CWM Assembly 2012 in American Samoa

In June, Elinor  was elected,  the youngest ever trustee/company director (18 years of age at the time) of the Council for World Mission. Both the Presbyterian Church of Wales and the United Reformed Church are member denominations of CWM. Previous blogs (in August 2011) have described the CWM European Region family conference 'Window on the World' which latterly has been held in Llangrannog, Wales.

Elinor was invited to represent the PCW at this years World Assembly. This is her story...

The Journey

I flew on the 11th of June, meeting some fellow youth at Heathrow airport for the first time. Each of us were representing a different denomination – I was there with the Presbyterian Church of Wales. None of us knew what to expect, and were hoping that we’d remembered to pack everything. The journey itself was quite an adventure, flying first to Los Angeles for an overnight stay, then on to Hawaii, before landing in Pago Pago, American Samoa’s capital – a total of 22 hours in the air. It was great seeing welcome banners for the Council for WorldMission (CWM) General Assembly 2012 along with some local villagers and a camera crew! The assembly was hosted by the Congregational Christian Church ofAmerican Samoa (CCCAS) a Kanana Fou Theological Seminary. 

Watch the A'oloau Youth performance

American Samoan Facts

American Samoa (not to be confused with the independent state of Western Samoa) takes up only about 76 square miles in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, small enough to have only one post code! The island is an “unincorporated territory” of the U.S. meaning that residents have free and unrestricted entry into the U.S. but are not citizens and therefore may not vote in U.S. presidential elections. There is a curious co-existence of cultures – the prominent American fast food industry, and the traditional Samoan rituals, craftsmanship and structures, especially on village levels where “matai” (chiefs) are elected by consensus. Fun fact: there are two McDonald’s on the island, one of which is the only McDonald’s in the world to ever run out of food!

 Youth Pre-Assembly

The Youth delegates

Samoan sizes!

Our programme started with a Youth Pre-Assembly, a new addition to the CWM General Assembly, consisting of 30 ‘youth’ representatives from the 31 member churches of CWM (unfortunately Malawi’s representatives could not make it). I was there on behalf of the Presbyterian Church of Wales. 

working on the statement

We spent most of this time reflecting on the theme of the assembly – “Hope: the language of life” – and were all pleasantly surprised at the similarities we found in our visions of “hope”, despite regional and denominational differences in other areas. The sharing of current hopes in our regions were also invaluable. From this, we drafted regional statements on what “hope” meant for us, and composed a statement as youth representatives, later to be presented to the whole Assembly. We worked incredibly hard on this, working till 12-4am most nights. This required ensuring that everyone understood and agreed with what we were writing, especially as it was a minority of us who regarded English as our first language. It enstilled a discipline in us to slow down our speech and keep checking that everyone was following.

[For a copy of the final statement, please contact me]

Experiencing The Island

An obvious highlight of our stay was the weekend of June 16th-17th,  which was set aside for ‘exposure trips’ around this beautiful island. All 150 or so staff and delegates (an average of 3-4 from each of the 31 denominations) were transported to 3 different villages on the Saturday. Each village laid on food and drink for us, and the local youth groups performed – a huge part of American Samoan life – many using contemporary pop music with Samoan lyrics written with a Christian meaning. One of these villages was Leone. This was the village worst hit by the tsunami of 2009, with 10 fatalities and many buildings demolished or damaged. In it’s beautiful bay, John Williams of the London Missionary Society landed and built the island’s first church in the late 1830s. The population is now estimated as 98% Christian. 

Church at Kanana Fou

On the Sunday, we travelled in groups of 3 or 4 to various CCCAS congregations around the island and contributed to their services in whatever way we were asked to. Here we truly experienced the extreme generosity of American Samoan people. Each of us were fed generously, were presented with gifts (which many of us boxed up and posted home,  as there was no room on our luggage!) and we were treated with the highest respect. It was quite strange being treated in such a manner, but incredibly humbling.

The Election Process

The assembly got into full swing, with the main agenda being the elections. But, we also enjoyed talks from the keynote speaker, Allan Boesak and our bible study leader, Chris Ferguson along with afternoon workshops. All  related to the assembly theme, and the idea of fighting against oppressive empires was prominent. Unfortunately we, as youth representatives, had to pull ourselves out of many of these sessions due to difficulties and restrictions arising regarding our duty to put forward two youth delegates for seats on the Executive Council. After much discussion, tears, frustration and prayer, we put forward the only names available to us, contrary to the new structure’s intention. However, we addressed the assembly with this issue, and we hope that raising it is the first of many steps towards a more equal and less constricting election system.

[If anyone would like a copy of this address, or  for more details, please contact me or watch the video]

Coconut Theology

An obviously integral component of American Samoan life is the coconut. Throughout the Pacific, in fact, the tree and fruit are used for building, cooking, drinking, craft-making and even as soap. In our closing worship, we experienced a Coconut Communion and coconut theology was explained to us:

The hard outer shell – the “providence of God”, protecting and cocooning us

The flesh of the coconut – the “body of Christ” broken for us

The coconut water/juice – the “blood of Christ” shed for us

The kernal/ o’o – the Holy Spirit

Finally, for new life to emerge from the coconut, the seed must first die to create life.

Twain's coconut impression

Cool coconut!

The Council at work

A new council has been elected, and  I  was elected as the representative for the Presbyterian Church of Wales for the next 4 years. My first meeting was 5 days after landing home from American Samoa (not including the meeting at the end of the General Assembly), and the next meetings are coming up in October – one in Cardiff and the other in Singapore. Prayers would be appreciated on balancing this committment with my studies and everything else.

Wearing our gifts from Lata

Elinor Rhys

Farewell to Simon

Sunday was a fantastic day, filled with emotion and love. We said farewell to Simon and Sue in style. There were over 100 people present with visitors from St Catherine's. Castle Square URC and Christchurch, Llanedeyrn.

Our morning service included the attached surprise 'tribute' byfrom Pete Davies before he read the second lesson. 

Simon emptied a bag of items, (one by one) representing the responsibilities that he was laying down but emphasing that he would still remember us. They included, the church directory, copies of the denominational declarations which were presented at his induction, the church keys, the church mobile phone, the computer external hard drive containing files of meetings, services and so much more.

The junior church members rejoined the congregation before the final hymn when a formal presentation was made by Russell, of an original watercolour, by local artist Bill Wheeler, of the Old Bridge accompanied by a cheque for £1000 and a packet of Custard Creams! - Simon's favourites.

Claire Hughes also presented Sue with a floral arrangement.

  

About 70 people then shared lunch together, when Hadyn Goodfellow proposed the toast, and Simon and Sue cut a cake which had been expertly made by Kath Couchman, we then shared communion together as a family when copies of the fish from the Communion table fall were distributed for us to focus on.

It was a fitting end to a superb ministry!

Marcia Hurley

Holiday Club over for another year.

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The theme for the week was       READY STEADY GO!

Loosely connected to the Olympic Games.

There was a different theme each day but they were linked.

Each day we had a white Olympic Ring to decorate, a story to listen to, a song to sing, an activity to do and several games to play. 

 

Monday’s theme – Light of the World

The story was the healing of the Blind man.... 

The ring was decorated with different textures in Yellow,

A game - we threw bean bags through a hoop which had bells hanging from it and had to make the bells ring – but we were blind folded.

We also had a special visitor – one of the Olympic torch bearers. Philip Richards,

Everyone had their photograph taken holding the torch, and we learnt many interesting facts about it and about the people nominated to carry it.

 

The activity was making clay tea light holders – which we cut initials and shapes into to allow the light to shine through

Other activities included decorated fish shaped biscuits linking to the story of the ‘great catch of fish’.The ring that day was decorated with blue fish.

Another day we had the story of the 2 people walking to Emmaus and Jesus joining them, but not being recognised until he shared a meal with them and blessed the bread. This ring colour that day was black as they were sad.

The game was the ‘bubble wrap road’ – we had to walk over bubble wrap without popping the bubbles – representing walking slowly because they were sad, but after realising that Jesus was alive, they ran back to Jerusalem – so they were able to run over the bubble wrap and burst as many bubble as possible. All of the children said: ‘That was cool’ – can we do it again?

The day when Pentecost was the theme we had a red ring and sang ‘Go tell everyone’ –  The activity was pulling together as rowing teams when we designed and made canoes and oars to race against each other.  Very competitive and noisy when they were raced.

Another day edible Olympic torches were made using cones and sponge cakes decorated with yellow butter cream. Mmmmmm!

We have had a great time, learning and playing together. Looking forward to next year!

Marcia Hurley

A different kind of sermon

Imagine walking into church and finding the chairs arranged in  number of semi circles, imagine how you might react - some were tempted to turn around and go home - but nobody did!

Simon welcomed us to the service and made the comment that 'nobody likes change'. Following the readings - Mark 4 35-41 (Jesus calms the storm) 1 Samuel 18 6 - 16 (Saul is jealous of David, a new leader)- and an appropriate film clip from 'Toy Story', we took part in three discussion exercises,  interspersed with hymns.

The first was 'Possibilities'  in which we discussed in groups - and wrote, in the spaces provided -   our thoughts about how our church could contribute to  the wellbeing of local community, of the wider church, of individuals and of  the environment.

The second was 'What should the minister be doing?' - everyone had a sheet to complete, rating  the different statements on a scale from 'very important' to 'not mportant'.

The third was 'Words' - each group had an envelope containing a selection of words that describe possible qualities we might look for in a minister.   We were instructed to choose just 5 words as a group.

The results of these three exercises were gathered together. They will enable us to complete our 'church profile' for seeking a new minister.

A sermon, Simon had explained,  should tell the good news. It should help people to work out what the Good News gospel means in their own lives, and should encourage people to respond. Our discussions, it is hoped,  did all of these.

Contributed by Marcia

Walking for Leprosy Mission

 Leprosy Mission is raising funds this year for Purulia Hospital, India, which treats around 74 000 people from West Bengal. Leprosy sufferers are Purulia's special focus, but other vulnerable sections of society are welcomed and treated there too, for a range of illnesses. The main fundraising effort for this  appeal is the sponsored walks arranged in South, Mid and North Wales respectively.

Sioned and Fiona joined the 'South Wales' walk, which started at the Brecon Beacons National Park Visitor Centre and involved a six mile  round trip to the valley of Cwm Camlais

People from churches all around South Wales  took part,  and we soon got into friendly, informal chatting as we walked!



The views were stunning and the rain mostly held off.  A cup of tea
and home made cake at the Visitor Centre cafe afterward  was the best you can imagine.

Thanks to Pat Howells for  publicising the walk in our news sheet.
Sponsorship / Donations to Leprosy Missions are  always welcomed.

Refugee Week Celebration

We were delighted to be approached by Refugee Voice Wales to host this year's Refugee Week celebration at St David's Uniting Church.

 The aim was to enable refugees to meet with people from the valleys and to  have two way conversation, sharing life experiences  and raising awareness of the everyday issues facing refugees.

So a significant part of the evening was spent in small groups including both refugees and local people, then sharing together some highlights of our conversations.   We heard, for example, a humorous tale about an escape from Iran in the back of  a refrigerated lorry, and more more sober account of being deported from Gatwick, only to be called off the

plane in a final reprieve... but with still no final decision on the application for asylum.

Someone commented  " I can't believe  that after such awful experiences, the refugees I spoke to were still smiling".
And someone learned an important lesson: " When people ask me 'where do you come from?' now I know that it is not some kind of racist comment, but a Welsh tradition -  the first question that everyone asks!"

In small groups and in one to one conversations over supper many, many more stories, and laughter, were shared.

On Sunday 27th May, I celebrated Pentecost in St Mary's church, Burghfield, near Reading, where I had been celebrating my beloved niece’s Silver Wedding anniversary, with my lovely in-laws, the day before.

Rob, my husband, and I had shared the wonderful hospitality overnight of our niece's friends from the church, Linda and Michael Wood and their daughters. I travelled to church early, with Linda and Michael, as they have responsibilities there before worship begins, which gave me the opportunity to soak up the warm, welcoming atmosphere and take in the beauty of the church in which my great-nephew, Simon, will be married later this year, whilst singing along to the familiar hymn tunes being played by the talented music group, most of whom come from the same family!

We enjoyed a particularly special Pentecost service, as we witnessed the baptism of a delightful young girl, Francesca. She had wished to have had a full immersion baptism but the hose pipe ban in the area prevented this. However, she still got fairly wet! Thankfully, it was an extremely hot day, so she dried off pretty quickly! Along with Francesca, a number of other children were participating in their first Eucharist. It was a very moving experience. I felt so welcome at the church and very privileged to bear witness to a very special commitment by all the children involved.
I am looking forward to my next visit there, which will be for my great-nephew’s wedding.

If you'd like to learn more of St Mary's, visit their website. Gill, their vicar, was born in Wales! She describes herself as a ‘Disciple under Construction’.


Contributed by Claire Hughes