NAWADRA: Well it’s the fourth year now.

COUTTS: And so this is the first time in four years, will you be able to get through all your business in three days?

NAWADRA: No, not really, the business that have been heaping up has gone a little bit too big for three days.

COUTTS: What are some of the restrictions that are placed on the meeting?

NAWADRA: The first is the time of the meeting, it should start by 8 and finish by 8 also in the evening. So altogether it’s 36 hours for the three days, that’s one. The second one is the content of the discussion should only include church matters and no political matters. And then we have the possibility of police officers to come and sit and to listen to what we are doing or what we are talking about. And then in the preparation to this meeting, the June standing committee, which was a pre-conference committee, the only way that would enable us to meet for July is to submit everything, the agenda and the minutes to them after that June meeting. And then after the July meeting, which happened on the 31st of July, we should submit all the minutes to the Commissioner of Police so that he can give the green light to the conference. So right now what we have done is to give him, the Commissioner, the minutes, he has the minutes since last Tuesday last week, and we are still waiting for his word whether the conference can still go on. So that’s where we are right now. Hopefully there will be no hindrances in what the other meeting was doing or talking about.

COUTTS: Is the allegation that the Methodist Church had become too political accurate?

NAWADRA: Well I’ve always defended the church by saying that the meaning of politics for us is to work for the poor and to uplift the standard of life and to talk to government and whether on that line that there shouldn’t be just focussing on the rich but to look after the very poor in our society, and to the type of development that they do should also focus on elevating the ways of life for these people. So if that is political to government, because that is how we have been talking, how we have been doing things, then we are sorry, we cannot do any other thing because that is what we are required for according to our faith we have to be the mouthpiece or the voice for the underprivileged of all sorts.

COUTTS: And the fundraising opportunities have also been denied to you this time around. Normally to see the choirs and the bazaar that you hold in the street have been denied, you are not able to do that this time?

NAWADRA: Yes, as I said for the last four years now since 2009, we have been stopped from doing that. Our income, one was levy, the second biggest chunk into our income was this choir, and so they’ve just cut it out and we have to struggle to find money to cover for the various se