News
The letter reflects on how, before the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration, the Pacific Conference of Churches articulated the vision. “We understood peace as the continuing work of becoming more fully human in relationship with one another, with creation and with God,” the letter reads. “The spiritual horizon was a Pacific covenant in which justice heals relationships and communities flourish.”
Now the Veitacini Treaty, signed by Fiji and Australia on 6 July, has entered this story. “Its text affirms the Pacific Way, peaceful settlement through dialogue, respect for sovereignty and freedom from coercion,” notes the letter. “Several purposes now travel under the sacred and political name Ocean of Peace.”
Bhagwan describes concerns of community leaders that reach beneath the wording of a single agreement.
“An unarmed and disarming peace requires courage from persons and nations,” the letter reflects. “It loosens the hold of fear, pride, suspicion and domination.”
Bhagwan offers a respectful pastoral appeal to Pacific leaders, to Australia and other partners, to churches, and to all who carry responsibility for the Ocean of Peace.
“Let the vision remain under the shared guardianship of the Blue Pacific,” he writes. “Let its development take place through transparent regional talanoa.”
He calls for women, young people, persons with disabilities, churches, civil society, Indigenous knowledge-holders, nuclear-affected communities, and peoples seeking self-determination to share authority from the beginning.
“Our public witness gains integrity through the peace we practise within our own communities,” reads the letter. “Friends of the Pacific are invited into the same conversion.”
Bhagwan further calls for justice to shape every agreement. “May our leaders find courage for patient dialogue,” he writes. “May the voices of our communities be received with grace.”
