“THE sea is coming, coming quickly,” the President of the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma, the Revd Dr Semisi Turagavou, has warned, saying that some islands will be submerged in less than 20 years. Rising seas and extreme weather are causing entire communities to move further inland.

Dr Turagavou told an executive meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) that churches were assisting the government in helping communities to relocate, but that some people did not wish to leave their ancestral lands.

“Some are relocating, but some refuse to move because in the place that they are living, their ancestors are buried there,” he said. “The people from Fiji and the people in the Pacific need assistance in building sea walls. People want to stay, even though they are very close to the sea. The sea is coming, coming quickly.”

Fiji is an archipelago of more than 300 islands; nearly two-thirds of its population live within five kilometres of the shoreline.

Smaller islands will be lost in 15 years due to rising sea levels, Dr Turagavou told the WCC executive committee. Some communities are already struggling to find fresh water, he reported.

Church leaders are at the forefront of supporting communities as they deal with relocation. The Methodist Church is the largest Christian denomination in Fiji: at least one third of the population — more than 212,000 people — are members of the Church.

“We have 400 ordained pastors and 1200 lay pastors within the Methodist Church; so I have asked them to be in the forefront, to be with the people on the ground. We work with the people through the challenges they are facing, and I am hopeful we can continue to work with the government closely. I’m very optimistic,” Dr Turagavou said.

The government has identified more than 40 villages for potential relocation, and six have already moved.