During my week away I missed this story that requires a little more action on our part. I've just written to my MP asking for the Foreign Office to intervene. I am wondering if anyone else would be interested in a vigil outside the Fijian high commission at Hyde Park Gate? It isn't much fun being picketed, even by a bunch of tea swilling, hymn singing, British Methodists!
Our own church press release lays bare the persecution. This could get very nasty.
The Fijian government has banned all Methodist Church meetings except for Sunday worship in an unprecedented crackdown on religious freedom. This includes house groups, women’s prayer fellowship, choir practice, mid-week communion and youth fellowship, as well as the Church’s governance meetings.
Having withdrawn the permit for the Church’s annual Conference the evening before the event was due to start, the interim government has now notified the Church in a letter from the Fiji Military Council that all other meetings of the Methodist Church are forbidden. All Methodist ministers are also forbidden from leaving the country for any meeting.
The Church is responding with prayer and fasting. A planned press conference had to be cancelled last week because of the fear of further arrests. The Methodist Church is the largest faith group in Fiji and the only group to receive this treatment by the Government.
Our own church press release lays bare the persecution. This could get very nasty.
The Fijian government has banned all Methodist Church meetings except for Sunday worship in an unprecedented crackdown on religious freedom. This includes house groups, women’s prayer fellowship, choir practice, mid-week communion and youth fellowship, as well as the Church’s governance meetings.
Having withdrawn the permit for the Church’s annual Conference the evening before the event was due to start, the interim government has now notified the Church in a letter from the Fiji Military Council that all other meetings of the Methodist Church are forbidden. All Methodist ministers are also forbidden from leaving the country for any meeting.
The Church is responding with prayer and fasting. A planned press conference had to be cancelled last week because of the fear of further arrests. The Methodist Church is the largest faith group in Fiji and the only group to receive this treatment by the Government.
