The Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma has raised concerns on the increase in the number of church members seeking employment opportunities abroad.
General secretary Reverend Semisi Turagavou made the comment in response to a concern raised by a church member during the Methodist Church of Fiji annual conference on Thursday.
Church president Reverend Ili Vunisuwai also raised concerns regarding church members who were leaving for overseas, specifically under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
Mr Turagavou said recently, the church had noted a significant decrease in numbers of new church members to fill in the spot of the members who have left for work opportunities overseas.
“We still have to discuss further on that regarding these workers who are moving abroad, especially because they are members of the church from the divisional circuit and local churches,” Mr Turagavou said.
We rely on a number of our church members who are going abroad and will be seeking advise from our divisional superintendents and ministers on the ground because they know better than us from the head office.
“So we are looking forward to receiving some of the information regarding the movements from Fiji to overseas.”
Concerns were also raised on issues including language barriers and the high cost of catering being spent by the church circuits during the conference.
“During our discussions about conference, we invite the stewards to discuss with us about catering and other logistics within the conference so they should bring it up during these discussions.
“In terms of the language barrier, we have translation devices and we also ask ministers to help in the translations during the conference.”
He added the conference brought about important issues that would be looked into by the church and it’s executive members before the next conference. The conference ended on Friday.
