Volume 5, Issue 49
December 11, 2020
THIS SUNDAY: December 13, 2020
Third Sunday of Advent



ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICES
with COMMUNION

8:00AM
Joe Adorno (EM)*
Judy Saronitman (U)
Marge Akana (AG)
Muriel Jackson (DM)

9:30AM
Mary Margaret Smith (EM)
Mario Antonio (U)
Rachel Secretario (LR)
Jan Hashizume (AG)
Vikki Secretario, Nelson Secretario (HP)
Jan Hashizume, Ron Morinishi (DM)

Live Stream
9:30AM on our home page, YouTube, or Facebook accounts
@allsaintskauai

* EM - Eucharistic Minister; U - Usher; LR - Lay Reader; AG - Altar Guild; HP - Healing Prayers; DM - Digital Ministry
UPCOMING EVENTS
ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICES WITH COMMUNION
8:00AM and 9:30AM
Memorial Hall

Aloha Hour
Every Sunday
10:45AM - 12:00PM
Tent

Monday Crew
Every Monday
8:00AM
Church Office

Sunday School
Every Sunday
9:30 - 10:00AM
Deck under the false kamani tree

ADULT FORMATION SERIES:
"The Women in Jesus' Family Tree in Matthew 1"
"Ruth (Ruth 1-4)"
Tuesday, December 15th
5:00 - 6:15PM
Zoom meeting
Those who are interested in the Adult Formation Series may contact Cami at Cami@allsaintskauai.org for login information.


For the aged and infirm, for the widowed and orphans, and for the sick and the suffering, especially Nancy, Maka, Nathan, Kellen, the Lauretta 'Ohana, the Telles 'Ohana, Renee, and those we name silently or aloud, let us pray to the Lord. ​Lord, have mercy. 

For all who have died, especially Alfred, Kalani, those affected by the COVID-19 virus, and those we name silently or aloud, in the hope of the resurrection, and for all the departed, let us pray to the Lord. ​Lord, have mercy. Amen.
All Saints' at Its Best
Mahalo Nui Loa for Feeding the Organ Crew
Many thanks to everyone who has donated lunches and dinners for the organ crew. You have enabled them to focus on the task of installing the organ. You have kept them well fed as they engage in this complicated and precise job. There are still open dates if you'd like to contribute.
Please Donate a Meal for the Organ Crew

Please remember not to enter the sanctuary when delivering meals.
Leave them on the table provided outside the front door. The crew is working in a COVID restriction bubble which we should not enter. We will have to wait until they are out of quarantine to see the progress they've made and talk story with them.
The Organ Crews is here industriously installing the new organ. They are working long hours, 6 days a week to complete the installation and voicing of the organ within the next few months. Our congregation will be donating meals for the crew while they’re here. You can sign up to donate lunches or dinners by clicking here: Feed the Crew and filling out the meal donation form to select the meal and your preferred date.

Meal Instructions:
  • Meals may be dropped off at the Church and placed on the table outside the sanctuary.
  • Meals may be dropped off at the Church earlier than the time slot indicated but packaged so they can be refrigerated and eaten later.
  • PLEASE DO NOT ENTER THE SANCTUARY.

Crew #1: 11/30/20 - 12/19/20
  • Please prepare and drop off 3 meals per time slot

Crew #2: 1/4/20 - 1/16/21
  • Please prepare and drop off 2 meals per time slot
It's Never Too Late to Pledge
Bring In Your Pledges of Time, Talent, and Treasure to the Honor and Glory of God
You may still bring in your pledge cards on Sundays to place in the offertory calabash, bring them to the church office, or mail them in. Prayerfully consider what you would like to give back from the wonderful gifts given to you by a loving God.
Reflections from Kahu Kawika
Prepping for God

Mark 1:1-8
Isaiah 40:1-11
1 Peter 3:8-15a
Advent 2B
6 December 2020
All Saints’ Church, Kapaʻa


I’ve had the privilege to have traveled to the Holy Land nine times so far in my life, out of which I was a pilgrimage leader for five of them. One time I was leading a group of church members from the UK. A highlight of our trip was going to be the renewal of our baptismal vows at the Jordan River at the traditional spot of where John the Baptist had baptized Jesus and many others. I had prepared a special contemplative liturgy for us while we would stand in the Jordan with the gentle current of the river flowing amidst and around us.

We got there and got in place. I was leading our special contemplative and quiet time of renewal of baptismal vows when we started to hear loud and blaring music just beyond the bend in the river. Later I looked and discovered that the American televangelist Paul Crouch was there conducting baptisms of his own – only filming them for his TV show with the cacophony of blasting show music going on. There was Crouch, in an expensive suit with water-protective overalls from his waist down, as well as slicked-back hair and a ready photogenic bright smile. He was definitely making a show of dunking a line of folks.

Something in me was offended at the sight and sounds we were witnessing. Our hoped-for quiet and contemplative time of renewal of baptismal vows was cut short – it was still special, but the intrusion of American showmanship seemed at odds with the otherwise tranquil setting of John the Baptist’s site, which was largely unchanged since his time.

I wondered what John himself would think of this showiness. John had intentionally distanced himself from society, placing himself out in the desert. And yet, throngs of people would make the 40-mile trek out of Jerusalem just to have their lives cleansed by this holy man.

Most notably, John plays down his own role, saying that he is a mere sidekick and forerunner to the One everyone is really looking for: “The One who is more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:8) John is actually Jesus’ second cousin, older by just six months according to Luke 1, when the newly-pregnant Mary visits her older cousin Elizabeth in Jerusalem who is six-months pregnant with John. Even though he is an older family member, John nevertheless shows an amazing humility in his role driven by his trust in God’s plan. 

In short, John sees his role as fulfilling the promise made in our first reading from Isaiah 40: “The voice cries out, ‘Clear a path through the wilderness for the LORD! Make a straight road through the desert for our God. Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low. Let every cliff become a plain, and the ridges become a valley!’”

As we are now in the Advent Season, this picture of John’s fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision speaks to how we should approach this time in the run-up to Christmas. This suggests some ways in which we can in our lives also “make straight God’s paths,” and thus make God visible through our lives to those around us:

  1. Pivot from the World: As I said earlier, John intentionally shuns his society and even his upbringing. Zechariah and Elizabeth, his parents, are both from the educated Levitical class of Jewish society, and as such represent generations of people who had served as priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. As their eldest son, John would have been expected to follow in the “family business” and become a Temple priest as well. He instead goes on to baptize people in the Jordan River – a direct affront to the religious working of the Temple priests and authorities, who would conduct purification rites on people in the ornate carved-out pools of water in front of the Temple. In essence, people are choosing to go out to John for spiritual cleansing rather than to go to the more convenient Temple pools.

John also shuns societal norms by living as a wild man out in the desert. Mark describes him as dressed most uncomfortably in scratchy camel’s hair, which signaled to others that John looks like Elijah the great prophet some 700 years earlier, and as such is committed to the same itinerant prophetic ministry. John also lives simply off the land, eating “locusts and wild honey” –actually, the word “locust” in the Greek also refers to the Carob tree pods, which actually taste something like chocolate, and with honey would be a rather delicious treat reminiscent of the manna Moses and the Israelites lived off of in their own 40-year desert wanderings. Seems John has something of a sweet tooth! By having such a lifestyle, John demonstrates his complete dependence on God and God’s provisions for him.

How much are we like John in keeping our own lives simple with a single-minded devotion to the love of God? As Paul writes in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” How much are we allowing God’s Spirit to transform us into the image of Jesus?

  1. Pave the Way for Jesus: Ever wonder how the Roman Empire got so powerful and could maintain control for centuries? One reason was their system of roads – they were masters at making them paved, straight, and thus could enable the rapid deployment of both soldiers and armament like horses, catapults, etc. In fact, if you travel to England, whenever you come across a city with “-cester” in the name, like Worcester, Cirencester, Leicester, etc., that means that that was place where Roman roads formed an important intersection. By having straight, uncluttered, paved roads, the Romans could control vast stretches of empire from North Africa, to the Holy Land, through Greece, Spain, and up to the border of modern-day Scotland.

In a similar idea, John also sees himself as “paving the way” for Jesus’ arrival as Messiah. He is prepping the hearts and expectations of his people to welcome Jesus as the bringer of the Kingdom of God. Even before the Romans, whenever a sovereign was traveling in their wagon or chariot, they would have horsemen and runners go on ahead to chuck out things in the way like rocks, rubble, fallen trees, etc., and do their best to fill in potholes to prevent the wheels of the wagon from getting harmed or even falling off.

John paves the way for Jesus as Messiah by pointing to him and making the focus of his life to maximize Jesus by minimizing his own importance. When we go beyond our own comfort zones in order to see to the needs of our community and world, then we are tending to Jesus and thereby showing trust in God to tend to our own needs.

John, by pivoting from the ways of the world and instead paving the way for Jesus, shows us to avoid getting caught up in trivial pursuits that pale in significance compared to promoting God’s justice and righteousness, characterized by the aloha of God’s Spirit and the welcome of God’s embrace. Let’s close in the words of our collect prayer for this Sunday: Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Upcoming Christmas Events
Mark Your Calendars and Celebrate!
December 24th
  • 3:30PM Keiki Service led by the Ke Akua Youth Group: Recorded video only (no in-person or livestream)
  • 5:50PM Festive Eucharist: in-person and livestreamed
  • 10:30PM Carole Prelude and Festive Eucharist: in-person and livestreamed

December 25th
  • 9:30AM Eucharist: in-person and livestreamed

The Keiki service recording and livestreaming services are available via links on the All Saints' website: allsaintskauai.org

Ke Akua Youth Group to Produce Keiki Service
Despite COVID, the Youth Group Continues to Serve
COVID has impacted, but not slowed down, the Ke Akua Youth Group. They continue to meet via Zoom for regular meetings, EAM/ACAM meetings, and compline with Fr. Jar on Oahu. They managed a socially distanced Relay for Life. They helped with the
Thanksgiving Luncheon. Now they are working on producing a recorded Keiki Christmas Eve service. This will enable families to watch the service without coming to the church or being restricted to viewing it at a specific time. The video will be available on Christmas Eve on All Saints' Youtube channel and through a link on the All Saints' website. Big mahalos to our dedicated youth for all they do for our church `Ohana and the community.

Altar Guild Requests Flower Donations for Christmas Decorations

Arrangements for Christmas will be Created by the Altar Guild
Due to COVID-19 we are unable to obtain poinsettias for this year's Christmas Sanctuary decoration. In lieu of monetary donations, the Altar Guild is kindly asking for specific flower arrangement items so they may make their own. They are kindly requesting:
 
  • 50  Red Ginger Flowers
  • 50 Ferns
  • 50 Ti Leaf Bunches
  • 50 Evergreen Branches
  • 8 Potted Red Anthurium Plants 
  • 8 Glass Vase 10"h x 4" dia. 
 
You may sign up on our jotform here: https://form.jotform.com/allsaintskauai/xmas-flowers-2020 or on the front page of our website.

USPS Operation Santa Program Debuts for Hawai`i Keiki

An Opportunity to Help Those in Need
The following is excerpted from The Garden Island, December 3, 2020

HONOLULU — The U.S. Postal Service announced that, for the first time ever, keiki from across Hawai‘i will be able to participate in its USPS Operation Santa letter-writing program.
The program allows volunteers to “adopt” letters and fulfill Christmas wishes by sending gifts in Santa’s place.

With many island families struggling due to financial or health issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, some parents may not be able to fulfill their children’s holiday wishes this year. That’s where USPS Operation Santa comes in.

USPS has a tradition of connecting kids with Santa, through their Christmas-wish letters that are written and mailed every year. This year, the USPS is connecting Hawai‘i kids in need of holiday cheer with volunteer “Santas” in the state.

USPS Operation Santa offers volunteers the opportunity to “adopt” kids’ letters to Santa Claus and fulfill their holiday wish lists.

....

Hawai‘i residents are encouraged to go online and adopt a letter to help a child have a happy holiday. Letters can be filtered by state. Details on how to adopt a Santa letter and a history of the program are available at USPSOperationSanta.com

....

Letters [from potential gift recipients] are accepted now through Dec. 15. Letters will be available for adoption beginning Friday, Dec. 4.

To read the entire article, click here: Operation Santa
New Adult Formation Opportunity
The Women in Jesus' Family Tree in Matthew 1
In the very first chapter of the New Testament, Matthew 1, there is a list of family tree of Jesus descended from the royal line of David. There are 42 generations shown, all fathers and sons -- with the notable exception of four remarkable and unusual women worthy of special mention scattered in Jesus' lineage. We will take a look at each matriarch in turn, to see why Matthew would include these particular four women in Jesus' royal line. All dates are the four Tuesdays in the Advent Season, 5pm-6:15pm via Zoom - Kahu will send out the Zoom link, or you may call the church office at 808.822.4267 to get the link:

Tuesday Dec. 15: Ruth (Ruth 1-4)
Tuesday Dec. 22: Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11)

Join us for what promises to be a fun, informative, and inspiring time!

Kahu Kawika+
Bishop Bob's Visit to All Saints' Postponed
Confirmation and Classes Postponed
Baptisms on Schedule
We have received a message from the Office of the Bishop that Bishop Bob's trip to Kauai scheduled for February 7th has been postponed in response to the current travel restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been rescheduled to come to Kauai on the next available date, May 16th, for his visit and confirmations. Confirmation classes will be rescheduled to take place closer to the Bishop's visit.

The baptisms scheduled for February 7th will go ahead as scheduled. If you are interested in becoming a candidate for baptism or have a family member to present for baptism, please contact Cami at church@allsaintskauai.org.
Bishop's First Off-Island Visitation During Pandemic Times
Confirmations & Blessings at Christ Memorial
After 8 long months of being "grounded" on O'ahu, Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick flew to Kaua'i on Sunday, November 15, 2020, for confirmations and blessings at Christ Memorial Episcopal Church in Kilauea. After taking the 72-hour pre-test and following all safety protocols, the Bishop arrived at the quaint north shore church ready for a busy morning. READ MORE
The Organ Crew Is Making Great Progress!
Thanks to David Crocker for these photos.


Sign Up for 2021 Altar Flower Donations Now
Donation Forms Available Online or at Church 
Ever wonder where all our beautiful altar flowers come from each Sunday? 

Our flowers are lovingly arranged by Mrs.Tanaka or by JC Flowers. These flowers were all donated by members of the congregation. To participate with a donation in 2021 and for more information, click here: Altar flowers, or sign up on the form outside Memorial Hall before or after services.

Happy Thanksgiving from Fr. John and Kathleen Saville
#AdventWord
A Resource for Advent
For the seventh year, #AdventWord will gather prayers via a global, online Advent calendar. Virginia Theological Seminary is offering 27 daily meditations and images during this holy season, beginning Sunday, November 29. During a year of disparate worship and communities of prayer, AdventWord offers a way to reflect and pause for the Advent season and await the birth of Christ.

Gathering a worldwide community, #AdventWord provides a daily meditation, visual image, and invites your personal reflections via social media to share your own Advent journey. Thousands have participated each year, responding to the words with photos, written responses, crafts, drawings, poems, found art, and Holy Spirit-filled posts.

“It is amazing to witness the prayers from around the world appearing on social media when Advent begins,” says AdventWord program director, Sarah Stonesifer Boylan. “I am really pleased to see that VTS has been able to continue to provide this offering consistently for four years, each time building on its success.”

Also new this year to #AdventWord offerings include a podcast for each day, voiced by Virginia Theological Seminary community members. The short daily podcasts provide another access point to absorb the lectionary-inspired writings by 27 different authors. Find it by searching AdventWord on your preferred podcast platform.

The prompts for 2020 #AdventWord are:

December 11 - Word
December 12 - Honey
December 13 - Go
December 14 - Rest
December 15 - Worship
December 16 - Pray
December 17 - Learn
December 18 - Bless
December 19 - Turn
December 20 - Rejoice
December 21 - Mystery
December 22 - Wisdom
December 23 - Holy
December 24 - Proclaim
The #AdventWord Images and meditations can be experienced through AdventWord.org, direct daily emails, as well as on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and ASL videos via YouTube. Meditations will also be available in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole via email and on www.adventword.org. Listen and subscribe to the AdventWord daily podcast on most major podcast hosting sites.

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.
Third Week of Advent: Journeying with Community

December 13, 2020
As we continue our Advent walk, we invite you to see the Way of Love as a journey that includes the community. The witness of Zechariah and Elizabeth who bring infant John to the Temple to be circumcised reminds us of the importance of our faith community to sustaining the Way of Love. Just as the community did for John’s family, communities provide a place for discernment, sometimes challenging us and other times affirming us. Communities celebrate and mark important moments along the journey.
Sunday, December 13

WORSHIP

Pray for each person as they receive communion. Imagine who you’d like to see at church next week. Invite that person to join you.

Monday, December 14

GO

Choose to take a different route to work, to school, or to play today. Whom or what did you encounter differently?

Tuesday, December 15

LEARN

Read Luke 1:64. When Zechariah could finally speak, he began by praising God. For what can you praise God? Share on social media or with a friend.

Wednesday, December 16

PRAY

Keep a lookout for anyone who might seem lonely, stressed, or sad. Offer this simple invitation: “May I pray for you?” Then offer prayers – silently or aloud – on the person’s behalf as you move through your day.
Thursday, December 17

BLESS

Identify a blessing you have that you could give away. Share this blessing with your church, a local ministry, or your community.

Friday, December 18

TURN

Turn away from the busyness of the week and turn toward someone who gives you life or to whom you give life. Give thanks.

Saturday, December 19

REST

In Genesis 1-2, God calls the creation “good” and rests. What can you proclaim to be “good” instead of “not enough” as a witness to God’s love for the world today?
For more Advent resources related to the Way of Love, visit episcopalchurch.org/wayoflove. There, you’ll find links to the full Advent curriculum Journeying the Way of Love, as well as Living the Way of Love in Community, a nine-session curriculum for use anytime.

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.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s 2020 Christmas Message
Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her King; let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

Perhaps like me, you’ve sung this hymn for years – in church, at home with your family, gathered with friends and neighbors. Perhaps you’ve sung it to yourself – in your car, on a walk, or quietly in the dark of night. Joy to the world!

While we may not feel joyful this year – as the pandemic of disease continues to bring sickness and death, when fear and mistrust – a darkness – threatens to overcome the light – we, as followers of Jesus Christ must bear joy to this aching world. We must shine light into the darkness. Joy to the world!

Like much in our lives, proclaiming joy is difficult work – also good and essential work – especially now. Though we mourn that which is lost in our lives, our families, and our communities – Joy to the world!

While we strive to pull up the twisted and thorny vines of hatred and bigotry and anger – Joy to the world!

Through streaming tears and gritted teeth – Joy to the world!  – because God is breaking into our lives and into this world anew.

While this is a strange year, the ministry He gives us remains the same. We will prepare him room in our hearts by taking on the ministry Jesus demands of us: feed those who are hungry; welcome the stranger; clothe those who are naked; heal those who are sick; visit the prisoner. Love God. Love your neighbor. Sing joy into this old world. Prepare him room.
St. Luke writes of the first Christmas, “[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” There, in the simplest bed, in the cool of the night, in a trough, in bands of cloth, lies the One for whom no room was made. And yet strangely, there lies the One whom not even the universe can contain.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come. In your hearts, in your homes, in your lives, prepare him room.

God love you; God bless you; and may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

FROM THE EPISCOPAL CAFÉ
Advent's Prayer

December 8, 2020

Kimberly Knowle-Zeller
Dear One, 

This season is waiting for you –
to welcome you in to the warmth
to settle your soul
to light a fire within you. 
 
You, too, are waiting –
for healing and wholeness
for compassion among neighbors
for understanding in differences.
 
Take your time this Advent to savor the sounds of the season – 
the crackle of a fire
dough being mixed and kneaded
well-worn pages of your bible turning. 
 
Take your time to see the gifts of the season – 
lights twinkling, rays of hope 
songs and stories shared over the computer
the words of the bible in the early morning. 
 
Take your time to touch this season –
the warmth of your children’s hands
fresh baked bread
candles being lifted into the night. 
 
Take your time to taste this season –
cookies and bread
hot cider and hot chocolate
a meal delivered by a friend. 
 
Take your time to feel this season – 
hope tinged with doubt
uncertainty laced with belief
joy intermingled with sadness. 
 
The season is waiting for you –
brimming with God’s goodness
for us
for the world
given in peace. 

Amen. 

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, follow her work on Facebookor sign up for her monthly newsletter.
North Carolina Ministry Promotes Health Care Access, Rooted in Bonds Formed Over Prayer, Food

By David Paulsen

Posted Dec 10, 2020
Prayer cards hang on the wall at Church of the Holy Spirit behind some of the food prepared for delivery through Abundant Life Ministries in Greensboro, North Carolina. Many of the people served by Abundant Life were first connected to the church by parishioners who went into the community to pray with their neighbors. Photo: Abundant Life Ministries

[Episcopal News Service] Abundant Life Ministries isn’t a traditional worshipping community – not yet, at least – but it has a growing congregation, made up of residents in the economically and racially diverse neighborhoods on the north side of Greensboro, North Carolina. Many need help navigating the health care system. The Rev. Audra Abt and her team of volunteers launched Abundant Life a year ago to provide that help by fostering connections between neighbors and health professionals over weekly meals.

After talking and praying with neighbors for several years, Abt realized they also craved nourishment of the soul and weren’t content to seek it during the traditional Sunday morning hour of worship in an Episcopal church. She said in an interview with Episcopal News Service that she hopes Abundant Life Ministries can help “break down some of our presumptions of what church should be.”

The Episcopal Church has backed Abundant Life’s launch with two $30,000 church planting grants, building on the Diocese of North Carolina’s support. The pandemic forced Abt in March to suspend the weekly community meals held at Church of the Holy Spirit, where Abt serves as a quarter-time vicar, but Abundant Life Ministries has continued to deliver meals and organize occasional outdoor Bible studies. Those efforts are now serving about 200 people.

Episcopal leaders are following that progress closely, “to partner with and learn from the Abundant Life community,” the Rev. Katie Nakamura Rengers, staff officer for church planting, told ENS in an email. “With Audra’s leadership, they are living out the ideal of ‘total ministry,’ in which people outside the walls are just as much part of the church as those inside.”

Abt was ordained in 2010 and spent several years as a parish priest. Early on, she worked with Latino families to form house churches, and that led her to a newly created diocesan missioner role in 2015. She began looking for ways to tie Greensboro’s eight Episcopal congregations more closely to people in their community. That call resonated with members of Church of the Holy Spirit and two other churches on the city’s north side. They joined Abt in venturing beyond the church walls.

“What if the whole north side of Greensboro was our mission field, with three worship centers?” Abt said.

A majority of those neighborhoods’ residents are Black, Abt said, and the rest are a mix of white, Latino and Asian American families. Decades of refugee resettlement also has shaped the community, with many families moving to Greensboro from West Africa and Latin America. Abt organized teams to go into the neighborhoods, knock on doors, introduce themselves and offer to pray with people.

Church members wrote down their neighbors’ prayers on cards to take back to the church, so that the whole congregation could join them in prayer on Sunday. Some prayers evoked common themes: Neighbors prayed for relief from physical pain, lamented their lack of health insurance and asked God to help them or their loved ones with mental illness and addiction.

“It all came out of the prayers, people just praying for people they loved,” Abt said. “But the theme of access to medical care was rising to the surface.”

Scottish Episcopal Church Aims for Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2030

Posted Dec 9, 2020
[Scottish Episcopal Church] “We cannot challenge others if we do not challenge ourselves” was the message from the leader of the Scottish Episcopal Church as he gave his charge during the morning session of General Synod 2020.

The Most Rev. Mark Strange, bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness and primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, raised the difficult issues of bullying, bias and racism awareness in his opening address, and pointed to the issues that the church should speak out about, such as international aid, gender violence, modern slavery and climate change.

On a historic occasion at St. Paul’s & St. George’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, with just a few core participants present in the church building, Strange told the first-ever online General Synod, “We have questions of what sort of investments we place our money into but also questions about how we heat our churches, how often and how far we travel, about the resources we use to run this institution.”

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.
HALE HO`OMALU ACCEPTING DONATIONS
There is an on-going need for travel sized toiletries and canned goods so these items will be accepted every week. As always, monetary donations are gratefully accepted. Leave them in the red wagon outside the sanctuary.

ZONTA OF KAUAI FOUNDATION CHRISTMAS FUND is accepting donations for Christmas 2020. To donate, click here: Zonta Christmas Donation.

KUPUNA SHOPPING ASSISTANCE MINISTRY
Any of our All Saints' kupuna who need assistance with grocery shopping can contact Carolyn Morinishi at church@allsaintskauai.org to set up a delivery.

ALL SAINTS' VIRTUAL SWAP MEET
If any ministry has an unmet need, reach out to put it in the All Saints' Virtual Swap Meet and it will be published in the Epistle. Contact 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.