The faithful at Our Lady of Fatima Parish — a Catholic Presbytery in Nadera, gathered in numbers to raise money for the annual church fundraising on Saturday at the weekend.
As church members lined up in their bula colours to give their offerings, there was a merry mood in the atmosphere while some joined in dancing and merrymaking setting the spirit of the event alive.
However, among the more than 500 individuals gathered at the event, only a few were still aware of the long history behind the church’s existence and one of these few is Eroni Sunia — the liturgy chairperson of the parish.
Mr Sunia said the parish was started off by a Chinese priest by the name of Peter Hsu.
Skimming through the pages of the church’s history books, one can only admire the dedication of nameless individuals who settled around Suva during the 1980s.
Development brought people together from different ethnic backgrounds who had a common need to commune for spiritual enlightenment thus forming church congregations.
This is also true for Our Lady of Fatima Parish which branched from another parish as the number of congregations expanded through the years.
Church history states that the three settlements essentially forming the St Agnes Parish from which the Nadera Parish stemmed from were Muanikoso, Laqere and Fila-fou.
Recorded history reveals that early settlers of Muanikoso were brought into the country through the indentured labour system in the 1880s from Vanuatu and the Solomons.
They first settled in the hills of Toorak, but because of the development of the Suva foreshore, they moved to Muanikoso to work on a certain European-Rice’s farmland.
Later, for some unknown reasons, the settlers from the Solomons moved from Muanikoso to Laqere.
The early settlers of Fila-fou came from Vanuatu by way of the indentured labour system to work in the cane fields. They settled at Nasese and later because of a government notice for vacation in 1948 to 1949, they moved to Fila-fou.
This was made possible by the determination of one Savirio Abong to secure the land from the then Lands Department.
On October 9, 1986, the church of Our Lady of Fatima Parish — Nadera was blessed by His Grace Archbishop Petero Mataca.
The origin of the Parish name and patronage depicted the late Fr Peter Hsu’s devotion to Our Lady and the visitation of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima to the homes of all Catholic families in the parish every year.
Mr Sunia said on October 26, 1986 Our Lady of Fatima Parish — Nadera was formally declared a parish, separate from St Agnes Parish — Samabula.
He said that the parish territorial boundaries enclosed parts of the pastoral territories of St Pius X Parish, Raiwaqa, St Agnes Parish, Samabula and St Joseph the Worker Parish, Tamavua.
Geographically, Mr Sunia said the boundary line began from the coast of Laucala Bay at the mouth of the Samabula River running upstream to its junction with Wainivula Creek, but excluding Vesida.
As congregation numbers increased at the St Agnes Parish and because of the distance that congregation had to travel to attend devotion, Mr Sunia said there were originally four sectors within the parish.
He said the first sector included Laucala Beach, Kinoya, Newtown, St Benedict while the second sector included Nadera, Nadawa, Nepani and Nawanawa.
While the third sector included Caqiri, Kalabu, Naveiwakau and Nasole Mr Sunia said the fourth sector covered Laqere part of Kalabu, Muanikoso, Narere, Makoi and Tovata.
During the past two years Mr Sunia said the church had decided to separate the fourth sector into a new parish because of the increasing numbers of devotees within the areas.
Currently the parish at the Our Lady of Fatima is being headed under the spiritual leadership of Father Timoci Kolodisi.
Mr Sunia said only three sectors remained under the parish.
As the year’s progress and rural urban drift persist Mr Sunia said the number of sectors in the parish is expected to diminish as
they form their own parishes.
