The Fiji Council of Churches has reaffirmed that Fiji should remain a secular state.
This has been stressed by Reverend Doctor Bruce Yates of the Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church, who is a member of the Fiji Council of Churches, to fijivillage News during the Review of the Constitution consultation held at the Salvation Army.
Reverend Yates says secularism should not exclude faith from public life.
He says the separation is quite important to them, allowing them to enjoy religious freedom.
Reverend Yates also recommends that there should be a stronger responsibility on the State to support and protect disadvantaged people very proactively, and not merely address issues such as drugs or public order.
Another recommendation the Council of Churches wants to address is the mindset of the iTaukei, who think that they own everything beneath the land and under the sea.
Reverend Yates says the Constitution declares that all minerals and resources below the surface are owned by the State.
He stresses that this separation of land ownership from subsurface resources is a colonial legacy and that contradicts the iTaukei understanding of the land as a sacred whole.
Insert Yates on affirmations 12th June
