20–24 April 2026 | Nadi, Fiji
Church and community partners from across the Pacific came together in Nadi, Fiji this week for UnitingWorld’s Pacific Regional Forum 2026, a week of listening, learning and renewing commitment to shared mission.
Participants joined from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati and Samoa, alongside UnitingWorld staff, and representatives from the Pacific Conference of Churches and Pasifika Communities University.
Confronting the climate crisis together
The forum brought into sharp focus the devastating human and environmental toll of climate change across the region. With tears and honesty, participants shared the lived reality of rising seas and saltwater intrusion across low-lying atoll nations like Tuvalu and Kiribati, where the threat is not distant but existential.
“The rising seawater is contaminating water sources, degrading agricultural land, and deepening uncertainty for families in Kiribati,” said Uniting Church in Kiribati Secretary for Mission, Rev Maleta Tenten.
“We are now forced to import most of our food, because it is so hard to grow in our soil now. The heath impacts are a crisis. Our islands are disappearing. We urgently need to work together to save Kiribati.”
A community visit brought these realities home. Forum participants travelled to an inland village that had been forced to relocate after deadly landslides destroyed their homes and buried a family alive. It was a sobering, powerful reminder of why disaster risk reduction and community preparedness are central to the church’s work in the Pacific.
Hope, action and equitable leadership
Alongside these difficult stories, participants heard powerful accounts of hope, churches across the region working together to transform lives and communities. Forum sessions also explored how gender-equitable leadership and participation are essential to building communities that are resilient, prepared and sustainable.
In solidarity with these commitments, forum participants marked Thursdays in Black, the global campaign standing with victims and survivors of gender-based violence, and challenging the cultures of silence that allow it to continue.
Walking together
“UnitingWorld’s Pacific partnerships are built on relationships of mutuality, respect, and shared vision,” reflected National Director Dr Sureka Goringe.
“This forum is one expression of that, a space where Pacific church partners lead, share and strengthen the work they are already doing in their communities, and that we are blessed to support.”