Methodist Church of Fiji get support from Australia and NZ

Police have released two Methodist ministers and Fiji’s former education minister, who had been detained and questioned over government concerns an upcoming church conference would veer into political territory.

The Fiji Live website is reporting former education minister and Rewa paramount chief, Ro Teimumu Kepa, and two Methodist Church ministers have appeared in the Suva Magistrate Court and were released on bail following a three-day detention.

Church conference tumult

Fiji Government spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Neumi Leweni on Wednesday confirmed the cancellation of the annual church conference, planned for the end of August.

He says if the conference covers political issues it would be a clear breach of Fiji’s Public Emergency Regulations.

Ro Teimumu Kepa, whose village was to play host to the conference, had urged that the meeting proceed as planned.

Fiji’s interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama told Fiji Live he believed the media was blowing the issue out of proportion.

“I don’t know why they’re making a big deal out of this because the government and the military have said no and that’s where the matter should rest,” he said.

“I think it’s the press people that are making a big deal out of this.”

Show of solidarity

Christian leaders in Australia and New Zealand are showing solidarity for their colleagues in Fiji.

Australia’s Uniting Church has flown a special representative to Fiji to support members of the Fiji Methodist Church.

Bruce Mullen is Associate Director of Church Solidarity in the Pacific for the Uniting Church of Australia – a union of Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches.

He says he’s met with representatives from the Fiji Methodists Church and admires their courage and commitment to democracy.

“There is probably very little we can do in Fiji itself except to stand with the Church here, but in our own situation, our own backyard, we can advocate on their behalf with our own governments, with the international church community and with the international community generally,” he said.


‘Attack on the Gospel’

The former President of the Methodist Church in New Zealand, Reverend Tavake Tupou told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat program that politics cannot be separated from spiritual life.

He says it is important for Pacific church leaders to demonstrate their concern over the detention of the Fijian Methodist Church leaders.

The detention of church leaders, “is not just an attack on Fiji’s constitution,” he said.

“I think this is an attack on the heart of the Gospel.”