Volume 4, Issue 7
February 15, 2019
THIS SUNDAY: February 17, 2019
Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany
Jeremiah 17:5-10
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Luke 6:17-26
Psalm 1

8:00AM
Cami Pascua (EM)
Judy Saronitman (U)
Lorna Nishi (AG)

9:30AM
Mario Antonio (EM)
Linda Crocker, Joan Roughgarden (R)
CeCe Caldwell, Alfonso Murillo (U)
Jan Hashizume (AG)
Raiden (A)
Nelson Secretario, Mabel Antonio (HP)
UPCOMING EVENTS
Church Office and Preschool
Closed
Monday, February 18 th

Kealia Bike Path Cleanup
Lihi Park to Kealia Beach
Monday, February 18 th
9:00AM-12:00PM

Laundry Love - Team A
Wednesday, February 20 th
5:00-8:30PM
Kapa'a Laundromat

Youth Bible Study
Sunday, February 24 th
11:00AM-12:30PM
Youth Room

Vestry Meeting
Tuesday, February 26 th
6:00PM
Church Office

NOTE DATE CHANGE!
Habitat for Humanity Workday
Saturday, February 23 rd
6:45AM
Carpool from Church

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper
Tuesday, March 5 th
6:00PM-8:00PM
Rectory

Ash Wednesday Services
Wednesday, March 6 th
8:00AM & 6:30PM
Church

Ashes-to-Go
Wednesday, March 6 th
9:00am-11:00AM
3:00PM-5:00PM
Sidewalk in front of Church
Adult Bible Study on Weekly Gospel
Every Sunday, 9:00-9:30AM
Under the big tree

Sunday School
Every Sunday, 9:30-10:15AM
Memorial Hall

Aloha Hour
Every Sunday,10:45AM - 12PM
Under the big tree

Monday Crew
Every Monday, 8:00AM
Church Office
Laundry Love
1 st & 3 rd Wednesday, 5:30PM
Kapa`a Laundromat

McMaster Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele Concert
Every Wednesday, 6:00PM
Church

Choir Practice
Every Thursday, 6:00PM
Choir Room

Daughters of the King
2 nd & 4 th Thursday, 7:00 - 8:00PM
Memorial Hall
PARISH MEETING Feb. 10 TH
Mahalo For Your Support!
On Sunday, Our Parishioners were welcomed and blessed with a fabulous breakfast prepared by Victor Punua Jr and his many helpers. We then moved on to the business at hand and Canon Sandy explained the process involved in searching for our new rector.
The initial part of this process is to write up a new church profile and hearing from all of you will help us as we begin working on it.  

The parishioners were asked 3 questions: 1) Who is All Saints? 2) If we could dream, who do we hope to be in 5 to 10 years or beyond? and 3) What type of priest are we looking for?

These answers were then posted on Paper and dot stickers were passed around as Parishioners marked which of these answers were important to them. 
The conversation and response provided a great snapshot of where and what you see our parish as and where you would like to go. Also, what you are seeking in a New Rector. 

For those parishioners that missed the meeting, we would love to hear from you and welcome any thoughts you many have. You may contact any one of the Search Committee members whose names are listed in the Search Committee prayer below. 

We thank you all for attending and sharing your thoughts and we are all so very grateful to Canon Sandy for helping facilitate this meeting.

The Search Committee
Prayer for the Search Committee
Guide, O Lord, the work of [the All Saints’ Search Committee], your servants [Linda, Collin, Victor, Diane, Vikki, Curtis, and Dianne], that they might come to a clear and consensual decision of Your will. And that their discerned proposal, eventually forwarded to the Vestry, may glorify Your Holy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Modified from Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Hemet, California, June, 2017

Full text available here .

Mahalo nui loa to the All Saints’ Search Committee.
  • Linda Crocker
  • Collin Darrell 
  • Victor Punua Jr. 
  • Diane Sato
  • Vikki Secretario
  • Curtis Shiramizu
  • Dianne Tabura
SHROVE TUESDAY PANCAKE SUPPER 
March 5, 6:00 - 8:00PM
Potluck Celebration

Come enjoy our last gustatory celebration before the beginning of Lent. Also known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, this is the day we indulge in the rich foods from which many choose to fast during the Lenten season. Father Ray and Jere have graciously offered to host a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper at the Rectory. Kim and Geoff Shields will again be cooking up their special recipe pancakes. Please come and bring a dish and/or beverage to share. 
ASHES TO GO
Carrying on the Tradition

March 6 th , 9:00 -11:00AM and 3:00 - 5:00PM

“Ashes to Go” is about bringing spirit, belief, and belonging out from behind church doors, and into the places where we go every day. It’s a simple event with deep meaning, drawing on centuries of tradition and worship to provide a contemporary moment of grace.

-from ashestogo.org

In keeping with a tradition brought to All Saints’ by Father Ryan in 2014, Father Ray and Mary Margaret Smith will be roadside in front of All Saints’ Church on Kuhio Highway to offer the imposition of ashes and prayer to those unable to attend a regular Ash Wednesday church service.
REFLEXIONS ON THE GOSPEL
Luke 6:17-26

The Sermon on the Plain
Epiphany is the season that honors the recognition of Jesus Christ as Savior of the world. It marks the coming of the Magi who, in bringing gifts to the Christ child, “revealed” to the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and King. We no longer have Magi to reveal the Savior to our contemporaries; that responsibility falls on us. There are many ways for us to accomplish this responsibility and many arenas that need the light of Jesus Christ. However, on this 6 th Sunday in Epiphany, we are focusing on the poor in our midst.

The temptation is to focus on the poor in the world. It is very easy to focus on the starving children around the world and forget about those around the corner. 
It is very easy to focus on the effects of poverty that we see halfway around the world and ignore those effects that are halfway across town. Sometimes a harsh, straightforward sermon is what is needed to shake us out of our revelry. This is what Luke provides. In what has come to be called the Sermon on the Plain, Luke does not add the spiritual elements that are found in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. Luke is clear that the poor are the blessed group and the rich had better wake up and smell the coffee! The riches that bring you comfort now will not comfort you for long. The satisfaction you now have with life in general will change when we enter into the Kingdom of God.

From the very beginning Luke removes any notion of status. Christ comes down from the mountain to a level place, to a place where all can reach him and all can be healed. He is talking to a mixed crowd, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, allowing this text to be seen as an admonition to the local community as well as a more global community. Once the healings are complete, Jesus settles down to teaching what it truly means to be a disciple of Christ in a world that has very different values. For Luke, being a disciple means dealing with real socio-economic issues, those issues that cause poverty, hunger, weeping and hatred. Being a rich disciple means a drastic change in the status quo and a shift of thinking to stand with God and the poor. In the spirit of removing the log from our own eye before removing it from another’s, I submit that this text is encouraging us to pay more attention to those in our midst while we are helping those around the world. Many of us will never have the opportunity to travel around the world to experience the life changing moments that come when you are genuinely engaged in the work of God with the poor. We must keep in mind that many of us do not need to travel around the world to work hand in hand with the poor: the poor are right here with us.

Rev. Jocleen McCall
Religion Instructor
Johnston Community College
Smithfield, NC

For more information please visit NC COUNCIL OF CHURCHES .
RENEWAL 2019: HAVE YOU REGISTERED?
Registration Fees Will be Going Up!
We are thrilled and delighted to have the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, with us for a weekend of spiritual renewal, worship and fellowship, beginning Friday, March 22 to Sunday, March 24, 2019. 

REGISTER NOW AND SAVE!

All members in the Diocese of Hawai'i have a chance to register early at a discounted rate. Beginning February 16, 2019, the registration fees will be going up dramatically and will be opened to the general public.  

The Diocese will be covering the cost of airfare for a limited number of lay members from each church on the neighbor islands. Please check with Chris Wataya for more information.

Limited scholarships are being made available for those that are facing financial hardship and cannot afford the cost to attend. Please e-mail Rae Costa or call her at (808) 536-7776, ext. 326.

There is no fee to attend the Sunday Eucharist and Peggy Kai Lecture Series with the Presiding Bishop taking place at the Cathedral of St. Andrew. Both will be live-streamed, and churches are encouraged to set up group viewings. 

For more information on each day's activities and to register, visit the Diocesan website event webpage by clicking on the link below.

Click  HERE  to view the schedule and the Bishop's message in its entirety.
BISHOP CURRY SPEAKS AT NATIONAL PRAYER
BREAKFAST
This year’s National Prayer Breakfast, held on February 7, received widespread coverage from many news outlets on account of the presence of the President and Vice-President. Religion News Service described the guest list thus:

“In addition to Trump, Coons and Lankford, political attendees included Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.; Secretary of State Michael Pompeo; acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker; and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, among others.

“Prominent religious attendees included Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry; Lance Plyler of Samaritan’s Purse; Christian author, businesswoman and philanthropist Mo Anderson; musician Chris Tomlin; and keynote speaker Gary Haugen, head of the International Justice Mission.”

The speech made by the President overshadowed the remarks from the religious leaders present. A survey of mainstream sources contained virtually no mention of anything else. As  ENS reported , Mr. Trump,

“spoke for about 20 minutes . Among the highlights was the president’s praise for faith leaders who backed one of the few bipartisan achievements during the first half of his term, a criminal justice reform bill aimed at reducing the nation’s prison population and correcting racial disparities in sentencing. The bill,  which passed in December , was supported by The Episcopal Church’s nonpartisan  Office of Government Relations , based in Washington.

“America is a nation that believes in redemption,” Trump said. “Every day, the people in this room demonstrate the power of faith to transform lives, heal communities and lift up the forgotten.”

The ENS article goes on to describe how Bishop Curry offered a reflection on 1 Corinthians 13, in which he explained that Paul was not writing about the sentimental type of love so often associated with the passage. While love is a recurring theme in Bishop Curry’s preaching, the breakfast offered him a different venue in which to deliver that message:

“He wasn’t thinking about a wedding. He was worried about a community that had divisions in itself. And he wrote to show them the way,” Curry said.

“…If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. … Faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.” Curry said, reading from 1 Corinthians.

“Paul saw what Jesus meant,” Curry said. “That way of love can set us all free.” He closed his remarks by quoting the traditional black spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead,” a common refrain in Curry’s sermons, including in his royal wedding sermon.


Video of Bishop Curry’s reflection is available here .

SHINING OUR LIGHT
A Pathway to Discovery
The light of God’s love as manifest in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus can shine brightly only through us — through our worship, our service and our generosity.

The season of Epiphany is a pathway to discovery. We see this first in the three sages who represent “different parts of Asia, Africa or Europe” in the words of David Keck, chaplain at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, writing in Christianity Today:
“Since Jerusalem is at the intersection of these three great continents, it is easy to understand how the three can represent the three portions of the known world coming together to pay homage.

“There is, then, the depiction of an extraordinary hope: the peoples of the earth coming together united in their recognition of what’s important, all offering gifts to the ruler of the universe.”

Epiphany, therefore, is also a season of hope. Hope in the birth of a poor child, a refugee whose family must flee a brutal king. Hope in this child’s life as he grows up, is baptized and anointed as God’s own. Hope in his teachings of love, compassion, welcome, healing, and forgiveness.

Discovery, hope, and light are the essence Epiphany. As followers of Jesus, we are called to revel in the discovery, live in the hope, and joyfully share the light. We can discover new ways to worship and serve. We can earnestly hope and work for peace and healing. We can let Christ’s light flow through us to brighten the communities around us.

“Let your light so shine before others, that people will see your good works and give glory to God.” — Matthew 5:16.

Richard Felton

Executive Director and CEO, The Episcopal Network for Stewardship
THE FEAST OF JANANI LUWUM
"I Live As Though There Will Be No Tomorrow..."
Janani Luwum was born in 1922 at Acholi in Uganda, near the Sudanese border. After his early years as a teacher and lay reader in Gulu, he was sent to St. Augustine’s College, Canterbury. He was ordained priest in 1956 and returned to Uganda to assume responsibility for twenty-four congregations. After several years of service that included work at a local theological college, Luwum returned to England on scholarship for further study at the London College of Divinity.

In 1969, Luwum became Bishop of Northern Uganda, where he was a faithful visitor to his parishes as well as a growing influence at international gatherings of the Anglican Communion. In 1974, he was elected Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Boga-Zaire.

Luwum’s new position brought him into direct contact and eventual confrontation with the Ugandan military dictator, Idi Amin, as the Archbishop sought to protect his people from the brutality of Amin’s regime. In August of 1976, Makerere University was sacked by government troops. With Archbishop Luwum as their chair, the Christian leaders of the country drafted a strong memorandum of protest against officially sanctioned rape and murder.

In early February 1977, the Archbishop’s residence was searched for arms by government security forces. On February 16, President Amin summoned Luwum to his palace. He went there, accompanied by the other Anglican bishops and by the Roman Catholic cardinal archbishop and a senior leader of the Muslim community. After being accused of complicity in a plot to murder the President, most of the clerics were allowed to leave. However, Archbishop Luwum was ordered to remain behind. As his companions departed, Luwum said, “They are going to kill me. I am not afraid.” He was never seen alive again. The following day the government announced that he had been killed in an automobile accident while resisting arrest. Only after some weeks had passed was his bullet-riddled body released to his family for burial.

Early in his confrontation with the Ugandan government, Archbishop Luwum answered one of his critics by saying, “I do not know how long I shall occupy this chair. I live as though there will be no tomorrow... While the opportunity is there, I preach the gospel with all my might, and my conscience is clear before God.”
Collect for Janani Luwum, Archbishop and Martyr

O God, whose Son the Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep: We give you thanks for your faithful shepherd, Janani Luwum, who after his Savior’s example gave up his life for the people of Uganda. Grant us to be so inspired by his witness that we make no peace with oppression, but live as those who are sealed with the cross of Christ, who died and rose again, and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Note: This brief biography of Janani Luwum comes from A Great Cloud of Witnesses , Church Publishing, 2016.
HALE HO`OMALU FEBRUARY COLLECTION 

Toothpaste, Toothbrushes, Deodorant
Place your donations in the red wagon by the door to the sanctuary on Sundays. Hale Ho`omalu also needs and appreciates monetary donations as well as gift-in-kind items.
Please note, we do not accept food items that are not mentioned on the monthly list and we do not accept clothing, toys or similar items unless a specific plea for such items is published in the Epistle. Your Epistle Staff will inform you of any special requests for donations.
SUNDAY SCHOOL THIS WEEK
Who Is My Neighbor?
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
A man asks Jesus what he must do “to inherit eternal life.” When Jesus mentions the commandment to “love...your neighbor as yourself,” the man asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, making clear that “neighbor” is  connected not to proximity in living habitations, but rather to giving and receiving unconditional mercy and compassion.

Since the beginning of his ministry, Jesus has taught that God’s salvation is open to all, and that God’s world is a world of which we all are part—even Samaritans, even people we hate, even people who hate us. 

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the man from Samaria puts into practice what Zacchaeus later will promise—he offers compassionate love to a dying stranger who hates him, ministering to a newly poor and marginalized person even as he himself is marginalized by the Jews. In this act of compassion, the Samaritan embraces God’s command to us to offer hospitality and welcome, including all people in our offering of mercy even as God does.

In the new age that began at Jesus’ birth, God welcomes, invites and opens up a total experience of union with God, to which we respond in repentance, conversion and then in love for the poor and for all persons. This is the heart of Luke’s spirituality.

Who is our neighbor? Usually we see this question in a personal setting: our neighbor is any individual whom we happen to meet, in whose face we might see Christ.

In a community of faith, we may ask a similar question: Who is our neighbor of faith? As we look around and grieve about our divided Christianity, we might also ask ourselves how we can work for unity while still honoring our differences. How can we be good neighbors to other faith traditions, other Christian and non Christian perspectives?

To reject neighborliness is, in a way, to reject community, communion and common life. A world without neighbors is a world of strangers, a world characterized by division rather than by unity.
EPISCOPAL CHURCH DAYS FOR HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
One 'Ohana Team Implementing the 2017 Strategic Design Plan
DATE CHANGED FROM FEBRUARY 16 th TO FEBRUARY 23 rd .

If you show up on February 16 th you will be embarrassed!

Ron Morinishi
KE AKUA YOUTH MINISTRY
Update From Cami Pascua, Youth Minister
Hello Everyone. In order to keep you all up to date on the Ke Akua Youth Ministry, I have prepared this brief summary. Included at the end of this article are links to several important documents. Please feel free to read and share them.
 
Youth Group Meeting Minutes

  • NOTE: EAM sign-ups are OPEN. Please note that it’s for High Schoolers’ only. To register, please visit https://dfms.formstack.com/forms/eam_youth_camp_2019
  • Slots are going fast so please register ASAP. It’s $25 deposit with $30 due by April. We will work on airfare and other expenses later.

Kealia Cleanup Outreach Event 2/18/19
  • Ke Akua members, please bring your SIGNED permission slips with you if you want to attend.
  • Those who are driving and leaving their cars, please meet me at Kealia Beach and we will carpool to Lihi Park/Kapaa Small Boat Harbor.

Just as an FYI, attached are the attendance and expense sheets for 2018 to look over.

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Thank you!
 
Cami 
IN BRIEF . . .
These news briefs were featured in previous issues of "The Epistle"

Please submit your story ideas to the Epistle Staff at epistle@allsaintskauai.org.