CHURCH leaders, women leaders and youth leaders of Solomon Islands Christian Association (SICA) and Solomon Islands Full Gospel Association (SIFGA) that includes the member churches of the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) opened their consultations on Monday the 2nd of June.
The consultation is hosted by the PCC and the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM) at the Melanesia Haus at the Saint Barnabas Cathedral.
The theme of the conference is: “Rethinking the house hold of God in the Solomon Islands”. Within this theme, the consultation will discern six key aspects: the contextual realities in Solomon Islands; biblical foundation in morality; biblical formation in caring for the environment; biblical formation in governance; biblical formation in Social Justice and consultation and advocacy plan.
The objective of the Consultation is to build the capacity of the Churches, through education and learning, on the biblical formation version and what is required by the church to significantly contribute towards the rethinking of the Solomon Islands’ version of Governance, social and economic development and care for the environment. The other goal is to facilitate the development of the churches’ consultation and advocacy plan with the government and the civil society organization in the Solomon Islands on rethinking the country’s development vision and its key features-governance, social and economic development, and care for the environment.
By the end of the three day consultation, the conference is hoping to come up with a draft consultation and advocacy plan with the government and the civil society organizations and a statement that contains churches’ vision for the Solomon Islands and practical commitments by member churches on how they will implement their leanings.
Speaking on the theme of the event, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Melanesia the Most Rev. David Vunagi in his opening remarks says, we need to listen to each other how we can attain genuine physical, economic, administrative, moral and spiritual developments that are in agreement with God’s purpose in creation.
“In our different ways, I think we have distorted the horizontal relationship that unites people together – the kind of relationship that promotes good governance,’ Archbishop David said.
“As stewards of God’s people and stewards of the environment, we must enter into serious dialogue with the government and other stake holders and request for a space if they could listen to the voice of the churches on issues regarding logging and mining,” Archbishop David said in his speech.
The first day component consultation includes interactive discussions and presentation on the topic: ‘Discerning the contextual realities in the Solomon Islands’.
The consultation is facilitated by the Pacific Conference of Churches and the co-host, the Anglican Church of Melanesia.
Amongst other Church leaders and Ministerial leaders who attended the consultation are the Most Rev. David Vunagi Archbishop of Melanesia, Rev. Wilfred Kurepitu Moderator of the United Church in Solomon Islands, Rev. Alick Hagi of the Church of Nazarene, Bishop John Doaninoel of the Roman Catholic Church, Pr. Sam Thao of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and Pr. Stanley Aetorea of the South Seas Evangelical Church (SSEC).