CWM-TIM 2023

  ü   [Editorial Note: This is a beautiful prophetic piece about possibilities and a woman's dream to serve her Church with integrity long-term. It is also a story that has not yet come to pass. Our prayer is this: Grant wisdom and grace between people of goodwill, so that they might know how and when to act in service to You, dear God. Grant that there may be signs of encouragement for faithfulness and compassion when there is anxiety or struggle. Bring peace and blessing! Amen] I wrote a story on the inadequate knowledge of our communities and churches on reading scriptures,  not an excuse for women not to be ordained. Titled : Ordaining of Women is possible. Once upon a time, in a remote Pacific Island namely Samoa, a profound belief system governed the lives of its people. This island nation had a rich cultural heritage, deeply rooted in tradition and customs that had been passed down through generations. Within this traditional society, roles were clearly defined. Men we

In this journey I have learned that Jesus Christ has been portrayed as supreme white male with an image of patriarch which is an colonial invention and imagining of Christ. This image and understanding of Christ has been injected into the minds of Asian Christians by western missionaries. But, many times this imperial westernized colonial image of Christ became an exclusive one which is not been able to own by diverse communities who are the victims of colonialism.   But in reality Christ is Asian who is born in a middle class family at Palestine. Christ is a pro- feminist one who really empathetic and understands the pains and sufferings of women. Jesus attitude has a radical shift from his own contemporary times, he goes beyond the purity codes and discussed deep divine theological aspects with a untouchable Samaritan women. The image of Christ has to be re-imagined according to our own context, then he becomes relevant to our struggles in the community.  According to the Indian Cont

Ecology is one of the focus areas in this journey, which once again has provoked me and reminded me of the inter-conceitedness and inter-relatedness that we have within the creation. If one part of the body suffers the whole body suffers similarly if the one part/ species suffers then it endangers the stability and sustenance of the other parts of the creation.  I learned that this earth has its intrinsic worth and value on its own which must be looked as subject rather than an mere object, only then we can hear the voice of this earth and its agony. We as humans have ignored the atrocities that we have committed against this whole creation - through our greed of exploitation and plundering of all natural resources we disturbed the whole beauty of creation.  We as whole human community and specifically as faith community/churches have the responsibility to protect and safeguard the entire creation. Educating, empowering and bringing awareness among the faith community and society at la

                                                             PLACE: PTC CHAPEL, SUVA One of the wonderful experience that I had during Sunday church service at PTC chapel in Suva. In Many churches the holy elements during the communion is only given to baptized and communicants which quite exclusive. But first time all the believers, irrespective of status were given  access to feed on the body and blood of Christ which is the spiritual food for their daily strength.   Church must be a place of inclusiveness, where everyone are welcomed, not a exclusive or dividing space. Using coconut water as contextualized blood of Christ instead of wine is a new experience and much appreciated. Even breaking the coconut and the water spilling out resembles the crucifixion experience of Christ.    

How we read the Bible. (Reflection) The missionary brought this bible to our lands, our forefathers together with missionaries translated it for the sake of generations to come. The Bible to us is a sacred book, we used it in our churches during Sunday worshiping, family morning and evening devotions and community’s bible studies. It was not just a book to us; it was and is the book of life for me personally.   Growing up, we were taught that whenever we have doubts, feeling down or lost, the bible will always provide a light during our darkest  times. However, our knowledge of the bible is limited, we often depend on our ministers to interpret the text for us, and I personally think that this is when the problem comes in. We understood the text from the Minister’s lens, without trying and interpreting it from our own lenses. This Minister’s version of the text limits our understanding of the text and therefore make judgement from it. First and foremost, the texts in the bible were

  A   A critical reflection on reading and doing church from contest context (Reading Genesis Chapter 12 : 20)   Genesis 12 – 1 :6 In this reading, God gave instruction to Abram to leave everything behind and go to Canaan where he will make great nation, make his name great and be a blessing. However, Abram did not obey, he took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all his possessions and people they had acquired from Haran. He arrived in Canaan and traveled through the land to find out that there are Canaanites living on this land. God also appeared on this land and said “To your offspring, I will give this land”. From Chapter 11, Sarai is said to be childless or barren, how can God give him such blessing knowing that Abram’s wife cannot conceive, a loophole in the text.   Reference to context : We believe that missionaries arrived on our lands because our ancestors believed that it is a fulfillment to a prophecy by a fearless Goddess (Nafanua). Christian God was introduced and our

This post will give viewers an understanding on how missionaries arrived in my country and its  impacts. I've used questions provided by our Lecturer Dr. Emily Colgan to give a clear understanding.  When and how did Christianity arrive in my context? The Christian missionaries arrived in Samoa on the 24th of August 1830. It was led by John William and Charles Barf. From a word-of-mouth story that was taught by our elders, a Samoan missionary by the name of Fauea and his wife was with John Williams during their mission work in Tonga. They lived in Tonga for the past 11 years. He went up to John William and asked him if they could bring Christianity into their lands as they do not believe in a Christian God but rather worship spirits Gods and may be a good chance for them to return back to their lands. This was when John Williams along with missionaries from Tonga and Tahiti decided to bring Christianity into Samoa. They paddled their canoe along the shores of Samoa until they found

  We enjoyed the mud pool experience. You start by putting mud on yourself out of a bucket. Then you stand around waiting to "dry".Once dried, you enter the mud pool, which is quite squishy on the bottom. You "rinse" yourself there, then head to the "hot springs", which is a nice warm pool. They have a 2 another pool, but it was too hot for us. It was a wonderful experience because I don’t have these type of experience back in India.

We participated in the celebration of Independence of Islands in the Pacific - Tongo Island on 04.07.2023 Solomon Island on 07.07.2023, Kiribati Island on 12.07.2023 in the PTC Chappel   We came to know that, how they have been colonised and the struggles they had. It was really interesting to hear from them. There was cultural activities and Dance.

 Week 1 with Emily was my first theological class in my life since I’m not from a theology background. I learnt many things how to read bible, how to engage with God, and so on. It was wonderful week I will say because we have a delightful thought provoking class from Emily. I was reflecting on the Ethics of Naming God, because till that I believed  the God is white colour with long hair and blue eyes,  I got a clear clarification after the class. She finished the class with a quote from James Cone,   We've got a lot of white images of Christ. In reality, Christ was not white, not European. To see Christ as black is important to the psychic and to the spiritual consciousness of black people who live in a ghetto, in a white society in which their lord and saviour looks just like people who victimise them. God is whatever colour God needs to be in order to let people know they're not nobodies, they're somebodies". “The African Black Jesus” "Jesus in Varanasi" b

When starting out on a big adventure, it is pretty natural to be excited at the beginning. Adrenaline kicks in and keeps you going - up to a point. After a while, your mind and body and spirit reacts. I am asking myself to find a new equilibrium in strangeness. My interior self is being challenged every moment by the external strangeness. How can I find peace again? Being in a new and different family, I start with a little anxiety and fear and progress to curiosity and wonder. But, by now, our TIMs are also beginning to get on each other's nerves. Our weaknesses and faults cannot stay hidden forever. We start to feel the weight when someone else is leaning too heavily or we get annoyed. Our reserves of courtesy have been depleted and we have to work hard to be kind. When things are starting to drag and feel a bit hard and concerning, we are invited to pray for one another and for ourselves: God of Mission -  gift us with spirits of cooperation and generosity,  so that we might bet

Born and raised in Samoa with a limited knowledge on how to perceive things differently, makes it more complicated for me to try and accept this kind of practice. Communion is considered highly sacred in my community and coconut on the other side is found anywhere in the community. It is used for different purposes, such as cooking, healing, consuming, drinking etc..  The list of coconut use in my community never involved Communion which is why I did not accept the flesh of the coconut as a symbol of Jesus Body and a coconut juice as a symbol of Jesus blood being shed on the cross. I questioned myself, why used coconut?  While sitting in the Chapel, I said a silent prayer "Le Atua, faamolemole ia e alofa ma faamagalo mai a'u i lo'u le taliaina o le aano male sua ole niu e fai mai faailoaga o lou tino ma lou toto, ae faamolemole sei e fesoasoani mai ia te a'u,  ina ia ou taliaina i lo'u loto se a'oa'oga oi lumanai e faailoa mai ai le taua olea foi ituaiga sa

A special session will start today. But when heard that the two-day day session will end one day, I got worried. The session started, but at the beginning, our instructor told us about an accident that happened in his life, which he still regrets. He wiped his tears as he spoke, along with a few of us. He gives us a book, in which everything is given. slowly slowly the session started to feel good. it started to feel better when we split into groups and practically applied them to ourselves. Fun but learning by the time we finished our course,I started to think that time seems to have gone a little too fast today. and another reason to enjoy the session is that our instructor was very funny and friendly. Thank you, Instructor and CWM because we are now professional First Aiders.

 They All Gathered Around The Table To Remember Him With What They Have ----------------------------------------------- Quite an interesting session this was! First of all I should say, it was my first time hearing about the Coconut Theology let alone having to be invited to participate in the Table. It was an experience to even have coconut flesh as the "Bread" and coconut water as the "Wine".

Last Thursday at PTC Chappel We attended  a holy communion service. The Service started with the Kumbaya my Lord Kumbaya ,Kumbaya means  “Come By Here,” During Holy Communion, in place of bread and wine we were given  Coconut flesh and water. For me, this demonstrates their devotion to and way of life with regards to Coconuts in the Pacific.

 I had read coconut theology in the book for long time. But last week i descovered myself in the holy communion of coconut theology. Dressed in their traditional attire they begun their worship, singing song to the beat of beautiful instruments, and then gospel. Then they went to their part of the holy communion . and to the rythm of the music, everyone lined up and take holy holy communion .with coconut water and coconut meat they prepared their lord's supper. A new experience of knowing jesus in a new way , and receving his bodyand blood. amen.

No one want to encounter any accident.  But if there is an accident and we can't offer any help, especially your friends or family members, it's shocking and depressing. Last Saturday, we had our first aid training. The teacher not only taught us many knowledge but also spent a lot of time on practical operation to make sure that we know how to do that. I believe that no one will ever want to use this skill. But when we encounter accidents, may we all remember what we have learned and truly become other's help.

 Last week, we experienced a Holy Communion which is using coconut meat and coconut water. In Taiwan, because of many different cultures, we often use different culturally meaningful food for the Holy Communion.  Last year, in the National Youth Bible Study Camp, we used Mochi and Sugarcane Juice for the Holy Communion. Mochi is a dessert which made by sticky rice. Sugarcane is a plant which can make sugar. Both of these are specialties in Hualien, where the camp was located.

 SUNDAYS ARE FOR FAMILY! The culture of the TIM class we were taught by Fuata that on weekends the group would have to cook for themselves. This past week; became so busy that we couldn't continue with our other tasks, including gardening; blog reflections. On Saturday we had a whole day First Aid Training Session which we all left tired. Then woke up Sunday for Church. Indeed, Sundays are for Family; the practiced Culture of TIM where some members of the Group have to cook for the entire group gave us an opportunity to taste two different dishes, Taiwanese and Indian dishes! They were both marvelous! Thanks to team that was cooking! While dining; we had an opportunity of sharing stories and talking about the experience we having thus far! This week was challenging but a good experience and lessons are what I am taking away with me! SHALOM!

 The Importance of Contexts Week One of Study was just an interesting Week where we had very engaging and "brutal" (LOL) as the study challenged most us to unlearn most of what we have learn and to relate what we know to what we were taught. All thanks to Emily who was our first Lecturer. Critical approach to the context of the Scripture is necessary to put it in relation to the different context of the life today. This learning experience for me was also an opener as it strengthened my faith to hold on to the convictions of the Christian faith by making me to have an interest on "INFORMED PERSPECTIVE" when it comes to context and mission. And then we went to CHURCH as to end our week with Emily. The warm hospitality of the  Anglican  Diocese of Polynesia; such a wonderful welcoming from the People of this Church! And also being part of the Holy Table was just a tranquil session! A wonderful week it has been!