Bishop Otto Separi of Aitape connected his reflection with the Synod on the New Evangelization last year in Rome of which he was a member.

Fr. Ben Maepaulo from the diocese of Auki in Solomon Island, but with years of pastoral service in Papua New Guinea as well, explained how this has to meet the concrete local community with its culture as an overall system of meaning.

It has been clearly noted by the Assembly that what makes thing difficult and therefore even more urgent is the fact that we live in a time of cultural transition.

Many components of the traditional Melanesian culture are still there, but regularly challenged by a more individualistic, sophisticated and consumerist modern and global culture.

This impacts in a particular way the individual person and the family. Accompaniment and formation is in great demand along with the renewal of the personal spiritual life.

Nobody is exempt from a new need of evangelisation in changing circumstances beginning with the clergy and the Church leaders.

Cultural traits that are not in accordance with the Gospel need to be overcome: "Teach the new generations - one participant insisted referring to the still widespread belief in sorcery - that sickness is caused by ‘something' not by ‘somebody'.

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This is the first time Papua New Guinea and Solomon islands have held a conjunct General Assembly.

The theme of the Assembly is "Give me some water that I amy never be thirsty again"

Each of the 3 dioceses in the Solomon Islands and 19 diocese in Papua New Guinea has been invited to send 6 participants; three men, a Bishop a priest and a layman, and three women, one of who is a member of a religious order.

On Tuesday the hosting President of Divine Word University, Fr. Jan Czuba,reminded the participants of the challenges for the Church in the Pacific in this time of changes. "Values and doctrines do not change," he said, "but the ways we live, learn and take risks change".

Archbishop Douglas Young of Mt. Hagen traced the immediate motivation of the General Assembly to the April 2013 Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Bishops of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea on the "Year of Faith" generating an "Assembly of Faith", that may be able to generate in its turn a witnessing community.

The key question to guide the reflection and prayer of the General Assembly is "What is God asking of us now as Church of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea?" It is hope that the deliberation on this question may inspire a five-year pastoral plan.

The General Assembly coordinator Fr. Roger Purcell, says the New Evangelisation is the horizon of the General Assemby while the original source of it is the Vatican Council 2 and the renewal it brought about.

Continuity was also stressed by Archbishop Steven Reichert Madang with the first post Vatican Council 2 comprehensive "self-study " of the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea in 1992 and the first General Assembly in Vunapope, Rabaul in 2004.

On Wednesday morning Dr. Catherine Nongkas of Divine Word University, Madang delivered her key note address on "Year of Faith, New Evangelization"

In her address she high-lighted the widespread and deepening trend of secularization.

"Faith and Christian way of living are no longer broadly accepted in many quarters - she said".

The number of practicing faithful seems to be dwindling. At the same time faith needs to challenge the culture, both traditional and modern. Christianity calls for life in a community and this provides an alternative to rampant individualism. Traditional sorcery believes, urban poverty and the breakdown of the family become the environment of the witnessing of faith.

Source

• The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea
• Image: Supplied