Longest serving bishop retires

THE longest serving bishop of the United Church of PNG, Rev  Laka Rengai retired from active ministry.
Last week, several hundreds of people gathered at the Miracle City in Kwikila, Central, to witness the occasion.
Rev Renagi, the outgoing Bishop of UCPNG’s East Central Papua Region has served God for 40 years, 20 years as a bishop.
Members of 20 circuits in the region paid tribute to the outgoing bishop.
Together with his wife Marama Winnie Renagi and children, Rev Renagi has served with many challenges but also made unique achievements in the church.
Rev Kora Taboro, from Girobara village in Central was inducted as the new bishop.
Rev Renagi told The National on Sunday that the outgoing bishop’s relationship with God was the most important thing that brought him this far in ministry and church leaders must learn from this to carry the church forward.
“My message to the young generation and the upcoming ministers is that they must build a strong relationship with God,” he said.
“I was working as a clergyman of God and nobody seemed to know what I was doing.
“All I have in my heart was my relationship with God and to make sure it is intact and faithful. And as long as God sees what I am doing, and through this kind of relationship God has brought me up this way and placed me in this position for more than 20 years,”  Rev Rennagi said.
Former United Church of PNG moderator Rev Samson Lowa, in decommissioning the bishop, told the people that a true man of God was the one that listened to the word of God and not anyone else. “Rev Renagi has listened to the word of God and has been the salt of the earth, people and the community.