Dark History for Christians in Fiji

The recent history of Fiji - in terms of the freedom of Christian churches - has been a dark one due to the success of a Military Coup carried out there in December of 2006. Today's morning news includes a report of how Fiji's interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has championed "the arrest of several Methodist church leaders and Fiji’s most senior female High Chief over the church’s annual conference, which the interim government has banned."

Another report explains: "Fiji police have charged the paramount chief Ro Teimumu Kepa and two top Methodist Church ministers with defying the Public Emergency Regulation. The church president, the Reverend Ame Tugaue, and the secretary general, the Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu, have been charged with contravening orders by organising a meeting last week with two church figures that the interim regime wants to have expelled from the Methodists’ leadership. Ro Teimumu has been charged with inciting the people of her home province Rewa by publishing a letter on the internet which invited the church for its annual conference after the interim regime had banned the gathering. The three have been released on bail and made to surrender their passports."

Thanks be to God that we live in a country where church leaders can plan meetings and gather together without fear of being arrested! Let's remember to pray often for the people of Fiji and anywhere else in the world where Christian churches are controlled or muzzled by evil governments.