Churches name Sunday trustworthy for peace | EUROtoday

“Right now, Satan, he comes to sleep here in our neighborhoods under the palm trees. » Loud voice and bible in hand, Pastor Laxa Wejieme, known as “Lax”, harangues, this Sunday, June 2, the gang gathered for an uncommon worship. Tired of not having the ability to attain his parish of Mont-Dore, north of the inaccessible city space of ​​Nouméa, the fifty-year-old determined, as a neighbor, to place himself on the service of the trustworthy of Jacarandas, a well-liked district of Dumbéa sur mer. “This is the first time I worship on a dam”he says from the roundabout, which has remained the scene of clashes with the police each night time since May 13.

The place was cleaned by the trustworthy the day earlier than, and the younger folks on the dam let it occur: the parishioners are additionally their dad and mom. The theme of at this time's worship is “peace”, moms comply with each other in entrance of a primary altar, embellished with flowers from their gardens, to learn the Gospel or a prayer. Words of forgiveness and repentance, however which don’t essentially urge younger folks to cease mobilizing. Moreover, the independence flag flutters within the wind.

Since 1979, the Protestant Church has positioned itself for the independence of New Caledonia, it even turned the Protestant Church of Kanaky New Caledonia in 2013. The Protestants are, of their overwhelming majority, Kanaks originating from Loyalty Islands, evangelized by English missionaries within the nineteenth century^e century.

“We are for living together”

In the ranks of the trustworthy, opposition to the constitutional reform on the unfreezing of the citizens is a consensus. Didier, initially from Lifou, is anxious about his son, put in on the dam, however helps the protest: “Our children took over a fight that was ours in the 1980s. As long as the text is not withdrawn, we will be behind them. » The pastor therefore calls on the young people of Jacarandas, not to lift the roadblocks, but “to discernment. Today, to find something to eat, you have to walk to the store in the neighboring neighborhood. Don’t do anything.” Allusion to the looting and destruction that nobody desires to attribute to the youth of the neighborhood.

As for alcohol, “This deceptive poison must be banned from dams. Replace it with prayer »also says Lax to the young people who are observing the scene from their base camp, the school which overlooks the roundabout.

“They don’t come, but they listen”assures Marie, together with her brow girded by a scarf ” Peace “. “People need to talk to each other, to try to understand each other. We are little people and we don't agree with everything we hear: if our young people do that, it's because there are reasons. We are for living together, not racists as some want us to believe. » A gust of wind raises the accumulated dust from the burned carcasses that litter the avenue, an explosion rings out: “See”stated the pastor to the trustworthy, “when I tell you that Satan sleeps under the palm trees”.

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