The 2014 Fiji Elections and the Methodist Church

Abstract

The Methodist Church of Fiji has around one-third of Fiji’s population as members, and is a strong influence on all aspects of Fiji’s life, including its politics. Since 2006 the relationship between the Methodist Church of Fiji and the Bainimarama regime has been variously tense, acrimonious and downright hostile, with Church conferences cancelled by the government in 2009–2011 after the Methodist Church was accused of ‘playing politics’. A further attempt to minimise the influence of the Methodist Church has included government encouragement of the New Methodists (Souls to Jesus) movement in 2008–9. However, these government actions have been premised on the assumption that the Methodist Church is monolithic in its support for conservative Fijian chiefly values, often privileging these over more universalist values espoused by other Christian denominations. While this may have been generally true of the years 1989–2012, it has not always been the case. This paper suggests that more recently the dynamics within the Methodist Church have changed, a shift that is only partly influenced by Bainimarama’s actions.