Elders, Youngers, Philosophies and Mission.

As mentioned in the last post, many elders of Oceania did indeed gather this week, in a mighty and moving way, for an Inaugural Pacific Philosophy Conference (IPPC). Clicking on that link will take you to posts from the Conference where many who were named as philosophers: the wise and revered thinkers of the region, came together to share with each other their knowledge, their skills and their heart for Pasifika. It was described as 'a gathering of people with the purpose of progressing and advancing our Pasifika yet keeping intact our traditions and our ways' and was organised collaboratively by an awesome quartet of voices: the Pacific Theological College, the University of the South Pacific, Fiji National University and the Pacific Islands Association of Non Governmental Organisations. 

Welcome ceremonials with the offering of kava and woven baskets awaiting offerings of wisdom from the elders as the conference progressed

Revd Dr Tevita Nawadra Banivanua leads Day One Worship

The gathering heard on day one from His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Tupuola Tufuga Efi, who spoke on the importance of recognising that the departed still have a lot to offer us, in acknowledging our ancestry, our lineage, and our ways of life.This was followed by presentations by Rev Dr Iaitia Tuwere and Professor Manulagi Meyer, amongst others. 

I was in and out of the Conference because of juggling commitments back at PTC - very humbled, as someone of non-Pacific origin, to be allowed to attend at all - and heard Hon Sir Justice Taihā Kurei Durie (pictured below) speak on day two about Māori perspectives on law, faith and well-being. He is Chair of the Māori Council and was the first Māori appointed as judge of a New Zealand Court. He offered many examples of how traditional wisdom has been, in his experience, suppressed by imported 'Western' wisdom, to the detriment of well-being in life, society and faith. Those strong themes were recurrent throughout the Conference, with key concerns being decolonisation, the reclaiming of Oceanic values, critique of church and mission history, and the rediscovery and rechampioning of Pacific wisdom. 

Through Pacific eyes....

On Saturday I attended another Conference in Suva which was again wholly Pacific, but so markedly different in tone and spirit that you wonder, sometimes, if you can be in the same city, let alone the same country. The Sunday School Rally of the Methodist Church in Fiji's Indian Division gathered at Dudley Intermediate School. Its proud evangelistic theme was 'Bring a friend to Jesus', and well over 200 children and young people were given suitably emblazoned new T-shirts, immediately pulled over heads and worn with immense pride.

Like before, here was a Conference that knew what it was about and had clear agendas. The Divisional leaders and Sunday School teachers are as passionate about mission activity and Christian conversion as the Pacific philosophers might be about mission critique and decolonisation. And, to be fair, a simplistic dualism isn't helpful as a passionate, indigenous Pacific philosopher may well hold a vibrant, rooted Christian faith as well. At the philosophy conference I didn't notice any speakers of Indo-Oceanic origin, interestingly. But I may have missed them. So here at the Sunday School rally we sang with gusto, 'I have decided to follow Jesus - no turning back!' and browsed through, not indigenous Pacific artwork or philosophical publications, but a Bible Society of Fiji bookstall offering Bibles (good) and a table full of glossy, popular paperbacks generated by Korean and North American evangelists. 'Anything written in Fiji - or the Pacific?' I asked hopefully. 'No Madam - we get all these from overseas'. 

Both Conferences invited me to lead opening devotions. So I did. It really is an honour to be asked and, even after all these years in ministry all over the place, I still feel totally inadequate and unworthy; searching and praying hard in the attempt to be God's instrument and mouthpiece, with the 'right' word for the 'right' occasion.

For the philosophers, I played guitar - we like to strum here - and offered song. I set new words to the inherited hymn tune St Denio, well known here as a result of missionary endeavour, and which most people use for 'Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise'. 

Maybe it captured something? Maybe not. A tiny love-offering for the woven baskets anyhow.  See what you think...

Reclaiming, reweaving, reviving our ways,

Researching, respecting, to God be all praise;

When seated expectant; when listening with awe,

Descend, Holy Spirit; your influence pour.

Recording, retelling, reliving the past,

Refining, reframing the truths that will last;

Creator of nations, O Wisdom supreme,

That Your will be done is our prayer and our dream.

Recalling, responding to ancestral voice,

Reflecting on legacy, challenge and choice;

O God of our forbears and those yet to be,

Your Gospel amazes: so rooted, so free.

Rejecting, rebuking when sin causes pain,

Reseeding, restoring; by grace born again;

In chaos of climate, in rape of the earth,

We cry: resurrection; redemption; rebirth!

Reclaiming, reweaving, resourcing for now -

today’s generations: but Lord, show us how?

May mortals repent and may stars realign,

Through vision Pacific and Wisdom Divine.

So, above leading worship among Pacific Elders. Below, leading Bible Study among Pacific Youth. God's wisdom? To be discovered in both places. And hallelujah for that.