Tonga National Prayer for forgiveness follows month of murders [1]
Monday, March 26, 2018 - 21:54. Updated on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 10:43.
An evening of National Prayer, organised by the Tonga National Forum of Church Leaders was held at Pangai Lahi, Nuku'alofa, yesterday evening, 25 March, following a month of shocking murders and road deaths in Tonga.
As people gathered into Pangai Lahi before the prayer program started at 7:00 pm choral items were presented by choirs from seven different churches: The Church of Later Days Saints, Siasi Tokaikolo, the Free Church of Tonga, the Free Constitutional Church of Tonga, the Church of Tonga, the Roman Catholic Church and the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga.
The prayer evening was attended by HM King Tupou VI, HRH Princess Pilolevu, Lord Tuita, Hon. Lupepau’u and Hon. Fane Tupou Vava’u.
The program heralded the event as a Sacred National Prayer evening, to plead God for forgiveness.
There was a conviction among the church leaders that the unusually high number of murder cases and people dying from road accidents recently were a result of the "sinful way of life" that Tongans are living. Illegal drugs and alcohol were blamed to be the cause of some of these cases.
In the month between 4 February and 4 March, there were six alleged murders in Tonga.
One of the speakers claimed that "evil life-styles" killed more people in Tonga than dengue fever and Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
One church leader also reminded the gathering that Tonga remained an independent country because Tupou I gave Tonga to God but not to a super-power country, and from that day in 1875 until today, Tonga remained an independent country.
One of the church leaders, after preaching, asked everyone, including the King and members of the Royal Family, to kneel on the ground while they were offering their prayers to God.
Many people at the event displayed physical difficulties in kneeling.