Two years ago the Archbishop told a local Melanesian elder that he could continue to run church services in his house lounge for the village. His lounge was too small! So the Archbishop ordained him as a new Minister for the Anglican Church and told he had to built a new church before the following Sunday for his village to worship in!
A week later the tin shack was completed, and last year the Golden Oldies renamed it the Tin Cathedral! A name that has stuck and now they are very proud of.
The team were hosted for lunch in the ‘Cathedral’ followed with speeches and joyous songs of praise that crossed that divide of culture and race. With a warmth of spirit that prevailed, the children then presented children’s story books we had brought from NZ to their head kindergarten teacher for their children. A lovely finally gesture of partnership that has been forming from these trips. “Thank you for coming to visit us and our Cathedral” was their cry as we departed, with our ‘bula vinakas’ and headed back into the congestion of Suva with its hotspotch of religions, cultures and open-windowed buses with their diesel fumes!