In May the government of Tonga banned the sale of bread on Sundays.

In this most recent round of the ongoing Sunday Bread War the Senituli says, "Tonga is unique in its history, culture, church, and politics. While the world trashed monarchy as evil, and idolised democracy as the best form of government, Tonga proved otherwise."

His letter is a response to another letter published in the newspaper on 17 July from Sione Mokofisi, in which he claimed "There's enough historical evidence to show that the joint Church religious influence and Government political authority corrupts."

"Obviously, history denials and those who wish to re-write history are 'doomed to repeat it.' They want to take us back 400 years before the "Reformation" (Mr Penitani denies it ever took place) when poor people served the Church and the State simultaneously. That is the backward direction Tonga is heading," says Sione.

On the other hand Senituli claims that, "with such uniqueness, we need to carefully assess our history according to its time and context without unfairly bashing our past with our 21^st century Westernised and Americanised eyes as Sione Mokofisi does, if we want to build a better future."

Senituli says, "the benefits we get from this decision (to ban the sale of bread on Sunday) trump all the objections that Sione Mokofisi has suggested." He provides a list of seven benefits.

"Just because everyone else say that democracy is the best form of government means that we should believe their solution."

"Just because France and atheistic Americans of the 20^th century believe in building a wall of separation of Church and State so Tonga must do what they believe."

"Tonga can move forward politically with her own political solution, custom made in Tonga, by Tongans, for Tongans."

Source

• matangitonga.to
• matangitonga.to
• Image:looppacificassets.s3

Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the ancient Jewish principle of observing the Sabbath or a day of rest is an "antidote" to such an addiction.

The orthodox Jewish interpretation of Sabbath observance includes a ban on using electrical devices such as computers and telephones.

Rabbi Mirvis said such a practice could help wean people off one of the most intrusive aspects of modern life.

He urged people, irrespective of their religious background, to consider setting aside time to switch their devices off to help them "connect" to natural human relationships again.

"They don't realise that sometimes the more connected one is the more disconnected one is from everything that is important."

Rabbi Mirvis was speaking to the Daily Telegraph ahead of "Shabbat UK", an initiative to encourage Jewish people to re-engage with their faith by observing the full Sabbath laws for one day from the evening of Friday October 23 to Saturday October 24.

This year's event, the second time the initiative has run, will include an attempt to set a new world record for the largest ever mass bake-off to make traditional Challah bread for the Sabbath meal.

Rabbi Mirivs also spoke out about the UK Government's plans to relax Sunday trading laws.

The Chief Rabbi offered his support to a campaign by church leaders to limit shop opening hours to preserve the principle of a day which is set aside.

Although the Jewish Sabbath falls a day earlier than the Christian day of rest, the principles are largely the same, he said.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• The Telegraph
• Image: Zimbio

In a statement, Mr Lavulavu says he had no intention to breach the Sunday law by picking up the rubbish, and was trying to ensure that Tonga was kept clean. Read more

The chief executive officer for the 2019 Tonga Pacific Games Organising committee, and former Prime Minister Lord Savele said, "we have decided we'd go back to the traditional way we've been running the Pacific Games and for Sunday we'll allow everybody to rest or go to the beach but there will be no sport played on Sundays when you're in Tonga."

He said the Tongan Government is committed to delivering the games, hosting it and looking forward to seeing all the nations in Tonga in July of 2019.

Tonga will host 26 sports and the organising committee is thinking of including women's weightlifting, boxing and rugby 7s.

However, Tonga's Prime Minister says the country's finances are not up to scratch in order to handle the requirements to host the Pacific Games in 2019.

'Akilisi Pohiva says although he is still uncertain on whether Tonga will be able to host the meet, his Government is committed to raising its financial standards, as donors are starting to pledge help."

Source

• fijitimes.com
• fbc.com
• Image: abc.net.au

He had refused to work on Saturdays because it was against his faith.

Mark Meulenbroek had worked since 2004 at an Invercargill company that installed TV and audio systems, and was considered a model employee.

In 2011, he rejoined the Seventh Day Adventist Church which he'd attended until he was 16, and wanted to have Saturday off so he could observe the Sabbath.

Meulenbroek's boss gave him some Saturdays off, but not all, and in September 2012 fired him when he refused to work on the Sabbath.

The Human Rights Review Tribunal found his employer had discriminated against Meulenbroek and had no appreciation of his obligations under the Human Rights Act.

Director of the Office of Human Rights Proceedings Robert Kee, who represented Meulenbroek, says the case is an important warning for small-to-medium businesses which - like Vision - might not be aware of their Human Rights Act obligations.

If someone believes they are discriminated against in their employment, they have the choice of taking proceedings before the Human Rights Review Tribunal or the Employment Relations Authority.

It is not unusual for people to claim discrimination on grounds of age or race. Proceedings based on religious belief are much less common.

Source

• Yahoo News
• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: Advicenow.com

Jalesi Nakarawa complained to the Human Rights Review Tribunal that Affco New Zealand terminated his job on religious grounds.

Tribunal's orders:

* A declaration is made that Affco committed a breach of the Human Rights Act 1993 by discriminating against Mr Nakarawa for reason of his religious beliefs;

* Damages of $12,118.00 are awarded for loss of wages;

* Damages of $15,000.00 are awarded for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to the feelings of Mr Nakarawa;

* Affco, in conjunction with the Human Rights Commission, provides training to its management staff in relation to their and Affco's obligations under the Human Rights Act 1993.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
  
• Image: news.msn.co.nz

On 6 February the local Seventh Day Adventist church administration instructed the law office of Schuster-Betham-Annandale to write to the Leauva'a-uta SDA members who are worshipping on Saturday telling them to refrain from using the church facility there.

This situation arose because the Samoan Government decided to align its time zone with key trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region by shifting west of the international date line.

When the clock struck midnight Thursday 29 December 2011, the country skipped over Friday and moved 24 hours ahead — straight into Saturday, Dec. 31.

SDA Pastor Uili Solofa says, "You have to know that all the other Christian religions in Samoa have publicly testified that they have moved to keep the seventh-day Sabbath of the Bible."

Catholic Chancellor Ioane Ono does not appear to share that view.

"For Catholics or any Christian for that matter, Sunday is a day of rest, a day of giving thanks and praise to the Lord. It is also a day of joy and celebration because for the Catholic Church, Sunday is the day of resurrection of Jesus." (Samoa Observer, March 12, 2013)

Such statement by SDA leaders in Samoa and the Pacific that Sunday is the ‘seventh-day' in Samoa today contradicts why Christian churches worship on Sunday being the first day of the week to commemorate the day of Jesus' resurrection.

Last month, leaders of the SDA church in the South Pacific Division (SPD) met again in Australia with pastors from Samoa and Samoan pastors representing Samoan churches in New Zealand and Australia.

The Bible conference discussed the impasse in Samoa, which is detrimental to a fundamental doctrine of the SDA church.

The matter has been referred to the Biblical Research Committee of the South Pacific Division for further research.

Source

• NBCNews.com
• Talamua
• Image: Samoa Observer

The Seventh Day Adventist administrators in Samoa decided to keep an unbroken cycle of seven days with the seventh day being Sabbath.

The first week after the nation changed to the other side of the dateline led to a six day week. The church leaders judged that the following Sunday was, therefore the seventh day and so they decided keep the Sabbath on Sunday in the future.

However not everyone agrees with keeping the Sabbath on Sunday. More and more members in Samoa are now returning to keeping the Sabbath on Saturday. They say it is a theological issue, not an anthropological or sociological one and the change brought about by the issue of the dateline does not affect the theology.

Elder Ted Wilson, General Conference President of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church, has confirmed receiving a submission from members in Samoa against the the local church administrators' decision to keep the Sabbath on Sunday.

The submission, including letters from Fasitootai, Leauva'a, Saleimoa, Kosena in Matatufu and Solaua, are all requesting the head office of the SDA church in the world to thoroughly study the Sabbath situation in Samoa, and reverse the action of the local administration so that members in Samoa continue to observe the seventh-day Sabbath on Saturday together with the rest of the Church globally.

Source

• Voxy.co.nz
• Scoop.co.nz
• Image: Record

But there is a perverse human instinct to turn freedom into bondage. Thus down through the ages the laws of the sabbath were turned on their head so that new bosses, usually of the clerical variety, began to lay down what was and was not permissible on the Sabbath.

Is it time to reconsider the true meaning of the Sabbath rest?

"Every soul, every spirit, needs to rest, to empty out so that there is room for the pressures of life that are a part of life", writes Susan Smith in the Washington Post.

"Our human spirits have a finite capacity to carry stress, issues and problems. We get filled up with the "riff raff" of life more quickly than we know it, and when we do, our capacity to function maximally is severely decreased. Our patience grows short; our ability to make sound, emotion-less decisions is hampered, our relationships, even with the people we love, are compromised."

• Read Smith's Blog in the Washington Post
• Look at more of Smith's Posts
• Image: Advent

Susan K Smith, is a Yale Divinity School graduate, and author of "Crazy Faith: Ordinary People; Extraordinary Lives", a winner of the 2009 National Best Books Award.