Traditional Fijian Kava Ceremony

By Fr. Bernie Graham, SDB

Suva, Fiji - The annual ordination ceremony for students from the Pacific Regional Seminary, Suva, Fiji, where some members of the Australia-Pacific Province study, was held on Sunday 31 May in Sacred Heart Cathedral in Suva.

Five new Deacons were ordained by Archbishop Peter Loy Chong, the Archbishop of Suva – one for the Archdiocese of Suva, two Vincentians (Congregation of the Missions), one Marist (Marist Fathers) who has a sister as a postulant with the FMA and one Salesian.

Deacon Nuku Lefai was the Salesian among the group.

As a great honour to the Salesian family in Suva, the music for the ceremony was provided by the Don Bosco Sunday School Choir, which was made up of young people who attend the Sunday School each week at Don Bosco House, some parents and parishioners from the local area and the five novices and six students in post-novitiate at Don Bosco House.

The cathedral was packed to overflowing for this important ceremony and occasion for the Church in Oceania, and included Marist, Vincentian and Salesian superiors from Australia and Rome.

In his homily the Archbishop challenged the new deacons to be men who reflect deeply on the Word of God and to find a ‘new language’ that will break open the Word in the specific Oceania context where some of the Biblical language and the language of classical theology do not resonate with the experience of the Pacifican people and their culture.

Deacon Nuku Lefai will complete his Theological studies in November 2015, and will hopefully be ordained as a Priest in his native diocese of Tonga by the newly created Tongan Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi soon afterwards.

Laying on of Hands by Archbishop Peter Loy

Being vested by his Sister

Deacon Nuku Lefai sdb