This follows the cancellation of the annual church conference, over fears the gathering could become political.
The Uniting Church in Australia's international section, Uniting World, says it may have to re-think its attitude towards events in Fiji as a result of what's happened..
It's assistant director of church solidarity in the Pacific, Bruce Mullen, says he was in Suva and saw events as they unfolded.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Bruce Mullen, Uniting World's assistant director of church solidarity in the Pacific
MULLEN: I saw a church that had worked very hard with the government to get approval to hold its annual conference for the first time in more than three years and people were coming to Suva excited and enthusiastic that they were finally going to be allowed to meet together and do the business of the church and what I saw was a government that frustrated that at every possible opportunity.
HILL: The actual leadership of the Methodist Church, were they being confrontational with the government or being conciliatory?
MULLEIN: The Methodist Church has bent over backwards to be conciliatory. They've negotiated with governments particularly on this conference. The government requires them to submit their full agenda to the government prior to the conference being held, which they did. The agenda was approved. The public emergency regulations permit was given and there seemed to be no reason why the meeting couldn't go ahead as it was planned.
HILL: What was the reaction like for the church leadership when the word came down that it had been cancelled?
MULLEN: The church leadership was incredibly frustrated Bruce. I think actually the timing of the provocation was designed to cause maximum frustration amongst church members and church leaders. The fact that they waited until everybody was in Suva before the meeting was actually cancelled was really designed to cause maximum havoc.
HILL: You use the provocation there. Do you think the government did this on purpose?
MULLEN: I don't know about the timing of it, I mean I can't speak for what the government was doing, but all I know is that it felt provocative and it certainly caused enormous frustration and to some extent I guess it was a kind of a humiliation of church leaders that negotiated this agreement with the government and then to have that overturned and thrown out at the last minute was a humiliation to them and the actions that they'd worked so hard to achieve.
HILL: We spoke to the spokesperson for the Fiji military forces, Lieutenant-Colonel Neumi Leweni and said that the Fiji government are very concerned about the possibility that the church conference could have turned political. There have been some political overtones in some of the things the Fiji Methodist Church have done in the past, haven't there?
MULLEN: I read through the agenda, I've got a copy of it sitting here on the desk. I read every word in that agenda, it's Fijian and Australian, and English and I was able to read it in English and there is nothing, there is absolutely nothing in there of any political nature whatsoever. It's all about appoints to church positions and leadership, appointments to church committees, retirement of ministers, all internal church matters, so there's nothing political whatsoever in the agenda. And the agenda was already submitted to the government ahead of time for approval and the agenda was approved by the government. So the only political action it seems to me was to say that as the church constitution requires, the president would chair the meeting.
HILL: Well, now that this has happened, what's the Fiji Methodist Church going to do about it? Have they told you what they're plans are, are they going to lie down and take this or do something about it?
MULLEN: A letter from Landforce commander, Colonel Tikoitoga, came to the church on Wednesday and that letter basically said that the Military Council has decided that because the leadership of the church didn't agree with what the government has done, in asking the leaders to stand aside, all meetings of the Methodist Church, as set out in the Constitution will be cancelled from now on. And that includes not only the annual conference, the church standing committee, the conference finance committee, all meetings in the church office, all divisional meetings, all quarterly meetings, all local church monthly and premonthly meetings, all meetings overseas that church leaders might attend.
HILL: Well, how's the church supposed to function like that?
MULLEN: It can't function, it can't function.
HILL: Well, if the church can't function like this, I mean what's going to happen to it?
MULLEN: I don't know. I mean the Methodist Church in Fiji strikes me as a fairly resilient church and the leaders clear while they want to work and have worked very hard to be conciliatory with the government, there are limits to what a government are allowed to do. I mean this is biblical materials. Governments don't tell churches what they can talk about, governments don't tell churches who can and can't be leaders of the church and I think the church is going to hold to that principle.
HILL: What about overseas church support? I mean your from Uniting World which is Australian Uniting Church which the Methodist Church is part of. Is there anything that Uniting World can do and other churches around the Pacific?
MULLEN: Eh, look I only got home at one o'clock this morning and the phones been ringing all morning, but we need to rethink very carefully what our strategies will be to support the Methodist Church. I know the World Council of Churches is aware of what's been happening and I know that much of the church international from the phone calls I've had today is buzzing with this news and I think churches everywhere like us will be talking about what are the appropriate ways to respond.
