01/11/2024
BISHOP'S REFORMATION MESSAGE
31st October 2024
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BISHOP'S REFORMATION MESSAGE!
31st October 2024
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A joyful reformation greeting to you all!
This year, 2024, marks 507 years of our reformation journey. We are pleased to be part this history, which began in Wittenberg in 1517. When Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis on the door of the Wittenburg Castle Church on 31st October the history of the Christian church changed forever. Whether the course of the reformation movement in 1517 ignited by Luther was for the good or for the bad within Christendom became the subject of debate between Protestants and Roman Catholics.
That piece of global history is behind us and we are moving on into the future as we journey on. However, as we move on we must not lose the sense of the spirit of reformation. We must ask ourselves how the spirit of reformation speaks to us in our present context. Today after 507 years, the spirit of reformation is still alive and the fundamental reformation theology of grace and justice still echoes in our midst today as the evils of violence and injustice confronts us at many fronts.
An occasion for reflection.
We celebrate reformation anniversary today as the spirit of reformation continues to inspire us. We celebrate to commemorate not only the history, but more importantly what the spirit of reformation means for us today and to reflect on the relevance of our mission in a broken world, where human suffering in many different forms continues to increase.
Luther and his contemporaries centered their reformation movement on the Gospel of Grace, God’s unconditional love for the world, manifested through his Son Jesus Christ. The story of God’s divine grace is at the heart of the church and continues to be the focus of our mission today in the world where the negative impact of violence, war, economic inequality, social fragmentation, climate change, geopolitics and many other forms of injustices affect people, communities, societies and creation.
Therefore, moments like this is a time to ask ourselves again how we can continue to amplify the church’s prophetic voice, as Luther and others did more than five centuries ago, particularity on the issue of injustice, which alienates us from each other and from God. It is a moment to ask ourselves how relevant we are as Church in society today. It is a moment to refocus our mission to confront the evils of violence and injustice in our society. It is a moment to amplify the church’s prophetic voice against the evils of injustice that creates barrier between families and communities. It is a moment to amplify the reformation message of grace and justice.
Today many Christian churches around the world are engaged in responding to issues of social and environmental justice much more than before. The trajectory of mission appears to have shifted from evangelization and conversion to human suffering and destruction of God’s creation, focusing on social justice, environmental and ecological justice, man’s accountability and moral duty of care for humanity and creation.
Echoes of our reformation message.
In 2017 representatives from the Lutherans around the world met in Windhoek, Namibia for the 12th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation. During the Assembly we reflected on the theme “:Liberated by God’s Grace”: Salvation not for sale, human beings not for sale and creation not for sale.
We raised concern on the destructive capitalist model of our societies across the world, driven by money, that divides nations as first and third worlds, between social groups as high and low societies, between humans as rich and poor people, between people of colors as superior and inferior races, between s*x as weak and strong genders, between continents as north and south, between governments as weak and powerful nations.
Effect of capitalist ideology.
With the capitalist ideology human beings are used as labor force, slaves, and objects, labelled with price tags. Many suffered in the hands others through violence, hatred, and other forms of antisocial behavior. The dignity and value of humanity are robbed when people are labelled as objects, commodities and machines. In our own PNG context violence in many different forms rob many people, families and communities of their freedom and peace.
Creation also suffers. God’s creation is commercialized and labelled with price tags. Money has changed our understanding of our environment and our world. We turn land, plants, water, animals, etc. into commodities. We quantify them and attach monetary value to them. Human greed has led to resource exploitation at the expense of the powerful, thus increasing the gap between the rich and the poor nations. This is an unjust economic model, which does not promote justice and happiness in society. The unjust economic model of our world only enslaves us and does not liberate us.
Capitalism is like a global empire that drives the world but we have also realized the evil face of capitalism in our society too. Capitalism is about profit and wealth, not about human dignity and wellbeing. It creates barrier between people, some as powerful and others as weak, some as wealthy and others as poor, some as economically superior and others as economically inferior, some as people above the social ladder and others as people below the social ladder, it makes some to live as nobbles and others to live as salves. Therefore capitalism is and unjust economic model. It only creates barriers and divides people.
We see even what capitalism does to our country at the mega level. Big global companies have exploited our natural resources. Copper, gold, nickel and gas have been extracted and shifted overseas while many of our people continue to remain poor and their living standard has not improved because the proceeds from the resources are controlled and used by a few at the top level.
Uncontrolled logging happens in many parts of the country, and as a result, forest have depleted, resulting in deforestation and destruction of natural habitat. Wastes from the mines have polluted drinking water and sea, making it difficult for the local people to find fresh drinking water. Toxins from the mines destroy garden land, trees and plants threatening our people’s livelihood. Foreign fishing companies fish using high technology and destroying the breeding places, making it difficult for our local fishermen to find good fish using their dugout canoes.
We also hear about the proposed seabed mining, which will potentially pollute the sea, destroy the marine life, the eco system and disrupt the social and economic system of the people.
We hear about the controversial Wafi-Golpu mine just few kilometers out of the city of Lae. We hear about the plan to dump the nine waste into the Huon Gulf Sea (DSTP). Deep Sea Tailings Placement will pollute the sea, destroy marine life, disrupt communities along the coast, pose health risk for people, destroy traditional hunting and garden land and religious secret sites, displace families and create social disorder.
Our government peaches about fighting climate change and reducing carbon emission, yet we continue to use diesel fuel for electricity, thus contribute to carbon emissions and add to the climate crisis.
Beside those development challenges, the rising of the sea level threatens many communities. Some small atolls have been submerged under sea. Coastlines have been eaten away and trees and coconuts along the coastlines have been uprooted and swallowed by the sea.
In our Pacific region, nuclear disposal also threatens many small island nations. As a matter of fact, between 1946 and 1996 countries in the north (US, UK and France) denoted 318 nuclear devices in the Pacific region . Our blue Pacific has been used as a space for nuclear testing of the powerful west. This threatens the health and livelihood of our Pacific people
With all these challenges, our struggle to create peace, stability and justice for our people becomes more difficult. Further, extractive industry in the pretext of development remains a big challenge in the Pacific. Recourse extraction continue to have negative impact in the country. People continue to suffer from poverty, poor education and health systems, unemployment and many other problems. These are negative indicators of social and climate justice.
Ecological threat.
Human life and survival depend on two vertical extremes: our social foundation where we depend on land, water, forest, plants, oxygen, etc. and the planetary system where we depend on the sun and rain, etc. Man’s interference on these two extremes through increased human activities has put our survival at risk. Our lives are connected to the environment like the sea, rivers, mountains, trees and forests. We depend on the environment for food, shelter, air and other basic needs. Therefore, our ecological footprints are very limited but we are beginning to feel the impact of countries whose ecological footprints are so high.
Many of our people are living below the social foundation and are still struggling for equality and justice. Therefore, the need to increase our ecological footprint is great but our potential is limited while we continue to suffer at the cost of countries whose ecological footprints are already overshooting the ceiling. By that, I mean ecological footprints of the so-called developed countries are obvious and still continues to increase while the so called developing countries are dragging behind with less ecological footprints.
If the developed countries continue to increase their ecological footprints the developing countries whose footprints are below the ecological threshold and whose people are still living below the social foundation will continue to suffer. This is unfair. Our government must work extremely hard to avoid ecological degradation and economic deprivation for our people.
Our commitment to climate justice.
As church, we have a duty to respond to the theological, ethical and moral issues confronting us. Therefore, we reaffirm our moral duty to advocate for social and environmental justice and peace. We will not be silent on the critical issues confronting us today as a nation. Our position on a number of social and environmental issues remain firm. Guided by the spirit of reformation we remain committed in our task of transforming the world. In this task of societal transformation, some of Luther’s legacies continue inform us to stand up. At the height of the reformation movement Luther stood up and faced the world and said, here I stand God help me. So together we stand up and declare that we are:
• against Deep Sea Tailing Placement (DSTP) into Huon Gulf
• against Deep Sea Mining in PNG
• against Coal Power Plant in Lae City and elsewhere
• against unsustainable mining
• against excessive logging and fishing
• against nuclear test in the Pacific
We believe that God who created the world also gave us the responsibility to care for the social world and the natural world, that is, human and creation.
We call on our government to be responsible in their duty of care for the country and for the people. We call on our leaders to be account and provide the level of leadership people need and work hard to address issues of violence, injustice, and inequality in our country. We call on our government to take action in:
• Reducing carbon dioxide emissions from diesel fired power plants.
• Reducing emissions from the transport sector.
• Funding initiatives for alternative and renewable energy technology.
• Formulating incentives for the uptake of renewable energy.
• Removing subsidies for fossil-based fuel sources.
• Maintaining correct disposal of mine waste.
Conclusion.
Churches should be engaged in the political space to influence governments because we can offer a unique moral, ethical, spiritual and theological perspective. Churches are a moral voice that can help shape the way society understands and responds to social and environmental issues. Churches have the credibility from the Word of God to influence positive change in the world today. Churches can provide a platform for meaningful dialogue and collaboration. Through education, advocacy and outreach, churches can bring people together to help create a just and sustainable world.
The demand to be accountable and take responsibility began in the beginning when God placed man as responsible custodian of his creation. Therefore, we must translate our collective concern by being responsible custodians, take action to minimise or even prevent injustice, and create a peaceful and just society.
-end-
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This message was presented at the Bishop's Reformation Lucheon on 31st October 2024 in Lae.
