Tongan Methodist Church - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Thu, 12 May 2016 04:41:00 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg Tongan Methodist Church - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 Tongan Churches say no bread for sale on Sundays https://cathnews.co.nz/2016/05/13/tongan-churches-no-bread-baking-suday/ Thu, 12 May 2016 17:03:16 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=82631

The Tongan government is searching for a compromise after churches demanded that there should be no bread for sale on Sundays. For the largely Christian population, Sunday is celebrated as a strict Sabbath, enshrined so in the constitution. There is a Sunday trading ban with only essential services exempt. The bakeries have been allowed to Read more

Tongan Churches say no bread for sale on Sundays... Read more]]> The Tongan government is searching for a compromise after churches demanded that there should be no bread for sale on Sundays.

For the largely Christian population, Sunday is celebrated as a strict Sabbath, enshrined so in the constitution.

There is a Sunday trading ban with only essential services exempt.

The bakeries have been allowed to operate on Sundays since 1982, after a state of emergency was declared following a cyclone, but church leaders says it must end.

Tonga has traditionally been strongly opposed to commercial trading on a Sunday.

The commerce minister, Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa, said the government wants a compromise and it has been talking with the various stakeholders, including the public through talkback radio.

"We may find a compromise, say certain hours on Sunday, but right now, according to the law, the bakeries should not operate on Sunday."

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Tongan Churches say no bread for sale on Sundays]]> 82631 Church and government team up on housing scheme https://cathnews.co.nz/2014/03/21/church-government-team-housing-scheme/ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 18:30:44 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=55719

Twenty-two families from overcrowded homes finally have room to breathe in a new housing scheme opened by a Tongan princess in Mangere. Storeman Sione Leha'uli, his wife Fitalika and what were then their two children were living with Mrs Leha'uli's parents, grandparents, her brother and his wife and two children - 12 people in a Read more

Church and government team up on housing scheme... Read more]]> Twenty-two families from overcrowded homes finally have room to breathe in a new housing scheme opened by a Tongan princess in Mangere.

Storeman Sione Leha'uli, his wife Fitalika and what were then their two children were living with Mrs Leha'uli's parents, grandparents, her brother and his wife and two children - 12 people in a crowded Mangere house.

They were the first to move last August into one of 22 new houses built by the Tongan Methodist Church on a vacant 6.4 ha block in Donnell Ave that it bought from Housing NZ for $210,000 in 1994. It has taken 20 years to get the first houses built, thanks to a $4.3 million grant from the Government's social housing fund in 2012.

Former Tongan prime minister Prince Fatafehi Tu'ipelehake named the land "Matanikolo", or "Gateway", symbolising "the gate for families to enter homes for their children to have space".

Today, the late prince's daughter, Princess Mele Siu'-i-Likutapu Kalanivalu Fotofili, officially opened the houses and unveiled a sign for the new street, Fatafehi Place.

Bruce Stone of Airedale Property, the Methodist social housing agency, said the Government grant paid half of the project's $8.6 million cost. The rest came from the land value and a bank loan. Rents are set at 80 per cent of market value, or $310 for a three-bedroom house.

Housing Minister Nick Smith said the Government would consider a new funding application for the next stage of 14 pensioner units.

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Church and government team up on housing scheme]]> 55719