WEEKLY NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
July 3, 2020
WORSHIP
The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Service of Holy Eucharist
8:00 am & 9:30 am
Scripture Readings for this Sunday:
Genesis 24:34-38,42-49,58-67
Psalm 145:8-15
Romans 7:15-25
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Welcome Back Rebecca!
We are so happy to welcome our Bishopʻs Warden, Rebecca Hullum, back on island. She wrapped up her quarantine this week and is pictured at left during Sundayʻs Zoom worship. Welcome back!

For the safety of everyone, we ask that you let us know the service you plan to attend. Email Pastor Gae at: christmemorialkilauea@gmail.com. At the beginning of each service Pastor Gae will explain how we will be receiving communion.

LIVE ZOOM WORSHIP AT 9:30
We are offering a live stream Zoom worship during our 9:30 service. We don't have WiFi as yet, and are connecting through a hotspot on a phone, so pray to the Angel of the Internet! Tune in at 9:30 (HST) through this link:
NEW Day and NEW Series
Mondays 10:00-11:15 am (HST)
Spiritual Lessons from the Book of Genesis begins this Monday!
Email Pastor Gae if you are interested in attending at christmemorialkilauea@gmail.com
The Wednesday Bible Study - Gospel of John, continues at 2:00-3:15 pm.
Connect via Zoom for both study sessions:

We Love Our Volunteers
A little church like Christ Memorial is dependent on our volunteers. While we hired a contractor to do most of the renovation of the Parish Hall, there were still a lot of little (and big) tasks to do.  Powerwashing and painting the lanai, organizing the kitchen, decorating a bathroom (we still have one to go) and moving the tables and chairs to their new closet home. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Maggie, Craig, Josie, Melody, Suzanne, Tommy and Branch. Shown here is Branch painting the lanai (it was supposed to be a touch up job...)
Manners for Zoom Worship and Meetings
Are there good manners for Zoom worship and meetings? Yes there are!  We consulted with the spirit of Emily Post and here is what we heard:

  1. Connect at least 10 minutes before the service or the meeting to make sure everything is working correctly.  
  2. If at all possible please have your video on. Even though we are physically apart, your presence is important.
  3. Have your audio always on mute unless advised by the facilitator.
  4. Be present. Don’t multitask. Sit still. Having your water or coffee nearby is fine but since your video is on, probably best not to be having a meal.  
  5. Try your best not to leave early. For Sunday worship, meditate on the words of the Eucharistic Prayer. While people in church are receiving communion, close your eyes and imagine Jesus saying, “This is my body given for you.”  
  6. If your computer drops you out, come back on but make sure your video is on and your audio is muted.  

THANK YOU!
Morning Coffee with Pastor Gae
Aloha Friends,

You know our country is really messed up when folks are getting into fights about whether or not to wear a mask. I don’t know anyone who loves wearing a mask. Would we wear it if Kauaʻi gave us the option? I would hope so but what we see on the mainland leaves me with a lot of doubt. My granddaughter lives in Sacramento and she told me she went to one of the big stores that suggested, but didn’t require, people to wear a mask and she felt like a freak. She had on her mask but most folks were sans mask How do you shame people without words when you have a mask covering your face?  Give them the snake eye maybe? Ha Ha!
Even though my mask is the first thing that comes off when I walk in my house (even before my shoes), I love seeing everyone in a mask when I’m out and about. There is a solidarity to it. In an odd way I feel connected like I’ve never felt before. It says to me that we care about our own bodies and we also care about each others'.  I don’t want to get sick and I don’t want you to get sick.

As I’ve prayed about what the spiritual lesson might be in this virus nightmare, I keep getting called back to Isaiah 2 where the prophet says that God “has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted. The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled.” I don’t believe God sent the virus to teach us a lesson but you have to admit our world has been moving in the wrong direction. Our lower nature of selfishness, greed, pride and arrogance, and a general lack of love has been getting way out of hand.  Perhaps deep in our consciousness we knew a correction needed to be made. Perhaps we created this?  Perhaps we created this to jar us into remembering that we are all children of the Holy One.  In God’s eyes, no one is more important than another.   
While we have been brought low as the prophet promised by feeling absolutely powerless with this virus, there are some little things we have the power to do. First of all, we need to be humble and trust in the wisdom of medical professionals: Mask up; give everyone their personal space of 6 ft or more; and wash your hands a lot. Now more than ever is the time to keep our bodies healthy with exercise, good diet, and sleep.  And we need to trust in the wisdom of spiritual teachers: Replace negative thoughts with affirmations like “All shall be well”; spend time everyday in nature; pray and meditate; and most important, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” 

We will get through this, not by ourselves, but together with God. As always your thoughts. Thank you for listening. 

Joy and peace today,

Pastor Gae ✝️


Previously Announced Reminders:
Celebrating Our History: Do You Remember?
Do you remember any of the priests listed below? Help us as we plan for our first big event in our newly renovated Parish Hall. This fall we are going to be remembering our history!
Tell us when you came into the church and what you remember: Accomplishments of the priests who served, events, challenges and even funny stories. We are also looking for photos of the following priests who served Christ Memorial and St. Thomas.  Email what you know to Melody Lotspeich at mellomack@gmail.com.
~Marcos E. Carver, 1917 – 1925 Founder and Priest-in-Charge of missions on the Island of Kauaʻi
~Henry A. Willey, 1924 – 1945
~Harold Wilmot-Smith, 1945 – 1948
~Paul R. Savanack, 1949 – 1950
~Norman R. Alter, 1950 – 1952
~E. Lani Hanchett Layman-in-Charge, 1951 – 1952, Deacon at CMEC in 1952, ordained Priest in 1953, later became the 1st Hawaiian Bishop, and 1st Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaiʻi
~Keith Kreitner, 1952 – 1953
~Samuel N. McCain, Jr., 1953 – 1958
~Thomas D. Hughes, 1958 – 1960
~Charles T. Crane, 1960 – 1962
~Thomas K. Yoshida, 1962 – 1966
~Charles G. Hopkins, Jr., 1966 – 1969
~Elsberry W. Reynolds, 1969 – 1970
~George T. Eppley, 1972 – 1973
~Richard S. O. Chang, 1973 – 1979 later became the 4th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaiʻi
~Robert E. Walden, 1979 – 1981
~Jan C. Rudinoff, 1982 – 1984
~James P. Eron, 1984 – 1992
~A. Donor Macneice, 1993 – 2005
~Shirley Ellingboe, 2009 – 2010
~Roberta R. Taylor, 2011 – 2016
Parish Hall Available For Rent July 1
Wouldn’t it be great if our Parish Hall featured:
  • Yoga and exercise classes
  • Exercise for seniors
  • Monthly discussions about social issues
  • All kinds of Healthy Living groups (Adult Children of Alcoholics; Eating Disorders; Financial Peace)
  • Bridge, Chess or Mahjong 
  • Healthy eating lectures and movies

Help us get it going. Please share with those who might be interested in starting a program.
Update: Vicarage Project
Some of you have asked about the VICARAGE PROJECT. We want to reassure you that we haven’t given up the ghost. The virus slowed our momentum for the past couple of months but we are back on track.

Having a vicarage for a priest is essential for the future of our little church. When Pastor Gae arrived, full-time rental housing was very scarce on our side of the island. We didn’t know if she was going to have to live in Kapaʻa or Lihue and commute. In the time that she has been here she has already had to move once.

We are currently looking at some architectural drawings. Stay tuned!
Ongoing Activities:
Our Thrift Shop is Open!
We are open for donations and shopping!

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 2:00 - 5:00 pm
Wednesday 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Saturday 9:30 am - 3:00 pm

For a safe shopping experience, we can only allow 5 shoppers in the store at any time. All must wear masks and use hand sanitizer.

Wait until you see our newly renovated Thrift Shop !
Want a preview? click here

Online Centering Prayer & Scripture Reflection
Tuesdays, 9:00 - 9:45 am (HST)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7532197968

We will continue to have Centering Prayer every Tuesday morning on Zoom, 9:00 - 9:45 am. We begin with a scripture reading for the day followed by 12 minutes of meditation. Then a reflection is read and anyone who would like to share an insight is invited to do so. We finish with prayer time for those in need of healing.  
The Labyrinth - Meditation in Movement
The Power of the Turn by Eve Hogan 
(Reprinted from www.spiritualityhealth.com_
A standard labyrinth that takes its inspiration from the one at Chartres Cathedral has more than 20 180-degree turns.  

As we walk, these turns become a rich opportunity for us to look at all the things that have happened in our lives and how we have responded to them. We can rethink whether a new or different perspective is possible.

We tend to immediately label things that happen good or bad without taking the time to look at the situation from multiple angles. Often, it would behoove us to consider our labels to be a hypothesis instead of the truth, be open to other possible outcomes, and then watch to see how everything actually turns out.

I like to call this ability to see things from more than one viewpoint “the power of the 180-degree turn.”

Several years ago my beautiful labyrinth on Maui, which usually sits beside a gentle, babbling stream, got swallowed up by a raging flash flood. My immediate reaction was to be upset and label the event as very bad. In the moment, I even considered it a tragedy. But things unfolded differently. Many people showed up to help rebuild the labyrinth, money poured in from all over the world to support the project, and the resulting labyrinth was a new and improved version of the first. What I thought was bad was actually a blessing.

If you choose to take a deeper look at your life as you walk the labyrinth, allow the 180-degree turns to represent major events of your life. As you make each turn, pause to consider the labels or beliefs you adopted at the time of that event.

As you walk to the next turn, use the stretch between the turns to consider what the lessons and blessings from that event may have been. Who did the situation bring into your life? What did you discover? How were you strengthened? Where did it lead you? As we do this exercise, we often realize that it wasn’t necessarily the event or the thing that happened that solely caused us suffering, but rather the decision we made about it, the belief we held or the way we behaved in reaction to it.

You cannot change the past, but you can change how you view the past and whether you allow it to continue to upset you.

Explore walking through your past as you walk into the labyrinth and see if you can practice forgiveness, acceptance, letting go, or even gratitude as a new response to the things you have encountered.

When you reach the center, practice being present, here, now. Notice where your life’s journey has led you so far. See if you can experience peace in the present moment as a means of strengthening yourself and fortifying yourself for the journey ahead. Take this time to consider all you have learned so far and set your intention for moving forward.

As you turn to walk out of the labyrinth, imagine you are walking into the future. Explore walking mindful of your thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes, choosing powerful responses to the numerous 180-degree turns that you are yet to encounter. 
Online Care

Alcohol Anonymous (AA) 
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at 7:30 pm (HST) Go to www.kauaiaa.org and look for the Northshore AA groups. 
GIVE
Our giving is important, especially now.

Although we aren’t gathering in the sanctuary for worship, our church bills are still the same. We’ve had questions from our Sunday worshippers and now our Zoom worshippers about how to give. Your continued gifts really matter, especially in this time of uncertainty.  
If you like to give by check, please send to:
Christ Memorial Episcopal Church,
P.O. Box 293, Kilauea, HI 96754

Or consider changing to Automated Giving. It makes life easy. Just click on the button below to make a one-time or recurring donation. 

Thank you for your love and care for our Christ Memorial community!

Quicklinks:

Newsletter Mission: Our weekly newsletter was launched to inform our island community, as well as connect with our broader community of old and new friends, near and far. Whether you live on Kaua'i, visit seasonally or joined Christ Memorial for the first time during vacation, we welcome you into our global family. We endeavor to include inspiration, new ideas, practical advice and updates on news and events of Christ Memorial. Let us know how we can serve you best in 2020 by replying to this newsletter or emailing us at ChristMemorialKilauea@gmail.com

Have you met Pastor Gae? Pastor Gae wants to get to know you all – phone chats, home visits, morning coffees, afternoon teas or walks on the beach. Near or far, reach out to meet or share your thoughts at gdchalker@gmail.com or (623) 208-9436.
Christ Memorial Episcopal Church
2509 Kolo Road, Kilauea, HI 96754
Mailing: PO Box 293, Kilauea, HI 96754
Phone: (808) 482-4824