The mass was led by Archbishop Peter Loy Chong.

In his sermon, Chong said the Chinese new year, which was also known as the spring festival, was a time of reflection and to decide on one's destiny.

He said that this was the year of the goat in the Chinese calendar.

The goat symbolised pureness and preciousness due to its natural beauty

Chong said beauty was a key characteristic of God in the Bible.

He said it should be a time for people to decide on what defined their success and what they wanted to achieve in life.

Those present at the service enjoyed the multicultural hymns sung by the choir.

The end of the church service also featured the Fiji Chinese youth members performing the lion dance.

Many Chinese nationals who travelled to Fiji to start up businesses were also a part of the church service.

Source

• Fiji Times
• Fiji Times
• Image: Fiji Sun

In his address he said there needs to be room for inter-religious dialogue so that religious faiths and traditions are shared and learning takes place.

Chong said God was universal and meditation was a universal practice among the different faiths.

"One thing that is common to human existence is the search for wholeness because of the universal experience of human brokenness."

He said people needed to acknowledge that faith was a part of our culture and traditions.

"There should be room for respect for diversity but also allow room for dialogue.

"That's the way all religions can contribute to sharing their faiths and truths to a nation."

The Ramakrishna Mission built the $2million universal meditation centre in Nadi.

The centre was inaugurated by leaders of the Christian, Hindu and Muslim faiths last week and will serve as a meditation spot for people of all faiths.

A lack of spiritual learning in schools prompted the mission to build the centre.

Ramakrishna Mission secretary Swami Tadananda Maharaj said the planning started in 2010 and the building was designed by 2011.

"Construction started in August 2012 and it has taken about two years and three months to complete the project."

A number of businesses in the Western Division helped finance the construction of the Meditation Centre.

Vinod Patel and Company Limited and Arvind Raniga of Raniga Jewellers both contributed $100,000 towards the project.

Nitin Hiralal of Grand Melanesian Hotel donated $50,000.

"We saw that the Ramakrishna Mission was doing excellent work as they have been running the Ramakrishna Health Centre very nicely and for the first time in Fiji, such a meditation centre was built," Mr Vinod Patel said.

"It is for all races and we thought that we should give something towards it."

Source

• Fiji Times
• Fiji Times
• Fiji Times
• Image: fijiSun.co.fj

He told the 45 graduates in carpentry, cabinet-making and automotive that the life story of Thomas Edison, inventor of batteries, electric lights and power, set a challenge for everyone to do better in life.

"Thomas Edison was enrolled into school but his teacher told his mum that he was slow and could not learn well like the other students," Archbishop Chong said.

"So his mother took him home and taught him like any other teacher and Thomas started playing with wires in his room and that is how his invention started.

"Parents too are teachers and it is important that we support our children in achieving their dreams," he said.

Source

• Fiji Times
• Image: FijiSun Aqela Susu

He says weddings should be celebrated in a sacred space like of a church or a chapel.

Chong said that the problem was not caused by local people, but by tourists.

"For our local people, we don't have to tell them this, they know where to get married."

"All Fijian people want marriages to take place in a sacred place — that's something that is natural."

Chong said Catholic priests should encourage those wishing to wed to be blessed inside a church.

At present Tourism Fiji is offering a chance to a dream destination wedding in Fiji.

As part of the upcoming Fijian Tourism Expo, and in partnership with the Fijian wedding industry, one lucky couple will win a FJD$26,000 dream wedding and honeymoon.

The "Pin Your Perfect Wedding" competition on Facebook and Pintrest invites couples to create a Pintrest board of their perfect wedding.

The prize includes return flights for four from any Fiji Airways destination to Fiji and a wedding ceremony on the pristine beach or historical chapel at the Sheraton Resort Denarau.

Source

• The Fiji Times
• FBC
• Image: RosieHolidays.org

He made a distinction between the idea of a secular state and the idea that religion is private.
"We do not have a problem with Fiji being called a secular state," he said

"The biggest issue here is we look at it from a theological point of view while others look at it from a legalistic point of view."

Chong said he would encourage his flock to continue discussions on this provision in the Constitution and he hoped the government would hold more dialogue on the issue.

Reverend James Bhagwan, secretary for communication for the Methodist Church, said the issue lay in the definition of a secular state in the Constitution.

He said this meant the church must speak the truth, in love, and responding to the issues of injustice and poverty.

Both men were speaking on religion and secular state at the 15th Attorney-General's Conference in Natadola.

At the opening of the conference Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama repeated his belief that,"nowhere does the Constitution say religion cannot be practiced publicly, as has been suggested in some quarters."

Also speaking at the conference, Professor Vijay Naidu, from the University of the South Pacific explained some of the history behind the present debate.

He said that since Independence, Fiji's constitutions have maintained the separation of religion and the state but there has been a lack of clarity and, "In terms of the country's recent history, there was a strong campaign to make Christianity the state religion."

"This was especially so during the period immediately following the 1987 and 2000 coups," he said. "The Ghai draft constitution made explicit provisions on the separation of religion and the state, and these provisions have been "further clarified and detailed by the 2013 Constitution on the secular State."

Source

• The Fiji Times
• The Fiji Times
  
• The Fiji Time
• Image: Ronald Kumar/FijiSun

The Constitution protects the right of every person either individually or in community with others, in private or in public, to manifest and practise their religion or belief in worship, observance, practise or teaching.( #22)

The Constitution also states that religious belief is personal and that religion and the state are separate. (#4)

However, Chong says Faith is not a private matter. "Faith is for Christians, non-Christians, even atheists — we all experience something," Chong said. "That is why faith is something that is public and that's why we need to challenge our Constitution that says faith is private — which is not true. The need for faith, the need for God is something that belongs to our humanity."

Source

• The Fiji Times
• Fiji Sun

Rika says Waqairatu may well have been installed as Archbishop of Suva rather than President of the Methodist Church. From childhood in Naroi village on Moala, Waqairatu was put on a path to priesthood and encouraged every step of the way by his father and grandfather.

"My father influenced me to go to St John's College at Cawaci and become a priest," Waqairatu reflected a week after his ordination as head of the country's largest Christian denomination. "While he was a Methodist, my grandfather Roko Taito Waqaiqera received the Catholic faith and was the only Catholic person on Moala. "It was my father's wish that I continue the family tradition by becoming a priest trained in Rome."

Cawaci was his first choice for his secondary education. But there were no places available, so the following year, Waqairatu entered Central Fijian School—now Sila Central High—less than two kilometres from the Davuilevu Theological College where he would eventually study for the ministry.

Catholicism would, however, continue to follow the young cleric and later in life, the Methodist minister would marry a Catholic girl, Ioana Banivetaua.

"The support my wife and in-laws have given me has been enormous. There have been times when she has challenged me to ensure that we say our prayers as a family—that's a huge inspiration."

Ioana has also influenced Waqairatu in terms of ecumenism or the relationship between churches. For some years now, she has coordinated joint prayer meetings of Methodist, Gospel and Assemblies of God women, culminating in providing meals for 150 street people once a week.

Waqairatu is open to regular contact with Archbishop Chong. He attending his Episcopal ordination earlier this year. Both men have strong views about reform and development in the church, as well as the role of religion in politics.

Source

• Islands Business
• Image: calnevumcfiji2011.

According to Archbishop Peter Chong, the head of the Catholic Church in Fiji, this is a non-negotiable principle and forms the basis of the church's position on the issue of the separation of religion and the state.

Source

• The Fiji Times
• Image: The Fiji Sun

He was reacting to a comment made by the Catholic Archbishop of Suva, Peter Chong, which, he said, "clearly had the potential to inflame public opinion."

Bainimarama said that it was very disappointing that someone of the Archbishop's stature does not appear to have read the provisions of the Constitution in their totality.

"We fear he is relying on the advice of some who may be deliberately misleading him."

Chong is reported to have expressed concern about the provisions of the Fiji Constitution because it says that "religious belief is personal."

The Archbishop said although religious belief or faith was a personal matter, it also had a public nature.

He said the government had somehow silenced the church and deprived the people of the right to pursue religious truth in the public sphere.

Chong said as a church leader the issue was of major concern because it would limit the church on a personal level, thus rendering it voiceless and giving it no opportunity to make contributions to society.

Chapter one of the 2013 Constitution states religious liberty, as recognised in the Bill of Rights, is a founding principle of the state.

It also says that religious belief is personal.

Bainimarama has denied there is any curtailment of freedom saying, "Nowhere in the 2013 Constitution is there any limitation on expressing religious belief publicly, individually or in a group."

He said the Constitution protects the right of all Fijians to freedom of expression in all aspects of community life, including in the practice of religion. This right is only limited to prevent the spread of hate speech or incitement to violence.

"What's more, the fact that the Archbishop is able to freely discuss the role of religion in public life, as he did in the media today, contradicts the very premise of his argument."

Source

• Island Business
• The Fiji Times
• Image: entiregospel.com

Chong said interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has used the patron-client political strategy to gain support, particularly with the grassroots iTaukei (indigenous people).

He said studies showed that in the Bainimarama patronage, loyalty to the chiefs and traditional systems had shifted to the army.

"The military had become the institution of patronage. In other words, the form of power, namely patron-client politics exercised by former Fijian governments, has not changed.

"The only recognisable change in Bainimarama's regime was the change in personnel. Instead of chiefs dominating the system, military officers now headed the important governmental institutions."

More than 40 military officers have been appointed to senior positions within the civil service and statutory bodies since 2006, replacing those whose loyalty Commodore Bainimarama has questioned.

Click here for full text of Archbishop Chong's Address to World Association for Christian Communication

Source

• The Australian
• Radio New Zealand International
• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: Fiji World News

In anointing them with oil, church head Archbishop Peter Loy Chong told them to go out and spread the good news of God.

He told the group that they have now become soldiers of Christ. Continue reading

In the Catholic Church, ecclesiastical provinces, composed of several neighbouring dioceses, are each headed by a metropolitan, the archbishop of the diocese designated by the Pope. The other bishops are known as suffragan bishops.

The pallium is a symbol of Archbishop Chong's position as the metropolitan Archbishop of Suva. The suffragan dioceses are Rarotonga, Tarawa and Nauru.

Chong says the pallium, which is given by the Pope to Metropolitan Archbishops among other things, is a "symbol of the metropolitan bishops' communion with the Pope".

He said that the feast of saints Peter and Paul Mass held in St Peter's Basilica symbolised our traditions which we inherited from the apostles and handed down by the various popes.

He described the whole liturgy as "very solemn and embracing".

"For me, it's the experience of being part of a 2000-year tradition, back to Saints Peter and Paul and the apostles. I am part of the ongoing history of God's revelation".

Source

• The Fiji Times
• Wikipedia
• Image: Clerical Whispers

He says the church should not get involved in party politics, but rather communicate through God's values of love, peace and justice.

Chong said the church could help society in a teaching role; helping to form the mind and the attitude of the people so they could participate effectively in politics.

"As Christians, we need to bring in the vision of God and make sure that this things are not eroded from the general policies."

"The church must speak from God's stand." Chong said the Church has an important role to play in ensuring that God's values are part of government's values.

"If they don't have that background, they will only bring their experience and culture.

Chong has pointed out that the church and religion plays an important role times of transition — first during colonialism, then independence and now the coup-culture.

Archbishop Chong has also called upon all people of faith and goodwill to unite and work together for the sake of peace and justice the lead up to the elections in 2014.

He said unity is the lesson to be learned from his ordination, which he said, reached across the diverse ethnic and religious communities in Fiji. "It created a sense of unity that Fiji needs - a multicultural and multi-religious unity,"

"Elaborating Chong said: "The liturgy and especially the Ordination Rites touched the thousands of people that were present. As I went down through the congregation to give my blessing I could hear people sobbing with tears."

He said Fiji had gone through trying times, however religion must be the beacon of hope.

Source

• The Fiji Times
• Fiji Sun
• Image: FijiLive