NEWSPAGE 20 January
2012

(Photo: Oceania Football Confederation)

(Photo: www.eventpolynesia.com)

SAMOA: Is the move by the SDA church in Samoa to worship on Sunday a convenient compromise?‏
Source: eventpolynesia.com

The controversial decision by the SDA church administration in Samoa to worship on Sunday has drawn many letters on the issue from Seventh-day Adventists around the world.

Many are critical of the inconsistency in the position of the Samoa-Tokelau Mission by rejecting Saturday as the 7th day of the week following the Government's decision for Samoa to align with Australia and New Zealand (west of the IDL), hence the reason for now worshipping on Sunday; and on the other hand accepting the new 'working week' from Monday to Friday.

Bloggers on WWW.SSnet.org (Sabbath School Network site) and www.spectrummagazine.org have also raised an observation regarding a convenient compromise by the SDA church in Samoa should there be a Sunday Law.

"Can I flee to Samoa to avoid persecution when the worldwide Sunday law happens and at the same time keep my Sabbath with a clear conscience?"

"I wonder indeed if we can move to Samoa when the Sunday Laws come - and keep Sabbath on Sunday?"

Dr. Allen Sonter a respected Seventh-day Adventist educator and missionary from Australia who lived and worked in (Western) Samoa and Tonga for a number of years, and also worked in the SDA (CPUM) office for 6 years highlighted the complexity of the Samoa issue, "My work then involved crossing the date line frequently. In fact, I recall one 8-week period when I did not have two consecutive weeks of the same length. My weeks would be 7-days 8-days, 7-days 6-days, 7 days, 8 days, 6-day, 7-days. Sometimes the only flight we could get from Rarotonga to Auckland was on a Friday afternoon, so we would take off late Friday afternoon, cross the date line
in the evening, and land in Auckland on Saturday night. Where did Sabbath go? I hated that flight, because I missed a Sabbath! Incidentally, I also missed my birthday one year, and Christmas day another year."

"The Bible gives no instruction about how to handle the date-line issue, and it also says nothing about where on the surface of the earth the Sabbath begins and ends. Therefore, if God has not seen fit to make that issue clear, it is obviously not a matter that is vital to our salvation.
Therefore, in seeking a solution to the issue we must look to underlying principles that govern our relationship to God and to our fellow believers."

"The Sabbath is a sign of the fact that the LORD is our God (Ezekiel 20, 12, 20). Therefore in handling the date-line issue the basic principle that should guide our decision is that our keeping of the Sabbath should mark us as being loyal to God, as opposed to following a man-made day of rest. If the Adventist teaching about the mark of the beast being the false Sunday / Sabbath is true, then to worship on the Sunday (even though sunset to sunset instead of midnight to midnight) gives a mixed message in regard to our loyalty to God. To argue that Sunday in Tonga, and in the new-order (Western) Samoa, is really the seventh day of the week, is to mount an
argument to which there is no definitive answer, because, as I noted earlier, the Bible is silent on the facts that are needed to prove one's point. Which solution to the issue most clearly applies the principle that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is a sign of our loyalty to God? When
I was travelling frequently across the date-line, I took the view that the right thing for me to do in being loyal to God, was to keep the day accepted as the Sabbath wherever I happened to be. Applying the same principle to the (Western) Samoa situation, the right thing to do might be to continue keeping Saturday in the new-order (Western) Samoa."

"I recall that on one occasion in Tonga I was speaking with a delegation from the British government, and one senior officer said, "The Adventist church in Tonga has been very astute in getting around the strong Sunday legislation in Tonga by arguing that in Tonga the seventh day of the week is really Sunday." So from the point of view of an educated outsider looking
at the situation in Tonga, it appeared that the Adventist solution to the moving date-line problem did not indicate loyalty to God, but rather the opposite - a convenient compromise, and a rather opportunistic one at that!"

"I realize that if the church in (Western) Samoa were to change with the changing date-line, and worship on the new Saturday, that would constitute a de-facto admission that the Tongan church had made a mistake by deciding to keep Sunday in Tonga all these years, and that would be an embarrassment to the Tongan church. We must also realize that the church in American Samoa is affected by whatever decision is made."

"Now, just to complicate things even further, another underlying principle comes into the picture.  That is the principle that we are to consider the effects of our behaviour on our fellow believers. Paul tells us that we are not to behave in a way that offends our brother who is weak in the faith
(Romans 14: 13). If the church in (Western) Samoa were to change to the Saturday Sabbath in the new-order (Western) Samoa, they may seriously offend their fellow believers in Tonga, and will affect the members in American Samoa. So should the church in Tonga also change and start worshipping on Saturday? I do not know the answer to that, but what I do know is that the
churches in both (Western) Samoa and American Samoa, as well as in Tonga, are in this together, and that the final decision should not be imposed by anyone else. I believe there should be a combined meeting of a wide representation of the Tongan and Samoan churches, with a small number of representatives from the NZP Union, the SPD, and the General Conference
present to give counsel, but not to take part in the actual decision making process. The matter should be prayerfully discussed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit until a clear consensus among the believers is reached."

"When consensus has been reached, the believers in (Western) Samoa alone must make the final decision about the Sabbath in (Western) Samoa. If a decision were to be reached to keep
Saturday as the Sabbath in (Western) Samoa, Tongan representatives may wish to make some recommendation about the Sabbath in Tonga, which in turn would need to be handled by the believers in Tonga. Any attempt from the outside to impose a decision on the church in (Western) Samoa is likely to cause a split in the church."\

With the growing discontent, the SDA church may need to go into damage
control.

Photo 1 - Second SDA group worshipping on Saturday at the Government Prayer
House, Apia.

Photo 2 - Moananu Okesene, Pastor Aitui Fanene and Lance Cutts.
 

AMERICAN SAMOA: Former American Samoa senator Mailo Atonio dies

American Samoa is mourning the death of a prominent traditional leader.

Former senator, associate judge, businessman and author Mailo Tony Atonio passed away at the LBJ hospital, aged 74.

His daughter Virginia said her father had suffered health complications at home last night and was rushed to the hospital.

She said he suffered a heart attack.

Mailo Atonio served as senator for Fagatogo from 2007 to 2010.

Before that he was an associate judge and an Administrator of the High Court.

Mailo once owned a nightclub called Caesar’s Palace in Fagatogo that was popular in the 1980’s.

He also had a taro plantation.

Mailo has also written two books about the Samoan culture

He is survived by his wife Fa’ava and seven children.
 

(Photo: Salaseini Vosamana)

FIJI: Devotees walk for their faith
Source: Fiji Times Online

Being loyal to their faith, a group of Hare Krishna devotees in Labasa took time out to walk more than 10 kilometres yesterday to celebrate the Festival of Walking.

The festival signifies the devotees' journey with Lord Jagannath as they celebrated and commemorated his life during the walk.

The group started the celebration from Seaqaqa on Monday night with a walk to Tabia. The next leg was from Tabia to Tabucola.

Devotee Rakesh Kumar said this was the only event they anticipated every year to show their gratitude and well-wishes to their God.

"This is a week-long celebration and it started all the way from Seaqaqa where devotees chanted religious songs and prayers," Mr Kumar said.

"As part of the celebrations, we are also staging dramas and entertainment every night for the public.

"We don't care what people think of us because this is what we believe in and we'll continue to remain true to our faith.

"In every aspect of life, there is criticism but we have to be strong to be able to share the message of truth."

Mr Kumar said they would continue their journey to Labasa Town today where vegetarian dishes would be provided for lunch.

"This celebration is all about sharing and by distributing free lunches to the public, we are portraying a kind act," he said.

Photo Caption: Hare Krishna devotees in Lasbasa yesterday. 
 

(Photo: SOPAC)

KIRIBATI: Kiribati prioritizes protection in deep seabed minerals process
Source: Secretariat Of The Pacific Community Press Release

With fisheries as Kiribati’s main economic resource for a growing population, there is an imperative to find other income sources.
“This is where seabed mineral exploration and mining is important,” said Mr Tearinaki Tanielu, a Geologist, working as the Minerals Officer for the Kiribati Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development.

“As a nation we are working toward adding more prosperity for people to make their lives better, but at the same time with little or no impact on our environment.”

He said that on a global level, seabed systems are not fully understood, and that there are policy and knowledge gaps that need to be addressed, adding greater complexity to the whole issue, and that it would be necessary for Kiribati to first develop technical and scientific knowledge and the appropriate policies so that the country has the capacity to undertake deep seabed mineral exploration and exploitation.

For these reasons, Mr Tanielu sees the country’s on-going association with the SPC/SOPAC the Division as a way to tap into forty years of experience in ocean scientific research, as well as be involved in the development of policy frameworks for deep seabed mineral exploration and mining. Frameworks are being developed as a part of the four-year European Union-funded Deep Seabed Minerals Project.

“Yes, of course we see the economic potential of deep seabed minerals, but at the same time we have to protect what has been there for millions of years, and that our ancestors have depended on for thousands of years,” he said.

“It is also important to include our cultural knowledge as a complement to scientific knowledge. Local fishermen are aware that any disturbances to the deep seabed may impact upon the environment, and therefore upon their fish supplies and livelihoods.

“There is the confirmed existence of manganese nodules and cobalt crusts in our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Line Islands. We plan to have more exploration there, but we want to do this in an environmentally sound way,” said Mr Tanielu.

A country’s EEZ extends to 200 nautical miles from the shoreline, but when a country is comprised of groups of islands, (an archipelago), the EEZ may be calculated from the outer edges of that group.

Mr Tanielu said that previous studies, undertaken in the 1960s through to the 1990s, provide useful baseline data, although the area studied is small in comparison with Kiribati’s EEZ.
“But in taking the direction of deep seabed minerals, we still have to be mindful of protecting our ocean because of the great connection the people of Kiribati have; for thousands of years our people have been people of the sea.

Mr Tanielu said that it was with protection of the environment for future generations in mind, that the Kiribati government created the second-largest marine protected area in the world, in 2006. This was recognised as a World Heritage Site in 2010.

“By conserving an area around the Phoenix Islands group, Kiribati has set a standard for the global community,” said Mr Tanielu.

Creating the MPA was a significant move that puts the abundant fish stocks out of reach as a commercial resource, and also precludes the possible exploration and exploitation of the mineral resources within the marine protected area (MPA).

As the Phoenix Islands are uninhabited, there has been minimal human disturbance in this area, making the MPA a gift to researchers worldwide when they are studying human impacts on environments.

Mr Tanielu said that the MPA is rich in its diversity of corals and fish species. As a protected area, it could become a spawning ground for fish that migrate to other marine areas that have depleted fish populations as a result of being over-exploited.

Although the MPA is equal in size to the state of California, it is only a portion of the area making up Kiribati’s EEZ. And Mr Tanielu believes that “it makes sense from a geological point of view to make use of this large EEZ we have been blessed with, but to do so with a minimum amount of disturbance to our environment.”

Photo Caption: Tearinaki Tanielu.
 

NIUE: Reward offered in Niue arson case
Source: Radio New Zealand International
 
Niue police are offering a reward of almost eight-thousand US dollars in the case of an arson attack in Hikutavake last month.

The village has experienced four arson attacks since the first last May, with the other three occurring on December the 5th.

A man has been charged over two of the December fires but a third that destroyed the home of Ian and Emi Hipa remains unsolved.

The chief of police, Mark Chenery, says the reward will be paid for information or evidence leading to a conviction.

“It is a tragic - especially so close to Christmas - a tragic event for the wider Hipa family to have to go through. So I mean Niue Police and me in particular are committed to trying to find those persons responsible for that.”

Mark Chenery says immunity to prosecution will be considered for a secondary party in relation to the arson.