LIFE IN A FIJIAN VILLAGE:
THE STRUGGLE OF SELF AND COMMUNITY
by Megan Lee

Chapter 5
Religion

Chapter 5

The Methodist Church (Physical Layout)

Services

Interview: Jehovah's Witnesses As One Alternative

Interview: The Methodist Church Gives Personal Strength

Religion is a central feature of Fijian village life. With British rule came missionaries and the introduction of Christianity into Fijian life. Methodism is the predominant religion in the country. Every family in the village belongs to a Christian denomination. Most families belong to the Methodist church and attend weekly services at the church in the village. Of the thirty-seven families living in the village, twenty-six are Methodist. Seven families belong to the Assembly of God and three families are Seventh Day Adventists. There is also one young woman who is studying to become a Jehovah's Witness.

Although there is freedom to attend any denomination, there is social pressure from the Methodists, who are the majority of the village, to attend the Methodist Church. There are social repercussions for those who are not Methodist in that they are viewed as "outsiders" and not included in some village functions that involve the church, such as the village festival. This pressure compels people to attend the Methodist church, and it seems that many people do so only because this pressure exists, not because they have a strong faith in God or the teachings of the church. The Methodist church reflects traditional Fijian culture and village life in its services and structure while simultaneously teaching the ethos of Christianity. However, the teaching of these Christian values can, for some people, seem to be secondary to the extension of the social structure into the church. Because many people feel social pressure to attend church, I found a preoccupation among many people about whether or not they attend church because of the social pressure that is placed on them to do so, or because they actually have an inner conviction and belief in God. Some see Methodism as a series of empty rituals that do not have an effect on an individual's life. Furthermore, I found that since many people associate the Methodist church with the structure of Fijian society those who are dissatisfied with the traditional society express their dissatisfaction by leaving the Methodist church. However, there are other villagers who feel it is possible to have an active faith in the Methodist church by being reborn to Christ and are able to reach a higher state of communalism in which they really feel the influence of God and are truly willing and able to commit themselves to God through the Methodist church.

The Methodist Church (Physical Layout)

The Methodist church has a central location in the village. It is located at the bottom of the hill and is the second largest building in the village. It looks similar to the houses in the village except that it is bigger. As in traditional Fijian buildings, it has three entrances; one is at the back, opposite from the altar and the other two are located across from each other in the middle of the church. The location of the doors and which people may use which door reflect the hierarchical nature of the society. There is a small porch attached to the back door that all the women and children and most of the men enter and exit through. The older men who participate in the services use one of the side doors because it is closer to the altar and, therefore, of higher status. Upon entering the building, shoes must be removed and left at the door, a sign of respect for the building and those in it.

The building itself is between fifteen and twenty years old. There are cracks running up the sides and the wall of one corner is starting to crumble. The congregation is currently raising money to make repairs to the building; however, doing so is costly and they have not been able to collect enough to start.

At the front of the church there is an altar. It is raised approximately six inches from the floor. The altar runs the entire width of the church, from one wall to the other. There is a railing about waist high in front of it covered in red material. On the right hand side of the altar there is a small pulpit which is raised higher than the rest of the altar. It is covered with a white tapestry with a red cross on its center. There is another, smaller table beside it. This is used for collecting and counting the soli, or collection, the congregation makes each week. The collection of the soli is a very public matter. The congregation is divided into five groups, by family. During the service, each group is called one at a time to give the soli. The donations are placed in a plate in the middle of the church and everyone can see how much each person has contributed. Once all the donations have been made, they are counted and the total amount each group has contributed is announced.

Services

People are called to church by the lali, a hollowed wooden slitgong drum located next to the church. It is beaten a half hour before each service begins to call people to the church and again as the minister enters the church. It is also used to call people to choir practices, which are held on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

There are three services on Sundays. The first is at six in the morning and is not very well attended. It is approximately an hour long. The main service is held at ten o'clock. When the lali is beaten, the congregation begins to gather at church. Men and women do not sit together during the services. The women sit on the left hand side and the men on the right. This is done as a sign of respect to God and in accordance with traditional Fijian society in which men and women were separated from each other according to the hierarchical structure in which men are ranked higher than women. The seating of people on their respective sides of the church also follows this structure. The younger men and women sit in the back of the church, closest to the door and the older people sit closer to the altar, closer to God. In the traditional social structure, men and women often have to avoid each other. By separating men and women on opposite sides of the building, they can avoid the embarrassment of having to sit close to people they should be avoiding.

The choir, which has a membership of between 20 and 30 people, sits in front of the congregation, not facing the altar but instead facing the side wall. To create a sense of conformity, the women in the choir wear white dresses with red sulu (skirts) under them and the men wear white shirts and red ties. In accordance with Fijian tradition, all of the men always wear sulu in church. The children sit in front of the men in the first few rows of pews.

The structure of the service itself also reflects traditional Fijian culture. Each service follows the same pattern. As one man described it, it is "a method. There is no difference between what happens this week and what will happen next week but there is a purpose to it. There is a reason why we sing the song when we do." This reason could be to show respect to God in a set and methodical way, similarly to how respect is shown through the sevusevu ceremony.

The leadership of the church is set in a hierarchical manner. There is a distinct hierarchy that one must rise through in order to actively contribute to the church service. The talatala is the church minister and has "completed successfully a period of formal training in a theological institution" (Ravuvu 1983: 95). The vakatawa is any minister who has had some formal training in a Bible college. The vakatawa is responsible for organizing church activities in several villages. Ranked below the vakatawa are any number of vakavuvuli who are stationed in a village and responsible for setting up church activities in that village. There are also others who may contribute to the service without having this extent of training. These are the lay preachers, or dauvunau. It is usually the older and more prominent men of the village who become dauvunau. The dauvunau often give the sermon during Sunday services.

Interview: Jehovah's Witnesses As One Alternative

As a result of the Methodist church structure following that of the larger society, many people who find problems with the society at large also reject the Methodist church and turn to other denominations. These are often people who find problems with the society at large. These criticisms are revealing: they feel that Methodism just involves an empty following of rituals and does not actively involve individuals. They seek a more egalitarian kind of society which allows for more individual autonomy. This is expressed in the fact that several people I spoke with said that the other denominations teach the same things as the Methodist church, but the structure of the services is different in that they are more egalitarian and do not reflect the values of the traditional Fijian social structure. For example, I spoke with one young woman from a nearby village who is currently studying to become a Jehovah's Witness. Beti feels that the main purpose of religion is to teach people how to incorporate the teaching of the Bible into their everyday life, as she says, to "put first the kingdom of God in your life." She has decided that in order to do this she had to leave the Methodist church. She feels it is a series of repetitive and meaningless rituals that people participate in out of complacency or because they are pressured to do so, not because they want to incorporate the word of God into their life. The Methodist church, because it so closely structures the larger society, creates an environment in which some people do not truly feel God in their life; therefore, it does not compel them to change. In order to find the motivation to change her life, she had to look outside of the church and consequently beyond the traditional Fijian social structure. The church she attends now is much more egalitarian and is a community of individuals who are committed to finding God in their lives by helping and caring for one another. The Methodist church is not focused on fulfilling the needs of its members on an individual level but instead works to fulfill these needs based on the role the individual plays in the larger society. The setting and group of individuals she has found with the Jehovah's Witnesses helps her find a higher meaning that is not possible for her in the Methodist church. She feels that, as opposed to her experiences in the Methodist church, when she attends meetings with the Jehovah's Witnesses, she is surrounded by a loving community that cares for her as an individual and not only as a part of the larger group. She says that "there are people around you who care about you, who will listen to your problems. They are the real hope."

She feels that this level of compassion and caring is not possible through the structure of the Methodist church and people attend church only because they feel pressured to do so by the community. She says,

They [the women] come to church with the white dress, all holy, holy and then they don't follow what the church is teaching. The go home after church and they fight, they do all sorts of stupid stuff. They just listen in church and then they go back home and live the same life they were living. They just go to church for the sake of it, I think. It's Sunday so they should go to church. They go there and listen, sing songs, and then go back home and put the Bible away and go on the same way. They don't really take it that seriously. They just pretend to take it seriously.

In order to feel that she is part of a group that worships God for the "true reasons," she has left the Methodist church and joined this alternative group.

Additionally, the Jehovah's Witnesses are much more egalitarian than the Methodists. Each member of the church community is seen as being equal to every other. There is no minister who stands above the congregation on an altar and preaches. Instead he sits in the circle with the other church members. Perhaps this equality in physical height helps to instill a sense of equality before God in the congregation. The church leader, who in some ways is equated with God, is at the same level as all the other members of the congregation and therefore sends the message that God, like the leader, is not above you but on the same level, or actively present in one's life. Instead of listening to a sermon by the elder there is open discussion in which everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate. Even the young children are given the opportunity to contribute by answering simple questions about Bible readings. The elder who leads the service acts as a guide for the discussion, rather than as a preacher.

By worshipping with this alternative group, BetiBeti feels she is better able to incorporate the teachings of the Bible and God into her life. By doing so, she has consciously separated herself socially from the rest of the village. She says that people gossip about her and others who have left the Methodist church because they have rejected what is socially dominant and acceptable within the structure of the village. "They really talk about the people who go to the other denominations," she says, "especially the Jehovah's Witnesses. They don't like how they go around and teach people about the Bible, how the end of the world is coming, they hate that." It is possible that people "hate that" because it does not follow the traditional structure of the village in that people are being taught by their peers rather than by someone of higher social status and rank. However, being isolated from the rest of the village gives her the opportunity to better live her life in accordance with the beliefs she has found as a Jehovah's Witness. She says that it is good that she has separated herself because it gives her the opportunity to live by what God says and not by man. She says, "I have to help myself and live it in my everyday life." She is asserting that religion is a personal and individual matter and not one that should incorporate the Fijian social structure, which encourages communalism, not individualism.

She has linked a rejection of Methodism to a rejection of being controlled by other people. Her role in society as a young married women places her in a position where she must be submissive to many people -- to her husband and her mother-in-law -- and perhaps by leaving the Methodist church, which so closely parallels the larger society, she has been able to find some autonomy and control over her own life. Beti made a conscious decision to leave the Methodist church as a way to escape the constraints of the society. Choosing to remove herself from the larger society through her choice of religion has also given her the opportunity to express her rejection of the traditional society that she feels is constraining her and preventing her from finding autonomy in her life. For example, as a Jehovah's Witness, she does not believe in celebrating birthdays because doing so is celebrating the birth of a sinner. She is not planning on celebrating her daughter's first birthday and in so doing is rejecting the traditional society that would place great emphasis on the first birthday of her first born child.

Interview: The Methodist Church Gives Personal Strength

However, not everyone feels it is necessary to leave the Methodist church in order to find a more fulfilling belief in God. Another man in the village spoke of a time in his life when he truly converted to Christianity and dedicated himself to the teaching of the church rather than attending church because he was coerced to do so by pressure from his family and the community. Because the structure of the church parallels that of the larger society so closely, opportunity to truly feel God in one's life is restricted. However, it is not impossible to actively participate in the Methodist church. One must be willing to go through the proper channels within the church to do so. My interview with Dakui, a Methodist vakatawa, showed two interesting points. First, he displayed the same views as Beti that Methodism could involve empty rituals, suggesting that this is problematic for Fijians who may often feel they are going through the motions because of social pressure. But second, Dakui felt he had come to a more meaningful faith within the church, suggesting it is possible for Fijians to come to a sense of meaningful participation within a highly structured Fijian community.

Dakui emphasized that, from a young age, children are forced to attend church by their parents and so do not develop an inner sense of right and wrong of their own conviction. As Dakui said, "Children have no freedom, so going to church is the usual manner. We went to church every Sunday, if you did not attend, you would get a hiding. That's it. So as a child, growing up, it made no sense to me. I didn't know what was going on." He continued on to say that because God and the church are forced upon people through the social structure, he had not developed a sense of God and of right and wrong. The structure of the church exerts an external control that does not foster personal acceptance of God. As a teenager, he smoked and drank and stole from others in the village. He was "the worst kid in the village, I only cared about myself. They [his family and the community] had no control over me and I didn't care about them." When her was twenty years old however, he was "truly converted into Christianity" by a minister in another town.

To truly find God one needs to have internal control that is found in the teachings of the church but not in the structure of the church. By being reborn and becoming active in the church, he has found a higher level of communalism in which he really feels the power of God in his life and participates in the church because he wants to and not because he feels he has to. Truly finding God in his life has led him to change his ways and become actively involved in the church. While Beti has found a truer sense of God by rejecting the Methodist church and the traditional social structure that is reflected in it, Dakui has found religion through this social structure. He too has found autonomy in his religion. He has done so by, instead of rejecting the hierarchical structure of the church, rising through it to reach a higher level of communalism in which he willingly participates in the church. This is expressed by the fact that he is dedicating his life to the church by becoming a vakatawa and leader of the youth group in the village. As he explained,

My relationship with the others in the village has changed [because I have been reborn in the church]. The life I was living before was not very good because I did not feel God inside of me. But now, my relationship with them is good, they like me, I help them, I care about them, if they want something that I have, I give it to them. As I can see, my life has changed. Everything that was bad before, now is good. I've committed myself, I'm giving my life to the church. It's making me change.

He feels that the structure of the church is important in preserving traditional culture; however, he also says that the church needs to go to the people and preach the word of God in order to make them truly believe and then help them incorporate that belief into the structure of the church and society. Today there are too many people who attend church services only because they feel it is what they should do. They are socially obligated to do so and do not live by the teaching of the church. Simply attending church services does not make people Christians; they have to feel the power of God in their life and live by the word of God. He says, "For some of us [attending church] is just the normal way. They think, I'll just go to church because my father is going to church. They just follow, there is something they are not feeling. They are talking about one thing and doing another. They hear the good news, but then they do a bad thing. They must give their life to God, to change from bad to good."

Many people, both Methodists and those who attend the other denominations, recognize that there is a large number of people who only attend the Methodist church in order to conform to what the society has deemed appropriate and not because they believe and apply what the church is teaching to their lives. However, those who recognize this fact have different ways of dealing with it and finding a stronger sense of faith in their own lives. To find a satisfying religious experience, one must either reject the Methodist church and therefore the larger social structure and society, or one must be willing to accept the parallel between the Methodist church and the larger society and then rise through that structure to find a higher level of communalism and acceptance of the social structure, through which they attend and participate in the church of their own volition. Some people have chosen to attend other churches while others have been able to find a sense of fulfillment by overcoming this external social control of the Methodist church and finding a sense of internal control that has allowed them to find a higher meaning within the Methodist church.

On to Conclusion...