Repentance Day to be celebrated in Pom

By LULU MAGINDE
PLANS to celebrate National Repentance Day will be held this Friday (Aug 26) in Port Moresby instead of the Highlands, due to the ongoing election-related violence, says an official.
Assistant secretary to the Office of Religion at the Department of Community Development and Religion Rex Hibuye confirmed with The National that there had been plans to host the day in the Highlands region but this had changed and been brought back to the national capital.
“Last year it was hosted in Lae in order to be more representative of all four regions and was coordinated by the department,” he said.
“This year, we gave the responsibility back to the church to plan and initiate so all the churches in the city will be participating, from the Catholic church to Salvation Army to Seventh-day Adventists and the United Church to name a few.”
He said the department was also planning on presenting a submission to the National Executive Council on the establishment of a national committee of the three main Christian churches to oversee future national spiritual programmes.
The three main bodies are made up of the National Council of Churches, the Body of Christ and the Evangelical Alliance of PNG who represent all denominations of the Christian church.
“We want to pray for the new members and the new government going forward and for this country to heal and are expecting an audience of around 10,000 people, with more if the gospel group Planet Shakers decides to join and perform,” Hibuye said.
Hosted by the Papua New Guinea Bible Church (PNGBC), all mainline churches involved will gather at 4am to begin prayers and the formal programme will be held from 6am to 10am at Sir John Guise Stadium.