Please pray

for us:

Methodist

Church

of Fiji

SUVA – The Methodist Church of Fiji, which is being placed under great pressure by the government, is requesting Methodists all over the world to “please pray and continue praying for us”.

According to Mr Tevta Banivanua, Deputy General Secretary of the Methodist Church of Fiji, its Annual Conference has been cancelled and would now be held in 2014, and the reason given by the government for the cancellation was that “a number of ministers of the church are involved in espionage (spying) on the military”.

The authorities claimed that the ministers received money from the police Special Branch Unit, but were unable to provide evidence when asked to, added Mr Banivanua, in a letter to the World Methodist Council.

On Jan 29, the church received a letter from the Commissioner of Police stating that the Annual Divisional Meeting of the 54 Church Divisions and the Quarterly Meeting of the 325 circuits were also cancelled.

The reason given was that the church “is involved in the formation of a political party”.

Again, this was an unsubstantiated accusation, said Mr Banivanua.

He said: “Our government is trying to break us since its legitimacy depends on the church’s submission to its programme.

“As a church, we have stated our opposition to them and right now we as a church are standing by our original position rather than submitting to their violent tactics of treating all of us as a bunch of soldiers.” – World Methodist Council Last Friday Letter.