{"id":1148,"date":"2012-05-03T14:42:02","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T21:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=1148"},"modified":"2012-05-03T17:42:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T00:42:24","slug":"pacific-islanders-welcome-new-ministry-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/pacific-islanders-welcome-new-ministry-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacific Islanders Welcome New Ministry Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elliot Wright,<\/strong> originally appearing on umc.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Tampa, Florida, May 2, 2012\u2014\u201cOur\u00a0kalia (<\/em>\u2018canoe\u2019) has arrived and been welcomed,\u201d said the Rev. Sione Veikoso, hailing the passage by the United Methodist General Conference of a comprehensive plan for Pacific Islander ministry in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur canoe has been wandering around and now has a port,\u201d stated the chair of the denomination\u2019s Pacific Islander National Caucus of United Methodists, a California pastor. The plan, four years in development, sets up a structure comparable to United Methodist ministry plans for other racial\/ethnic communities.<\/p>\n

Many immigrant Pacific Islanders arrive in the United States as Methodists but do not always find quick entry into the US church culture.\u00a0 The plan addresses this issue, and also how to incorporate the spiritual energy of Oceanic people into the church.<\/p>\n

There are now some 70 United Methodist congregations composed primarily of Pacific Islanders in the United States.\u00a0 Members come primarily from Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian backgrounds, but there are also US-based populations from Guam, the Mariana Islands, Micronesia, Hawaii, and Palau\u2014a total of roughly 1.1 million people.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Eddie Kelemeni, chair of the committee that prepared the plan, said it is essential for \u201cthe church to help Pacific Islanders to adjust to the new culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monalisa Tuitahi, an attorney who helped to draft the plan, added that Pacific Islanders have significant \u201cgifts and graces to share with the whole church.\u00a0 Faith runs deeply in our people; being a disciple of Jesus Christ is very important.\u00a0 We are now recognized in a tangible way and can help to enrich and strengthen the church and its mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of those gifts and graces are outlined in a report accompanying the petition to establish the new ministry plan. \u201cPacific Islanders live out their faith consistent with a theology of abundance,\u201d the report says, \u201cand this is an asset for the United Methodist connection as it struggles to meet overwhelming needs with scarce resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report further says that a \u201csystem of mutuality that undergirds the Pacific Island culture and life plays an important role in ensuring that everyone participates in the world of building the ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan was developed over a four-year period by a committee staffed by the General Board of Global Ministries, which will also administer the work of the new entity.<\/p>\n

The denomination\u2019s general budget for the next four years includes $544,000 to fund the Comprehensive Plan for Pacific Island Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elliot Wright, originally appearing on umc.org Tampa, Florida, May 2, 2012\u2014\u201cOur\u00a0kalia (\u2018canoe\u2019) has arrived and been welcomed,\u201d said the Rev. Sione Veikoso, hailing the passage by the United Methodist General Conference of a comprehensive plan for Pacific Islander ministry in the United States. \u201cOur canoe has been wandering around and now has a port,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,10,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-1148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-umns","8":"tag-ethnic","9":"tag-gc2012","10":"tag-umc"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/pacific-islanders.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-iw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1151,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions\/1151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}