"As a Christian country, our day of worship is on Sunday," Tuilaepa Soiamoa Grey told the Samoa Observer.

"I have nothing against the government's decision to make Samoa a Christian state. I fully support it.

"But what I find contradictory and hypocritical, is when the government changes the constitution, yet allows foreigners to disrespect our day of worship by continuing to do hard labour on Sundays."

Tuilaepa lives next to a construction site at Vaitele. The workers are Chinese and they have been working on the Pesega Fou School on Sundays in the past months, without any consideration for others, according to Tuilaepa.

"It's really disturbing that I cannot have a peaceful Sunday when these Asians are doing hard labour work," she said.

"What is the robustness of the Samoa Constitution when it comes to these Asians who are conducting heavy labour work on Sundays?

"What's more annoying is that their actions are a clear indication they have no respect for the laws of the land.

"Samoans take the day off, they attend church and if you don't go to church, you still cannot do such heavy work on Sundays.

"Why is it that we are a Christian country, yet there are people who work hard labour on Sundays? These Asians clearly have no respect for our traditions?

"Each and every Samoan knows that we don't do any hard labour work; what makes them any different? They are visitors to our country, whether they are citizens or not, they should respect our traditions."

Tuilaepa reiterated that these Asians should respect Samoa's tradition and culture.

Source

• Samoa Observer

The invitation to a buffet lunch last Tuesday at the Waipuna Lodge was sent out to 58 Pacific community and church leaders. Continue reading

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

Retail NZ supported the "liberalisation" the bill provided. It should be up to businesses to decide for themselves whether they wanted to open on any day of the year, spokesman Greg Harford said.

When questioned by the commerce committee last Thursday as to whether that extended to Good Friday, or even Christmas, Harford said: "We would ideally like to see no restrictions on shop trading hours." Continue reading

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

There was a 61 percent voter turnout, from the Aitutaki constituencies of Amuri-Ureia, Vaipae-Tautu and Arutanga-Reureu-Nikaupara.

The Chief Electoral Officer Taggy Tangimetua explained that the referendum was not binding on government.

"In the case of this referendum, where it refers to Sunday and its religion, in the constitution it's not binding because of the freedom of religion in our constitution."

"The results will guide the government in its action, but I think they may choose to act on it." Continue reading

Every two years, Blenheim hosts the Omaka Classic Fighters event at Easter and the trading law restrictions mean retailers, restaurants and cellar doors cannot make the most of the thousands of extra visitors to the district.

Last month, Sowman wrote to National candidate Stuart Smith, Labour candidate Janette Walker and Green Party candidate Steffan Browning to get their support to exempt Marlborough from Easter trading rules every two years when the Classic Fighters event is held. Continue reading