FORMER Fiji Methodist Church president, Reverend Daniel Mastapha, has passed away in Australia.
Mastapha, 96, was born in Levuka and was the first and only Indo-Fijian to become president of the church.
He was elected to the presidency in 1977, two years before the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Girmitiya (indentured labourers) from India after years of building Hindi-speaking Methodist congregations.
Born in Levuka, Mastapha was fluent in Fijian (iTaukei) and Hindi, attributes he used to attempt to create an inclusive and national church.
Trained at the Wesley Theological College, Adelaide, South Australia, Mastapha was ordained in July 1959. From 1960 to 1963, he undertook a theology degree course at Leonard Theological College in Jabalpur, India, alongside Reverend Paula Niukula.
Both men would serve as presidents of the church, using their positions to encourage Christian unity among Fiji’s Methodists as the country began to experience increased racial sentiment in parts of the church.
Pacific Conference of Churches General Secretary, Reverend James Bhagwan, noted that Mastapha’s presidency demonstrated that leadership in the church could cross inherited divisions of race, language, and culture.
“(His) leadership gave visible expression to the possibility of a church in which Indo-Fijian and iTaukei Methodists could belong to one household of faith, while honouring their different histories, languages, and traditions,’’ Bhagwan said.
“His election took place during the first decade after Fiji’s independence, when the country was still shaping its national identity. The church was also wrestling with questions of unity, representation, social responsibility, and its place in a multiracial society.’’
In 1987, he was approached to be a minister in Sitiveni Rabuka’s interim administration, in recognition of the respect in which Mastapha was held. He declined the invitation and showed an ongoing concern for public life, constitutional order, community relationships, and the moral responsibility of church leaders in times of national crisis.
After leaving Fiji, Mastapha formed the international fellowship of Hindi-speaking congregations in Brisbane. This was an important development for Fiji-born Hindi-speaking Christians living outside Fiji. It helped maintain spiritual, cultural, and Methodist connections across distance and displacement, and strengthened fellowship among Indo-Fijian Christian communities in Australia and beyond.
