Pacific women talk: Samoa
Moves to give women more responsibility in church in Samoa must not also allow Western culture to further infringe on the island identity, says Atalua Tanielu of the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa.
Atalua Tanielu
When Samoan culture was Christianised, when the missionaries came over that was a big change for the culture. We say nowadays that it’s best for our culture to remain our culture. It’s our identity.
We heard that some Pacific islands have lost their identity and now they are crying to get back their cultural life.
They've lost their language - their children don't speak it.
We pray that we don't let the westernised world change our culture.
In the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa only men are ordained as ministers. Lack of ordination isn't a barrier to taking the good news home.
There is always a pastor and his wife in church. The minister does the worship and the wife does the service for the women.
She conducts the service for the youth group too. At pastor's school both the pastor and the wife tell Bible stories and teach other things such as maths. The pastor's wife teaches the girls how to sew.
Women are very active in church. The majority going to church are women. They are the backbone of the churches.
We are going towards ordaining women. We don't want to rush into it.
Now we are focusing on the church and on groups. It’s not good to have so many ordained women when there are people drifting out of the church.