Tuvalu, Archbishop Winston Halapua urges prayer

 

Archbishop Winston Halapua has returned from three days in the stricken Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu. And as far as he's concerned, rising sea levels are no longer abstract theory. They're real. They're fact. Now.

 

Archbishop Winston has talked this past week with Tuvaluan people who are critically short of drinking water – because their wells are contaminated by salt water.

 

He's seen kids roaming – because their schools have no fresh water and are therefore shut. He's seen the hospital which has been on the brink of running out of water.

 

And he's seen the breadfruit, banana and coconut trees – on which the islanders depend for food – withering and dying because their roots are being poisoned by salt water.

 

Dr Halapua, who was born in Tonga, and who is a trained sociologist, says that because of the particular vulnerability of low-lying island states such as Kiribati, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu – which, at its highest point, is less than 5m above sea level – he's been following the debate about climate change for 10 years.

 

"For me, to go to Tuvalu – that's all the information that I need.

"For me, seeing is believing.

"What I have seen is the reality of sea rising."

And that, in Archbishop Winston's view, "is the biggest possible issue."

 

For the three days Archbishop Winston was in Tuvalu, his guide was Tofinga Falani, the Acting President of Te Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu, The Christian Church of Tuvalu, to which maybe 90 percent of the country's 11,000 citizens belong.

According to Dr Halapua, there's probably no-one better placed in Tuvalu to gauge how the people of the various islands and atolls in the country are coping with the crisis.

 

And Tofinga Falani and Archbishop Winston are agreed about what the number one plea to the wider church should be.

 

"We need to pray," says Archbishop Winston.

"We need to say very, very clearly to the church that we need to pray because this is something way beyond us.

"We need to pray that we will be empowered to speak clearly to our elected agents in government who make decisions about climate change."

 

Dr Halapua acknowledges that Tuvalu's present plight has been brought on by drought.

 

It rained in Tuvalu last Thursday for about three minutes – and that's the first rain they've seen during their rainy season. There's no more forecast for the next three months, either.

 

There are, as far as Archbishop Halapua knows, very few – if any – Anglicans living on Tuvalu.

 

But that doesn't mean he didn't need to go there.

 

Tuvalu falls with the boundaries of the Diocese of Polynesia – and as such, Archbishop Winston says he has a responsibility before God to the people of Tuvalu.

 

Tofinga Falani welcomed that line of thinking, apparently.

 

"When I talked to him" says Archbishop Winston, "it was as though I'd come from Heaven.

 

"He literally said to me: 'How humbling it was to see an archbishop come over to us at a time of crisis."

 

Archbishop Winston tried to deflect that gratitude. Told him that he was only a human being doing his duty.

 

"Then I asked him, as a Pacific Islander to another Pacific Islander: 'What do you need?'

"He said to me: 'Winston: I'm ashamed to ask for anything.'

 

"This reluctance to ask… is the humility of Pacific Islanders. Another Pacific Islander can sense that."

"And I have shared with him what I intend to do.

"I told him I will appeal to the wider church for immediate help."

But that appeal for immediate relief, says Archbishop Winston, "is only a tiny part of the story.'

"The bigger story is this."

" Please do something about climate change."

 

Archbishop Winston says there are four ways people in the wider Anglican communion can help Tuvalu.

·                         "Pray. Pray in your personal devotions, in your churches, and your home groups. Pray first for rain for Tuvalu. Then pray that the issues of climate change and rising sea levels are tackled.

 

·                         "Donate. Donate to the Anglican Missions Board. Earmark your donation  'Tuvalu Appeal' – and the AMB will forward any money it receives to our ecumenical partners, the Church of Tuvalu, so that people there may have enough water to drink and food to eat.
"Any money given will bring relief not only to the people of the main island but also to pockets of people on other islands to the group."

 

·                         "Respond to appeals by other agencies to help the people of Tuvalu.

 

·                         "Become more aware of the causes of climate change, and of its impact on marginalised people."

 

Footnote: The postal address for the AMB is: Anglican Missions Board, PO Box 12-012, Thorndon, Wellington 6144, New Zealand. To donate to the AMB Tuvalu Appeal via internet banking, please contact: office@angmissions.org.nz . 

 

 Posted On : November 1, 2011 10:08 AM | Posted By : Webmaster
ACNS: http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2011/11/1/ACNS4970