Dame Meg Taylor DBE, former Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum and current member of the Pacific Elders' Voice, is a Papua New Guinean lawyer and diplomat. She was the PNG Ambassador to the US, Mexico and Canada from 1989 to 1994. In 2014, Dame Meg was appointed Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum, a position which she held until 2021. There are few Pacific Islander leaders better placed than Dame Meg to talk about the challenges and opportunities facing the region. We are honoured that Dame Meg spent some time at the Centre with us and had a conversation on emerging priorities in the Pacific.

Isaiah and St Paul tell their communities to hold on and wait in joyful hope for the coming of Jesus despite their circumstances. Yet, many people are trying to find reasons to rejoice in what seems a crazy and ever-changing world. Our reality is distorted by a constant inundation of bad news. It seems that where we look it seems that the bad guys are winning – something that John would also have felt before his death. No doubt many of us feel the same way. Jesus’ followers were drowning in bad news as we are today and some were reviled, ridiculed, persecuted and sidelined. There seems little reason to rejoice in the face of human suffering.