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Report on a visit to Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC)
April 2009 Steve Pearce, Partnership Coordinator – Asia/Pacific
Aim
To express solidarity and partnership by participating in the annual church leaders
meeting.
To explore the issue of resettlement of communities affected by climate change.
To develop further the long-standing relationship with PCC.
Report
PCC covers an area 11 hours flying time E-W and 8 hours N-S, its members within
this vast area are 28 member churches (including all five of our Pacific Partner
Churches) and 11 national councils of churches.
The theme of the 2009 meeting was resettlement caused by climate change, in
particular in relation to governance, ecumenism, human rights and eco-economics.
The conference was theologically resourced by
 Prof. Cliff Bird of the Pacific Theological College, who challenged the group,
using Psalm 104, to avoid letting their traditional understanding of the gods of
the vanua (land) and moana (ocean) be completely overwhelmed by the
Western packaging of Christianity and to make sure the wider oikos is
reflected in the Church
 Chris Ferguson of the WCC office at the UN took Naboth’s vineyard to point
out ways in which a Western understanding of land, ownership and trade
(which is being forced on Pacific nations) runs counter to both biblical and
traditional Pacific understandings
 Prof. Maake Masango of Pretoria University who all presented challenging
biblical interpretations
Prof Patrick Nunn of the University of the South Pacific, a member of the interGovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlined the current reality of climate
change. The rise in global temperature of 0.5°C between 1890 and 1990 will
accelerate up to twelve-fold between 1990 and 2100 to give a rise of between 1.5°C
and 6.4°C. Similarly the sea level rise of 15cm between 1890 and 1990 will accelerate
up to four-fold to give a rise of up to 120cm by 2100. Sea level rise will therefore
make some nations, many islands and much coastal settlement unviable.
His presentation highlighted the state of denial which still exists at both governmental
and local level, noting that the PCC event was ground-breaking in its choice of
subject and also that church leaders in the Pacific are uniquely placed to tackle this
denial at all levels. (Although here, as in the West, there is a view that God is to be
depended on and planning is a blasphemy.)
The session with the deputy general secretary of the inter-governmental body, the
Pacific Islands Forum, emphasised that no framework or planning had been
developed. Other speakers highlighted the lack of any international legal framework
capable of dealing with the situation of nations being accommodated within other
nations or of restitution on the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
Reflections
The enormous area of Oceania, its peoples and its churches remain almost unnoticed
and play little part in the thinking of the West.
Denial is a pandemic in the West as well as in the Pacific, when it comes to climate
change and its consequences, even though many are affected already.
Planning for resettlement, containment of diseases, developing alternative food
sources, management of diminishing resources must be the focus of initiatives in the
region. External support must also focus on this rather than short term amelioration.
Governments must be challenged to take radical measures to reduce carbon emissions
and to set up legal frameworks to deal with issues of resettlement and restitution.
There was much appreciation of the MCB paper Hope in God's Future: Christian
Discipleship in the Context of Climate Change as well as suggestions for further
work.
Our partnerships in the region can assist the Methodist Church in Britain to take a
more radical and holistic theological stance and to become familiar with the human
costs being paid and about to be paid for our reckless approach to the consumption of
resources.
Resources
Copies of the presentations given to the PCC at this conference are available from me,
including:
 Reclaiming Development
 The church’s role
 The Bible studies referred to above
 The Island of Hope (a major PCC initiative on Pacific values)
 Trade in Services agreements
 Eco-economics
 Governance and resettlement
 WCC work
Future
I have begun negotiations with PCC about supporting the work asked for by the
church leaders at the end of this conference and they have submitted an NMA
application.
The resources above may be useful to the Team in furthering the work of MCB on
and around this issue.
I have linked up PCC and our Hong Kong-based partner organisation, Student
Christian Federation who are keen to redevelop their work in the Pacific region.
Steve Pearce
April 2009