from w
Permits okay, but why the monitors of ordinary church meetings? They still don't trust the Methodists when they pray and discuss church work?
From Fijilive today:
Methodist Church gets permit for meeting
February 09, 2012 12:45:25 PMA+ A-|||
A number of Methodist churches around the country will now be able to have their general meetings after receiving approval from the Fiji Police Force.
This was confirmed to FijiLive by Director of Police Operations SSP Rusiate Tudravu.
According to Tudravu, the Divisional Police Commanders will giving out permits and there will be terms and conditions which the churches will have to adhere to before, during and after their meetings.
He said a group of officers will be monitoring and observing the meeting.
Meanwhile, Methodist Church Assistant Secretary Reverend Tevita Nawadra is thankful to the Fiji Police Force for granting permits to the church.
Rev Nawadra said churches in Suva, in Vanua Levu and those near towns will be able to conduct their meetings.
He said they are still awaiting approval for those churches in the outer islands.
" It is difficult for those in outer islands like Ono-I-Lau to get a permit since they are not close to a police station so they have to submit their applications in Suva."
All churches with permits are expected to have their meetings in the first Sunday of next month.
By Mereani Gonedua
Showing posts with label Methodist Church Fiji. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Methodist Church Fiji. Show all posts
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
The Fiji Methodist Church today
from w
Dribs and drabs of news emerge from the Methodist Church office in Suva or interviews but they certainly need a better PR to get their viewpoint out - and not just from the men at the top. What do the Methodist women think? What do the Methodist young people think? Here are a few things to consider. I don't think the title of the first copy and paste job from the Fiji Sun is very accurate. Change in the church - I don't think so. Old men dreaming dreams perhaps! The bits in italics are my comments.
CHANGE IN CHURCH
January 15, 2012 | Filed under: Fiji News | Posted by: newsroom
By ARIETA VAKASUKAWAQA
A new president of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma is expected to be appointed in August. This is when the church holds its annual general meeting after a lapse of four years. The election of a new president was revealed by the church’s general secretary Reverend Tevita Nawadra yesterday.
He said sitting president Reverend Ame Tugaue had exceeded his term after the church meetings were suspended by Government under the Public Emergency Regulations (PER). The church’s constitution demands an elected president can serve for three consecutive years. The president cannot be re-elected after serving a term. The election of the president of the church could not take place last year due to the ban on the church’s annual conference. It resulted in the suspension of the annual conference in the last few years.
During this time, Government had called for a change in the church leadership, but this failed because the Methodist Church’s constitution stipulated that any change in leadership must be through election. Government has said the church must concentrate on being a church and stay out of politics.
“We need a new president. The appointment of a new president was to have been done last year but our president has carried on although his term has expired,” Reverend Nawadra said.
“The annual conference (Bose ko Viti) is significant in the church because it is where all decisions are made including the election of office bearers.”
Government has given the green light to the Church to apply for a permit after the lifting of the Public Emergency Regulations (PER) on January 7. The ban imposed on the church’s monthly, quarterly meetings and annual conference was because of the alleged involvement of senior members of the church in politics.
Meanwhile, the Church is trying to organise a meeting between two former church presidents, Reverend Josateki Koroi and Reverend Manasa Lasaro. Reverend Koroi, in an interview with Radio Australia, called on the Methodist Church to heal its internal rifts. His leadership ended in 1989 when he was succeeded by Reverend Lasaro. “We have contacted Reverend Koroi and he is prepared to come in. We are waiting for a reply from Reverend Lasaro,” he said. He said they hoped the two would reconcile before the annual general meeting in August.
(Is the journalist referring to something said way back in August or something said just this week. It could be an old story. This is the one I think it refers to: Methinks it’s time the old guys – over seventy or eighty - to stop talking and let the middle-aged and young talatalas speak instead. The future is not for the oldies who hark back to a Fiji twenty two years ago. Today life is difficult for many people and the focus needs to be not on leadership but grass roots living for the ordinary Methodist families. And they certainly need better PR so should they hire a vavalagi from USA or Australia, pay him or her big bucks to get good stories out there!!!. Have they even got a website, a facebook page, a blog site. I don’t think so.)
Call for Fiji Methodist church unity
Updated August 25, 2011 16:23:59
There's been a call for the Fiji Methodist Church to heal its internal rifts.
It comes from a former church President, Reverend Josateki Koroi, who was forced out of the leadership in 1989 by Reverend Manasa Lasaro.
He says Reverend Lasaro is part of the wing of the church which believes in ethnic Fijian nationalism, while he says there are others like himself who are more moderate.
Reverend Koroi says this week's cancellation of the Methodist conference by the interim Fiji government won't help heal the church's divisions, as that's something only the church can do.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Reverend Josateki Koroi, former Fiji Methodist Church President
KOROI: I think the government is putting the pressure now but the question of reconciliation within the church has been long overdue. In my last year as President of the church, the General Secretary of the Church at the time take over the church, close the door of the church for me for almost 12 months.
HILL: Would it be fair to say that the Fiji Methodist Church has two main factions; one which is a very strongly Fijian ethnic nationalist side, and the other which you're identified with, much more religiously oriented and moderate?
KOROI: Yes this is my stand and when I was against this breakaway, led by Lasaro, they were really a nationalist group and I stood against that and that was the main cause of the split within the church.
HILL: Well given that do you think that the government might have perhaps had a point when it said that it didn't want these churchmen who were identified with that branch of the church speaking at the conference?
KOROI: Well I cannot say, both of them have their own agenda of taking over the power, the army has gone off its proper role in the government and that's how it took over the government. I think a power struggle guided by some selfish motivation.
HILL: Can these two factions within the church, the ethnic Fijian nationalists and the moderates reconcile? Can the church achieve unity given these divisions?
KOROI: Yes the church should unite and stand on its proper foundation, then it can be the proper church. At the moment it's the cause of the weakness in the church, they have no conviction or mission, no vision as a church.
HILL: Do you think that the government's action in cancelling the church conference will help or hinder this process of the two wings of the church reconciling?
KOROI: I don't think it would help or hinder really, I can't see how the church would unite just because of the pressure from the government. The church ought to stand on its own and unite without any pressure or anything from the government. The church has been misled for the last few years now, starting from the year 1989.
(This story in the Fiji Sun is more recent.)
Fiji Methodist Church’s Reverend Tevita Banivanua speaks to Pacific Beat
Created: Thu, 12 Jan 15:41:33 UTC+1300 2012
Last Updated: 19 hours 57 minutes ago
Fiji’s Methodist Church has been told that despite the lifting of Public Emergency Regulations it will still need permits to hold meetings.
Since the draconian regulations were lifted on Saturday, a revamped Public Order Decree has come into force.
Fiji’s interim Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, says the Decree brings the former Public Order Act up-to-date but many are concerned it is a way of continuing the controls that had been in place under the Emergency Regulations.
The Methodist Church’s assistant general-secretary, Reverend Tevita Banivanua, told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat, the police have rejected his request to make permit applications on behalf of his congregations.
“We were really overjoyed when we heard of the lifting of the PER (Public Emergency Regulations) but then when the actual thing came, it was almost a cut and paste thing,” he said.
“They have moved the PER, the one that affects us, to the revised Public Order Act 2012 so we are still caught in the middle.”
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201201/3406975.htm?desktop
--
and another article - the point of view of a very capable and excellent talatala.
Methodists losing faith in Fiji
DYLAN WELCH, SUVA
12 Jan, 2012 03:00 AM
METHODIST minister Reverend Tevita Nawadra Banivanua had every reason to hope that 2012 was to be the beginning of a new period of rapprochement between his church and Fiji's military regime.
Banned from holding meetings since 2009 and with its two most senior office holders facing charges of holding an illegal meeting, the church has been at the centre of a repressive regime of emergency regulations enacted by the unelected government of Voreqe ''Frank'' Bainimarama.
When Commodore Bainimarama announced the lifting of the public emergency regulations, known as the PER, the Reverend was thrilled. But since then, Reverend Banivanua has watched a new and permanent law be enacted, which essentially ''cuts and pastes'' the worst excesses of the regulations.
The decision by Commodore Bainimarama to retain the repressive laws has frustrated many in Fiji, who had hoped the government was finally beginning to move towards a more democratic style.
''I had hoped that the lifting of the PER would have encouraged us to believe in government. But we have lost trust,'' said Reverend Banivanua, the church's assistant secretary.
The relationship between Fiji's Methodist Church, which preaches to about two-thirds of Fiji's population, has been sour since 2008, when several leaders condemned Commodore Bainimarama.
The Reverend's interview comes the day after The Age revealed that the lifting of emergency rule in Fiji was proving to be a publicity exercise, with the military regime giving itself sweeping powers of arrest, detention and repression.
Senior police told Reverend Banivanua and other religious leaders that every Methodist church in Fiji - of which there are more than 2000 - will have to apply seven days in advance for a permit every time they want to hold a meeting.
Dribs and drabs of news emerge from the Methodist Church office in Suva or interviews but they certainly need a better PR to get their viewpoint out - and not just from the men at the top. What do the Methodist women think? What do the Methodist young people think? Here are a few things to consider. I don't think the title of the first copy and paste job from the Fiji Sun is very accurate. Change in the church - I don't think so. Old men dreaming dreams perhaps! The bits in italics are my comments.
CHANGE IN CHURCH
January 15, 2012 | Filed under: Fiji News | Posted by: newsroom
By ARIETA VAKASUKAWAQA
A new president of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma is expected to be appointed in August. This is when the church holds its annual general meeting after a lapse of four years. The election of a new president was revealed by the church’s general secretary Reverend Tevita Nawadra yesterday.
He said sitting president Reverend Ame Tugaue had exceeded his term after the church meetings were suspended by Government under the Public Emergency Regulations (PER). The church’s constitution demands an elected president can serve for three consecutive years. The president cannot be re-elected after serving a term. The election of the president of the church could not take place last year due to the ban on the church’s annual conference. It resulted in the suspension of the annual conference in the last few years.
During this time, Government had called for a change in the church leadership, but this failed because the Methodist Church’s constitution stipulated that any change in leadership must be through election. Government has said the church must concentrate on being a church and stay out of politics.
“We need a new president. The appointment of a new president was to have been done last year but our president has carried on although his term has expired,” Reverend Nawadra said.
“The annual conference (Bose ko Viti) is significant in the church because it is where all decisions are made including the election of office bearers.”
Government has given the green light to the Church to apply for a permit after the lifting of the Public Emergency Regulations (PER) on January 7. The ban imposed on the church’s monthly, quarterly meetings and annual conference was because of the alleged involvement of senior members of the church in politics.
Meanwhile, the Church is trying to organise a meeting between two former church presidents, Reverend Josateki Koroi and Reverend Manasa Lasaro. Reverend Koroi, in an interview with Radio Australia, called on the Methodist Church to heal its internal rifts. His leadership ended in 1989 when he was succeeded by Reverend Lasaro. “We have contacted Reverend Koroi and he is prepared to come in. We are waiting for a reply from Reverend Lasaro,” he said. He said they hoped the two would reconcile before the annual general meeting in August.
(Is the journalist referring to something said way back in August or something said just this week. It could be an old story. This is the one I think it refers to: Methinks it’s time the old guys – over seventy or eighty - to stop talking and let the middle-aged and young talatalas speak instead. The future is not for the oldies who hark back to a Fiji twenty two years ago. Today life is difficult for many people and the focus needs to be not on leadership but grass roots living for the ordinary Methodist families. And they certainly need better PR so should they hire a vavalagi from USA or Australia, pay him or her big bucks to get good stories out there!!!. Have they even got a website, a facebook page, a blog site. I don’t think so.)
Call for Fiji Methodist church unity
Updated August 25, 2011 16:23:59
There's been a call for the Fiji Methodist Church to heal its internal rifts.
It comes from a former church President, Reverend Josateki Koroi, who was forced out of the leadership in 1989 by Reverend Manasa Lasaro.
He says Reverend Lasaro is part of the wing of the church which believes in ethnic Fijian nationalism, while he says there are others like himself who are more moderate.
Reverend Koroi says this week's cancellation of the Methodist conference by the interim Fiji government won't help heal the church's divisions, as that's something only the church can do.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Reverend Josateki Koroi, former Fiji Methodist Church President
KOROI: I think the government is putting the pressure now but the question of reconciliation within the church has been long overdue. In my last year as President of the church, the General Secretary of the Church at the time take over the church, close the door of the church for me for almost 12 months.
HILL: Would it be fair to say that the Fiji Methodist Church has two main factions; one which is a very strongly Fijian ethnic nationalist side, and the other which you're identified with, much more religiously oriented and moderate?
KOROI: Yes this is my stand and when I was against this breakaway, led by Lasaro, they were really a nationalist group and I stood against that and that was the main cause of the split within the church.
HILL: Well given that do you think that the government might have perhaps had a point when it said that it didn't want these churchmen who were identified with that branch of the church speaking at the conference?
KOROI: Well I cannot say, both of them have their own agenda of taking over the power, the army has gone off its proper role in the government and that's how it took over the government. I think a power struggle guided by some selfish motivation.
HILL: Can these two factions within the church, the ethnic Fijian nationalists and the moderates reconcile? Can the church achieve unity given these divisions?
KOROI: Yes the church should unite and stand on its proper foundation, then it can be the proper church. At the moment it's the cause of the weakness in the church, they have no conviction or mission, no vision as a church.
HILL: Do you think that the government's action in cancelling the church conference will help or hinder this process of the two wings of the church reconciling?
KOROI: I don't think it would help or hinder really, I can't see how the church would unite just because of the pressure from the government. The church ought to stand on its own and unite without any pressure or anything from the government. The church has been misled for the last few years now, starting from the year 1989.
(This story in the Fiji Sun is more recent.)
Fiji Methodist Church’s Reverend Tevita Banivanua speaks to Pacific Beat
Created: Thu, 12 Jan 15:41:33 UTC+1300 2012
Last Updated: 19 hours 57 minutes ago
Fiji’s Methodist Church has been told that despite the lifting of Public Emergency Regulations it will still need permits to hold meetings.
Since the draconian regulations were lifted on Saturday, a revamped Public Order Decree has come into force.
Fiji’s interim Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, says the Decree brings the former Public Order Act up-to-date but many are concerned it is a way of continuing the controls that had been in place under the Emergency Regulations.
The Methodist Church’s assistant general-secretary, Reverend Tevita Banivanua, told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat, the police have rejected his request to make permit applications on behalf of his congregations.
“We were really overjoyed when we heard of the lifting of the PER (Public Emergency Regulations) but then when the actual thing came, it was almost a cut and paste thing,” he said.
“They have moved the PER, the one that affects us, to the revised Public Order Act 2012 so we are still caught in the middle.”
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201201/3406975.htm?desktop
--
and another article - the point of view of a very capable and excellent talatala.
Methodists losing faith in Fiji
DYLAN WELCH, SUVA
12 Jan, 2012 03:00 AM
METHODIST minister Reverend Tevita Nawadra Banivanua had every reason to hope that 2012 was to be the beginning of a new period of rapprochement between his church and Fiji's military regime.
Banned from holding meetings since 2009 and with its two most senior office holders facing charges of holding an illegal meeting, the church has been at the centre of a repressive regime of emergency regulations enacted by the unelected government of Voreqe ''Frank'' Bainimarama.
When Commodore Bainimarama announced the lifting of the public emergency regulations, known as the PER, the Reverend was thrilled. But since then, Reverend Banivanua has watched a new and permanent law be enacted, which essentially ''cuts and pastes'' the worst excesses of the regulations.
The decision by Commodore Bainimarama to retain the repressive laws has frustrated many in Fiji, who had hoped the government was finally beginning to move towards a more democratic style.
''I had hoped that the lifting of the PER would have encouraged us to believe in government. But we have lost trust,'' said Reverend Banivanua, the church's assistant secretary.
The relationship between Fiji's Methodist Church, which preaches to about two-thirds of Fiji's population, has been sour since 2008, when several leaders condemned Commodore Bainimarama.
The Reverend's interview comes the day after The Age revealed that the lifting of emergency rule in Fiji was proving to be a publicity exercise, with the military regime giving itself sweeping powers of arrest, detention and repression.
Senior police told Reverend Banivanua and other religious leaders that every Methodist church in Fiji - of which there are more than 2000 - will have to apply seven days in advance for a permit every time they want to hold a meeting.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Two articles in Fiji Village
from w
Do I laugh or cry? There will be a mini meeting of the Fiji Methodist Church leaders, and the second article is a new approach to telephone conversations. So do I now say 'Praise the Lord, Hallelujah' or silently cry for my interfaith friends?
Now there's nothing wrong with saying words like 'Hallelujah' in the right time and place. I remember the time we attended a wedding and Talatala had helped this shy man in advice on romancing the girl of his dreams. When the time came in the ceremony to answer 'Will you take this woman to be your wedded wife?' the guy said loudly 'Hallelujah, hallelujah, I will, I will!' It was a great moment!
Church permit granted for meeting Publish date/time: 12/08/2009 [12:45]
The church ministers of the Methodist Church can now have their ministerial meeting after the permit was granted by the Commissioner of Police, Commodore Esala Teleni. Assistant General Secretary of the church, Reverend Tevita Nawadra said the three day ministerial meeting will be held in Suva.
The permit has also been granted to have the church Solevu in different divisions. The Solevu is the annual fundraising drive to raise funds for the running of the Methodist Church.
But it is the call of the Divisional Heads when they will meet in their various circuits. Last month the Nadi Circuit met and collected more than $200,000.
Meanwhile the Suva Solevu will be held for a week at Furnival Park in Toorak starting from next Saturday. The Suva Circuit will also host the choir from Australia and the US. Reverend Nawadra reiterated that there will be no choir competitions.
-----------------
And the second article is rather stunning, considering the aim in Fiji to respect all religious views.
Force adopts Jesus strategy
Publish date/time: 12/08/2009 [12:59]
This is the new approach of the Fiji Police Force. All police stations as part of the Police Christian Crusades are now answering the phone by saying “Praise the Lord”. This started a few months ago. The Police Force has today revealed that they are trying to change its image by adopting the Jesus strategy.
Deputy Director Operations SP Erami Raibe said all the officers around the country have been advised to be more people oriented and to answer the phones by saying "Praise the Lord, how can I help you". According to Raibe, they believe the Christian approach is the way forward for the Police Force.
Do I laugh or cry? There will be a mini meeting of the Fiji Methodist Church leaders, and the second article is a new approach to telephone conversations. So do I now say 'Praise the Lord, Hallelujah' or silently cry for my interfaith friends?
Now there's nothing wrong with saying words like 'Hallelujah' in the right time and place. I remember the time we attended a wedding and Talatala had helped this shy man in advice on romancing the girl of his dreams. When the time came in the ceremony to answer 'Will you take this woman to be your wedded wife?' the guy said loudly 'Hallelujah, hallelujah, I will, I will!' It was a great moment!
Church permit granted for meeting Publish date/time: 12/08/2009 [12:45]
The church ministers of the Methodist Church can now have their ministerial meeting after the permit was granted by the Commissioner of Police, Commodore Esala Teleni. Assistant General Secretary of the church, Reverend Tevita Nawadra said the three day ministerial meeting will be held in Suva.
The permit has also been granted to have the church Solevu in different divisions. The Solevu is the annual fundraising drive to raise funds for the running of the Methodist Church.
But it is the call of the Divisional Heads when they will meet in their various circuits. Last month the Nadi Circuit met and collected more than $200,000.
Meanwhile the Suva Solevu will be held for a week at Furnival Park in Toorak starting from next Saturday. The Suva Circuit will also host the choir from Australia and the US. Reverend Nawadra reiterated that there will be no choir competitions.
-----------------
And the second article is rather stunning, considering the aim in Fiji to respect all religious views.
Force adopts Jesus strategy
Publish date/time: 12/08/2009 [12:59]
This is the new approach of the Fiji Police Force. All police stations as part of the Police Christian Crusades are now answering the phone by saying “Praise the Lord”. This started a few months ago. The Police Force has today revealed that they are trying to change its image by adopting the Jesus strategy.
Deputy Director Operations SP Erami Raibe said all the officers around the country have been advised to be more people oriented and to answer the phones by saying "Praise the Lord, how can I help you". According to Raibe, they believe the Christian approach is the way forward for the Police Force.
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