Feature story
Throughout 2025, the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) leaned decisively into unity that is practical rather than merely ceremonial – bringing churches together for shared discipleship, public witness, and community care.
A major highlight was the Pacific Church Leaders’ Meeting held in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Church leaders from across the region shaped common commitments around the Do Kamo pathway of transformation, alongside shared priorities including peace, climate justice, youth leadership, and political self-determination.
Earlier in the year, emerging leaders were equipped through a regional ecumenical youth leadership gathering in Fiji, which strengthened identity-based leadership and produced a youth outcome statement to guide the PCC’s work across 2025.
“We deepened gender justice work through ecumenical women’s solidarity gatherings and practical training that helped church leaders assess gaps and strengthen accountability for women’s leadership and safeguarding,” said Rev. James Bhagwan, general secretary of the PCC.
A significant milestone in theological education was the launch of Pasifika Communities University, marking the Pacific Theological College’s transition into a “whole of life” vision for higher education. The initiative prioritises community-based learning and partnerships that place theological education within community spaces rather than removing learners from them.
In advocacy for self-determination, the Pacific People’s Mission to Kanaky–New Caledonia brought regional partners together for listening, documentation, and moral witness. The mission culminated in the public launch of a report that strengthened solidarity with communities living under intensified state pressure.
“This work reinforced the churches’ responsibility to stand with communities whose voices are being marginalised,” Bhagwan added.
Climate justice and resilience also remained central to the PCC’s mission. In 2025, the PCC supported a climate and faith scoping mission in Tuvalu, advanced faith-led climate adaptation through water security initiatives at a church secondary school, and produced the first fully integrated, Pacific-grounded Season of Creation resource—developed collaboratively across multiple ministries and tailored for use by different groups within church communities.
Across the region, the PCC also maintained a strong commitment to protection and accountability. Child safeguarding efforts were strengthened through follow-up mentoring and monitoring in Fiji, alongside expanded formation for safer church practices across member churches.
As churches across the Pacific look ahead, 2025 stands as a year in which unity was not only proclaimed, but practiced—through shared action for justice, dignity, and the flourishing of Pacific communities.
