campaign against kava proved to be difficult, because kava was and still is regarded as an important part of social custom.69 Disciplinary actions ranging from fines to suspension of membership for a certain period of time were so widespread that often half of the members were expelled. Class meetings were turned into checks of conformity to the moral standards rather than uplifting the spiritual development of the attendants.70 The results of all these campaigns were a drop of membership from 44 percent to 23 percent and of church attendance from 98 percent to 91 percent of native Fijians in 1910.71 According to critical observers these campaigns for sanctification through purification could only encourage hypocrisy.72
During the decades after World War II Fiji experienced many social changes. The greatest change had already begun in 1879 with the introduction of indentured laborers from India under the British government. By 1900 there were 60,500 Indians in Fiji, of which 60 percent remained in Fiji after their term of indenture was served. In the 1920s more Indians arrived as free settlers and became shopkeepers, tailors, or jewelers. At the end of World War II there were more Indians (130,000) than Fijians (119,000) in Fiji. Efforts to evangelize the Indian workers, who were Hindus and Muslims, began with Hannah Dudley in 1897, but only a small minority converted to Christianity.
Tensions between the Fijian and Indian populations increased. When the colonial rule came to its end, Fijian leaders expected that the control over the country would be theirs, while the Indians began to ask for their place in a future Fiji. The Fijian, Indian, and European Synods of the Methodist Church united in 1943. According to John Garrett, the two different concepts of a Fijian Methodist Church for Fijians or a United Methodist Church linked to worldwide Methodism existed within the church.73 After independence in 1964 the Indian Methodists formed a separate division within the Methodist Church, which was however very small compared to the Fijian divisions, because most Indo-Fijians did not convert to Christianity.
Furthermore, problems like the consumption of liquor, extensive kava drinking, and urban migration with its effects on unemployment and squatter settlements in the capital area changed the traditional society.74 One answer to these new developments was the upgrading of the educational facilities. In 1946 the Bible School and the Young People’s Department were established at the educational center in Davuilevu. The first aimed at raising the standard of catechists and preparing for ministry; the second shifted the focus to the young people under the leadership of Setareki Tuilovoni, who later became the first native president of the church. Finally, a Deaconess order was established in 1965 to tackle some of the social needs.75
At the time of independence in 1964 the Methodist Church in Fiji had 34,165 full members, 807 church buildings, 123 native, 3 Indian and 9 European ministers, 30 theological students, and 6,430 local preachers.76
In 1980 the Annual Conference of the Methodist Church commissioned a self-study report about the state of the church. At this time the church had declined to 25 percent of the population in Fiji and 64 percent of indigenous Fijians.77 Confirmed members (siga dina) were 5.39 percent of the population or 12.1 percent of the Fijians. Half of the constituents attended regular morning services in any one week, but only 9.82 percent attended prayer services. In total, 13.46 percent of the congregations had a men’s fellowship, around 50 percent a women’s and youth fellowship, but less than 8 percent had a community service project.
Though the church still had a strong stand in the Fijian rural community according to the number of baptized constituents and lay preachers, the gathering of believers in classes had dropped to small numbers, with the exception of the women’s and youth groups. Thornley highlighted the trend that at the beginning of the twentieth century membership had become unattractive.
According to the 1985 report, most small village congregations did not have their own minister. The circuit minister (talatala) oversees between three and fifty-four congregations and between three and fifteen catechists. Alfred S. Dale observed:
The primary function of the talatala is in fact administrator; manager of the circuit, with the secondary function to provide the priestly services of baptism, marriage, funerals and communion. . . . Preaching cannot be used to develop any continuity of ideas, thoughts, theologies, or doctrines about the church, one’s vocation, or the role of Christians in the world. It is also primarily lay preaching, mostly testimonial. The primary function of management and administration appears to be of little concern in training or evaluation of the competency of a talatala.78
If the minister is occupied with administrative and priestly work, the development of faith and the work of evangelism will decline. Though the Methodist Church has a proud tradition of lay preachers they are often little educated and cannot make up for the missing presence of the minister. Catechists received at least some training, but the lay preachers used to have very little training. The 1985 report included 3,000 opinion questionnaires. The following statements were made most often:79
• There is too much provincialism and too little democracy in the selection of church leaders (96.1%);
• Need for material for nurturing baptized members (94.7%);
• The need for follow-up for the newly confirmed (94.4%);
• Every church should have a worship committee (93.6%);
• The church should provide training for confirmation of full members (92.4%);
• There is an increasing need for trained lay leadership at every level of our church life (88.7%);
• Excessive yaqona (kava) drinking as incompatible with ministry (88.2%).
Even though it seems that the questionnaires suggested some criticism by their choice of questions, opportunity was given to free comments which confirm the criticism. Many of those comments80 complain about poor performance of pastors (talatalas) and lack of opportunity for growth in faith. Some of the comments expose problems in the leadership of the talatalas, who appear to be uneducated or indifferent, never visit their constituency (or only on Sunday), work only on Sunday, do not prepare sermons, do not provide a role model of Christian life, or do not teach members about their faith. Others said that the talatala only has time for the catechist and the elders, not for education, youth work, or the women. Many complained about the heavy kava drinking of ministers. There were also complaints about the quality of the sermons and the lack of youth work and Sunday schools. Many comments asked for better training of church leaders, including catechists and lay preachers, and more Christian education for all members.
In terms of faith building and evangelism it was complained that evangelism was confused with fund raising or that it was totally missing. Other comments requested follow-up classes for confirmed members; the strengthening of personal visits; the development of new forms of worship; the strengthening of family worship, devotions, and premarital counseling; assisting the chiefs to be good Christians; counseling and pastoral care as well as youth activities.
With regards to social relations, nearly 85 percent agreed that the church should remain close to the chiefly structure of traditional Fijian culture, but 95 percent supported the view that the church should lead in interracial relations and help members to live at peace with non-Christians. Almost 70 percent said that the church should be involved in social and political issues and 82.5 percent said that church land should be given to the poor. Several comments questioned the identity of church and vanua (people of the land), saying that the church should challenge the vanua to renew itself, and that the church is not just the chiefly way.81
This report revealed that the majority of the members wanted the Methodist Church to focus on evangelism and faith building. Evangelism,
