Wednesday, February 27, 2008
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all here today to participate in this second Church Ministers fono organised by the Hutt Valley Intersectoral Steering Group members. Warm Pacific greetings to you all.
I am honoured to be invited to officially welcome you here today.
These fono provide a great opportunity to share and learn from each other.
Pacific Ministers yield tremendous influence over Pacific families and play a critical role in distributing information and or linking them to government agency or local community support.
In this day and age when many of our families and young people are withdrawing from Christianity, it is pleasing to see the Church and in particular the status Pacific Ministers hold is still very much an integral force within Pacific families.
We can learn a lot from Pacific nations about how to instil Christian values and behaviours within our families and I wish you all a great fono.
I believe networking opportunities like this are pivotal to working together to address some of the social ills that affect our community today.
That’s why this year I plan to call together a congress of the city’s religious leaders to challenge our relationships and build our invisible strengths of caring and support for each other.
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for being here today on this important occasion.
I want to also acknowledge and thank the young people present today as they like us oldies also want a better life for themselves and the future generations to come.
They represent great role models and I encourage you all to continue with the work you have started and I wish you an enjoyable but fruitful time together.
Unfortunately due to other commitments I am unable to stay here with you for the entire meeting but I commend you all for your commitment, passion and attendance here today and look forward to hearing about the progress you make.
Thank you again for the opportunity to welcome you here, and to share in this important occasion with you.
Tena Koutou Katoa.