Kiribati connections

Orientation Week for the main College ended with a fabulous Friday feast last evening.That's how people are formally welcomed here - I recommend it highly to other less exuberant parts of the World Church - and we enjoyed the necessary cultural formalities, delicious food and then music and dance items from various ethnic groups. One of these groups comprised students and families from Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas), studying here from the Kiribati Uniting Church. 

Flag of Kiribati

Opening the Fiji Times the next morning, I was interested to see Kiribati was headline news. Under the heading Justice to the Brave, Siteri Sauvakacolo reported that 

'...the services of more than 70 Fijian elderly war veterans who took part in the British nuclear program on Christmas Island - now Kiribati - in 1958 was finally recognised when more than FJ$250,000 was given to them at the Suva Civic Centre yesterday'

The full story is online here.

But shouldn't Britain be paying this compensation? That's the view of Professor Wadan Narsey writing in last Thursday's edition. It's not too long an article, reproduced here, and it's certainly worth a read if only to remind ourselves of a sticky bit of 1950s British-Pacific history. 

Compensation issue

Professor Wadan Narsey
Fiji Times  Thursday, January 29, 2015

The Bainimarama Government has apparently decided that it will compensate Fiji's nuclear test veterans. But should it not be Britain doing the compensating, not Fiji taxpayers? 

British nuclear tests in the Pacific

During 1957 and 1958, Britain conducted nuclear tests in the Pacific — three at Malden Island, and six at Christmas Island, part of the British colony then called Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now called Kiribati and Tuvalu respectively).

British, Australian, New Zealand and Fijian servicemen were exposed to risks of radiation. So also were indigenous Gilbertese (now referred to as I-Kiribati) in the test zones.

A 1999 book (Kirisimasi: Fijian Troops at Britain's Christmas Island Nuclear Tests) by the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, outlines the personal case histories of the many Fijians who suffered the ill-effects of radiation at the test sites, as well as the continuing effects on their children. Included in the long list of names is the former President of Fiji, the late Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, who died of leukemia and sepsis in 1993.

For decades, British, NZ, Australian and Fiji personnel exposed to the radiation have failed to obtain compensation from Britain's Ministry of Defense, which denied any negligence in holding the tests, denied that the sicknesses in servicemen were caused by exposure to the radiation, and then ultimately argued that the case was launched "outside the legal time limit".

While doing my PhD research at the Public Records Office in Kew Gardens, London I came across British Government files (formerly classified as "TOP SECRET") which indicated that Britain made major compromises in safety standards, with clearly much lower concern for native peoples; "Danger Zones" were arbitrarily reduced, and hurriedly changed test sites to save money and time leading to greater risk; actually promised the Fiji Governor that Fijian servicemen being sent to the nuclear testing sites would be eligible for pensions and compensation for injury.

How 'Danger Areas' were defined

Air Vice-Marshall Oulton (Commander of Task Force Grapple) circulated a Top Secret paper on how the "Danger Area" for the nuclear testing was to be defined (Public Records Office file CO1036/280, dated November 19, 1956).

It stated that there was a level B of radio-activity at which "a small temporary but observable physiological effect would be produced in a small fraction (less than one per cent) of a population exposed to it" but for "primitive peoples", who did not wear boots and clothing and did not wash, the dangers posed were higher.

These danger areas were given by circles of radius 400 nautical miles, centered on these two islands. But they were given in reference to explosions equivalent to only 150 kilotonnes of TNT. Most of the actual explosions were larger than this, and one was close to three million tonnes. The real Danger Areas would have been significantly larger.

But even then, the authorities claimed that "such an area is patently too large and has been reduced" with the following "basic principles": populated islands (other than Christmas and Malden) must not be included; boundaries should be lines of latitude and longitude; and the total area should not greatly exceed that of the US Danger Area (in their tests at Bikini).

These arbitrary and patently illogical "principles" meant that the Danger Area advised to the public was artificially drawn to exclude Palmyra, Washington, Fanning and Jarvis Island from the circle around Christmas Island. Also artificially excluded from the circle around Malden Island were Penrhyn and Jarvis Islands.

The minutes of a planning meeting (November 27, 1956 at St Giles Court, file CO1036/280), recorded that the Minister of Supply should be informed that the "radiation levels recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) would be necessarily exceeded" but that "only very slight health hazard to people would arise and that only to primitive peoples".

With outrageous logic, the Commander of the Grapple Task Force (Oulton) claimed that "all known craft in that part of the Pacific were powered and capable of 10 knots". In case of accident, craft "would have sufficient time to leave the danger area ahead of the advancing fallout if they act promptly on warning from the patrol aircraft as planned".

The meeting agreed that in their submission to the ministers, "reference should be made to the degree of risk to members of the Task Force, and to its necessary acceptance if the Operation is to be mounted".

Lack of concern for the Gilbertese?

There was no record of any discussion that most of the native Gilbertese would only have their native craft, powered by paddles or sail, who could not in practice be warned by the patrol aircraft to leave the danger area, especially when they did not understand English, and would have included people and children. Nor would they have known where to sail to.

For the explosions off Christmas Island, "which was planned at very short notice, Colonial Office approval was given to an evacuation into a ship a few hours before a test". But even this was stopped in general except for the high yield weapons. For the smaller two kiloton explosions, the Gilbertese were marshaled ashore "in a safe place".

It was acknowledged that anyone who observed the initial flash of the test was "likely to have their eyesight temporarily or permanently impaired". But the memorandum claimed that adult Gilbertese were "capable of being taught the simple drill of facing away from the weapon and covering their eyes. Children and mothers with their babies can be mustered in buildings unsusceptible to blast and shielded from flash".

The memorandum admitted that the blasts from some of the larger weapons had "been sufficiently great to break windows and damage unvented structure".

Hurried nuclear tests

Three tests were conducted at Malden Island and while they were supposed to be high air-bursts, severe damage was sustained by animal and birdlife on Malden Island. The PCRC book (Kirisimasi...) states that Fiji personnel (including Ratu Sir Penaia, without safety boots since none could fit his large feet) landed on the contaminated island.

By the end of 1957, with the world moving towards a moratorium on atmospheric nuclear testing, Britain became desperate to quickly test hydrogen bombs, without which it could not become a nuclear superpower, on par with US.

An official noted: Because time is so short it has been decided to carry out the November tests off the SE tip of Christmas Island; it would have take too long to set up Malden again."

The testing authorities proposed to remove the Gilbertese from Christmas Island before the bombing aircraft took off and to place them in a ship in the Christmas Island anchorage, but with immediate notice to steam. The Gilbertese were expected to remain in the ship until after the test, when they would be returned to their village.

The explosion code-named Grapple-X (of strength two million tones) took place next to Christmas Island and had "resulted in savings which might be as much as two million pounds", no small sum for a cash strapped British government.

The authorities claimed that reports of damage to the island had been greatly exaggerated, and that there were no injuries to the personnel or damage to aircraft "except for minor damage to helicopter windows".

When the explosion code named Grapple Y (of three million tonnes) took place eyewitness accounts, including that of a pilot flying an observation plane during the explosion, said that the explosion was at only 1000 feet (not the 8000 feet as planned) and only a quarter of mile from Christmas Island (not the five miles claimed by the authorities).

Eyewitness accounts said coconut trees went flying through the air; people fell down; huge amounts sea and land material were sucked up into the explosion and dropped as fall-out; there was induced rainfall which fell on ships, military personnel and Gilbertese civilians. Scientists ran around in a panic, an indication that the test had not gone as planned.

Did people suffer radiation?

The actual experiences of servicemen and Gilbertese indicate that substantial exposure to radiation did take place: ships could not steam away on time; contaminated rain fell on populated islands; servicemen went back to "hot" test sites within days of testing; and some servicemen handled barrels (some leaking) of nuclear waste with little protection.

Many servicemen and civilian Gilbertese became ill.

The British Government denied the claims for pensions by the Fiji Nuclear Test veterans on the grounds that Christmas Island was not a site of "active military operation".

But the Secretary of State for Colonies had clearly informed the Fiji Governor (January 6, 1958, Public Records Office file CO1036/283) that:

"It is confirmed that employment would be for the three months in the first instance and that costs, including indemnity against claims for disability, pensions, etc., arising from any injuries, will be a charge on United Kingdom funds."

But the British Government has denied that there was any link between the illnesses of the servicemen and their service at the test sites, and ultimately argued that the claims were being lodged outside the legal time limit.

Landmark British High Court Judgment

In a 2009 case presented to Justice David Foskett in the London High Court, NZ and Australian claimants argued that thousands of service men and their families may have been treated as nuclear 'guinea pigs' by being deliberately exposed to serious levels of radiation that years later may have killed many from a series of illnesses; while their children and their children's children may be suffering genetic defects. Scientists who were supposed to monitor those who had been exposed to radiation, removed themselves from the test zones while servicemen stood around.

Justice Foskett accepted that a Massey University scientific study by Al Rowlands involving NZ veterans provided new evidence of "chromosomal aberrations" due to the tests and that the British Government actively withheld details of the dangers of atomic testing from the 25,000 servicemen who took part, and also from the Australian Government.

Justice Foskett ruled "All things being equal, a veteran who believes that he has an illness, injury or disability attributable to his presence at the tests whose case is supported by apparently reputable scientific and medical evidence, should be entitled to his day in court."

Foskett urged British Government ministers to consider a settlement rather than drag out legal proceedings further, in which case many of the litigants might well be dead before judgment.

British Government liability

The British High Court judgment applied to the exposed servicemen, who presumably signed up for duty for "King and Country" and associated risks to their health.

Not so colonized people, like the iKiribati, living in their own homes and countries, who made no such commitment to the ruling imperial authorities, and who on ethical grounds should have had greater responsibility to protect the health of the colonized people under their "protection".

While it is commendable that the Bainimarama Government is planning to compensate the Fijian victims of the British nuclear tests in the Pacific using Fiji tax payer funds, this article suggests that the Fiji Government should then send the bill to the British Government.

Prime Minister Rear Admiral (Ret) Voreqe Bainimarama presents a cheque for $9855
to Paul Ahpoy, a Christmas Island veteran, at the lower Suva Civic Centre yesterday.
Picture: ATU RASEA

The Kiribati Church leaders currently resident with us at the Pacific Theological College are Ruteru Temboa and Alisi Tiaon on the Doctoral Programme, Berenike Bingko doing a Masters in Theology and Ethics along with Waiena Tebakaro, focussing on Church History. Then we have Taabuto Iaabeti, Meeri Iaabeti and Aribeta Tebakaro on the Bachelor of Divinity programme. 

In due time, and especially as the only Brit on the Faculty, I'm extremely interested to ask for their take on all of this. 

On your marks

The long 'Summer' holiday draws to a close and the Pacific Theological College gears up for another academic year of residential programmes with all the hustle and bustle of cleaning and gardening in preparation. Stand in one place for too long and you're likely to get strimmed. Lots of new staff and student faces will appear as from this weekend moving into various campus properties. So, better get used to it: I can't claim to be 'new' any more! On 22 January it'll be five months since arrival. 

I've been doing a lot of assignment marking recently and it took me today to the Solomon Islands. Not physically, sadly, but that opportunity will come before too long I hope. Doctors Graham and Jenny Longbottom are Methodist Mission Partners very recently returned from the Solomons and know the context much more.

My task was to read the work of Mr Alban Leaga, an Anglican, a member of the Church of Melanesia who describes himself as a lay worker in Bita'ama Parish and a companion leader of the Melanesian Brotherhood. His assignments are posted from the small town of Auki in Malaita Province. Auki's main street looks like this.

Alban is another PTCEE mature student, born in 1947. He worked for the Solomon Islands Government in the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and then for Habitat for Humanity. He is now, clearly, one of those retired people who is nothing of the sort and became gripped by theological studies in 2007. By 2011 he'd achieved the 45 credits needed for his Certificate in Theological Studies, and here's the evidence on file.

Not satisfied with that, he's aiming to notch up another 45 credits this year to achieve a Diploma in Theological Studies: something that represents a tremendous amount of steady, committed application. We asked Alban to consider some of the challenges of studying by extension and he said this:

Genesis 3.19 says, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread'. Living in our rural village people are self employed and have to work in their vegetable and food gardens for the families to survive. Commitments of various work activities lie ahead every day for the family with community, school and Church programmes. With such involvement it may not be possible to study in the day time. I made a discipline to a time allocated from 2.00am to 5.00am in the morning, when less disturbances can be experienced, except from others in the house.

So that's the way to do it. 

And indeed, Alban's assignments roll in; steadily, surely, consistently. The ones I marked today arise from our M102e Introduction to Pastoral Care course. By sharing one or two excerpts, we gain a real picture window onto rural, Parish life in the Solomons and into Alban's own experiences which the courses ask him to reflect on and process theologically.

In one activity, students are asked to think about times when it was important to know that other people were praying for them rather than focussing on their own prayers for other people. Alban writes:

When I am sick, I may take some medicine, but with the prayers of others I manage to recover from my illness. Also through the prayers of others I managed to survive in my travellings, in a ship wrecked on a reef out from the mainland at night. The Captain had to call for another boat for all us passengers. On an outboard motor canoe, the engine broke down when out from the islands. We had to paddle to the mainland, arriving at midnight. On a truck, climbing a hill, the engine stopped and we had to reverse back down a hill to a river, but managed to get off the road where all of us passengers were thrown off the truck on the ground. On a plane trip to Temotu Province, the plane lost its way in the air. We had to return back to where we started, Honiara, arriving very late in the evening. Should the plane have had less fuel we might have dropped in the middle of the sea. There were lots of experiences, but with God's help through other people's prayer, I have managed to overcome these hardships. 

Marking for Extension Studies is rarely dull.

In another assignment, two lists were asked for. The first asks the writer to identify needs and problems they observe in their local community. The second asks them to list gifts and talents evident in the community that might be tapped to address those needs. Here are Alban's lists from Parish life.

Needs and problems in our community

1.   School fees for school students

2.   Financial needs of families

3.   Drunkenness by alcoholic members of the community

4.   Cost of transport fare to urban towns

5.   Cost of housing materials from the hardware store

6.   Cost of children's school uniforms for families

7.   Gardening tools are not available

8.   Repair and maintenance of the community water supply

9.   Lighting for some family homes

10. Supporting elderly people

11. Lack of income generating projects or cash income

12. No start up costs available for income generating projects

Gifts and talents of our community

1.   Sewing of clothes for sale

2.   Cooking of cakes or food for sale

3.   Weaving of baskets or mats for sale

4.   Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools

5.   Church lay workers

6.   Vegetable farming of crops

7.   Building of a residential house

8.   Going out fishing on the sea coast

9.   Catching of stream or river prawns

10. Furniture making

11.  Driving of vehicles

12.  Diving and catching coastal fish with a net

Community care ministry is about prioritising which problem can be dealt with first, according to Alban, and then 'working together as a team, we will try to solve or meet one need at a time'.

In much the same way as Mr Alban Leaga, one assignment at a time, is going to get that Diploma. Watch this space. He and numerous other Extension students teach me an awful lot about keeping focussed and staying faithful. 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year. I saw you!! God Bless to everyone for 2015 xx

First Christmas Day in Fiji

I'd scoured Suva for a Nativity set thinking I'd find one handcrafted out of dried palm leaves or wood carved. Disappointment. Not a sniff of one. I could do you numerous turtles, masks, little ships and Buddhas, but no Mary, Joseph and Jesus. The wonderful specimen above, having whined about the lack of one in their hearing, was therefore a gift from Josiah, Mercy, Wes and Jerusha, the American Baptist/UMC family - see previous blog - serving at the Methodist Theological College in Nausori. They fashioned it with their own fair hands and a whole bunch of love and care. I was hugely touched. The four seashells in the front represent the stable animals. The coral on the right definitely has the essence of woolly sheep, don't you reckon?

Not only did the wonderful Neals produce a Nativity scene, they came with me to see the Paddington film which was released here before Xmas day. It's terrific: just great, and with many a powerful and poignant theme in there too about being far from home, finding welcome or rejection as the stranger, London as a warm, embracing, global city or a cold, harsh and impenetrable place. I came out with moist eyes going, 'Awwww...!' It's side-splittingly funny too, however. So it gets a 5 star review from one who's been devoted to Paddington since first being able to read and has a full set of the original Penguins enhanced by Peggy Fortnum's inspired line illustrations. I had this one stuck to my filing cabinet all last year, hurtling towards the PhD finishing line.

And so Christmas day dawned in Suva. The previous day, to be on the safe side, I had pre-booked Yogesh and his cab for 8.30am to run me to Dudley Memorial Church where I was preaching at 9.00. Yogesh works the patch outside our College and I'm a regular. There he was, on the dot. 

'Hi - Happy Christmas!' I said, and held out fruit cake and one of the Methodist Church in Britain's 'Gift of Christmas' booklets I'd ordered in bulk for sharing here. 'May I give you this small gift for Christmas?' I ventured politely, only to learn for the first time that Yogesh is Christian, actually - I'd assumed he was Hindu. You see? He was off to his own Church, World Harvest Centre, later at 1.00pm. 'But I cleaned the cab and came to drive you first, Talatala', he said. 'It's important'. The meter clocked up $5.00 but he wouldn't take it. 'My Christmas gift to you', he said.

These were our Bible readings at Dudley this morning.

Isaiah 52.7-10 

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" 8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. 9 Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

John 1:1-14

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. 6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

I suggested in the sermon that Jesus was 'Good News' for three reasons that can be found in these passages. Firstly, in a mysterious way we'll never fully grasp, Christians believe that Jesus was in at the very heart and start of things. As God spoke creation into being, according to Genesis, the Word that we've come to know personally as life and light in Jesus was somehow in that very forming and shaping. Secondly, Jesus is 'Good News' because he knew what it was to be unrecognised and unwelcome - even in Bethlehem his birthplace. Therefore he stands in complete solidarity with many in this world who are faceless, voiceless, rejected: for whom there is no room at the inn, no welcome in the land. Cue sermon illustration from the Paddington movie! Thirdly, Jesus is 'Good News' because he glorifies God even through his childhood humanity and gives us hope that we can too. If we receive him and believe in his name, he gives us the right to become children of God. We don't just live with nervous expectation that we might be acceptable, flawed and failed as we are. We boldly claim our family status - warts and all - as beloved children. 

I hope that was sufficient Good News for one sermon!

And talking of children, the invitation to preach had kindly come from Dudley's minister the Revd Dr Immanuel Reuben who's pictured here with granddaughter Letitia - and a little girl from next door who'd wandered in sensing Christmas cake and a cuddle might be on offer. It's open house at the Reuben's. I was touched to be so warmly and generously included for Xmas lunch along with different branches of their family, some of whom live in Australia and New Zealand and had come home to Mum and Dad for Christmas. Goat curry, rice, roti, green veggies with fiery chillies and a great tomato chutney were on the menu, followed by fresh pineapple and ice cream. How was your turkey?

It's lovely, I must say, to have fast internet and be able to e-mail and Skype friends and family in the UK, Zambia and other sundry places. Also to have received lots of 'snail mail' including some chunky jiffy bags. Nothing like a chunky jiffy bag under the Xmas tree... I'll be saying personal thank you's of course, but why shouldn't my gratitude be blogged as well? There are some very, very lovely people in my 'world' who've remembered me and been in touch. Thank you.  And I think I'm grateful - to more than one person, actually - who's been a touch elf obsessed this year. 

I therefore include, for your delectation and delight, the uplifting (or mildly disconcerting) offering my dear God-daughter Lydia came up with. 

Click here if you dare....

I'm going to go out now (6pm) and continue my first Christmas Day in Fiji with a long walk down the beautiful seafront, just two minutes from the house. I expect I'll meet the neighbours walking off their goat curry (or whatever) too. And gazing at the vastness of the ocean I'll give thanks again for a tiny Christ-child, born to offer the world God's light and life. 

Mission partners in Fiji, or anywhere else for that matter, only go because he came.

Alana, Revd Reuben's latest grandchild, will be
baptised on 5th January.

Merry Christmas!

Advent defiance and Christmas confidence

A Christmas Card with love

Suva has Christmas saturation. In case you'd wondered if the commercial 'trappings' of the season are as evident here as anywhere else, they certainly are. Santa wears a bula shirt and advertises merry mobile phone deals. (Other networks are available).

There are jolly, holly offers everywhere, and of course the lure for all ages to keep up with festive fashion trends. 

But many from Suva, including families on the College campus, travel to villages and the smaller islands to see relatives over Christmas, where life may lack the Suva glitz but perhaps gets to the heart of Christmas more effectively. 

For me, as campus is quiet because it's the long 'Summer' holiday, I'll be pressing on, this week at least, with the production of BD courses, tackling an article I've been asked to write, finishing off a newsletter 'Conch Shell' which goes to all students studying by extension across the islands, and assignment marking. Always assignment marking... 


But it's good, and I can work a bit at home and a bit in the office and still enjoy walks by the sea and visiting neighbours on the campus. My next door neighbours Auntie Selai, younger Selai, Selah, Elena and Disele came over for a meal on Saturday evening, accompanied by their new ukelele! So we passed a pleasant time strumming and feasting. 



I shall have charge of a pastoral group next year made up of student and staff families, so the plan is to make visits to them over the Xmas period too. Cakes will be made and distributed because I've invested in a table top electric oven. Wondrous! A Christmas blessing if ever there was. No more buns with burnt bottoms...

Sally Lowe from St Martin's, Dorking shared this and I'm grateful to her.

CHRISTMAS  SOUNDS

by U.A. Fanthorpe

Boeings wing softly over Earth

Humming like enormous Messiahs

Bringing everyone home for Christmas;

Children wailing impossible wants,

Housewives worrying in case enough isn’t,

Parsons, with prevenient care, sucking Strepsils,

Telly jingling twinkling mistletoe-ing,

Cash tills recording glad tidings of profit,

Office parties munching through menus  -

Crackers!  Champagne corks!

At the heart of it all, in the hay,

No sound at all but the cattle

Endlessly chewing it over.

Not quite a stable, but still plenty of room for contemplation about simplicity, earthiness and the newly born.

(Photo with grateful thanks to Wes, Jerusha, Mercy and Josiah Neal serving with UMC Global Ministries at the Methodist Theological College, Davuilevu, just outside Suva. We took a walk on their campus, which included a visit to the piggery....)

And you'd like a carol, I guess? Well here's the choir of Nasinu Methodist Circuit doing their stint of carols in the park this Christmas.

Wishing you and your loved ones
God's hope, peace, justice and joy

this Christmas and New Year

Val x

Advent musings

You know, I'm really missing morning Chapel. Once the academic year closes at PTC - not that PTC Education by Extension closes - the community doesn't gather for daily worship any more. I'm not implying that we aren't worshipping and praying as families and individuals in our homes and congregations - indeed we are - but it seems strange to walk past a deserted Chapel every day, on an ecumenical, Christian campus, not least in the season of Advent, which I love. It would be great, to my mind, to have a gathering for worship at some point each day for anyone who'd like to pause and pray with colleagues, students and families who are still around. Not a compulsory, official summons by the Faculty, demanding hours of choir practice and sermon and liturgy preparation, but a more natural, simple gathering, perhaps. A daily office, by any other name, with the same form of words used as a guideline each day and people taking turns to lead? Or songs and readings and prayers led informally, with some silence too, around an Advent wreath? I muse on these things and then come up against the perennial mission partner dilemma: to suggest or not to suggest. Just over three months in, it still seems right and respectful to 'go with the flow' and accept the norm. I'm probably not understanding something. And anyway, if this is about my need and nobody else's, why should PTC change its ways to accommodate the new, British mission partner? But then, it is Advent... And I'm not sure prayer conforms to an academic year...

So, I've turned to the RC Cathedral of the Sacred Heart for the four Sundays of Advent, God Bless 'em, and the opportunity for a day's retreat too. On Advent Sunday last week, much was made at the Cathedral of Pope Francis's dedication of 2015 as a Year of Consecrated Life, with its brilliant strapline 'Wake up the World!' See the banner above the High Altar. Have to say, I just love that!

Some Protestant sceptics regard this declaration as no more than a massive Papal recruitment drive for vocations to the Priesthood and the religious orders. (There are worse things to be recruited for, mind you). But I think the intention's a lot broader than that, as Pope Francis has tried to make clear.

"Religious life ought to promote growth in the Church by way of attraction. The Church must be attractive. Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in this world."

He's also big on joy, which is always a relief to hear. There's a lot more about the vision here. 

Then today, Second Sunday of Advent, Fr Pio Fong preached the Cathedral sermon/homily and presided at the Eucharist/Holy Communion. I found his Advent reflections challenging and astute as he talked about John the Baptist's different and vital invitation to people to repent, act and be baptised in anticipation of a Saviour who would soon challenge and change everything and demand action of his followers. He related this to the potentially deadening effect of habit in our lives: to how the seasons of the Church year and the 'routine' of Sunday worship can run the risk of becoming merely habitual, suppressing the senses. In the way that repetitive work in an uninspiring job or the ceaseless round of chores in daily life can also drain energy and claim us in negative ways, or simply numb us. God wants to wake us up. 'Did you know,' he said, 'that if you throw a frog into boiling water, it immediately knows that life-saving action is necessary and leaps out. But if you put a frog into a pan of cold water and slowly heat it up, it just sits there...' 

I didn't know that.

It was a great illustration. 

Still feeling for the frog.

Have no fear, I haven't deserted Methodism. The Deaconesses of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma held their Annual Retreat from 2-4 December and kindly invited me to lead three Bible Studies over three mornings. It was very good to be with them and to see again Deaconess Meresiana who's Administrator at Deaconess House and responsible for training and formation. Mere did her Masters degree in Birmingham in 2002 and lived at the United College of the Ascension in Selly Oak when I was tutoring there. Great to be reunited and we're going to have a good catch up at some point when she can draw breath. As well as a full ministry, she's married to Maciu and has bouncing boys to attend to. She's front row, cross-legged on the right, in the bright green blouse.

Methodist Church Fiji has adopted language about the 'New Exodus' to try and articulate its hopes and intentions 50 years on, and look beyond all the Jubilee celebrations that dominated so much of 2014. We tried to unpick and unpack some of that at the retreat and I was interested to discover which topics got people going the most. To be or not to be 'vocal' was certainly one. We looked, in keeping with Advent, at how Luke portrays Mary, as a questioning and pondering young woman, and then as one who raises her voice in songs and shouts of praise, communicating with the world her new found sense of vocation and blessedness. There was a lot of sharing from experience among the Deaconesses about how giving voice to what matters to them and being heard in the life of Church and society can be really tough going. There's a lot to be worked on, clearly, and I listened carefully. Having the courage to be vocal as part of a vocational life is holy work and definitely of God, we agreed. And Mary's not a bad teacher, for starters.

I needed a filing cabinet for home. You know, for the electricity bill, and the Xmas pressie list, and the personal papers, and those very, very useful leaflets that aren't really but somehow need to be kept and there's a limit to how many you can stuff under fridge magnets. 

There are indeed shiny, designer-office filing cabinets for purchase in the shops of Suva but I couldn't justify the expense quite frankly. So what do you think of this? Ta da! Three rubbishy, dog-eared archive boxes lying dormant in the Education by Extension office, now transformed by jolly plastic and the skill of my own fair hands, she said modestly. Not lockable, true, but I'm not keeping the crown jewels in there. And just for general reference, it's possible to transform one archive box and lid with a merry plastic covering in the same time it takes to listen to The Archer's pod cast. No, not the omnibus; a single episode. I know you're impressed; you're just trying to hide it.

I shall leave you with words in English and Fijian for Advent, some fiery blossom currently on display by the sea wall, and my Advent wreath in a tub of mini ferns. God Bless until next time.

Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths: all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Ni caramaka na sala ni Turaga, ni cakava me dodonu na nona gaunisala. Era na raica tale ga na veivakabulai ni Kalou na tamata kece.