Volume 5, Issue 3
January 17, 2020
THIS SUNDAY: January 19, 2020
Second Sunday after Epiphany

8:00AM
Joe Adorno (EM)
Judy Saronitman (U)
Lorna Nishi (AG)

9:30AM
David Murray (EM)
CeCe Caldwell, Chris Wataya (R)
Mario Antonio, Mary Margaret Smith (U)
Janis Wright (AG)
Raiden (A)
Nelson Secretario, Vikki Secretario (HP)
UPCOMING EVENTS
One Ohana Habitat Build
Saturday, January 18 th
7:30AM - Carpool from All Saints'
7:45AM - Jobsite
Holoikalapa St, Anahola

Church Office and Preschool Closed
Monday, January 20 th
8:00AM-5PM

Sermon on the Mount Bible Study
NOTE DAY CHANGE
Thursday, January 23 th
7:00-8:30PM
Rectory

Daughters of the King
Thursday, January 23 rd
7:00-8:00PM
Memorial Hall

Annual Meeting
Sunday, January 26 th
8:00AM Service
9:00AM Annual Meeting*
*continental breakfast will be provided
10:00AM service
RECURRING EVENTS
Sunday School
Every Sunday, 9:30 - 10:15AM
Memorial Hall

Aloha Hour
Every Sunday, 10:45AM - 12:00PM
Under the big tree

Monday Crew
Every Monday, 8:00AM
Church Office

Laundry Love
1 st & 3 rd Wednesday, 5:00PM
Kapa`a Laundromat
McMaster Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele Concert
Every Wednesday, 6:00PM
Church

Daughters of the King
2 nd & 4 th Thursday, 7:00 - 8:00PM
Memorial Hall

Choir Practice
Every Thursday, 6:00PM
Choir Room
Ka Ohana `O Ke Akua
All Saints' Annual Parish Meeting, January 26 th
Getting Down to Business - Reminders.

Yes, it's that time of the year! Time to come together at our Annual Meeting.

The Annual Meeting will take place between the services on Sunday, January 26 th . The second service will be delayed 30 minutes so the service will start at 10:00AM. A continental breakfast (coffee, tea, juice, pastries) will be provided.
VESTRY
We will be voting for 5 new Vestry members - 4 at-large members to serve 3-year terms, and 1 member to be the Junior Warden serving a 1-year term. If you are interested in running for the Vestry, please make sure that you fill in the Vestry Nomination Form . You can obtain a form from the church office or through the link below. Please submit your form by Thursday, January 23 rd to give us time to include the information in the Annual Meeting package. Submit the form either to me directly or to Cami in the church office.
DELEGATES
We will be voting for Delegates to attend the Diocesan Convention scheduled for October 23/24. Once again, please submit your name directly to me or to Cami in the office by Thursday, January 23 rd .
PLEDGE
PLEASE, PLEASE pledge . Your pledge is important as it enables the Vestry to prepare a budget for the year to come. If you have not yet submitted your pledge, please take the time to fill in the form and place it in the plate on Sunday. Forms are available from the church office. Contact Cami. 

If you have  NEVER  pledged before - please think about doing so. It  IS  important. Your pledge does not lock you in. If your circumstances change you are able to decrease (or even increase!) your annual pledge total.

I look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting.

May Ke Akua continue to bless All Saints' Church.

-David Murray
Senior Warden
To access the Vestry Nomination Form, please click here .
A Message From Kahu Kawika
The Jacksons Will Join Us February 2 nd
Deepest Mahalo!

Muriel and I are in the final throes of packing, brimming with excitement and anticipation finally to get to join our new All Saints' `Ohana!

I wanted to take this opportunity to express my profound "mahalo":

To Fr. David & Susan Englund: Thank you both so much for caring for our people, and for being the winsome and wonderful folks that you are! We want you to visit soon - you always have a home with us.

To our outgoing leadership - Junior Warden Mary Margaret, and Vestry Members Byron, Morris, Bill, and Nelson: Profound and deepest appreciation for your service to God and to God's people, for providing oversight and direction to our `Ohana, and quite frankly for making my life easier due to the tremendous leadership you have given!

To our remaining Vestry and those about to join: Mahalo nui for continuing to guide our `Ohana into the coming year, and ultimately as we make our way to our Centennial.

To Cami: For your friendly and efficient service in the All Saints' office, as well as for your commitment to our young people. You have already helped me a great deal in getting ready to come to Kapa`a!

To Senior Warden David Murray: Words cannot express your indefatigable leadership, seasoned with your incredible sense of humor! Thank you for helping me and our `Ohana in this time of transition.

FINALLY, to all of you, our new All Saints' `Ohana, for your vivacity, palpable sense of aloha, and genuine love for one another and for our wider community and world.

May God be with you and with us, as we prepare to be together face to face!

Maluhia, aloha, e mahalo nui loa i ke Akua,
Kahu Kawika+
Celebrate Love on Valentine's Day!  

JAZZ SINGER NIGHT 
LOVE CONCERT

Presented by Matt Lemmler and
Kauai Island Singers Showcase
On Friday, February 14 at 7:00PM celebrate Valentine’s Day with New Orleans Jazz Professor Matt Lemmler on piano and vocals. As one of the most original musicians to emerge from the birthplace of jazz, Matt is back on Kauai to share his exceptional talents.
 
Joining him are eight KISS vocalists — Barbara Pendragon, Melissa Mojo, Christine Melamed, Dhyana Dunville, Steve Backinoff, Trishana Star, Diana Leone and Mary Ellen Kopitzke — singing love songs in a distinctive New Orleans 

About Matt Lemmler

New Orleans Steinway Artist Matt Lemmler is known as one of the New Orleans Jazz Professors, Matt is a pianist, vocalist, composer, arranger, educator, producer and musical director for The New Orleans Jazz Revival Band. A prolific performer who continues the legacy of great New Orleans pianists, such as Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Domino, James Booker, Dr. John, Ellis Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr., Matt’s musical path of spiritual inspiration taps into the healing power of music and motivates him to perform New Orleans Jazz for people around the world in addition to producing promising artists and new projects. His new CD releases, "Love," and more recently, "New Orleans in Stride," Volume One & Two are available for sale. For more info, visit www.mattlemmler.com .
Habitat For Humanity Work Day
DHHL Anahola Jobsite
One `Ohana Team,

Happy New year! The Habitat team is making a big push to complete the Anahola homes, and get started on some new ones. They are still committed to building a record number of homes this year. We are very close to finishing the three Anahola homes that we started last year. Please join us in Anahola on Jan 18 th (on Holoikalapa St).  
For those that want to carpool, we plan on leaving All Saint’s parking lot at 7:30AM. Otherwise just meet us at the job site at 7:45AM. Please let me know if you can join us, so Habitat can plan accordingly, 
Ron Morinishi

Laundry Love Receives New Grant

“Ask and Ye Shall Receive”
Laundry Love has recently received a grant from the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust, a trust devoted solely to the funding of charitable, scientific, medical and educational organizations, for $500 to support our ongoing ministry. This grant will fund an entire session of Laundry Love.

As Laundry Love approaches its 5 th anniversary, the ministry has washed, dried, and folded over 8,500 loads of laundry. Mahalo nui loa to all the dedicated volunteers and donors who make this ministry possible.
The Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle

Jan 18, 2020
The confession of Peter is recorded in the Gospel According to Matthew (16:16), "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." The liturgical celebration of Peter's confession is celebrated on Jan. 18. It is a major feast in the Prayer Book calendar. This observance was first included in the 1979 BCP. The date is that of an ancient Gallican feast called "the Chair of Saint Peter." It honored Peter as the head of the Roman Catholic Church as well as his chair of episcopal authority. Contemporary observance of the Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle marks the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. 1

The Confession of Peter refers to an episode in the New Testament in which the Apostle Peter proclaims Jesus to be the Christ (Jewish Messiah). The proclamation is described in the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 16:13-20, Mark 8:27–30 and Luke 9:18–20. Specifically, Peter declares, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The proclamation of Jesus as Christ is fundamental to Christology; the Confession of Peter and Jesus' acceptance of the title "Messiah" form a definitive statement in the New Testament narrative regarding the person of Jesus Christ. In this New Testament narrative, Jesus not only accepts the titles Christ and Son of God , but declares the proclamation a divine revelation by stating that his Father in Heaven had revealed it to Peter, unequivocally declaring himself to be both Christ and the Son of God.

In the same passage Jesus also selects Peter as the leader of the Apostles, and states: "Upon this rock I will build my church.” 2


Task Force Seeks Participation in Liturgical Revision
A new website launched at EpiscopalCommonPrayer.org provides Episcopalians with opportunities to participate in the liturgical revision called for by Resolution A068 of the 2018 General Convention. The site is available in English and Spanish.

Developed by the Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision, the website includes draft documents that outline plans and principles to guide work on new liturgical texts. It also serves as a clearinghouse of all liturgies already approved for use by General Convention.

“We have posted our first three draft documents on the site, and we hope that Episcopalians from all parts of the church will read and comment on them,” said the Rev. Dr. Nina Ranadive Pooley, vice-chair of the task force from the Diocese of Maine. The documents include an outline of the task force’s direction for liturgical and prayer book revision; principles for new liturgical texts that are intended to assist diocesan liturgical commissions; and guidelines, developed with the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, for expansive and inclusive language in liturgy.

“General Convention heard great longing for new liturgical texts that include inclusive language about humanity and expansive language for God,” said the Rev. Deon Johnson, a member of the task force from the Diocese of Michigan. “Creating liturgy with expansive language isn’t just about replacing pronouns; it is a prayerful process that expands our ideas both about God and God’s relationship with all humanity. We hope that our work advances that work across the church.”

The website includes a submission page designed to collect feedback on the draft documents, ideas for liturgical revision, and liturgies that have been developed by dioceses and local congregations.

“General Convention called for bishops to ‘engage worshiping communities in experimentation and the creation of alternative texts,’” said the Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, dean of the School of Theology at Sewanee and chair of the commission. “We want the richness of these liturgical experiments born out of the needs of local communities to inform our work toward liturgical revision.”

Before its next meeting in April 2020, members of the task force request that bishops, liturgical officers, and diocesan liturgical commissions study both the draft documents it has produced and the provisions of Resolution 2018-A068 and respond via the website. The site contains a list of diocesan liturgical commissions; those not listed can be added by emailing the task force at tflpbr@episcopalchurch.org .

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017
© 2020 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

THE EPISCOPAL NEWS SERVICE
Northern Michigan Episcopalians speak out in favor of retiring high school’s ‘Redmen’ nickname

By David Paulsen
Posted Jan 16, 2020
A photo shared to Marquette Area Public Schools’ Facebook page in 2015 shows a sign that features Marquette Senior High School’s nicknames and its former Indian chief logo. The logo has since been phased out.

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopalians in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are joining calls for a local high school to change its nicknames, which many consider derogatory toward Native Americans.

Northern Michigan Bishop Rayford Ray wrote a letter Jan. 3 to the school board in Marquette  calling for an end to the use of “Redmen” and “Redettes” at Marquette Senior High School, and the Rev. Lydia Kelsey Bucklin, Ray’s canon to the ordinary for discipleship and vitality, spoke in favor of changing the nicknames on Jan. 6 at a tense school board meeting.

“The ‘Redmen’ and ‘Redette’ nicknames are not only hurtful to indigenous members of the community, but to all who believe in human dignity, freedom and justice,” Ray said in his letter. “We are called to recognize an injustice, to educate each other about the nature of this injustice and to follow the lead of local indigenous leaders who recognize how to heal this unnecessary trauma.”

Of the 12 federally recognized Native American tribes based in Michigan, five are in the state’s sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. Marquette, overlooking Lake Superior and home to Northern Michigan University, is the Upper Peninsula’s largest city, with a population of about 21,000, though only a few hundred Marquette residents report Native American heritage, according to census data.

Last year, the Marquette school board asked a special committee to research the high school’s nicknames. The committee collected evidence that the nicknames were offensive, harmful to Native American students and not universally embraced by the student body, and it recommended changing the nicknames.

“A change to a culturally appropriate nickname and mascot common across all seven schools within the Marquette Area Public Schools might serve as a rallying point and a point of pride,” the committee said in its report, presented to the school board on Dec. 16 .

Dozens of people attended the board’s next meeting on Jan. 6, and they reportedly spoke for more than three hours , some defending the nicknames and others opposing them. Defenders argued that “Redmen” originated not as a racial slur but as a tribute to the crimson red of Harvard University, which was a former superintendent’s alma mater . Even so, the school long embraced the racial connotations of “Redmen” by featuring an Indian chief’s head as its logo, until that image was phased out a few years ago and replaced with a bold red “M.” Opponents say the nicknames need to be retired as well.

“For us, it really is just this basic recognition of the need to respect the dignity of every human being,” Bucklin told Episcopal News Service, referencing the baptismal covenant in the Book of Common Prayer .

Bucklin’s comments at the Jan. 6 school board meeting in opposition to the nicknames also were rooted in her personal history. The Diocese of Northern Michigan is based in Marquette, and Bucklin attended Marquette Senior High School in the 1990s, when her father, the Rev. James Kelsey, worked as the diocese’s ministry development coordinator. He later served as bishop until his death in 2007.

In 1998, during Bucklin’s senior year, she was editor of the student newspaper. She and her fellow students devoted one issue that year to questioning the appropriateness of the “Redmen” mascot and nickname.

That year, the school board voted to retire the logo, but the decision didn’t last long. A backlash in the community led to the election of new board members, Bucklin said, who voted to reverse course and keep the “Redmen” nickname and logo.

The ongoing debate in Marquette echoes conversations happening across the United States over Indian mascots. While some communities are reluctant to give up such mascots, critics argue they glorify racial stereotypes, objectify indigenous people and amount to a form of cultural identity theft by teams and fanbases that often are largely non-Native.

The most widely discussed case is that of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, whose owners have adamantly refused to stop using a racial slur as the team’s name despite protests and pressure from Native American groups and their supporters. Other professional teams have been somewhat responsive to such complaints. The Cleveland Indians baseball team, while keeping its name, chose after the 2018 season to retire as its mascot , a Native American caricature known as “Chief Wahoo.”

Colleges generally have phased out use of references to Native Americans in their mascots and nicknames since a 2005 NCAA ban on the practice . The University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, for example, is now known as the Fighting Hawks after deciding to end the use of its Fighting Sioux nickname in 2012 .

“Rather than honoring Native peoples, these caricatures and stereotypes contribute to a disregard for the personhood of Native peoples,” the National Congress of American Indians, an advocacy group, said in a 2013 report . “Widely consumed images of Native American stereotypes in commercial and educational environments slander, defame, and vilify Native peoples, Native cultures and tribal nations, and continue a legacy of racist and prejudiced attitudes.”

Such arguments also apply to American high schools, where mascots have commonly drawn on Native American imagery. A USA Today Network report on Wisconsin school mascots noted in 2018 that dozens of schools had eliminated Indian mascots since the 1980s, but 31 such mascots remained in the state.

A Capital News Service report in 2013 counted at least 63 high schools in the country that still call themselves “Redskins,” and one of those schools is Paw Paw High School in lower Michigan. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a complaint over the school’s mascot, and the U.S. Department of Education is investigating, according to MLive .

The ACLU’s complaint warned that the use of the nickname was creating a “racially hostile educational environment.”

In 2017, a state senator from Detroit proposed legislation that would have banned racially insensitive mascots in the state, but the bill appears to have stalled after being referred to a Senate committee.
A crowd listens to people speak in favor of and against the proposed discontinued use of the Marquette Senior High School nicknames at a Jan. 6 school board meeting. Photo: Christie Bleck/Mining Journal

In Marquette, the school district’s student body is nearly 90 percent white, and only about 3 percent of Marquette Senior High School students reported Native American heritage, according to demographic data collected by the U.S. Department of Education .

After the research committee presented its findings at the school board’s Dec. 16 meeting, high school senior Roxy Sprowl was among those who spoke in favor of the committee’s recommendation of a new nickname, according to a Mining Journal story on the meeting .

“In my experience as a Native American student at Marquette Senior High School, I have been told that I don’t deserve anything as a Native person when I step out and say that I don’t support the mascot,” Sprowl said. “I am told that I don’t deserve to be here.”

Chris Swartz, tribal council president of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, also spoke at that meeting. “It’s time to change the name,” he said.

The school board has yet to act on the committee’s recommendations. The issue wasn’t on the agenda of the Jan. 6 meeting, though residents flooded the meeting to comment about it anyway.

“I think that input is so incredibly important and we need to see and do what is best for our students, and I think this is a great opportunity as a community to really show what we stand for and to show how you can work on complex issues and resolve those issues,” School Board President Rich Rossway told WLUC-TV after the board’s Jan. 6 meeting. Its next scheduled meeting is Jan. 27.

Bucklin told ENS that the debate in Marquette comes at a time when the Diocese of Northern Michigan is stepping up its efforts to confront The Episcopal Church’s historic complicity with systematic oppression of Native American tribes. The diocese and its churches also have worked to build closer relationships with the tribes that are based in the Upper Peninsula.

In 2018, the diocese received a United Thank Offering grant of $30,000 for an initiative called “Walking Together: Finding Common Ground Through Racial Reconciliation.” The initiative entails “listening and learning sessions” with tribal members as well as a traveling exhibit focused on Native American history.

In listening to tribal members, Bucklin said, Episcopalians have learned firsthand of their opposition to Indian mascots and nicknames. “For this local issue [at Marquette Senior High School] to bubble up in the midst of all of that feels like it’s really appropriate for us to speak out in favor of changing the name.”

– David Paulsen is an editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org .

THE EPISCOPAL NEWS SERVICE
Why schism? United Methodist leaders explain proposal to split the denomination

By Emily McFarlan Miller
Posted Jan 14, 2020
Members of the unofficial group of United Methodist bishops and advocacy group leaders who negotiated a proposal to split the denomination speak about the process Jan. 13, 2020 on a livestreamed panel hosted by United Methodist News Service. Video screengrab via UMNS

[Religion News Service] The 16 United Methodist bishops and advocacy group leaders who negotiated a recent proposal to split the denomination explained their reasoning at an event held Jan. 13 that was streamed  live by United Methodist News Service.( Please see the video link at the bottom of this story. )

They also forecast dire consequences if the proposal, officially called “A Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation,” isn’t approved this May by the denomination’s global decision-making body.

United Methodist Bishop John Yambasu of Sierra Leone, who first convened the group that led to the negotiations last summer, said a failure of the proposal would be “catastrophic for the church.”

“It would be total disaster,” Yambasu said. “It would mean more pain and more harm to the entire church.”
The unofficial group, which was joined by veteran mediator Kenneth Feinberg, offered a behind-the-scenes look at how they arrived at the proposal, which was  announced earlier this month  and is now being written into legislation for delegates to approve at the General Conference in Minneapolis in May.

“We’re asking them to do something historic, not just for the United Methodist Church, but frankly something needed in America and in the world right now, which is to watch a group of people in a large, 12 million-person institution cooperate in such a way that we help each other do the things that we desire to do and answer the callings we feel God has laid on our hearts,” said the Rev. Tom Berlin, who represented centrists in the group.

United Methodists’ conflicts, which have expressed themselves mostly in questions of the inclusion of its LGBTQ members, go back to 1972, recalled Patricia Miller, executive director of the conservative United Methodist Confessing Movement.

That year the General Conference voted to add language to the denomination’s Book of Discipline declaring that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”

That language was revisited every four years at subsequent General Conferences until 2016, when delegates voted to hold a special session to finally settle the debate. That meeting, held in St. Louis, Missouri, in February of last year, voted to strengthen the enforcement of that language banning the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ United Methodists, but many LGBTQ United Methodists and their allies  immediately vowed  to resist and remain in the denomination.

Now, after nearly five decades of controversy, Miller said, “It’s time for us to move to amicable separation.”

Despite their victory at the special session, it is the conservative congregations and conferences that would split from the denomination to form a new body under the new proposal. If approved, they would retain ownership of their church buildings and other properties and receive $25 million to form a new “traditionalist” Methodist denomination.

At Monday’s event, Yambasu described the special session as a “catastrophe” and a “poor witness of who we are as United Methodists.”

The bishop returned to Sierra Leone “devastated,” he said. American United Methodists had presented a “galaxy of plans,” he said, “but none of these plans to us seem to provide the answer to the situation.”

Last summer, still hoping for a solution, he called a meeting of several bishops from outside the United States and leaders from advocacy groups identified as having traditionalist, centrist and progressive views.

To be successful in yet another round of meetings, Reconciling Ministries Network Executive Director Jan Lawrence said, “we felt like we needed something different.”

“Our answer to that was to discuss having a professional mediator join us,” she said.

With Feinberg on board, they settled on a group of 16 participants who would represent a variety of viewpoints in the denomination. The mediator had acted as special master of the U.S. government’s September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and later as the special master for TARP executive compensation.

“Two of the things that he offered during this process were that our job was to get to yes, and he kept reminding us of that. He also reminded us that we had the opportunity to write the narrative, and that if we didn’t write it, someone else would,” said Lawrence, who represented progressives.

The group met for negotiations over six two-day sessions, sometimes breaking a deadlock with prayer, according to participants.

Like others within the church, LGBTQ United Methodists and their allies still are processing the proposal, Lawrence said.

Some are hopeful, she said. Some are skeptical. Some view the denomination as “beyond reform.”

And while the proposal isn’t perfect, she said, it does call for a moratorium on church trials against clergy who are LGBTQ or who perform same-sex weddings.

“It changes the landscape for people who have been deeply harmed,” said the Rev. David Meredith, who  has faced  complaints of violating church law since marrying his husband in 2016.

“I speak to my LGBT friends out there: This protocol ends the harm. It just does. I couldn’t believe that until this group met. I couldn’t believe that could happen in the United Methodist Church.”

Centrists within the denomination had three priorities, according to the Rev. Junius Dotson.

They wanted to have “room” for different perspectives, Dotson said. They wanted to remove all language and policies from the denomination’s rulebook that treated LGBTQ United Methodists as “second-class Christians.”

And they wanted the United Methodist Church to continue in some form. Most of the plans to split the denomination that already have been submitted to the 2020 General Conference would dissolve the United Methodist Church altogether, he said.

Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey, recently elected to be the next president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, said she couldn’t predict what the post-separation United Methodist Church would look like.

“It’s an opportunity to grow. It’s an opportunity to be more nimble and more responsive to our mission fields,” she said.

“And my prayer is that the post-separation United Methodist Church will continue to be a big tent church, a place where everyone can be the best that God has called them to be — the best expression of what it means to be a United Methodist.”

The Rev. Keith Boyette, president of the conservative Wesleyan Covenant Association, wouldn’t speculate how many churches and conferences might join a new traditionalist Methodist denomination, though he said he anticipated it would be a global denomination.

While traditionalists’ beliefs were affirmed by the special session, Boyette said, they were willing to leave to “set the church free from this conflict.”

“Progressives and centrists were making it very clear that they were not prepared to voluntarily leave the church and that they would persist in their advocacy for their deeply held convictions and beliefs,” he said.

Before the special session, Boyette had said he would recommend Wesleyan Covenant Association members leave the denomination if delegates did not back the existing language in the Book of Discipline. Afterward, the association  had affirmed  that still was an option if conflict continued.

“As everyone has conceded, we’ve been preparing as a contingency for just this sort of event to unfold, but still substantial work remains to be done,” Boyette said.

The new denomination likely would not meet in Minneapolis immediately following the General Conference, he said, but perhaps before the end of the year.

Yambasu, however, was confident that United Methodists in Africa, where  the denomination is growing fastest , will support the proposal.

“I believe 100% of Africans will support this proposal,” he said. “I’m very positive about that.”
Anglican Communion pleads to United Nations for an end to gender-based violence

Posted January 14, 2020
The 2019 CSW63 delegation meet the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Solomon Islands, Ms. Janice Mose

[ACNS, by Lucy Cowpland] An end to gender-based violence and the role of faith communities in the fight for gender equality are amongst the issues highlighted by the Anglican Communion Office at the United Nations (ACOUN) ahead of this year’s meeting of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women. The 64th UNCSW meeting in March will mark the 25th anniversary of the keynote Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

In an official statement to the UNCSW , ACOUN is also highlighting the need for a strong response to the threat of climate change and the importance of the voices of women on the frontline of creation care, particularly indigenous women; as well as investment in economic empowerment for women.

To support its message, ACOUN is taking a delegation of eight women from across the Communion to New York in March.

The statement identifies four key areas for Anglicans ahead of UNCSW64 and makes particular reference to the work that Anglicans from around the world are undertaking in their own communities within each of these key areas. It cites specific resolutions passed by the Anglican Consultative Council in the areas of gender-based violence and climate change.

There are seven recommendations at the end of the statement. These include urging UN member states to:

  • Take urgent and accelerated action to fully implement and finance the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in partnership with civil society and other stakeholders, including faith-based organisations and faith leaders;

  • Recognise the positive role that faith and communities of faith are playing in the provision of social services, humanitarian response, building resilient communities, promoting well-being, transforming social norms, and achieving gender equality, and consider faith communities as integral partners within civil society; and

  • Take action to reduce gaps in and remove barriers to the full and equal representation of women in leadership and decision-making at all levels in all sectors. 

UNCSW64 will focus on the 25th anniversary review of the Beijing Declaration. Rachael Fraser, Advocacy and Research Officer for ACOUN, told ACNS that this year was “a moment to celebrate how far we have come over the last 25 years, but also a moment of challenge; to reflect on how far we still have to go”.

FROM THE EPISCOPAL CAFÉ
Walking the Way

By Kimberly Knowle-Zeller
Posted January 14, 2020
There’s a lot I would like to teach my children. In this season with a preschooler and a toddler in the house it’s about learning how to share, chewing with closed mouths, remembering to say please and thank you, and practicing inside voices. And there’s so much I hope they learn from watching my husband and I: love of books, eating together around the table, talking with neighbors, sharing meals with friends, and building community at church.  

But there are also lessons God is teaching me through my children. Lessons of patience and humility. The reminder to slow down and marvel at a red leaf falling to the ground and a caterpillar slinking through the grass. The lessons of joy found in playing hide and seek and building tree houses from blocks. The comfort found in sitting on the couch with open laps and books to read. The savoring of pretend tea and cookies cooked in the pretend oven. 

What if in all these moments God is showing me over and over again what it is to listen? To hear God’s joy in the laughter of my children, to feel God’s peace in the cuddles on the couch, and God’s hope in reaching a hand out to share the peace on Sunday morning.
Recently we hosted an event at church where those who attended could walk a labyrinth. A prayerful encounter following a guided path. In the midst of talking to friends, finishing up lunch, and packing birthday blessing bags for a service project, I look up and see my son walking the labyrinth. He’s on the path looking focused and prayerful. At least that’s what I see. But I also feel God nudging at my heart and calling me to pause. To rest. To slow down and look around me. 

Perhaps I don’t need to worry so much about what I need to teach my children, but rather look to the One in whom we all find our center. The One who guides us along the way hearing our dreams and hopes, feeling our pain and sorrow, and transforming ordinary moments into extraordinary encounters with the holy. 

Come and walk with me, God says to us. I’m with you.  
Kimberly Knowle-Zeller is an ordained ELCA pastor, mother of two, and spouse of an ELCA pastor. She lives with her family in Cole Camp, MO. You can read more at her website or follow her work on Facebook .

HALE HO`OMALU IS TAKING A BREAK IN JANUARY

Stock up for next month when we will need toiletries like toothpaste, toothbrushes, and deodorant
SUNDAY SCHOOL THIS WEEK
Special Lesson: Recycle Project
Sunday School is conducting a special Recycle Project lesson for the next three weeks. They will turn old plastics and shells into decorative crosses for them to take home.
 
January 19 th : Teachers and volunteers (Youth Group, supporters, etc.) will walk the kids over to Baby Beach (directly across of All Saints Church) to search for items to "upcycle". Students may also bring their own items they want to use for the project.
 
January 26 th : Kids will begin putting those items together to make their crosses.
 
February 2 nd : they will have time to finish their crosses and teachers will reiterate the importance of taking care of the earth as stewards of God's creation.
 
If you have any questions or would like to volunteer for this special event, please contact Cami at cami@allsaintskauai.org .
IN BRIEF . . .
These news briefs were featured in previous issues of "The Epistle"

Please submit your story ideas to the Epistle Staff at news@allsaintskauai.org .
ALL SAINTS' SERVICE BULLETINS AVAILABLE ONLINE
Go to allsaintskauai.org, the last time under "Worship Services" is "Download E-Programs". Click on that link to download the current service bulletin.

RIDES OFFERED TO BOTH SUNDAY SERVICES
If you need a ride to and from church call Chris Wataya at 808-652-0230.

ALL SAINTS' WISH LIST
If any ministry has an unmet need, reach out to put it on the All Saints' Wish List and it will be published in the Epistle . Contact Bill Caldwell at news@allsaintskauai.org .

LAUNDRY LOVE VOLUNTEERS AND DONATIONS
For more information go to Laundry Love Kaua`i or contact Geoff Shields at gshields2334@gmail.com or Bill Caldwell at news@allsaintskauai.org .

PASTORAL CARE CONTACT INFORMATION
Whenever you have a need for support, please call (650) 691-8104 and leave a voice mail. The system will immediately forward the information to the Pastoral Care Committee who will respond to each request. If you prefer, you may send an electronic pastoral care request via email to pastoralcare@allsaintskauai.org .

PRAYER CHAIN MINISTRY
Individuals who want to participate in the Prayer Chain Ministry must re-enroll to continue receiving the email communications . To re-enroll, please visit the newly established   Pastoral Care web page  or contact the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.

SUBMITTING A PRAYER REQUEST
Prayer requests will now be   submitted online   or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Names can be added to the Prayers of the People petitions by using the  Prayer Chain Request form  or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267. Names will remain in the Prayers of the People for a maximum of four Sundays before a name must be resubmitted.

HOME COMMUNION FOR SICK AND SHUT-INS
All Saints' Eucharistic Visitors are available each Sunday (pending availability) to bring Communion to those who are sick or shut-in. Requests for a Eucharistic visitation can be made by calling the Church Office at (808) 822-4267 or emailing homecommunion@allsaintskauai.org .