First Birthday and Baptism

For Wendy Pavni Priyanshi Chand, daughter of Saleshni Wati and Ramesh Chand. It was a great honour to have been invited to baptise Wendy today at Nanuku Church in Vatuwaqa as part of the morning service. Then it was back to Saleshni and Ramesh's home for the cutting of the birthday cake, more prayers and then lunch - for about 50-60 people. Everything had been beautifully prepared and organised by Wendy's own family and the wider Church family. Small community churches do big stuff brilliantly, don't they? Maximising limited space, making food and resources multiply before your very eyes, and opening homes and hearts to everyone. God Bless Wendy and her families - biological and spiritual. Enjoy this snippet of video and the pictures.

I'd never turned right...

...at the T junction where Queen Elizabeth Drive (the sea front/sea wall that runs past College) meets the main road, about a 20-30 minute walk away. No idea why, really. I'm always stomping down that way for exercise and fresh air, ocean on the right, through the newly landscaped picnic park by the ancient mangrove swamps and past the first part of Laucala (pron. Lauthala) Bay. It's part of what's been labelled commercially now (by Nestle - discuss) as the Milo Mile. 

Anyhow, as today (Friday 26th June) has turned out to be a public holiday (these things suddenly appear, I must try and keep up) I've been out walking for three hours before settling down to read and comment on another couple of chapters of someone's MTh thesis. This evening, it's the closure ceremony and farewell feast for the Peacebuilding course that's been here for three weeks - mentioned in the last post - and we're invited to go and join in, so that'll be a good time of affirming all the great work that's gone on. So, a nicely balanced Friday: pleasant breezy walking; some concentrated reading; a communal celebration.

When you do turn right at the end of the road - reverting to where we started - it's amazing what you discover. Possibly the prettiest Police Station in the world for starters!

Then the sites where a few of our neighbour educational institutions sit...

...and then the ultimate seaside discovery

I didn't sample on this occasion but will report back in due course should that occur. These things matter.

A couple of important meetings at PTC have also mattered this week. The first was for those of us who are Faculty members to consult among ourselves about whether we want to recommend any changes to the Pacific Theological College's Constitution and bye-laws at the forthcoming Council meeting - the Governing Body. Full Council meets every two years; Executive more often, but it's a full Council this year, so we need to get our acts together by the end of July to give sufficient notice of anything we feel led to raise. And there are matters that we should definitely give a push on. Faculty are free to discuss and recommend through our representative, and I sit on the Executive so can also be alert for what's coming. I found myself thinking, 'Mmm - been here before...' recollecting experiences of other Church and College committees. I  haven't been here before of course, so the human and cultural dynamics naturally differ, but the issues are disturbingly similar. (i) How to inspire, convince and lobby for critical change when saddled with impenetrable and sometimes inconsistent legal documentation. (ii) How to ensure that those who serve on Governing Bodies do so vocationally and sacrificially: with real hearts for service and the desire to fully engage and contribute both at meetings and in the life of the institution as a whole.

The second meeting was about whether PTC might want to take on board a Consultant to advise on organisational development, strategic planning, fundraising and the like. The 'offer' stems from a European organisation whose way of working stipulates that the 'person' must come by way of an expatriate secondment. Why? No one from the Pacific available if a bit of funding was put behind them? 

And so the global mission questions repeat and repeat - a bit like persistent indigestion.

But hey. The latter of the two meetings was held in the extremely 'posh' PTC Boardroom - squishy leather seats, shiny table, air-con: not a place to which we are frequently summoned.

#scary  #needsmartsuit

This public holiday which crept up on me is actually called National Sports Day with a big Government and NGO emphasis on health and wellness. Jocularity in the Fiji Times about whether Government ministers would be seen with their jogging gear and water bottles in Albert Park. 

But, joking aside, health and wellness is so vital. If you pray, please hold in your prayers just now...

... some of our dear staff here at PTC who bear burdens of un-wellness: that they may find healing and restoration

... those who have left PTC or taken leave because of troubling circumstances: that they may find new life and purpose

...one of the families at Nanuku settlement whose son faces a difficult spinal operation next week, in the hands of Fiji's only neurosurgeon: that all may be well

Here's some of the publicity snapped at the park this morning, reminding us of some important basics for fullness of life.

Principles and peace

Pretty much ready for the shelves now: our latest BD course on Ethical Principles. The idea being that it shouldn't stay on the shelves- it should fly off them, around the Pacific, so that good, solid degrees by distance learning can be available to anyone with the commitment to slog it out. 

The course author, Jack Hill, previously served as  Lecturer in Church and Society here at the Pacific Theological College  from 1989-1993. Then after teaching in a South African university for three years, was Head of the Department of Theology and Ethics here from 1998-1999. He helped develop PTC’s first Masters Programme in Practical Theology. Most recently he's been Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth in the USA. We're very grateful to Professor Hill and other former staff with experience of the Pacific when they find time to write for us. And we're looking forward to current staff coming up with the goods too, with lots of up to date Pacific material included. A gentle nudge to my lovely colleagues!

When's the last time you or I had a serious think about our Ethical Principles eh? Want a taster of the course for free? Well, here's how it starts.

Unit 1    Love Thyself

1.1        Outcomes.  

After successfully completing this unit, you should be able to:

• Articulate the central questions of ethics, and identify a few elements of your own Christian moral conscience;
• Describe tensions in ethics, especially between the individual and community;
• Explain how Jesus’ Great Commandments constitute starting points for thinking about ethical positions or options;
• Critique ethical egoism and hedonism;
• Conduct your own personal moral inventory.

1.2       Beginning with Oneself

It may seem strange to begin a textbook on ethical principles by asserting the need to ‘love thyself’ (ie, myself) as old-fashioned English puts it. To love oneself or have regard for oneself would appear to be selfish at best, and downright “narcissistic” (shamelessly preoccupied with one’s own interests) at worst. It sounds especially odd in cultures like many of the Pacific Islands, where there is a strong emphasis on “community ethics” (participation in community life) and self-identification in terms of a particular ethnic or national group. Furthermore, isn’t ethics about treating one another well? Doesn’t it require being kind and just toward others? In fact, to be truly ethical, is it not necessary — on occasion — to sacrifice one’s own interests for the common good of all?

The answer to all of these questions is, ‘yes’, and the “altruistic” (other-oriented) nature of ethics will become increasingly clear in the remaining units of this text. But, as with all subjects, it is useful to begin with where and with whom we are. Each of us approaches the ethical decisions of our lives from the standpoint of our own individual mind, however much we may conceive of our mind as interrelated to those of other persons. When we are born, we are each given a specific name and we are known to our friends and loved ones as persons who are also unique individuals. And it is as unique individuals, or distinct “subjectivities” (individuals who are subjects of a unique self-consciousness) that we think about ethics and strive to make decisions based on ethical principles. Thus, before embarking on ethical thinking in any depth, please complete the following activity about yourself.

1.2.1    FOCUSSED TASK                Who are you?

Write a paragraph about your own individual identity. Start by writing out your full given name. You may have been given more than one or two names. Describe how you received those names, including any special meanings which the names have or were intended to have when given to you. If, taken together, your name or names reflect more than one cultural identity, list the different identities that are reflected in your full given name. Then write a sentence about each of the following:

a)    Something that makes you different from your siblings or friends. It may have to do with something that happened to you when you were growing up, or with something you did that set you apart from the rest, or with an unusual personal trait (such as a way of laughing that always distinguishes you from everyone around you).

b)    A way you might describe yourself if you imagine yourself as something in nature (for example, a porpoise, wispy cloud or conch shell). What might you be like?

c)    And finally, what would the above image from nature suggest about you as a particular individual?

By the way, don't send the answers in thanks, not unless you're paying for the course. No money - no marking. We're not pushovers here at PTCEE! 

There's always something interesting going on in the life of the wider College. Currently the Department known at God's Pacific People is running a three-week intensive on Peacebuilding in conjunction with the Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding (PCP) which has a Suva office but works throughout the region. The course has attracted a really ecumenical bunch of participants from across the Pacific and from diverse churches. Testimonies from participants who've completed PCP courses in the past are strong and positive. Joycelyn Manakako says the Peacebuilding and Leadership Programme which she attended is vital for her home, the Solomon Islands.

Peacebuilding is not all about just war, but it’s all about different types of conflicts so it can be personal, family or in the community in which we can experience different types of conflict in our lives

Joycelyn adds the training will help them to work with the Government, and other organizations to help stabilize peace in the country.

I believe that this course is very important because it will really help us to work with our government as well as other NGOs and CSOs who are working around peacebuilding to address peace and stability in Solomon Islands.

Tomorrow I'm the worship leader for morning devotions at the Peacebuilding course and am looking forward to that. I may well share the terrifying yet truly inspirational story of Rev Charles Mpunji Ilunga and family, originally from Democratic Republic of Congo and now minister at Wanstead Methodist Church in the UK. During our time as neighbours at the Queen's Foundation in Birmingham, I think Charles taught us a huge amount through sharing his life stories, and simply by 'being', about the realities and the costs of peacebuilding. If you happen to read the blog Charles, a big wave from Val in Fiji! When are you coming to teach us here?!

Rev Charles Ilunga and family enjoying time out during one of the British Methodist Conferences!

And the Bible reading we'll use? Oh, a bit of Romans 12 I reckon. 

That's about it for now I think. Ethics and Peace. 
May our coming days be truth-filled and conflict-deprived.

Call the Navy - fly the flag

I saw a Red Cross ship in the port at Suva this week, except it wasn't quite. It was the US Navy hospital ship 'Mercy' which has been with us in Fiji during the initiative called Pacific Partnership 2015. This is apparently the largest, annual, multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster-relief preparation mission conducted in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The US Navy website states, 'While training for crisis conditions, Pacific Partnership missions to date have provided real world medical care to approximately 270,000 patients and veterinary services to more than 38,000 animals'. One of the primary missions of the ship is to provide rapid, flexible and mobile acute medical and surgical services.

In the screening queue at Suva's CWM hospital

The Fiji Sun called the arrival of the ship 'an opportune time for an expansion in relations between Fiji and the United States Government'. It carried close to 1000 crew with medical professionals providing some services that had never been done on board the ship before, as confirmed by the partnership’s medical planner Lieutenant- Commander Kevin Casey.

We will be doing a lot of surgeries. We will be providing arteriovenous fistula for human dialysis access, it’s one of the things that’s never been done before on the ship, so we are very excited and proud of that. There will be cataract surgeries, cleft lip, cleft palate repair, hernia repair, gall bladder surgery and a wide variety of other procedures.

It's terrific if you're in need, isn't it? And all free. But when the ship sails away....? 

The new(ish) Government here has a really big health care agenda to be attending to.

Also in the news, what do you reckon to these? Fiji's getting a new flag - or at least we are when the final design's been agreed. At the moment it looks like this on the left, but there's been a high-profile, nationwide appeal for new designs and the shortlist's on the video below. What's missing? Answers on a postcard...

I've not personally been doing surgery on a ship or designing a flag this past week, but the news immediately around me has seemed a touch more entertaining for the blog than photos of me glazing over at a computer screen! Have been editing the Bachelor of Divinity 'Ethical Principles' course this week and am nearly through. It's all meaty stuff and should make a great addition to the existing courses. 'The Prophets' are waiting in the wings. Splendid coffee from Papua New Guinea helps the addled brain of course - a gift from my dear and lovely neighbour Ana-Latu. 

And God Bless the Baptists! Supporting
ministry training through
coffee growing and marketing. I thoroughly approve.

Wonder if my most recent 
alma mater Spurgeon's
College has thought of
this? Do you suppose
the elevation of South
Norwood Hill and the
tropical rains of Thornton
Heath, Crystal Palace and
environs would produce
the goods?

A prayer

Faithful God,

continue to uphold and guide the work at Pacific Theological College Education by Extension we pray, and steer our course as we put extra effort into the Bachelor of Divinity Distance programme. 

We pray that your Spirit will speed and energise the work, so that new courses may be delivered soon to those in remote areas, excited by the prospect of further studies. 

Help us to meet this growing need as quickly, effectively and affordably as we can, so that practical, purposeful theologians are formed and shaped for the present age, in the Pacific. Amen.

What goes around....

Last August, I arrived at the Pacific Theological College on the tail end of the Face to Face programme - young theologians from around the world learning from the grass roots by being immersed into different global contexts c/o the Council for World Mission. In fact last year's farewell feast for Face to Face participants doubled up as the welcome feast for the new PTCEE Director - the very one who addresses you ...  So even though Face to Face ran slightly earlier this year, nevertheless it was amazing to me that it heralds a first anniversary of being here soon to be upon us. And can it be?

The department at PTC which is called God's Pacific People runs the full and demanding programme here on behalf of CWM. This year it had a very clear focus as outlined below - an extract directly from the CWM website.

Rising tides in Vanuatu. Photo at
http://www.sprep.org/images/Press_Releases/Tegua2007023.jpg

Face to Face Programme

This programme is to enable young theologians from different parts of the world to stand in solidarity with the climate warriors in the Pacific Islands and to understand climate change as a justice issue which affects disproportionately communities at the margins. This is part of CWM’s campaign to re-vision mission in the midst of empire by accompanying the victims in their attempts to create life-affirming communities. The Face to Face Programme includes orientation, solidarity visits to different island communities and plunge into their realities and struggles, an online Diploma Programme in Eco-justice Ministries, and participating in a conference on Climate Change at Fiji.

Who is this for? A student of Theology, either currently enrolled or has already graduated, but not an ordained minister.

Dates? The Programme will be from 21st April to 3rd June 2015.

Where is it?  Based in Pacific Theological College, Suva, Fiji, the participants will be travelling to Tuvalu and different communities displaced by Climate Change in Fiji. A group of theologians along with the participants will live with the communities drawing stories, insights, perspectives, and new visions from the climate warriors.

Tamara Kaira, a young theologian from the United Church of Zambia was on Face to Face, swopping her huge land mass for the liquid continent for a while. Yours truly, having been a minister of the United Church of Zambia 1993-1998 and still very much in touch, was thrilled that Tamara found time in her schedule to come over to House 12 for a meal. We ate nshima (maize meal) with chicken (nkoko), green vegetables (umusalu) and pumpkin (cipushi) with the Zambian flag flying proudly on the table - of course!

(Actually, it's hard to get exactly the right sort of maize (mealie) meal here, but it's amazing what you can do with semolina...)

Tamara is a trainee minister in the United Church of Zambia and flew from this pretty intensive and demanding time in the Pacific - via Hong Kong and Johannesburg - straight back to the UCZ Theological College to sit exams she'd missed while away. Oh joy! We'd never met before: not least because Tamara would have been aged just 7 at the time I left Zambia, though already a Girls' Brigader, she told me proudly. How terrific, I thought, as I stabbed at old photographs and bored her senseless with mission partner tales of yore (she was stunningly gracious) that she now represents the inspiring face and voice of younger women ministers and theologians in Zambia. And, that through something like Face to Face, she has perspectives and first-hand experience to share which are way outside of Africa too. She and the team were well fare-welled at the final feast and it'll be great if we can stay in touch. If you've stumbled across the blog Tamara, many blessings and prayers for you and all at College. 

In other news, Faculty meeting last Friday included predictable items of business: student grades as Semester 1 closes for the residential programme, updates from our various departments and looking ahead to PTC's full Council meeting towards the end of the year at which a fair bit of input may be required from those of us who are Faculty members wanting to think and pray into the future with both realism and vision. 

But then the unpredictable item of business was a fascinating discussion about noise levels in and around campus. That was thrown into the mix by a somewhat sleep-deprived colleague with whom we sympathised, and it set a very interesting ball rolling indeed. 

In Pacific village life and culture, traditionally, quiet voices and movements are much valued. But here on urban Suva's seafront, and just opposite Suva Grammar school, we have everything from boy racers and screeching tyres of an evening, to highly amplified rallies and events in the school grounds with rock and Gospel bands on stage. The other week when there was a huge gathering of many Fiji schools at the local sports stadium for their annual meet, the marching band practice began bright and early at 5.00am. Hurrah for 'O When the Saints' on the merry brass! But the debate was an internal one for PTC too, reflecting the speck in our brother's eye and the log in our own, as it were. Amplification in Chapel and at the community celebrations is also ample! How much of it do we need? Some community members really love the 'kit'  - the big speakers and the mics and the mixing desk. But what's right for small spaces? The louder it gets the less we really learn to listen, right? And what results is cacophony, not communication. I still haven't got over our PTC community visit recently to a funeral gathering. Imagine - a family home, a traditional gathering of people sitting cross-legged on rush mats in an out-of-town (if not quite village) setting. As a community we had gone to mourn the death of someone's father, sit awhile, and offer a short act of worship: a hymn or two, some prayers, a reflection from the Principal. We arrived and decanted ourselves from the buses, as did - to my complete astonishment - the College keyboard, keyboard stand, microphones and amplifiers. A lot of fiddling around, setting up and looking for sockets then ensued. We could have sung and spoken perfectly audibly and beautifully without the 'kit'. But there it was in its splendour. Is it just that power thing? And I'm not talking about electricity...

Finally got around to getting the full-length white dress made. No, not for that. They're much favoured for Church, though congregations and traditions do differ. Done the white top and dark skirt ensemble until now but there probably should be one of these in the wardrobe. I can't keep up with the 'what to wear and what not to wear' conventions here. I just know that having beautifully tailored and matching outfits - kalavata - for a whole variety of occasions is a really big deal. Probably don't score highly on that mission partner requirement... 

Some blog readers may have attended or have caught up with news from the Methodists for World Mission Conference in the UK recently. It was good to tweet with Tim Baker from time to time and to hear that some video material produced here at PTC was useful. You can find out more about the event by clicking here .

I was Conference organiser for this annual MWM event in 2006 and 2008 while in the Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies role. Memorable. 

Took the Holy Communion service at Wesley City Mission this morning and then strolled back along the seafront. There's an open bus stand opposite the College gates. As I approached, in the full white regalia and the clericals, I was greeted with cheery waves of recognition and shouts from a handful of little boys off our campus swinging on assorted poles and railings. Entertaining conversation ensued.

Little boys (Character A and Character B):  Hullo, hullo, hullo!
Me: Hello!
Character A: We're waiting for the bus!!!
Me: Great! For the green bus going that way or a bus going the other way?
Character A: For the bus coming here!
Me: Jolly good. It's fun going on the bus, eh?

A pause. 
A certain tension in the air. 
Character B thwacks Character A (not over violently) and a torrent of words flows from his lips in a language incomprehensible to my ears, but ending in English with..

You aren't waiting for the bus! There's no bus! You lied to the Talatala (= Reverend) AND IT'S SUNDAY!!!

Ooops.



Peace be with you.



Enjoy these beautiful blooms from the Suva seashore