PNG APPA 2007, SIGNING OF COVENANT ¦ MARKS NATIONAL REPENTANCE DAY [©® VCTN HUB]

Copyright© Reserved ® to VCTN HUB All Pacific Prayer Assembly (APPA), also known as the Deep Sea Canoe Movement. Prominent in this boast of an Israelite genealogy is a utopian fantasy of a just “Israel” grounded in the ancestral soil. APPA worldview as an alternative modernity that is meaningful to the Pacific because it provides a new sense of self and a shared destiny. Although APPA’s theology relates to the people’s socio-economic concerns, it reveals more clearly the continuity of some key cultural models through changing global influences, local histories and cultural dynamics. Copyright© Reserved ® to VCTN HUB The National Repentance Day as it is now known initially started as a covenant day. It all began in 2007 at the All Pacific Prayer Assembly (APPA) hosted in Port Moresby. During the assembly, the organisers of the event produced a covenant for the PNG Government to sign on behalf of its people and God of Israel. What was this covenant all about? In signing the so-called covenant, was PNG positioned for blessing or curse? Many may have seen it as a blessing and one can only imagine the jubilation of many of the Papua New Guineans attending the assembly and for masses following through media outlets. The covenant-signing event raised the hopes and expectations of many Christians to new heights. Did they understand the significance of such rite? If so, why has Covenant Day metamorphosed into National Repentance Day? The change of Covenant Day to National Repentance Day shows that there is something dubious about the covenant. Up till now, there is divided opinion about the so-called covenant among the PNG Christian community at large. There are many questions about the so-called covenant. Questions such as; what is a covenant? Who initiated it? What are the covenant particulars? In my view, the so-called covenant which the then Prime Minister of PNG, Sir Michael Somare signed was an idea that originated from without and imported to PNG during the APPA. Whether the prime minister sought biblical counsel from the PNG Council of Churches, the Evangelical Alliance and other theological institutional academics to ascertain its biblical soundness and originality before signing the so-called covenant is unclear. The signing of the so-called covenant came at a time when PNG was hard hit economically. With the Somare government in charge, the country began to see some signs of economic turnaround. Prior to that, many Pentecostal churches and some splinter groups from the mainline churches were already being indoctrinated by the versions of prosperity gospel teachings. These versions of teachings promised spiritual, physical and material prosperity to the adherents, thus giving hope and confidence to a good portion of PNG Christian populace. During this period, a lot of money schemes popped up catching many Christians and general populace wanting because of prosperity teachings indoctrination, leading many astray to these schemes. Many in the hope of becoming monetarily rich overnight invested into these schemes only to be bankrupted by these schemes. For many churches and some key church leaders, it was the beginning of a downward spiritual life. As a result, many prominent church leaders lost God’s anointing in their lives and ministries, and they lost God’s voice and direction. This made them become vulnerable and open to deception, thus many did not discern the spiritual risk in accepting any wind of teaching and the implications these teachings will have on the church generally. It was in this critical moment that PNG hosted the APPA and convinced the Government to sign the so-called covenant with the God of Israel. The APPA was an opportunity to repent from the love of money and material prosperity and seek God afresh to restore our love for him and the zeal for the lost world. Instead, the occasion was used to peddle a different agenda. It was an opportunity to invite the PNG Government to come on board and align itself with the versions of prosperity gospel teachings so that the nation could experience an abun