Govt commits K150,000 for church activities

SIMBU Governor Fr John Garia says the provincial government is allocating K150,000 for church activities this year.
“This is to support the spiritual development of the people in the province. The yearly allocation can be considered as tithe for God,” he said.
Fr Garia said the spiritual development of the country, specifically Simbu, would help reduce many
social problems affecting communities.
“Problems such as marriage breakups, drug addictions, law and order-related issues, pregnancies outside marriage, tribal fighting, abuse of power at higher levels are most prevalent.
“People need to change from the inside,” he said.
He said although the Constitution explicitly stated for both physical and spiritual development of the people of this country, governments of all levels had never provided allocations for churches in their budgets.
Fr Garia said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed for this arrangement for the next 40 years, but is subject to change depending on situations.
However, Fr Garia assured that the allocation would increase yearly because “I see a real need for spiritual development to solve many other problems”.