Dear Editor,

As another EFKS member, it is excellent to read about the opinions on Samoa Observer by both Ruperake Petaia and an EFKS member. 

What I'm particularly happy about is that we got this conversation going, and it's about time that the concerns of some members are being voiced. For the EFKS member, your words echo the heartbeat of many who love the EFKS deeply, who have given their lives in service, and who rightly honour the sacred traditions that built our Church. I do not question your devotion — I honour it.

Ruperake, I respect your views, but allow me, with the same love for our Church, to offer a truth that must also be heard: loyalty to tradition should never silence the need for transformation. “Faith without works is dead.” – James 2:17

You remind us that power in the EFKS is spiritual, not political. That our faife’au is led by divine calling, not personal ambition. I agree — in spirit. But sacred power, when left unchecked, can become blind. Even the most righteous institutions must open themselves to reflection, for as Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). Are the fruits of our Church nourishing all equally, or are some being quietly crushed under the weight of expectation? Christ overturned the tables in the temple not because he hated it, but because he loved it enough to cleanse it. He did not leave. He stayed and spoke.

You say, “If the burden is too heavy, leave.” But Christ never turned away the struggling. He said, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The Church must echo that same welcome. When someone says they are tired, our first response must not be, “Then go,” but “How can we lighten the load?”

To stay and speak that is also devotion. To raise a concern from within is not rebellion, but discipleship. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak.”

Ruperake, not all burdens are written in ink. Some are passed through culture, enforced through silence, reinforced by shame. You may not see them on paper but they live in bank accounts drained for annual events, in mothers who fear being judged for not contributing enough, in youth who leave quietly because no one asked how they were really doing.

Scripture reminds us in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” If our systems, even unintentionally, begin to chain instead of free then yes, we must speak. A church that cannot listen is a church that cannot grow.

You wrote, “Fai sau matafale.” But I say, build a table instead. A table long enough for both the Toeaina and the timid. A table wide enough for both the outspoken and the silent. A table like the one Jesus sat at where even the one who would betray him was given bread.

This is not about rejecting EFKS. This is about loving it enough to hope for better. You say, “Speak at the Fonotele.” I say, not everyone has the privilege or power to be heard there. That’s why letters like mine exist. That’s why Jesus told stories so that the forgotten would be remembered.

“Truth without love is harsh. But love without truth is hollow.”

To be clear: I do not speak for everyone. But I do speak with and on behalf of those who have no platform. Those who have cried behind closed doors. Those who have left the Church, not because of God but because His people would not listen.

As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:1, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Let us not make noise for tradition’s sake. Let us make room for truth, for love, and for one another.

Let us not ask only, “How do we preserve the past?” Let us also ask, “How do we serve the present — and prepare for the future?”

With deep love, courage, and unwavering faith,

Another Devoted EFKS Member