Churches play vital role in maintaining peace: Bishop

By EREBIRI ZURENUOC
Churches must be relevant in society in order to help people live good lives and in harmony, Evangelical Lutheran church head bishop Dr Jack Urame says.
Urame, who was saddened to read the recent killing of 16 women and two children on July 8 at Karida village in Hela, said Papua New Guineans have good values in most of their customs and traditions that have served to maintain their societies through the ages and they needed to look to them along with their faith for guidance.
“Looking back to the past, during tribal warfare, men went to the battlefield and only fight other men, never women and children.
“They did this because women and children could not fight back,” he said.
“What happened in Hela, I believe, is beyond our cultural values and beyond the values we stand by as a society.”
“Our society has been strongly hit by external forces (like guns, money, mobile phones, television and Internet) that we are completely disorganised and under-prepared and we are losing our good traditional foundations.
“We’ve forgotten how to raise our children, treat our women and elders. When this happens, one place to turn to for guidance and advice are the churches but it seems people are not taking heed.”
Urame said churches are sources of strength and hope in challenging times and people needed to remember that.