"FROM our side we are trying our best to go with the law, we are trying our best to adhere to the requests being made by government and we will continue to do that."
Those were the words of Methodist Church general secretary Reverend Tevita Nawadra as he responded to questions regarding the church's policy on the government.
Mr Nawadra acknowledged that the relationship between the church and the State had not always been on the best of terms.
However, he said it was the policy of the church to follow the law.
He said the church was also hopeful of a chance to re-forge permanent bridges with the government.
"Maybe a time will come when we will try and sit together with them and talk about issues that touch on both the church and government, police and military issues themselves," Mr Nawadra said.
He said said at its conference this year, the church had already worked to accommodate the military as shown in its decision not to replace the army chaplain.
"One of the issues that was brought up was the appointment of the army chaplain and there were some of us that thought that someone else should take up the position.
"This was because the current one has already served seven years and according to our current situation, we should only serve a five-year appointment before moving on to other areas."
However, Mr Nawadra said there had been a plea from Commodore Bainimarama himself and the Nabua circuit to allow the current chaplain to remain until 2014.
"We heard that side of the story and we agreed the current chaplain should stay. We do not want to be opponents in that way and continue to fight, if it will help the situation, then that should be the case."