Churches and Tonga

07/06/07 , by Posted by: admin

Nuku'alofa, the capital, was burned last November (2006) so I was eager to see what has happened since. On my first morning, my initial thought was how clean it look. How airly and spacy it now look! The summer previous, we did spend a lot of time in Nuku'alofa, and it was busy, traffic was way too much for the size of the town and the road, there seemed to be endless people everywhere, and because of that, you feel Nuku'alofa is a suffocating place.

I think it is not so much of that now and the main road, Taufa'ahau Rd, has a healthier outlook because of the space. It was an incident nobody wanted to happen but there isn't alot we can do about it now. I am trying to be positive.

I started these series of blogging by wondering if I have changed, or Tonga has perhaps, or may be both I and Tonga have changed. I think it is a bit of a dumb question! Tonga is moving along and I have hopefully evolved too. However, I prefer to stay with what's going on in the "church".

I talked a bit about the SUTT because it is the main church in Tonga - the royal family's church, and the church with the largest number. Other churches caught my attention; one of them is the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints (LDS) - more commonly known as the Mormons. I saw one evening on the Tonga only local television a good cultural programme that I thought was well written and well researched. I was surprised to see it was Eric Shumway who commentate the documentary and it has three episodes. I thought Mr Shumway was the President of the Mormon University in Hawaii - BYU. But he has apparently become the Tonga LDS President. Tonga LDS has done a brilliant job to get Mr Shumway back to the Kingdom! He is one talented man.

The Mormon in the mid-1990s had the second highest number in Tonga, and one of the largest employers in the Kingdom. It is probably the wealthiest church in Tonga proven by the fact that they have the highest building budget of any church. I can only imagine they have grown since and not far behind the SUTT as the leading church in Tonga. But what catches my attention is the fact that they are very well orgainsed, have good schooling system, and they have strong emphasis on family life and education. I like the way they run the church, and how they have helped and saved alot of young Tongan from alcahol related problems, and encourage clean healthy living. But on the same line I want to encourage a more indepth conversation about the churchs' doctrine and its underlying theologies.

There are other small but new evangelical christian churches that pop up in Tonga time and again. One of them is the Equippers Church, currently running its programmes on what use to be the OBN television building (no connection). Several other charismatic churches is flooding Tonga these days. I am not sure if it is a good thing or not so good for Tonga at this present time.

Another eye-catching piece of news is the Muslim community planning to build a school in the near future. I always know there was only one man who was a Muslim in Tonga in the late-80s (Mr Fisi'ihoi Manu), and he disappears off, but little did I know (and so as many others), Islam has grown steadily in Tonga. It does not surprise me at all they are hoping to build a school. It is the natural process for any denomination to arrive on new shores and build school. That's how all churches in Tonga started - missionaries arrive, get settled in, and first major project is building of a school. That's how church doctrines are taught! And it is part of the development of human mind.

It highlights something - churches that look after their schools are the ones that have a healthy growth. Those churches that neglect its schools face so much more hurdles particularly loosing its members. After talking to alot of people from relevant areas in Tonga, I have no doubt that is the case!

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• July 10, 2007, 12:01 am - Naki Misa

  According to Stats Tonga's 1996 Census, 39,703 (41.3% of the popln) were FWC, followed by Catholics 15,309 (15.9%), and then LDS of 13,225 (13.8), then FCT at 11,226 (11.7%) and Church of Tonga at 7,016 (7.3%).

  The fastest growing church in Tonga is actually Assemblies of God, but to put this into perspective, AOG constitutes only 2.5 percent of the whole population.

  I think that with the rapid growth in the smaller denominations, this will effectively stablise the growth of the bigger churches. Tonga's population now stands at 101,134 a small increase of 3.4% compared to 1996 population of around 97,000.

  I'm also interested to read of your take on the other faiths in Tonga.

  Tonga has released some of their 2006 Census results but it appears that they haven't got the religion and other statistical indicators out yet. I'll post them up once I get a hold of them