Tears flow for Tongan ferry victims

Mourners remembered in prayer and ritual the dozens lost when the Princess Ashika capsized. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Candles were lit and tears flowed in South Auckland last night for the children and mothers missing since the Princess Ashika ferry sank in Tonga late last Wednesday.

Up to 1000 people from the Tongan and wider Pacific communities packed into the Tongan Methodist Church, Lotofalei'a, to pray for those who perished and those who have been affected by the tragedy.

With many people dressed in traditional Tongan clothing, the service was a solemn but emotional ceremony, with the congregation comforting one another and at times raising their hands to the heavens.

Three men and a woman who have relatives among the missing were called to the altar to light white candles, each with a different symbolic meaning.

One was for the children whose lives were lost or have been affected, one for the mothers, one for fathers and the other for foreign victims.

Silence descended on the congregation as several smaller candles were lit, symbolising the survivors.

A Tongan Methodist Church member, Salote Lilo, told the congregation: "Only some have been accounted for [but] there could have been more people on board who have not been identified.

"A great tragedy has swept this island nation - the Friendly Islands - our beloved island.

"We sympathise with the family and friends of loves ones who are still missing."

Tongan hymns were sung throughout the service, as church ministers from the various Pacific communities paid their respects to those families affected in Tonga and in New Zealand.

The Rev Kilifi Heimuli said the incident had not only affected the Tongan community in the islands and in New Zealand, but it had also hit the wider Pacific community hard.

Praying for the victims and their families, he said it was a time for people to come together to comfort those affected.

"This [the church] is where we meet at moments like this," Mr Heimuli said.

"We meet here to pray to God, to ask for his guidance, to ask for his love and to be with us always.

"We worship here as a community and now we weep as a community."