Josaia Rayawa
Ratu Josaia Naulumatua Rayawa is a Fijian chief, religious minister, and political leader. He served in Fiji’s Senate from 2001 to 2006 as one of nine nominees of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. He previously led the Christian Democratic Alliance (VLV), which won three seats in the 1999 election. He was born on 28 December 1931 in Nabudrau, Noco, Rewa Province, and he holds the title Tui Noco as a district chief in Rewa.
Rayawa studied in the United States and earned a BA in Religious Education and an MA in Theology from the AOG Theological Graduate School in Springfield, Missouri. He was ordained as an Assemblies of God minister in 1967 and has worked in many parts of the South Pacific, including Fiji.
He pastored in Lautoka (1960–1966), Beqa (1966), Levuka (1967), Labasa (1968–1973), and Caubati (1974–1977), and served as a missionary in the Solomon Islands (1971). He was a senior lecturer at the South Pacific Bible College in Wainadoi and helped establish missionary work on Waya Island in the Yasawas. He was the senior pastor and founder of Suva Community Christian Fellowship (1991–1996).
The Assemblies of God appointed him 1st District Superintendent for the Northern Division in 1969, and he was the General Secretary of the AOG Executive Council in Fiji (1988–1996). He was invited to speak at conferences in Tonga, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Kiribati, New Zealand, Australia, and Madras, India.
After semi-retiring from church leadership, Rayawa entered politics and became president of the Christian Democratic Alliance. In his youth, he served as a Royal Fiji Military soldier during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s and was an active rugby player with the Combined Services Rugby team.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:22 (CET).