Bula vinaka! Greetings and thanks!

Yes, greetings from the Pacific Theological College and thanks be to God for travelling mercies. I've spent a week acclimatising and work begins on 1st September. I'll post some introductory scenic pictures later - just for flavour!

Each morning this week it's been great for me - for body, mind and spirit - to join the PTC community for worship at 8.00. As soft breezes waft through the open windows of the hexagonal Chapel and voices are raised in sensitive, powerful harmony, God is surely in this place. 

I was expecting, naturally, the Body of Christ here to wear a predominantly Pacific face, but was interested and curious to scan a fair variety of others too. One group of participants from the 2014 Face to Face programme run by the Council for World Mission has been based here for experience and exposure. The programme offers an imaginative and potentially life changing cross-cultural experience for younger Christian leaders. Participants in training for ministry experience the realities of Church and society here in Fiji, or in India, based at Bishop’s College, Kolkata &
 Aizawl Theological College, Aizawl. Or at the United Church of Zambia Theological College. Hurrah! So on day one in Fiji,I was absolutely thrilled to meet student minister Rev Karen Mwenda who's been on the Zambia-Fiji option and was in her last week. Karen has been sponsored by Lubuto congregation in Ndola. I know it well from living in Ndola in the 1990s, and my dear Zambian 'Mum', Joyce Kapesa Simengwa is a member there. In due course, Karen will personally deliver a Fiji parcel with love from me to her. And so it goes that God's people connect again, mysteriously and wonderfully, across continents and experiences. Connections for treasuring. Encounters for transformation.

And, as promised,  a few glimpses of life in Suva...

And suddenly it's THIS month...

'When are you off?' 'Oh, next month', I say cheerfully. Except all of a sudden it's this month. Much revising for the PhD viva continues alongside mission formation and preparation, and it's immensely helpful to gain insights from those on the ground. For example, Julia Edwards whose mission service is with the Pacific Conference of Churches writes about campaigning in solidarity with the people of West Papua. National Golden Jubilee celebrations for the Methodist Church in Fiji take place from 17-23 August and will be massive and deeply significant. Communications officer Revd James Bhagwan reports in The Fiji Times on the acts of reconciliation that have already been a key part of the commemorations.

I've also found myself turning over and over in my mind, the excellent first priority that the Education by Extension programme at the Pacific Theological College claims so boldly. What we're about, it says, is to train lay Christians in the Pacific, both men and women, for theologically informed service in various forms of ministry.

It's a fabulous principle: that all our 'ministries' - which can often mean our endless, unexamined, Church-related busy-ness - shouldn't escape scrutiny. The kind which helps us decide whether what we do and how we do it is credibly theological: of God (theos) and reflecting God's reasoning (logos). All manner of activity is God-inspired, so we're urged to believe, but how is that established exactly? Beyond Church walls and on a global scale, horrendous atrocities are justified in the name of the Almighty. Does that mean credible theology has been at work? Mmmm. Conclude so with caution. The more I reflect on such matters, the more I'm convinced that there's a world of difference between a mind that's uncritically indoctrinated and one that's theologically informed. I'm certainly up for a spell of mission and ministry that prioritises the latter.