Sto. Pelasio Church

Island of Taveuni Fiji

made possible by the support of

Catholic Diocese of Charlston

South Carolina USA

25 August 2014

Dedicated By

Archbishop Peter Loy Chong D.D.    Rev. Fr. Petero Tagidrau

Msgr. Lofton recently spent 3 weeks in Fiji, sharing the Faith, Spreading the Good News and the promise of Eternal Life.  The people of Fiji tell us that they are blessed by his presence, grateful when he celebrates Mass and teaches them more about the gifts of Jesus Christ.  They are humbled when he rolls up his sleeves to work with them side by side.  They are so comfortable with him that they often will call for an impromptu interactive sharing of their faith, their life issues and difficulties. They relish in the fact that he is there to support them on their journey in faith.

Here are a few of his emails regarding this May/June 2015 visit.

05/28/2015

Everyone sends their best to you including the little lady who works at Wairiki.  I got the plans this morning at Wairiki and our meeting went well. Fr. Milo will review the plans with Bishop and send me the approval letter. We will go over about Thursday or Friday to see the building and locate the new church site. I will take some pictures. If you check my email you will see a copy of the new church plans. Yava did not do the Waiiriki altar or plexi glass, so I need to push him to get it started. I did talk with Fr. Milo about tearing down the old building before it falls on someone. They will work on it.

05/28/2015

Sure share the emails. I plan to call Yava in the morning and give him the plaque as I forgot to do so yesterday.  Have a safe flight home. I am praying for your dad.

05/31/2015

Here is an update on the Nawi project. Yava came over on Saturday and we discussed the size of the proposed church. For a village of less then 100 Families, the church is too big.  We drove over to the other side of Taveuni to where the road ends in Levena. We stopped at the village of Wytombo and looked at their church and its size.  This village is about 150 plus families. Their building was about 9x 22 meters and was very adequate size for their church. The problem is if we built the church as the proposed plans it would be about 500,000 FJD. (250,000 U.S.)  I spoke to Fr. Petero at the 11:00am Mass in Wairiki, which I concelebrated, and told him the church plan was too big and too expensive. He agreed, and I told him I would talk with Fr. Milo, (the Pastor) about changing the size and reducing the costs. At present, he is in the parish boat on his way from Nawi to Wairiki as he said Mass over there yesterday.  ( I sure hope they are NOT using that old church building!) Yava and I will try to meet with him later today and bring him up to date.  With the changes Yava wants to make, he says he will do the job, with labor, for 325,000FJD. (165,000 U.S.) that is do able. The villagers will be responsible from massing the sand and rock, and supplying the auxiliary labor for the construction.
If that is agreeable to Fr. Milo, then I am going to ask him to write to the Archbishop ask for approval for the project.  There is a dead line for the grant application of 1 August.

06/03/2015

This will probably be our 2017 Fiji project. The first photo is the site the village of Deliavuna wants a church. This is the western end of Taveuni. The other is a picture of the road to the site.

06/07/2015

The Mass at Naselesele went well, but it was rather hot and sticky. The old Marist priests said he was ordained 58 years and spent a lot of time in the Solomon Islands in the bush! We plan to go to Nawi tomorrow if all goes as planned. Be safe on the trip home.

06/09/2015
Good morning, I hope all is well with your family and the funeral service. I do hope it will be a healing time for all.

I did make it over to Nawi yesterday in the rain but the sea was ok and the boat was very good. The village was very poor and the old church a complete mess. What made the walls fail was the way that they laid the rebar and its rusting process. As I feared, the Blessed Sacrament was still in the Church so they were using it. The plan is for them to get a tractor and knock down the walls and save the rubble to be used in the new floor/foundation. The floor will be raised to four feet to keep it above a tidal surge. I asked them to do this soon and move the Blessed Sacrament into the community center or another place. I have a meeting with Fr. Milo later today to go over the final details and to see if he has written to the Archbishop for the project approval. I will let know how it goes

06/11/2015

I had a great blessing today at the village near Bouma Falls. The village needs to move from the beach up the hill because of flooding and other problems. They asked me to bless the future site where they want to build the church and the village. The photos are of the site blessing and the Kava ceremony afterwards!

06/14/2015

Sadly my time on Taveuni is coming to an end tomorrow! I said Mass in the village at 11:00am and then we went to look at a cement mixer! I think we need to buy one for building the Nawi church, you just can't find one here. One more meeting in the morning to try to wrap things up, then off to the plane to Nadi.

06/15/2015

At the Nadi Airport waiting for the LA flight. It was ante resting morning talking about cement mixers and how it would speed the Nawi church project. So we bought one and will have it shipped to Taveuni. It was a wet departure in a rainstorm but we made it to Nadi safely.

The following are emails between Roberta Davis, our project manager in Fiji, Msgr. Lofton & Helena Moniz during our mission/construction work in Wairiki & Naselesele. 

• We donated a corpus to the church in Nasalesale….. here is it’s story.

11/25/11
Aloha Father Ed,
Well it seems like Shiva may be accompanying Jesus to Taveuni.  As good fortune would have there is a wedding tomorrow in Suva.  I asked him to stay a while longer to meet Jesus and bring him home.  He said that he would be honored to bring Jesus back with him.  Baba might be the best person to clear Jesus in customs since he speaks 3 languages, & actually has a bank account in case I need to transfer money to him for customs or shipping or something.  IN ADDITION, he has local knowledge, and who knows might be related to someone in customs.  Fingers crossed that Jesus gets here.  At the same time, I asked him to find some darker paint for Jesus.

I did get Jesus’ shipping info. I hope to save some money & Jesus will be able to clear customs without me actually going to there.  I am assuming it was crated well for Jesus’ long journey.  If Jesus weighs 115 lbs., we would not be able to put him on the plane for less than 500.00.  Shipping by boat should be between 50 – 100 FJD.  He would be no safer on the plane than the ship because who knows how much baggage they will throw on him.  As we already know, Jesus has the baggage of the world on him as it is.
I think the only thing left to worry about for Jesus is the paint and where to find it.  We want to make him look less bloody and more holy and enlightened.  We want people to be uplifted about the afterlife and God’s love.  If I need to go to Suva to clear Jesus from Customs, I will look for some darker (olive) flesh tone paint for him.  I am excited about Jesus coming.
A big truckload of timber came for the church yesterday.  It has been working out well because we have been ordering our timber from the same company.  Sometimes we have been able to share shipping expenses for the truck, anything to save money.  God didn’t create money, but my goodness gracious trying to make ends meet is such an ongoing effort in life.
Aloha Roberta

12/23/11
Ohhhh you don’t want to know about Jesus, oh-my gosh I thought I was going to stroke out with the shipping guys yesterday.  No, I was not feeling very pious with the comments that were swirling around my head, which I wanted so badly to articulate loudly and clearly.  The short story is they opened the crate…no letter.  Customs decided they wanted to charge a duty on it, despite everything that was said and wanted me to put a value to it.  How the heck am I supposed to know. I said it had no purchase value because it was never bought or sold.  Around they went.  It was not an argument I was going to win.  They will have to value it for themselves.  Customs decided I wasn’t registered with them (yeah right-typical lost paperwork in Fiji) I went to Bhulabhais, Faxed them reams of documents to stop additional confusion or delays.  I called to tell them it was coming.  Asked why it took so long for them to inform me what was needed.  Why I asked we have to do this at the last minute?  Starting Monday, they will charge a storage fee.  I got a mumbled reply that I could not understand.  I really want to push it, but I fear if I go too far Jesus will be in jeopardy so I am trying to roll with the blows.  Believe it or not, that was the short version.
Aloha Roberta

Yes the ship has landed, and they couldn’t locate Jesus.  He asked me all kinds of questions, what kind of wood is it?  How would I know?  Where is an invoice, how much did it cost?  I told him it didn’t cost anything, no one bought it.  It is a charitable donation.  It was made years ago in Italy.  Depending on how long ago, it might have sold for a nickel or was donated.  I was tempted to say sarcastically what; you want someone to go to the Vatican and pour over the old records?  I realized he probably would have said YES!!!  Good thing my mind thinks faster than my mouth at times.  Don’t laugh or shake your head.  I haven’t opened the crate with Jesus in it yet because we are in the final throes of construction and I figured he was safest all bundled up in his crate.
Aloha,

You never met Paulina but she is the daughter of Bibi’s Hideaway a lovely woman.  I saw her the other day.  She said the most sincere thanks Father Ed for repairing the church for Wairiki.  She is such a kind loving person and of course a devout catholic.  So she again sincerely almost confessed to me that to meet you and talk to you one day would be beyond her wildest dreams.  She believed that there would not ever be an opportunity to meet you.  I assured her you are fabulous, approachable, a theologian, a scholar, and a Monsignor and much to my delight, I could ask you any hare brained question about religion. Believe it or not you had the answer that made perfect sense to me.  Her eyes lit up at that prospect of being able to ask questions or having an approachable priest.  Anyway, I know you would enjoy her.  She is a lovely person inside and out.  We must get you two together and make her dream come true.  The way she was talking, I thought you were the Rock Star of priest.
Talk to ya soon, Aloha, Roberta

1/5/2012
I was just getting ready to send you an e-mail.  Jesus Cometh, he arrived yesterday afternoon and is sitting still in his crate on my deck.  I had no idea Jesus could be so dramatic in his travels…..ha-ha.  The truck broke down.  When I went down the coast I was prepared (kind of) to pick up Jesus, luckily they repaired the truck.  So as I was running around town had one final stop in the opposite direction I noticed they were loading Jesus onto the truck and I though OH NOOOO Jesus is coming and I won’t be home to pay the last 50.00 for his final leg of the journey.  Luckily I got home moments before he arrived gave them 50 bucks and off they went.  That 50.00 will be my donation to Jesus for the sheer joy knowing that he finally arrived.
Oh I wish my bank account was fat…. But with the construction of the Sea View Villa there is hardly enough to feed a moth with what remains in my wallet.  Everyone sends their love.

Back to the church, turns out the roof has not been changed for 115 years!!! Only patched! I imagine none of the original roof remains, it has just been slowly replaced over115 years when it springs a leak, which of course it currently has!

Jan 2013
I have the men working to the bone.  They had a bit of a wakeup call the other day, one of them decided to go on the roof without a safety rope.  The guy below holding the ladder on the flat roof slipped, & fell to the ground.  The man on the roof fell to the flat roof.  Luckily no one was hurt, it was just a warning shot heard across the compound regarding safety.  They are working hard and things are coming along nicely.  While they are up there they are painting other bits and pieces that require painting.

June 11, 2003
Aloha Father Ed and Helena,
The boys are making excellent progress on the church roof.  The gap you see in the picture should be filled in today.  They are starting to get their pace, hopefully the other side will be quicker.  Interesting piece of trivia, the beams are 12 x 4 and the perlings are 8 x 3.  When they stand on the ceiling the beams etc. come up to their waist.  That is an incredible depth of timber to create that much space.  You have to wonder how they were able to get those beams up to the ceiling over 150 years ago using sheer manpower.  It is quite a feat.  Every piece of timber up there is in perfect shape.  The ropes you see on the roof are what the guys are using as safety ropes.  Then we talked about the floors and he wondered if you could get them a big floor sander.  Instead, I suggested that since it is the people’s church that perhaps they could get members of the church to sand it.  If they made a grid on the floor that would, be small jobs for many people.  All we would have to do is supply the sandpaper and varnish it will look beautiful.  I reckon if over 150 years ago the people were able to build and erect that church by hand, the people today can sand a small portion of the floor… or am I being to mean and frugal?

Not to sound too terribly mean, but we don’t want Fijians to turn into a hands out culture; they must participate in achieving what they want.  I hope that that gives them the pride in their church.  By the way  Merlin is busy painting the Naselesele designs and it is coming out beautifully.  Lastly, I had an idea for the mosaic for the altar in Naselesele Church that I think is doable.  I want to create a close up of a tropical Garden of Eden.  Painting this phrase… Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.  Just to remind people that God gave us everything to make heaven on earth.  It is up to us to create it and we actually do have the power to do so.  Do you like that idea?

I know it is funny we are on our penny pinching mission.  I am such a dragon lady when it comes to the funds, how they are spent, where the best deal can be found, and keeping it on schedule for the wages.  Let Father Ed know that I will have the paint ordered for the inside and outside of the church.  It might be more cost effective to have Yava’s gang do the painting because… if we leave it to the Fijian congregation to do, we will lose money.  In my experience they don’t do a good job painting they waste so much paint which is more expensive then the savings on the labor and going back to fix the paint job they did.  Once that is done and the ceiling is cleaned etc…. we can have volunteers do the sanding and then have the professionals come in and varnish the floors.

10/7/13
I was thinking back to the first time I saw the Church 20 plus years ago.  I thought what a beautiful Church, in this beautiful setting that captures both cultures so wonderfully.  Then I would mentally sigh and think OHHH it soooo badly needs some TLC.  The hope that it could be restored to its original glory has always been a dream of mine.
It has been my honor to play a small part in the restoration.  It really makes my heart swell and brings joyful tears to my eyes.  Wishes do come true and God works in mysterious ways by bringing Father Ed to us.  I can hardly wait until it is done and back to Glory. I am going to shoot for Christmas Mass.  So when I say there is much gratitude to you, Father Ed and everyone who donated money to the Church, it comes from the sincerest part of my heart.  Of course, all the people that worked on it and who put their mana into the project.  It was a true team effort; people played their role so well.  We are most grateful.
Aloha,
Here are some recent photos of the Church.  I want to thank everyone on behalf of the people of Taveuni who have donated money towards the restoration of our only historic building on the island as well as the first Catholic Churches in Fiji.  It is amazing to know that people from halfway around the world are willing to help restore the church to the glory days of 150 years ago in preparation for its anniversary.

We are so close to having both the churches done…Naselesele just needs a little more to complete it.  When we get to the interior of the Wairiki church, it will need some materials.  The people are happy to supply the elbow grease needed to redo the floors and walls.  We are almost there.  I hope that people here can keep the faith until both churches are complete.  I realize that we are far away from the states and it is hard for your people to see the fruits of their generosity.  We truly appreciate your aide and realize the construction of the church in Naselesele and restoration of Wairiki church would not happen without faith and the outpouring of support.  Please share this message with all the wonderful people who have helped.
Aloha, Roberta