Churches back PM’s vision

Churches have lent their support to Prime Minister James Marape.

The Body of Christ church leaders took advantage of the attendance of Prime Minister Marape on the day of Prayer and Repentance on August 26th to present some of their needs in a petition as well as air their views.

Representing the Body of Christ church leaders was chairman Reverend Joseph Walters, who made some remarks before presenting the six petitions to the Prime Minister.

Reverend Walters said the members of the Body of Christ group, which is the Evangelical and Pentecostal churches and Charismatic groups, are ready to support the Prime Minister with his vision statement which he proclaimed in his maiden speech when he took office two months ago.

“We want to assure you in your vision statement of ‘First Black Richest Christian nation’ that the churches have taken this onboard. We want to assure you that we will give you the full back up and support to ensure this vision become a reality, especially the Christian aspect of that statement,” Rev Walters said.

He then presented the following petitions to the Prime Minister:

  1. Government to recognise Israel as the root and origin of Christian Faith; where the Bible comes from and where the Saviour of the world comes from;
  2. Set up a separate department to facilitate churches’ involvement to allow more accessibility to fast track services;
  3. Include a clergy into the statutory bodies and government departments to be onboard to bring God factor into the government;
  4. To have a chaplain in the parliament house as well as departments and statutory bodies;
  5. Set a legislation to ensure the 400-year-old Bible remains in the chamber of national parliament; and finally
  6. To make relevant changes in the constitution to reflect Papua New Guinea as a truly Christian nation. Which means the Bible is legal and means everything we do is legal and anything outside the Bible is illegal.

Prime Minister Marape responded positively when receiving the petition, saying all the petitions presented were 100 percent achievable. He then passed the petitions on to the Deputy Prime Minister and Attorney General, Davis Steven, who is responsible for social sector.

Marape also informed the church leaders that the government had already written to the government of Israel to move the embassy of PNG and mission into Jerusalem but the response had not come yet due to election activities there, but a visit to Israel is imminent. 

Furthermore, Marape assured the church leaders and the people that hopefully by August 26th next year, a response to these petitions will be ready.

(Rev Joseph Walters presenting the churches’ petition to Prime Minister James Marape)

Author: 
Frieda Kana