Samoa’s largest church denomination, the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa, yesterday started its annual Fono Tele at Malua Theological College.
The Fono Tele is the governing body of the church that approves policy and especially its annual budget.
This year, because of the global pandemic and travel restrictions, international delegates will be taking part virtually via a zoom link and only Samoa based delegates will be at Malua.
The sudden calling of the snap election for Samoa has seen the Fono Tele reduced to an eight day meeting instead of the scheduled 14 days.
The conference is from May 9-17 and starts with two days of committee meetings for the eleven church committees.
The actual assembly or Fono Tele will begin Wednesday May 12 and will run until Friday when they have a special service for the ministers who have reached retirement age, 65-70.
Election of a new treasurer and a vice chairman will take place on the last day of the Fono Tele.
A sign posted at the entrances to the Fono Tele venue at Malua says “No Media”.