Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Pacific churches in Australia upset over gay ministers


Several Pacific island congregations in the Uniting Church of Australia have formed a potential breakaway movement, over the issue of homosexuality. They've been joined by other congregations from the Chinese, Korean and Aboriginal communities, who accuse the Uniting Church of straying from biblical teaching by moving to ordain homosexuals as ministers. The group is called the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the Uniting Church. One of its leaders, Reverend Dr Hedley Fihaki, a Tongan minister in Cairns, says Pacific island christians in particular have found it impossible to go along with the Uniting Church's views.

Reverend Dr Hedley Fihaki, a Tongan minister in Cairns and deputy chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the Uniting Church of Australia. And a panel discussion on this developing split in the Uniting Church can be heard on Pacific Beat this Friday. Reverend Fihaki will debate the General Secretary of the Uniting Church Assembly, Reverend Terence Corking, and also participating will be Reverent Tavake Tupou from Auckland, a former President of the Methodist Church in New Zealand who took his Tongan congregation out of the church entirely over the issue of homosexuality.

To hear audio file or to read the transcript of this interview, click here.

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