AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF A FIJIAN COMMUNITY
by Erinn Gregg

Chapter 5
Religion

Chapter 5

Christianity

The Church

The Services

Features of the Methodist Religion

Reflection of Religion

Culture and Religion

Conversion

Assembly of God - Features and Services

Spirits

Christianity plays an important role in the lives of Fijian men, women and children. With the majority of Fijians practicing Methodism or Catholicism there are also many who are faithful to the Assembly of God, Seventh Day Adventists and other religions. In the small village of Drana, the population of men, women and children are all Methodist. As a result of uniting as one community, they build a support system strengthening the existing network of relationships that exists among the kin.

The people use the religion as a structure for their everyday lives. It helps them to be better people and stops them from committing sins. One young married woman in Drana stated the following about her way of speaking to others: "Most of the time when I talk because I have fresh in me. She [her mother] always teaches me to control myself. She will teach me everything from the Bible." Thus her mother teaches her from the Bible and the foundations of the religion. This women believes that what her mother teaches her helps her to be a better person and speak to others the way the religion teaches.

People also look to the support system of the religion to become better people, and when they cannot find it in one religion they will often convert to another. If people find lack of support from the community around them in their spiritual journey to better themselves as individuals within the community, they will convert. By doing this the belief is that they are not weakening the community with their sins, and in their new religion they are finding a stronger system of support to turn away from sin and become a better person. Thus the system of support which the religion provides is an important aspect in the individual life of Fijian men and women.

Christianity

The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in one God. Most Fijians in the village of Drana believe that God controls their everyday lives, and they consider Him to be their protector and punisher. Ravuvu describes the one aspect of God, "the supreme deity of peoples' earthly world and the patron spirit of the Christian church" (1983: 98). It is the belief that there is one God with the power to determine the existence of each individual and the occurrences around them. God created man and in turn man has a relationship with God.

Another strong feature of Christianity is the focus on prayer. People pray to God because they believe that He will listen to them and answer their prayers. People will be protected from harm, will be forgiven from their sins, and will be aided in difficult times through the power of prayer to God. Understanding the importance of prayer is essential to understanding the religion because although God is invisible he is almighty.

The belief in life after death is another tenet of the religion and most people generally believe in an afterlife somewhere in the sky. God decides whether or not people will go to Heaven and as one lady noted at a funeral, "I know you are in heaven because you were a good person and God has taken you with Him." Thus, the understanding is that those who pray to God and follow His word will be chosen in the end. Those who do not adhere to the message of the Bible will not receive salvation with the God in Heaven.

The Church

According to Ravuvu, "the obvious and prominent physical landmark of Christianity in Fijian villages is the church building" (1983: 94). The church in Drana is a relatively new building erected in 1997. Prior to the construction of the building the weekly services were hosted by one of the eldest men in the village who has a large spacious house. The church is located at the southeastern end of the village as one exits the village heading away from the town of Vaileka. The church is rectangular with doors on all sides. Most people enter through the front door as the back door behind the altar is reserved for ministers and lay preachers to enter. When entering the church there are six rows on the right and left sides that are reserved for mothers and their young children. The front and back of the church are separated by a small aisle, which extends the length of the side doors. Four pews on the front left side of the church are reserved for the children of the congregation. The four rows on the right-hand side of the church, which face the center aisle, are assigned for the men and women of the choir. The altar in the front of the church has three small pews on the right hand side in addition to the three small chairs behind the pulpit, which are reserved for the pastors. The simple structure of the church reaffirms the focus on the importance of the building itself. As Ravuvu states, the church building "... [is a] manifestation of their commitment to the church" (1983: 94). The village dauvunau (lay preacher), Eseta, noted the construction of the church as one of her greatest accomplishments in the village. As a lay preacher working her way up to become a minister in the church, she was assigned to the village of Drana. "When I came here two years ago there was no church in Drana but we raised money and built that new church. If I leave here next year accomplishing nothing else I know that I have done one great thing having built that church and I am very happy for that." The gathering together of the men and women for the weekly services reaffirms their oneness as a group committed to the religion and to God.

The Services

The weekly services of the Methodist congregation are held on Sundays. There are three services: 6:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and the last one at 3:30 p.m. The congregation is beckoned to the church by the beating of the lali, the wooden slitgong drum, which can be heard throughout the village. The first beating approximately one half-hour prior to the service summons the congregation to gather their bearings and begin entering the church. At the time of the second lali call the congregation should be assembled in the church for the entrance of the pastor and the opening prayer. People are welcome to enter throughout the service, though it is considered more respectful to enter prior to the start of the service.

The first Sunday service, Lotu Masumasu, is the introduction for the day of prayer. According to one woman in the village, "It is your personal time to meet God. There are no sermons or preaching but you are simply going for your personal prayer time." Following the introduction to God is the full service. Once the preacher has entered the church the congregation joins together in song titled "Sere ni Curo ni Mai." The preacher says a few words and there is a short prayer. The preacher will then greet the people who have come together and inform them of the service for the day. The next hymn is a song of praise to God, which is followed by The Lord's Prayer. Both of these are focused on the importance of God and the belief of the congregation in one God. These are followed by another hymn, "Sere ni Tacake." The pastor or lay preacher in the village will read from the Bible, and once the reading is complete the pastors and the village chief are given the opportunity to stand before the congregation and speak about whatever they would like to address. Two young boys from the village will then walk around with bowls for the soli, the donation to the church. Each week the men and women from the village are expected to contribute $3.00 per household to compensate the village lay preacher for her duties. Any additional money that is raised from the soli is kept in a special account for necessary expenses relating to the church, such as electricity. After the soli has been collected a prayer is recited asking God to bless the offerings which have been donated. Prior to the preaching the congregation sings a hymn which one young woman in Drana said, "...prepares you and your heart and asks the Spirit to be with you while the preacher speaks." The preacher stands in front of the congregation and preaches on important aspects of the religion stemming from the Bible and the Ten Commandments. A prayer and another song follow this. The preacher then asks the congregation to bless whatever he or she has just spoken about. A final dismissal hymn is sung followed by a final prayer. The service is closed with an Amen song to finalize the end of the service. The afternoon service is identical in structure.

In addition to the weekly prayer services, the lali is sounded daily in the village of Drana at 5:00 a.m. 12:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. for family lotu within each individual house. At this time family members come together to thank God for keeping them through the night, then the morning and finally at 7:00 thanking them for the day which has passed and asking his protection throughout the night. These individual services can vary according to household, but they are generally started with a song followed by a Bible reading, a short prayer and concluded with a prayer. God is a strong presence in the lives of the men, women and children, and the importance of the religion and God in their lives is reaffirmed by the numerous devotions throughout the week.

Features of the Methodist Religion

The Methodist religion has a strong focus on the teachings of the Ten Commandments. As explained by Ravuvu, "They [the Ten Commandments] emphasize love and kindness to all and they oppose alcoholism, adultery, thieving, gambling, acts of brutality and irresponsibility of any kind which would interfere with the maintenance of peace and order within the family, the village and he wider community" (1983: 95). They are found in the Bible and thus, as Christians believe, are the Word of God. As one woman stated, they are the "key to success." The focus on the teachings of God as a way of life inspires many of the men and women of the village to live their lives according to the teachings of the Bible.

The larger focus and adherence to the word of God is the belief in the eternal life. One woman noted, "It is the only reason we go to Church. If you do what the Bible says and live your life the way God has asked you then you will receive eternal life. But if you don't live the way the Bible teaches and then you won't get eternal life in the end. That is what we believe." The faith in the beliefs in correlation with the practice of the teachings will reward one in the end with life after death.

The focus on religion in the lives of Fijian men and women begins at an early age. When the children are very young, somewhere from one month to one year, they are baptized into the church. The baptism is their introduction into the church and their first meeting with God. The First Communion, as one woman states, "is received when the person recognizes they are sinful and they want God to forgive them. They confess their sins to the Lord and then receive communion." Confirmation can be received at any age and is one of the strongest commitments one can make to the church and to God. A young woman, Mere, said, "The Spirit talks to you, vakatabui, and the preacher calls you to change and become a son or daughter of God." Once the person has accepted the calling of the spirit he or she will attend Bible studies for three months before confirming that he or she is part of the congregation.

The focus on marriage within the church says that a husband can only have one wife and a wife can only have one husband. Those who have multiple spouses have sinned in the eyes of God. The church teaches that the bond between the husband and the wife should be strong, and love should be central to the marriage. As one married woman expressed it, "Marriage is focused on the Bible teachings and the wife is taught to respect the husband. He is the leader of the family and you have to follow what he says." Marriages that end in divorce are strengthened by the community surrounding the man or woman so they return to the church and restore the relationship with God. People who get divorced but have been married in the church are urged by other members of the community to keep a strong faith in the church and continue their attendance at the weekly services. Thus the support system of the church helps the man and woman through their divorce and also keeps them from straying from the community.

Throughout one's life one may increase the intensity of one's commitment to the church through various stages. The first stage is the giving stage. You are giving yourself to God and committing to the teachings of the Bible. The second stage is the leading of the lotu masumasu. The person is now not only able to pray with God and others but to lead others in their prayers to God. The third stage is preaching. This stage is the full act of preaching the word of God. When you have given yourself at this stage you have given yourself to God and cannot commit sinful activities. As one young woman stated, "When you dance and drink - these are sinful activities and you are demoted to an honorary member. You can go to church but you can't do anything there until you have confessed to God and he has forgiven you of your sins." One woman in Drana who is a confessed church member just recently requested to increase her spiritual growth: "Just yesterday at the church meeting I asked to move up my spiritual growth to lotu masumasu. I want to share my knowledge with those around and me and I want to know more."

The religion is a spiritual growth process from the time of birth until the time of death. The men and women who give themselves to God and the church are committing themselves to His teachings and accepting the way of life according to the Bible. The village community that is one with God is thus one with one another, only strengthening the commitment to the larger community.

Reflection of Religion

Many people living in the village of Drana have a strong commitment to the Methodist religion. The attendance at Church services is quite high, with at least thirty or more of the forty people in the village attending services weekly. The church emphasizes the idea of a community under one God, and aside from the weekly services there are numerous other events which call for the Church to come together. In the village of Drana this has recently included the building of the new church which entailed raising money for the church in addition to building the church. Women in the village gather together to prepare afternoon tea when visitors arrive at the church, and choir competitions with other churches bring a larger number of members together.

For the people living in Drana religion is not simply a practice of faith in God but a way of life. They carry on their daily activities based on the teachings of the Bible and the focus on religion provides support in their everyday living. A widow in the village said her faith has helped her survive the recent deaths of her husband and mother. "It was very sad for me that year because two of my family members left me... Things are changing and getting better every day. I think it helps that I go to church every day." This woman's commitment to God reveals the belief that God is the protector and he will answer her prayers and watch over her.

The strong belief in God's word plays a role in the outlook on important issues. Abortion is a sin according to the Ten Commandments which have been received from God. In a discussion on abortion I had with a woman living in Drana, she said, "[The woman who had an abortion] should not have done that because that is a sin. It goes against the church and it is wrong... There would have been somebody who wanted to take that baby." The fact that this woman states the act as a sin in the eyes of God before she mentions the fact that someone would have accepted the child emphasizes the effect on the religion in the outlook on living. People's lives are not focused on personal choice and preference as much as they are on how God has instructed them to live.

For many villagers the way of life is centered on God's protection. The village lay preacher said, "For us it does not matter if we have a lot of money or a lot of things because we know that God is with us, and as long as we have God with us we will be okay. We could run out of money and food and clothing but God will protect us." The belief in God is source of comfort for the men and women in the village and provides them with a sense of protection and security as a community and as individuals who believe in the religion.

Culture and Religion

According to the men and women living in Drana there is a strong tie between the focus on religion and culture in the village. The cultural practice of the sevusevu involves bringing together the community as one stressing their togetherness with the closing chant of "ama dua", one voice. The sevusevu is an example of the relationship between the community within the village and the community within the church. The chief of the village notes the following connection:

The sevusevu ceremony, which is a large part of our culture, also plays a part in terms of religion. After the last church service on Sunday afternoon we join together and mix a bowl of kava with the ministers who have preached. We are not so much thanking the preachers but we are thanking God for the teachings which have been relayed to the preachers.

The sevusevu is also performed when a visitor enters a village for the first time to ask the ancestral spirits to protect the man or woman and safeguard them from any harm that they may encounter while in the village. This belief in ancestral spirits coincides with the strong tenet of life after death. The ancestors are always present in the village because they have attained life after death as a result of their strong faith when alive.

In addition to this, people's roles in the village community are largely influenced by the teachings of the Bible. One woman noted, "I must respect my husband and listen to him. He is the head of the family and that is the what the Bible says." All of the woman living in the village believe that this is the message of God. Man as husband is the head and woman as wife is the counterpart. Another woman echoed these sentiments when she said, "I am not sure if I will get married... If I do not become a minister then I will have to because God says that woman shall have husbands." People believe that the role they play and accept in the society is in accordance with the teachings of the Bible and thus they value their roles within the community as highly important.

Conversion

Many Fijian men and women convert to religions different from the one to which they were first introduced. Sometimes it is a personal choice stemming from a dislike of the religion and the community while for others it is the influences of spouses and other relatives which will lead to conversion from one religion to another. The community which does not support the individual and inspire them to turn away from sin and achieve a better life is not adequate for many Fijians. They want a community that will direct them away from sin and increase the overall goodness of their lives. In the case of one woman living in a nearby village, her conversion was based on her lack of support from her family members, namely her father and mother, who had converted to from Methodism to Assembly of God.

Prior to the conversion of her parents in 1997, she felt well supported in her religious practices. However, when her parents converted from the Methodist Church to the Assembly of God Church the support she was receiving in her commitment to the religion dwindled:

My father converted because when he had a stroke and was sick in the house it was the AOG pastors who came to visit daily. The Methodist ministers did not visit him. So when I was Methodist and in the youth group my parents supported me lot. When they changed nobody supported me, and my parents were always asking a lot of questions about what I was doing at the meetings.

While she tried to continue practicing with the Methodist religion she felt secluded from the lack of support. Her parents became more inquisitive about the meetings she was attending rather than encouraging her to continue with Methodism. It was not her personal convictions which influenced her decision to convert from Methodism to AOG but rather the effect of others' support which caused her to convert. Her father and mother converted because they felt a lack of community support from the members of the Methodist Church and felt that the Assembly of God church was offering more support to the family in their time of need. Here again there was more of a focus on the lack of support than on the individual's beliefs. She herself converted in the end because the community around her, namely her parents, was not providing enough support.

The importance of the support system that the religion provides is considered a meaningful aspect of the religion. In this case the message of conversion is based on the idea of support and the community which looks to one another and helps one another. The young woman felt that her parents were not supporting her, and she apparently was not receiving considerable support from the Methodist congregation of which she was a part.

Assembly of God - Features and Services

The teachings of the Assembly of God religion and the focus of them are quite different from that of the Methodist religion. "Methodists", according to the woman with whom I spoke, "are more free than AOG. We have a lot more rules to follow and they are strict, but I think that is good. We cannot drink or smoke, and grog parties are not good and we can't drink at them. There is also no attending concerts, festivals, or parties." The structure and strict adherence to the rules of the religion seem to be reflected in the strong ties which form among those within the religion.

The religion is much more individualistic than the Methodist religion, and often people are searching for personal salvation when they become members. Both denominations of Christianity, Methodism and AOG, believe in turning away from sin. However the outlook from the two religions is quite different. While the Methodist religion regards sin as a diversion from the community and therefore a weakening of the community, in the AOG church the men and women are more focused on the effect of sin on them personally. They strive to turn away from sin, and they believe that the strictness of the religion allows them to become better people. One woman in Navitulevu who also converted to AOG said, "Before I used to drink a lot [grog and alcohol]. And then my husband, he had converted and he said you should come to church so I went with him and now I do not drink anymore." Here she is not only focusing on the idea of community, converting because her husband converted, but also saying that she converted because she wanted to stop sinning through her drinking. The AOG religion gave her the support she needed to do so. Members of the congregation seem to find that adherence to the rules of the religion brings them personal enrichment and in a sense increases the well being of their individual lives.

While the beliefs of the Methodists are similar to those of the Assembly of God the structure of the services is quite different. The AOG services are held on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. in the town of Vaileka at the Christian Outreach Center (COC). The morning service from 10:00 a.m. to noon is an English service and the afternoon service from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. is a Fijian service. The structure of the services is identical, with prayers, singing and preaching. The young woman expressed her enjoyment of the services as opposed to the Methodist services. "We play instruments to praise the Lord and everyone is singing and dancing and clapping. I love to go the church on the weekends." The religion is appealing to many people for this reason and attracts Indians, Fijians, Routumans and others.

Spirits

Even with the belief in one God the central component of Christianity, many people in the Fijian villages nevertheless believe in a world of ancestral spirits. These ancestral spirits are both feared and respected among Fijian villagers and were an important aspect of the more traditional religious practices in Fiji. As one woman from Drana put it:

People believe that there are spirits all around us. That is why when you came into the village a sevusevu was performed so that you would be protected rather than harmed by the spirits. Also when some of those ladies go fishing in the river, they believe that spirits help them catch fish.

This woman focuses on the idea that, as Ravuvu puts it, "the world of the living and its world of spirits interact every day" (1983: 85). The spirits were believed to bring good fortune to those who followed the word of God and did not deviate from the community of the church through sin. Those who did not follow God's teachings and sinned were often cursed by the spirits for weakening the community of the church. The spirits would place a curse on someone for their sins to teach them of their wrong doing and help them return to the community.

Today there are a number of people who believe in the traditional idea of cursing those who are believed to have done wrong. However many people will not talk about it and only mention where it takes place. In Drana a woman said, "Oh no, we don't do that here! But yes some people they do it, like down there in Rewasa." In addition a personal encounter with one woman in Navutulevu led to the following conversation.

I am telling you to please be careful when you drink grog. Where do you drink it in your village? Do you ever drink with people you don't know or in a house you are unfamiliar with? Because you shouldn't. And when someone asks you to drink grog you don't go later unless you know the person. Because of they take the lead and you follow later they could mix something and you would not know. You should be in the room when people mix it because they could put a curse on you. That happened to me once - I was drinking in the next village and when I woke up the next morning I was all itchy around my mouth and it was getting red. So I went to the doctor and he gave me medicine but it was not going away. Then I went to a woman and she told me I had a curse on me and she fixed it. So there had already been a curse on the grog before I had arrived.

While the practice of placing curses on others goes along with the traditional belief system of ancestral spirits, it does not fit well with Methodist religion. People who practice this type of sorcery by placing curses on others are committing sins, thus weakening the support of the community.

In conclusion the overall importance of Christianity on the people in Fijian villages relates to the importance of community which exists in many aspects of the culture. The religion, through one set of beliefs and practices, strengthens the community as a whole and joins many individuals into one. People tend to look towards the community for support, and in cases where one religion does not offer enough they convert to another religion. The belief in ancestral spirits as powerful beings who keep solidarity within the community fits well with today's beliefs. However, today the focus on cursing seems to be more individualized, focused more on harming a person than on bringing them back into the community. This in fact does not fit well with the message of the Bible which emphasizes that harming others is a sin. The message from the villagers living in Drana is one of faith in God and faith in the community for the aim of eternal salvation.

On to Conclusion...