Chester Diocese
News Item
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Our Melanesian friends impress
OUR MELANESIAN visitors are in the Diocese this until 12 June, sharing their faith through spectacular drama, dance, song and a most distinctive liturgy. No-one who witnesses the Melanesian brothers and sisters in action, professing our faith can fail to be impressed. The visitors began their 40 days of mission to the Chester Diocese with a Eucharist in which they played a dramatic Gospel story-telling role at the Cathedral. The community has also been presenting its impressive and intensely moving ‘The Passion of Our Lord’, which will be performed at Chester Cathedral on Friday 10 June, starting at 7.15pm. This powerful drama, with its message of death, resurrection and hope, finds echoes in the violence, death and suffering, followed by reconciliation and peace, experienced in real life by the Melanesian community in recent years. The Revd Richard Carter, Chaplain to the Melanesian Brotherhood, explained: “This is a group that who have faced pain, suffering and loss and yet emerged with hope and faith that peace and reconciliation is possible. “It is a powerful story for all to hear. Many have already been moved by the strength of the Melanesians’ witness.” While in the UK in 2000, a group of visiting Melanesians who made a big impression in Chester Diocese, heard news that there had been a coup in the Solomon Islands and an armed conflict had developed between two of the island and tribal groups: Malaita and Guadalcanal. When the visitors returned from UK they joined the other members of their community in working for peace. The Brothers took up the role of peacemakers when all else had failed. They went out and camped between enemy lines, facing bullets and danger. Together with the Sisters of the Church and the Sisters of Melanesia they met with the opposing forces and tried to convince them that dialogue and peace was possible. The Melanesian Brothers and Sisters ferried the wounded to hospital, helped women and children to safety, searched for the lost and those who had been killed and brought their bodies back to safety. Peace eventually came to the South Pacific nation – but at a price … Militants remained who were unwilling to give up their arms. One militant, Harold Keke, refused to give up his arms and continued a reign of terror where those who opposed him were executed. In 2003 one of the Melanesian Brothers who had gone to visit Harold Keke to begin a dialogue for peace was taken hostage and brutally murdered. Six brothers went in search of their lost brother and were similarly tortured and killed. Their deaths were a national tragedy but also a catalyst for peace.
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Cast members of the Melanesians’ ‘The Passion of the Lord’ : centre Joseph Tamisay as Jesus; top left Edmond Teleka as Judas; top right Benjamin Kunu as a sinister Pharisee; bottom left Dora Palmer; and bottom right Narie Fono.
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