Download or read book Restoring Interest and Participation of Young Adult Tongans in the First United Methodist Church of San Bruno California written by Tevita Fotoifli Vaikona and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis addresses the participation of young adults, or lack of it, in the Tongan Church in America. Tonga is a South Sea Island land, and for a variety of reasons many of its citizens have found themselves immigrants in the California area of the U.S.A. They have settled, sought productive work, and have slowly become a part of the U.S. culture. They formed many new congregations, and one of them is the site of this study, First United Methodist Church of San Bruno, California. The researcher and pastor of this church surmised that Young adult Tongans were increasingly feeling alienated from the congregation, and that their participation was diminishing, though their parents remained loyal. This was causing concern among members, who saw the next generation of Christian disciples in peril. Theologically, they were concerned about the possible spiritual alienation from God and the Christian tradition this represented. They worried about the spiritual and social implications of a new generation whose Christian identity and connection to Christian fellowship was being lost, and what more might be done to reach out to them with hospitality and spiritual challenge. This project is an in-depth research-based study of the social, economic, cultural and religious reasons why Tongan and other young adults are losing interest in the Church. The hope of the congregation is that it serves as a preliminary to re-engaging them with a realistic plan of biblically-based inclusiveness and hospitality. The research entailed forming two focus groups of young persons to gather ideas and content for a questionnaire that was to be administered to around 350 young adults in the parish area by trained project staff. Working closely with a Lay Advisory Committee, the questionnaires were filled out in face-to-face interviews in person or online. The data were collated and a narrative methodology was chosen as a means of presenting the findings. Narrative themes revealed, among other things, that young adults were feeling alienated because they had no voice or role in planning worship, study, and cultural activities; that they were aggrieved that there was no effort to provide an English language worship service; that they felt the older generations did not appreciate the tension they feel around the clash of their old culture and new one; that their hesitancy about church was partly driven by economic perceptions; gang influence; and that their preferred time schedule clashed with the congregation's. Coconut theology, a contextually-based theology, was used to interpret the findings theologically. The study provided a dramatic awakening among the leadership of the church. An English language service was established. Young adults were incorporated into key positions of leadership and influence. A significant outreach project was initiated and staffed by young adults. An increase in participation of young adults was realized. Other persons of Tongan heritage began to attend the English service. The congregation became more alive, aware of the future course of ministry and service to which God is leading them.
Download or read book Faith Rooted Organizing written by Rev. Alexia Salvatierra and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-12-06 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1930s, organizing movements for social justice in the U.S. have largely been built on secular assumptions. But what if Christians were to shape their organizing around the implications of the truth that God is real and Jesus is risen? Reverend Alexia Salvatierra and theologian Peter Heltzel propose a model of organizing that arises from their Christian convictions, with implications for all faiths.
Download or read book Holy Currencies written by Eric H F Law and published by Chalice Press. This book was released on 2013-03-31 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Called a "must read for Christians paralyzed in survival mode," Holy Currencies teaches you how your ministry can become sustainable, grow, and thrive. Money is not the only currency your ministry needs. Author Eric H. F. Law shows us how the six blessings of time and place, gracious leadership, relationship, truth, wellness, and money flow through successful missional ministries. And they can flow through your ministry too! Learn how to use these gifts to rejuvenate, recirculate, regenerate, and expand your ministry through Law's insightful stories, instruction, processes, exercises, and activities. Tools in the book help evaluate how your church uses each gift and enables church members to measure and value the six blessings. Holy Currencies will push you to think beyond your church's current boundaries and create rich, sustainable missional ministries.
Download or read book Bougainville before the conflict written by Anthony J Regan and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2015-08-03 with total page 607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most beautiful island groups of the Pacific, Bougainville has a remarkable history. Tragically, it is as the site of devastating civil conflict that Bougainville is perhaps best known. In exploring the rich environmental, cultural and social heritage of Bougainville before the conflict, this collection provides an insight into the long-term causes of the crisis. In doing so, it surveys such topics as Bougainville’s prehistory and traditional cultures, the impact of German and Australian colonialism, the attempts by disparate local cultures to find a common identity, the assertion of political autonomy in the face of coercion to integrate with Papua New Guinea, and contemporary efforts to resolve conflict and plan a viable future. A landmark collaboration between expert commentators on Bougainville and Bougainvilleans themselves, this volume provides a comprehensive picture for those seeking to understand Bougainville’s history and future directions. Bougainville before the conflict was published in association with the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project, which is supported by The Australian National University and the Commonwealth of Australia.
Download or read book Tahiti Nui written by Colin W. Newbury and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-03-31 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tahiti Nui is an account of the survival of a Polynesian society in the face of successive settlements of missionaries, traders, and administrators. Beginning with the first explorers and Captain Cook's scientific observations at Point Venus, Dr. Newbury has separated the various strands interwoven in the fabric of Tahitian society, tracing their development and showing how they interacted at successive stages. Missionaries and foreign traders, administrators and Polynesians, planters and immigrant Chinese have all contributed to the distinctive flavor of French Polynesia, with Tahiti and Tahitians becoming increasingly dominant, not just as the focus of the French administration in Pape'ete, but in the social networks and trading patterns that have evolved.
Download or read book Governance in Samoa written by Elise Huffer and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examination of how governance programs have affected local institutions and practices in Samoa. Suggests practical ways for more efficiently tailoring future programs to the development needs of the country. Case studies explore issues of nascent civil society, problems of urban management, non-government organisations working in the area of women's health, relationships between the national government and villages, and the subversion of custom and constitutional processes to personal political ambitions. Includes notes on contributors, glossary, references and index. Editors are academics in the fields of history and Pacific studies.
Download or read book Religious Diversity in Southeast Asia and the Pacific written by Gary D. Bouma and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-12-04 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious diversity is now a social fact in most countries of the world. While reports of the impact of religious diversity on Europe and North America are reasonably well-known, the ways in which Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific are religiously diverse and the ways this diversity has been managed are not. This book addresses this lack of information about one of the largest and most diverse regions of the world. It describes the religious diversity of 27 nations, as large and complex as Indonesia and as small as Tuvalu, outlining the current issues and the basic policy approaches to religious diversity. Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands are portrayed as a living laboratory of various religious blends, with a wide variance of histories and many different approaches to managing religious diversity. While interesting in their own right, a study of these nations provides a wealth of case studies of diversity management – most of them stories of success and inclusion.
Download or read book Solomon Islanders in World War II written by Anna Annie Kwai and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2017-12-18 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Solomon Islands Campaign of World War II has been the subject of many published historical accounts. Most of these accounts present an ‘outsider’ perspective with limited reference to the contribution of indigenous Solomon Islanders as coastwatchers, scouts, carriers and labourers under the Royal Australian Navy and other Allied military units. Where islanders are mentioned, they are represented as ‘loyal’ helpers. The nature of local contributions in the war and their impact on islander perceptions are more complex than has been represented in these outsiders’ perspectives. Islander encounters with white American troops enabled self-awareness of racial relationships and inequality under the colonial administration, which sparked struggles towards recognition and political autonomy that emerged in parts of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in the postwar period. Exploitation of postwar military infrastructure by the colonial administration laid the foundation for later sociopolitical upheaval experienced by the country. In the aftermath of the 1998 crisis, the supposed unity and pride that prevailed among islanders during the war has been seen as an avenue whereby different ethnic identities can be unified. This national unification process entailed the construction of the ‘Pride of our Nation’ monument that aims to restore the pride and identity of Solomon Islanders.
Download or read book Nonkilling Global Political Science written by Glenn D. Paige and published by Center for Global Nonkilling. This book was released on 2009 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is offered for consideration and critical reflection primarily by political science scholars throughout the world from beginning students to professors emeriti. Neither age nor erudition seems to make much difference in the prevailing assumption that killing is an inescapable part of the human condition that must be accepted in political theory and practice. It is hoped that readers will join in questioning this assumption and will contribute further stepping stones of thought and action toward a nonkilling global future.
Download or read book The Burdens of Disease written by J. N. Hays and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A review of the original edition of The Burdens of Disease that appeared in ISIS stated, "Hays has written a remarkable book. He too has a message: That epidemics are primarily dependent on poverty and that the West has consistently refused to accept this." This revised edition confirms the book's timely value and provides a sweeping approach to the history of disease. In this updated volume, with revisions and additions to the original content, including the evolution of drug-resistant diseases and expanded coverage of HIV/AIDS, along with recent data on mortality figures and other relevant statistics, J. N. Hays chronicles perceptions and responses to plague and pestilence over two thousand years of western history. Disease is framed as a multidimensional construct, situated at the intersection of history, politics, culture, and medicine, and rooted in mentalities and social relations as much as in biological conditions of pathology. This revised edition of The Burdens of Disease also studies the victims of epidemics, paying close attention to the relationships among poverty, power, and disease.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Colonialism written by Claire L. Lyons and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2002 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Archaeology of Colonialism demonstrates how artifacts are not only the residue of social interaction but also instrumental in shaping identities and communities. Claire Lyons and John Papadopoulos summarize the complex issues addressed by this collection of essays. Four case studies illustrate the use of archaeological artifacts to reconstruct social structures. They include ceramic objects from Mesopotamian colonists in fourth-millennium Anatolia; the Greek influence on early Iberian sculpture and language; the influence of architecture on the West African coast; and settlements across Punic Sardinia that indicate the blending of cultures. The remaining essays look at the roles myth, ritual, and religion played in forming colonial identities. In particular, they discuss the cultural middle ground established among Greeks and Etruscans; clothing as an instrument of European colonialism in nineteenth-century Oceania; sixteenth-century Andean urban planning and kinship relations; and the Dutch East India Company settlement at the Cape of Good Hope.
Download or read book Economic Development and Islamic Finance written by Zamir Iqbal and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2013-08-05 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although Islamic finance is one of the fastest growing segments of emerging global financial markets, its concepts are not fully exploited especially in the areas of economic development, inclusion, access to finance, and public policy. This volume is to improve understanding of the perspective of Islamic finance on economic development, social and economic justice, human welfare, and economic growth.
Download or read book Pacific Climate Cultures written by Tony Crook and published by de Gruyter Open Poland. This book was released on 2018 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume examines the opportunities to think, do, and/or create jointly afforded by digital storytelling. The contributors discuss digital storytelling in the context of educational programs, teaching anthropology, and ethnographic researc
Download or read book From Stoke Mandeville to Stratford written by Ian Brittain and published by Common Ground Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Aristotle once said, "If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development." When Dr Ian Brittain started researching the history of the Paralympic Games after beginning his PhD studies in 1999, it quickly became clear that there was no clear or comprehensive source of information about the Paralympic Games or Great Britain's participation in the Games. This book is an attempt to document the history of the summer Paralympic Games and present it in one accessible and easy-to-read volume. From the outset, it should be made very clear that this book is not meant to be an academic text. It has always been the author's intention that it should be a resource for anyone with an interest in the Paralympic Games, their history, or Great Britain's participation in the Games. Through twelve years of research, the author has brought together all of the facts, figures, and interesting stories that have occurred in the development of the summer Games-from their roots at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the United Kingdom to the global mega-event they have become today. This is the first publication to include images of posters, winner's medals, and other artefacts connected with the Games-some of which have never been seen in print. Every endeavour has been made to include all relevant information, and this text serves as an ideal starting point from which future researchers and historians may begin. As we have noticed recently with the increased documentation of Olympic history, it is the author's hope that this text will inspire others to contribute to a more complete history of the Paralympic Games. A more complete history may lead to a better understanding of the importance of the Paralympic Games and their impact upon the lives of people with disabilities.
Download or read book Artificial Intelligence in Society written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The artificial intelligence (AI) landscape has evolved significantly from 1950 when Alan Turing first posed the question of whether machines can think. Today, AI is transforming societies and economies. It promises to generate productivity gains, improve well-being and help address global challenges, such as climate change, resource scarcity and health crises.
Download or read book Sounds of Change written by Stig-Magnus Thorsén and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Leatherback Turtle written by James R. Spotila and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2015-10-30 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive book ever written on leatherback sea turtles. Weighing as much as 2,000 pounds and reaching lengths of over seven feet, leatherback turtles are the world’s largest reptile. These unusual sea turtles have a thick, pliable shell that helps them to withstand great depths—they can swim more than one thousand meters below the surface in search of food. And what food source sustains these goliaths? Their diet consists almost exclusively of jellyfish, a meal they crisscross the oceans to find. Leatherbacks have been declining in recent decades, and some predict they will be gone by the end of this century. Why? Because of two primary factors: human redevelopment of nesting beaches and commercial fishing. There are only twenty-nine index beaches in the world where these turtles nest, and there is immense pressure to develop most of them into homes or resorts. At the same time, longline and gill net fisheries continue to overwhelm waters frequented by leatherbacks. In The Leatherback Turtle, James R. Spotila and Pilar Santidrián Tomillo bring together the world’s leading experts to produce a volume that reveals the biology of the leatherback while putting a spotlight on the conservation problems and solutions related to the species. The book leaves us with options: embark on the conservation strategy laid out within its pages and save one of nature’s most splendid creations, or watch yet another magnificent species disappear.
