Report on a visit to Hong Kong and Fiji
April 2009 Steve Pearce, Partnership Coordinator – Asia/Pacific
Aims
- Meet with Executive Secretary, Methodist Church Hong Kong (MCHK)
- Pastoral visit with two Myanmar scholarship holders studying in Hong Kong
- Discuss potential Mission Partner placement with the minister of Methodist International Church, Hong Kong
- Take part in Methodist Consultative Council of the Pacific (MCCP)
- Discuss partnership issues with the leaders of the Methodist Church in Fiji (MCIF)
- Visit partner organisations in Fiji
- Attend Oikumene Pasifika 2009, the Pacific Council of Churches (PCC) church leaders meeting on the theme of climate change.
Visit summary Hong Kong
Katherine Ng has been the Executive Secretary of MCHK for many years and has made great contributions to the good relationship between our two churches. Our conversation about partnership was able to range freely over topics including the financial support offered by MCHK to MCB’s work with Chinese congregations, scholarships, the development of youth work.
Our scholarship students had much to share about their relative successes in coping with a fairly impecunious student life in a city very different from anything in their home country of Myanmar; it was good that they had this opportunity. Their studies are going well and Rev Khawsiama’s PhD work on a model of liberation theology for Myanmar will be particularly interesting and of ongoing concern.
Rev John Illsley is pastor of the International Methodist Church having been appointed to the role (i.e. not serving as a Mission Partner) and exercising a successful and appreciated ministry in this growing church. We advertised the role of a second pastor at the church as a MCB Mission Partner role, but failed to find a candidate acceptable to both churches. A second attempt on our part would not be able to supply a candidate until September 2010 and the church is seeking candidates from other countries. This is understandable but a disappointment.
Visit summary Fiji
My visit followed closely on the heels of the latest coup in Fiji. The constitution had been abrogated a few days before my arrival and the military commander, whose regime had just been declared illegal by the court of appeal, had resumed power. Among other unilateral acts he had made all meetings illegal and the Methodist President had been forced to argue his case with the police chief in order for the Methodist leaders meeting to continue. An interesting time for conversations about partnership!
The MCCP involves heads of churches of all our Partner Churches in the Pacific and focussed on two (pre-selected) topics, church/state relations and approaches to interfaith work. During both discussions we were able to share our very different contexts; several of the islands (Tonga, Samoa, Papua New Guinea) see themselves as Christian nations with Church and State part of each other with the arrival of other faiths a fairly new phenomenon, while others (Fiji, Australia, New Zealand) are multi-cultural states with very different models of relations between Church and State and between faiths.
The situation in Fiji is a sensitive one for the Church. Methodists comprise about 30% of the population as do Hindus 30% but while half of the population is Indo-Fijian, most of the Methodists are ethnic Fijian with very few Indians, though one of the 53 districts is an ‘Indian’ (i.e. non-geographical) district. In Fiji politics and society itself are often defined by race (ethnic Fijian or Indo-Fijian) although the Indian families have been in Fiji for many generations. The Methodist Church has found itself on the Fijian side of things. One justification for the more recent coups, in 2000 and 2006, has been the elimination of discrimination, leaving some fervent democrats in a dilemma about working with the military regime. This latest action, the abrogation of the constitution, cancellation of elections and media censorship, has received more widespread condemnation, but little open opposition. The MCCP meeting agreed a statement of condemnation for the Methodist Church to communicate to the government.
In my meetings with the General Secretary, President, Trust Secretary and Education Secretary I was able to explore our understanding of ‘partnership’ and ‘solidarity’ in this situation, especially our hope to keep in touch with their responses so that the Methodist Church in Britain could express its solidarity in the same terms whenever it was in agreement.
The Fiji Church (MCIF) raised questions with me about
- the stationing of a Fijian minister to support Fijian fellowships in the UK it was agreed that we should do this in September 2010 and that a name would be agreed by the Fiji Conference in June and immediately sent to us
- Scholarship programme
- Nationals in Mission (NMA) programme
MCIF outlined its current priorities in our partnership as
- Continued support for theological education, both in personnel and finance
- Offering care to Fijians outside Fiji
- Church to church solidarity and care, including over issues such as the Fijian political situation, EU sanctions on the sugar industry and China’s role in the Pacific
I also visited organisations with which we have a relationship:
- Pacific Theological College (PTC) and its new PhD programme, expert exchange programme (God’s Pacific People) and new Institute of Research and Social Analysis
- Methodist Theological College and Lay Training Centre at Davuilevu,
- South Pacific Association of Theological Schools (SPATS) and its women’s programme, Weavers, (where I met our Experience Exchange Programme (EEP) volunteer, Hannah Lovell)
- Citizen’s Constitutional Forum where I spent an informative evening with its director, Akuila Yabaki,
- Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy (ECREA) and its impressive community development work. I took the opportunity to attend an evening on Fiji’s economy, hosted by ECREA and CCF.
The PCC church leaders meeting in Nadi tackled the issue of resettlement of those communities already, or soon to be, affected by climate change. The meeting was ground-breaking and well-resourced both scientifically and theologically. I have submitted a separate report on this.
Recommendations
That we review the way colleges administer the allowances available to scholarship students.
That the Methodist Churches in Britain and Ireland consider developing their commitment to the Pacific Churches in relation to climate change.
That requests for funding from PCC in relation to work on climate change be encouraged.