A book on the history of the Samoa Methodist Church-run women’s fellowship and their experiences in the church was launched on Monday.

Titled “The History of the Samoa Methodist Women’s Fellowship: O Le Au Uso Metotisi”, the 133-page publication is written by Lafaitele Fualuga Taupi and Mercy Ah Siu-Maliko and was unveiled on Monday at the Women’s Hall Fogaa Faleula. 

The unveiling was done in a ceremony led by the Director of Education for the Methodist Church Reverend Amosa Tapuai. 

The Methodist Church Women’s Fellowship President Fialelei Faulalo Leti and the National University of Samoa’s Faculty of Arts Dean Saui’a Dr Louise Mataia gave speeches to mark the occasion.

Methodist Women Connectional Secretary (Failautusi Va i Fafo), Lafaitele Fualuga Taupi, told the Samoa Observer in an interview that the book – which was translated from Samoan to English – now enables younger members of the women’s fellowship to read and learn of past generation’s hard work. 

“This ceremony is to launch the first translation of the women’s fellowship history book, which is most needed by the young age to do their research and investigate the work done by the old members who started the women’s fellowship,” she said. 

“Inside the book was the whole history of the fellowship right from the beginning as when they started back in the days with not many women were involved until today as the women’s fellowship grew within the 17 synods of the Church.”

In the book one can find reports from local conferences, international conferences, synod presidents and the speeches of former presidents and founding members of the women’s fellowship. 

“So it was not an easy job [to compile the book] but we are thankful to the God Almighty for his blessings as we completed this work successfully,” said Lafaitele.

Dr Mercy Selota Maliko, who was the chief editor of the recently commissioned publication, said the main emphasis of the book was to give a holistic history on the Methodist women’s experiences.

“I believe the main emphasis is to try to provide a holistic history that includes what women are experiencing now in terms of violence and so forth,” she said. 

“This book provides information not only for the Methodist people but for the generation to come. 

“It started from the need to translate from the Samoan language and then we saw gaps in the history so we try to include in terms of being relevant, in terms of consistency  in formatting according to the academic and scholarly world.”

The book also contributes to the growing Samoan women historiography on women’s experiences in the church while highlighting the Au Uso Metotisi Christian origin, and how it slowly evolved to address a lot of the social economic challenges in the changing Samoa.