-fiji, or by sending a cheque payable to “The World Mission Fund” to Fast for Fiji c/o Dave Bennett, Fundraising Coordinator, at Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5JR.
Source: Methodist News Service 12/02/2010
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2 comments:
I am happy to encourage Methodists to fast, but as a NZ Methodist who lived in Fiji for three years, I rather feel the Fijian Church has been somewhat economical with the truth about the situation there.
I have just picked up the following comment from a NZ blog which gives regular commentaries on Fiji.
"It's scandalous how the leadership of the Fiji church have portrayed themselves as innocent victims to their "brothers in Christ" around the world. Never mind the church's malevolent role in national life for more than two decades. In 1987, some of its leaders like Manasa Lasaro, Tomasi Kanailagi and Tomasi Raikivi were actively promoting Rabuka's coups and they did the same with the Speight outrage in 2000. They were behind the insidious Sunday bans and tried to railroad the authorities into declaring Fiji a Christian state and Methodism the state religion. Instead of confronting these dangerous radicals, the Methodist Church leadership has been impotent at best and conniving at worst. The Church is still a bastion of indigenous supremacy and extremism and the Bainimarama regime has every justification to curb its activities and keep the leadership under a tight leash. Are the British Methodists aware of all this?"
My wife and I visited Fiji in 1988 and 1989, and can support the statements about the actions of Church leaders at that time. In fact, at least one of those named above, launched a 'church coup' and threw out the then Church President Rev Jo Koroi whom we finally met in his barricaded office. Rev Akuila Yabaki, who was later appointed by the UK Church as Pacific missioner or similar, was denied his pulpit in his Suva church around the same time. He is currently head of the Citizens Constitutional Forum in Fiji, an NGO dedicated to good government. He has been as vocal against the excesses of the current regime as of the previous government. If you want an unbiased opinion of what is really happening with the Methodist Church in Fiji, I suggest you contact him.
Alternatively the blog "Fiji, the way it was, is and can be", presents a generally balanced and helpful view of Fiji today.
Sincerely, Peter Wood
Good to hear from you, Glenys, and to have your side of the situation in Fiji. I am pressed for time at the moment but I will look at
'Fiji, the way it was, is and can be.' Thank you.
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