Volume 6, Issue 15
April 9, 2021
THIS SUNDAY: April 11, 2021
Second Sunday of Easter


Acts 4:32-35
The new Early Church community has been transformed by the Holy Spirit and is sacrificially sharing financial and other resources within the church community.

Psalm 133
Praise for when members of God's community get along with each other.

1 John 1:1-2:2
John testifies that he is among the early people who were firsthand witnesses to Jesus and to his message of love.

John 20:19-31
Thomas at first disbelieves Jesus' appearance to the other disciples on Easter Sunday evening, but then sees Jesus again with the other disciples a week later.
ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICE
WITH COMMUNION

8:00AM
Linda Crocker (EM)*
Judy Saronitman (U)
Dee Grigsby (AG)
Muriel Jackson (DM)

9:30AM
Mary Margaret Smith (EM)
David Crocker (U)
Terry Moses (LR)
Faith Shiramizu (AG)
Nelson Secretario, Vikki Secretario (HP)
Curtis Shiramizu (DM)

Live Stream
9:00AM 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; SS - Sunday School
UPCOMING EVENTS

ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICES WITH COMMUNION
Sunday, March 7th
8:00AM and 9:30AM

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

Friday/Monday Crew
Every Friday/Monday
8:00AM 
Church Office

Inaugural Organ Concert
Adam Pajan, organist
Saturday, May 15th
and
Sunday, May 16th
Times TBD
Check the All Saints' website for updates
Church
For the sick and suffering in body, mind, and spirit, especially Those affected by the Pandemic, Those affected by the island flooding, Todd, Patsy & the Tabura 'Ohana, Bracy, Suzanne & Harold, RuAnn, Seth, Mickey, Rosalind, Glen, Willy, and those we name silently or aloud, let us pray to the Lord. ​Lord, have mercy. 

For those saints who have gone before us in the Grander Life, Donn (Curly), Dr. Haruki, Micheal, Brad, 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.
HALLELUJAH
He is Risen!!
Mahalo to Those Who Prepared Us for Easter
Welcoming The Risen Lord Through the Easter Vigil
Celebrating the Risen Lord and Our Dear Friends
Mahalo Nui Loa to Hank Curtis and the All Saints' Virtual Choir
Listen to Their Beautiful "Resurrection Alleluias" from the Easter Service
PLEASE JOIN THE "FEED THE ORGAN CREW" VOLUNTEERS
The Organ Crew Needs Your Help!!
The Organ Crew is here to voice (fine tune) the new organ. They will be working long hours, 6 days a week to complete the voicing of the organ within the next few weeks. 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.

Email news@allsaintskauai.org for dietary restrictions for the organ crew.

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 at their leisure.
  • PLEASE DO NOT interact with the organ crew. They need absolute silence to listen for every note. 

Crew #2: 4/8/21 - 5/7/21
  • Please prepare and drop off 2 meals per time slot
Reflections from Kahu Kawika
Christ’s Unfinished Symphony

Mark 16:1-8
Isaiah 25:6-9
Easter Vigil & Day, Year B
3-4 April 2021

Franz Schubert, the Austrian composer who lived for only 31 years in the early part of the 19th century, amazingly in his short lifetime left behind a vast body of music – over 600 vocal works, sacred music, operas, piano pieces, chamber music, and seven complete symphonies. But there is another work of Schubert’s – an eighth symphony, commonly called the “Unfinished Symphony,” because from what I understand he only had finished two out of the expected four movements. We don’t know why he never completed his eighth symphony – it is said that he was brilliant yet rather unorganized, so maybe he just didn’t get around to it. But the general consensus seems to be that Schubert didn’t intend on doing just two movements. As a result, Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony” was not publicly performed until almost 40 years after his death.

As we consider Mark’s recounting of the Empty Tomb in Mark 16:1-8, we have a similar problem to that of Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony.” The story pretty much goes along the way we would expect it as we read those verses, with Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James (possibly Jesus’ mother, since he had a brother named James), and Salome making their way to the tomb of Jesus to anoint his body on Sunday morning. They’re wondering how they could get someone strong to roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb so that they can gain access to Jesus’ body. But when they get there they notice that the stone had already been rolled away, and then they encounter a young man dressed in white, sitting inside. This startles them, but the young man tries to calm them down, and then he gives them even more startling news – that Jesus is alive and has gone ahead of them to meet them and the other disciples!

Now you would think that the women would be overjoyed and excited to tell the other disciples this astounding news, but instead Mark records in the literal original Greek that they “went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and out of their fear they said nothing to anyone, because …” In other words, the Gospel of Mark, the first Gospel written down and from which the other Gospels would shape their own stories, originally ended in a very strange and abrupt way – “because …” (or “for …”) This word in Greek is gar, which is used a lot in the New Testament but always either at the beginning or middle of a sentence – never at the end of one, let alone at the end of a whole book. Mark the writer just leaves this gar dangling there, as if, like Schubert, he didn’t get around to finishing up the story. 

In your Bibles you will find additional verses added later on in the next century by other writers (verses 9-20) to try to smooth out the story and to give Mark’s Gospel a sense of resolution. In those verses we read basically a composite of resurrection accounts found in the other Gospels – that the women end up excitedly telling the other disciples that Jesus had arisen, then Jesus appears to various subsets of disciples until they finally start to believe that he’s alive again, and finally in their full joy they encounter the Risen Christ.

I can understand that desire to wrap things up – I’m one who likes things resolved and completed. I have my “to do” lists and happily tick off items I get done. I also like to work on the Los Angeles Times big Sunday edition crossword, and whenever I complete one without any errors and without having to look up any answers, I put a big checkmark at the top of the puzzle to signify my accomplishment – and then I go to Muriel and proudly show off what I have achieved! And for us all, as we are now finally emerging from the health and economic restrictions of the pandemic, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel – it feels so good to be able to have Holy Week and Easter services once again!

But Mark, the original storyteller of the first resurrection account of Jesus, didn’t make things easy for us. He left a dangling “for …”, tantalizingly teasing us with what might come thereafter. Without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, we would be wondering why the women flee scared to death from the tomb rather than rejoicing at the news of Jesus’ resurrection:

  • Maybe they were afraid that their grief was causing them to lose touch with reality;
  • Maybe they feared a negative reaction from the other male disciples at the news;
  • Maybe they were scared that the Roman authorities would round them up as a result if they were to tell anyone.

However, the great news is that somehow and in some way, Mary Magdalene and her friends obviously got the news out, because the other disciples definitely heard about it from them, and in turn they carried the glorious news forward of Christ’s conquering of sin and death, such that all these years later we ourselves to this day can gather together to celebrate this amazing news – that the forces that would keep us down have themselves been put down.

With that in mind and the fact that Mark must have known that outcome since he wrote his Gospel some 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, I submit that he intentionally left open the end of his story. But this is peculiar – why would he do that? Why end the story on a downer note of fear rather than in an upbeat tone of joy?

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he realized that other people had to complete the story – that the women at the tomb would tell the other disciples, that they in turn would get the word out about the Risen Christ, that they would grow beyond their comfort zones to bring the Good News beyond Judaism to other people and cultures. 

And you know, that story is still being written today – through us some 2,000 years later. We are walking and talking Gospels, either intentionally or unintentionally showing and telling the reality of God’s love alive in us and among us through Jesus. So maybe Mark left open the end of the story, knowing full well that it will not be completed until Jesus comes back again at the end of time.

Our first reading from Isaiah 25:6-9 paints a vivid picture of the culmination of this story. One day Jerusalem itself will be seen as the place where all kinds of people from around the world will encounter the Living God and in turn received special gifts from God – where they will hunger and thirst no more, where disgrace will be banished forever, where there will be no more tears and sadness, and most of all God’s declaration of the death of death itself! The previous sense of doom with the hardness of life and its inevitable march towards death will be lifted, and that pall over all people will be forgotten.

But meanwhile, Mark suggests that we all have a part to play in the writing of this story to its conclusion. He leaves it open for us to add our own accounts from our own lives, for God has placed us among some group or groups of people in order to bear witness to the hope that is in us. As Peter himself would later write in 1 Peter 3:15, “Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy.” Over 1,000 years later another word on this matter came from St. Francis of Assisi, who advised, “Preach the Gospel always – and if necessary, use words.”

I close with the Easter hymn of 4th century Early Church father, St. Chrysostom,

Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?
Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Like the various instruments in an orchestra, let us each play our part to complete Christ’s Unfinished Symphony, and thereby to bring God’s dream to fulfillment. 

Alleluia, Christ is risen – the Lord has risen indeed, alleluia!
Christ Memorial Church, Kilauea
Seeking Part-Time Administrative Professional
Christ Memorial Church in Kilauea is seeking a part-time administrative professional to support the Church's mission. Computer skills are necessary. Work time is flexible. Please call Rebecca at (808) 634-4667 or email christmemorialkilauea@gmail.com if you or someone you know has an interest in this position.

Thank you,

-The Church Family at Christ Memorial, Kilauea
2021 SUMMER CAMP
INFORMATION FOR CHURCHES
Aloha From Camp Mokule`ia!
 
Camp Mokule`ia will be offering Summer Camp Programming this summer! We will be taking our COVID protocols very seriously and doing everything possible to keep our campers and staff safe and healthy.
 
At summer camp campers make new friends, learn new skills, become more independent, make life-long memories, have fun, grow in their faith, and much more. Summer Camp changes lives every summer and we want every child and youth in your parish to have this experience!
 
We are counting on you to help us recruit campers from your parish!
 
Thank you for your continued support, and for helping us to share the magic of Camp Mokule`ia with your congregation.
 
Blessings,

Darrell Whitaker
Executive Director

If you have questions about Summer Camp programming, please contact James.
If you have questions about Summer Camp registration or scholarships, please contact Tara.

Click on the links below for more information:




Early Bird rates end April 30, 2021
Summer Camp Open House April 25, 2021!
2021 SUMMER CAMP
SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION
 
Camp Mokule`ia is again offering each parish in the Diocese of Hawai`i $1,000.00 in summer camp scholarships!
 
Important Scholarship Information:
 
Parents need to register their children online so they can complete health information and sign waivers during the registration process. Parents should be prepared to pay the $100 deposit at the time of registration. If your parish is paying the deposit then parents can skip this part and we will bill the parish.

Campers can receive $200 scholarships for Residential Camps or $100 scholarships for Day Camps & Mini Camp.

"Parent Registration Information" handouts to give directly to the parents were in Summer Camp Packet that was mailed to your church. These handouts include promo codes specific to your church. If you need handouts or promo codes please call the camp office (808-637-6241).

Only one promo code can be used per camper. Please contact Camp Office (808-637-6241) if you would like to request additional scholarship funds.
NEW CAMP PROGRAM:
FAMILY CAMP

This summer we will be expanding on the Family Stay-Cay Weekends we have been providing the last several months and having our first Family Camp (4 day/3 night program). This camp will have more programming and Spiritual Formation opportunities (more like summer camp but for whole families).
Family Camp Chaplain
 
Camp Mokule`ia is excited to welcome Kahu Kawika (Rev. David Jackson) as our Chaplain for Family Camp. Kahu Kawika has served in a variety of church and academic settings and enjoys swimming, exercising, learning, ukulele, and spending time with his family.


Click on the links below for more information:


NEEDED: CHAPLAINS
 
If you are interested in serving as a Chaplain for a week of camp this summer please email Darrell Whitaker. We still have several openings available!
 
 
NEEDED: SUMMER CAMP COUNSELORS
 
We still have a couple of Summer Camp Counselor spots available. Would love to fill these positions locally with college students who love children and youth and have a strong faith. If you know of anyone please encourage them to apply ASAP!

Click on the link below for more information:

Episcopal Youth Event
Research Project
Early Spring 2021
Easter greetings,
 
We invite you to help us explore the story and legacy of EYE/EJE as we begin to research and understand more deeply what these events mean to The Episcopal Church. The Office of Youth Ministries for The Episcopal Church has contracted with Ministry Architects to conduct a professional and objective evaluation of the almost 40-year-old international triennial Episcopal Youth Event and the more recently added Evento de Jóvenes Episcopales. Since EYE2020 was cancelled due to pandemic, we sought to take advantage of the pause and engage in a research project while we have the capacity to give it the attention it deserves. Now is the time, and we humbly request your help. 
 
Our goal is to reach as many former EYE/EJE participants (both youth and adults) to help tell the story and determine the future of this legacy event. We have created a participation form on our website HERE. By using this link to our website, anyone can sign up to participate in the research project. We will share the essential information gathered with the Ministry Architects and Episcopal Youth Ministry Team. Over the course of the next few months potential participants in the research project may receive invitations to surveys, listening sessions, or other methods of gaining information about EYE/EJE. We cannot do this without you, and we need help sharing the link far and wide.

[...]

We will post updates for research participants as we begin to learn from the data, and a full report with a recommended plan will be reported to Executive Council and the wider church by years’ end. We thank you for your prayerful consideration in this endeavor as we pray for your cooperation and participation.
 
Faithfully,
 
Bronwyn Clark Skov
Officer for Youth Ministries
Department of Faith Formation

To read the entire article, click here: EYE/EJE.
Coming Up: Online Retreat Opportunity

St. Michael and All Angels in conjunction with ReSource for Christian Spirituality, is offering an online directed retreat event, May 17-20, 2021. The retreat will take place through Zoom sessions daily at 10:00AM and 5:00PM, and will include individual spiritual direction, worship, community nurture, and personal times with God for prayer, sacred reading, art, music, journaling and walking.

Participation is limited, so sign up early.

Suggested donation: $200.

For more information, click on the flyer below.
YOUTH WEEKLY COMPLINE SERVICE

Fr. Jar Pasalo, the Diocese's Youth and Young Adult Missioner, has launched a weekly LIVE Compline on the Episcopal Youth of Hawaii Facebook Group page. All are invited to join in every Thursday at 8:00PM. All sessions are available for viewing on the page if you miss it. If you are interested in assisting/leading Compline, contact Fr. Jar HERE.
PALAKA FACE MASKS FOR SALE

Don't forget to order your palaka face mask from the Good Shepherd Women in Ministry for only $5 each plus postage. All sales benefit their outreach ministries. Place your order via contact form HERE, and mail your check to 2140 Main St., Wailuku, HI 96793.
Explore the Way of Love
TURN
There are so many voices in the world, telling us who we are, what we should do, and how we will be fulfilled. They tell us to focus on our desires, on our cravings, on being the best individual we can be. The world, we are told, revolves around each of us.

For many, these pursuits of self-fulfillment can leave us feeling drained, empty, and alone. They can lead us away from our divine calling. Away from the creator in whose image we were made. But if we listen closely, there is a spirit calling us to come back to ourselves, back to our purpose, back to something more meaningful.

When we look to the example of Jesus, we see the way that he followed. This is the Way of Love.

One aspect of this Way and making it a practice in our own lives is remembering to simply to turn toward the voice that calls us. Intentionally choosing our direction, choosing to turn and face the light, is the fundamental shift that puts the Way of Love into action. As Jesus tells us in the Book of John: “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”

Turning doesn’t have to change who you are—you are loved as you were created. But it can change where you are going. It can shift you from selfishness to loving the other. It can shift you from hoarding to generosity. It can lead you from sin and distance from God into closer alignment with the One who made and loves you so much.

Obeying this call means recognizing the things we put first in our lives, the things we allow to have the most space in our minds, our fears and hopes and desires. And turning instead toward love.

It can be as freeing as the early followers putting down their fishing nets. It can be as missional as Jesus asking us to pick up our cross and follow him. It can be as simple as paying attention to which direction our feet are facing on our journey.

Turning is not just a one time event, but an ongoing discipline, re-directing our steps as often as we think to, always turning toward the light. And turning toward the light can also illuminate how many there are on the journey with you, emerging from the shadows to walk the same path.

The Way of Love can lead you to discover a community of fellow travelers with whom you share the journey. The Way of Love shows us who we are, it lights the path to where we should go, and it gives purpose to our desires for fulfillment. And it shows us that we are not alone. That like us, there are many who choosing to turn toward the Way of Love. Are you ready to commit to turning and following Jesus?

Learn more about the Way of Love at episcopalchurch.org/wayoflove. You can find suggestions on getting started and going deeper with Turning at iam.ec/explore.

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.
Episcopal Priest Goes Viral for Wearing the Same Dress for 100 Days as a Fashion Sustainability Challenge

By Egan Millard

April 08, 2021
The Rev. Sarah Robbins-Cole has made headlines around the world for her 100-day dress challenge, a response to the environmental damage caused by unsustainable “fast fashion.” Photos: Sarah Robbins-Cole

[Episcopal News Service] For many who have worked from home during the pandemic, wearing the same clothes for more than a day has become a normal occurrence. But one Episcopal priest is doing it to the extreme, on purpose.

In 2020, the Rev. Sarah Robbins-Cole, rector of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Holliston, Massachusetts, and chaplain at Wellesley College, wore the same dress for 100 days in a row as a challenge to counter “fast fashion” – the now-ubiquitous practice of buying cheap, mass-produced clothing and throwing it away or donating it to charity when it’s no longer fashionable.

The challenge is intended to change people’s perceptions of how much clothing they need, and to bring awareness to the fashion industry’s unsustainable and environmentally harmful practices.

“I’ve always been concerned about fast fashion anyway and the impact on the planet,” Robbins-Cole told Episcopal News Service.

She wore a breathable black merino wool dress from Sept. 6 to Christmas – except to sleep and work out – and it only needed to be washed about a dozen times. She enjoyed the challenge so much, she said, that she’s now more than halfway into yet another 100-day dress challenge, which she started on Jan. 29 with a different dress.

Robbins-Cole got the idea for the 100-day dress challenge from a social media post several months into the pandemic.

“I thought, ‘Well, this seems like something that would be an interesting challenge to do during a pandemic,’” she said. “It just kind of suited my moral compass and … I usually wear a dress to work anyway.”

Among the environmental impact statistics that stick with her are the approximately 700-800 gallons of water that go into producing one cotton T-shirt and the 81 pounds of clothing that end up in landfills for each American every year. Americans now buy five times as much clothing as they did in 1980, according to textile recycling company USAgain; when it’s no longer wanted, 85% of that clothing gets thrown away, and even the remaining 15% that gets donated often ends up in landfills anyway.

For Robbins-Cole the project started as more of a personal challenge – a way to get creative with putting together a new look each day with the same dress as a base.

“I chose the first dress because it seemed the most versatile,” she said, “so I thought I could probably get 100 different looks out of it.”

Since she wasn’t seeing people in person as much, not many people noticed initially, especially since she often wears black clerical clothes anyway, but she did tell the students she was working with at Wellesley College that it was intentional.

“I thought, ‘If anyone’s going to notice I’m wearing the same dress, it’s going to be my students,’” she said. “I told, like, one friend, two friends maybe, but really didn’t share it with a lot of people.”

She made an Instagram account to document all the different looks she got out of the dress, posting a picture of her outfit every day along with some brief reflections, and accumulated a few followers until it started getting picked up by media outlets – from local TV stations to news sites from as far away as England and India. She now has over 5,300 followers.

Since Robbins-Cole did not come up with the idea of the 100-day challenge, she’s not sure why her particular story has gotten so much traction. Maybe it’s because she’s a priest. Maybe it’s the surprising versatility of the outfits she’s put together. Maybe it’s the thoughtfulness of the reflective captions she writes – the stories behind the other articles of clothing she wears, the slice-of-life observations. Or maybe this simple, daily ritual is just the kind of thing that helped people stay grounded during a chaotic time.

“I’m surprised that there would be so many people interested in my story, because it’s just one middle-aged woman wearing the same dress for 100 days,” she told ENS, “but I think that we like getting glimpses into other people’s lives.”

To her surprise, her Instagram account has even turned into a tight-knit “community” of people from around the world.

“I love checking in with them and seeing what they’re doing every day,” she said. “There’s a lot of things that are bad about social media, but they’re also some really wonderful aspects. And in this particular platform, people are really supportive.”

She gets comments and questions about the challenge and about her life “all the time” and has come to view it as a kind of ministry.

“That was one of the reasons why I kept going,” she told ENS. “I’m on sabbatical right now for my church, so it’s, in some ways, kind of pastoral care. Some of it is just advice. Some people ask me for styling advice, which is really funny, because it’s not really my thing.”

A common reaction she gets is disbelief – “That’s so great you can do that; I could never do it.” But it turned out to be easier than she expected, and “it’s just seriously not a big deal,” she said. As of April 8, she’s 68 days into the second 100-day challenge, this time using a different dress – also made from breathable black merino wool – that she received as a gift. Because her followers asked her to keep posting her daily outfits, she’s kept up the routine every day.

But is this just a Zoom-era challenge? When it’s safe enough to gather in person regularly, will she switch it up more often?

“I don’t know – I’ll probably go back to my clothes at some point,” she said. Until then, she’s enjoying making connections and educating people. “I don’t know how long I’ll do it into the future, but it’s working.”

– Egan Millard is an assistant editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at emillard@episcopalchurch.org.
Baltimore Church to Auction Historic Silver to Help Create $300,000 Scholarship Fund

By David Paulsen

April 07, 2021
The gem-encrusted silver offering plate and chalice up for auction were given to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, on Easter 1876 according to the items’ inscriptions. Photo: Alex Cooper Auctioneers

[Episcopal News Service] St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, founded in 1692, is the oldest church in Baltimore, Maryland. It owns an offering plate that is itself more valuable than any offering the congregation might collect on a typical Sunday. Made of silver and encrusted with gems, the offering plate bears an inscription dating it to “Easter 1876.” A similar inscription is found on another historic item, one of the church’s silver chalices, which features clusters of diamonds.

Neither item is in regular use. Both have been stored in a safe for the past decade, the Rev. Mark Stanley told Episcopal News Service. “You’d almost need an armed guard to bring them out and use them. They’re too valuable,” he said.

Too valuable to use on Sunday – but possibly just valuable enough to help the congregation endow an educational scholarship. Church leaders are working with an auction house to sell 15 silver items at St. Paul’s, including communion sets and a baptismal font bowl. The proceeds are estimated to reach $75,000. The gem-encrusted plate and chalice alone could be worth up to $60,000 at auction.

“Why are they sitting in a safe? Let’s invest them in the children of Baltimore City,” said Stanley, who has served St. Paul’s as rector for 17 years.

The downtown church, commonly known as Old St. Paul’s, established and still maintains ties to the St. Paul’s Schools in suburban Brooklandville. It began as a school for girls in 1799, initially serving orphans. In 1849, a second school opened for boys. The schools, which merged in 2018, have roots in the church’s historic mission of service to financially disadvantaged children, Stanley said.

This year, he and other clergy and lay leaders, looking for a way to “stay in touch with that mission,” developed the scholarship plan. The congregation’s anti-racism council also supported the effort to assist students, specifically African Americans, who otherwise might not have the opportunity to attend the pre-K through 12th grade day school. The congregation had researched some of the church’s historic complicity in white supremacy and racist institutions, particularly how it benefited in its early years from the slave-dependent tobacco industry.

“We have some rights to wrong here,” Stanley said. “We want to make a difference, to address systemic racism.”
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Baltimore, Maryland, also known as Old St. Paul’s, was founded in 1692. Photo: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

In February, Stanley proposed to the St. Paul’s vestry that the church sell some of the historic items that had been locked away in the church’s safe. The vestry agreed to combine proceeds from that sale with money from the church’s endowment to raise the initial $300,000 to establish the scholarship fund.

The church plans to work with the nonprofit Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust, or BEST, which will identify students in the community who would be appropriate candidates for the scholarship. Stanley said the church hopes this fall to provide its first scholarship of $15,000 to help one student attend the St. Paul’s Schools where high school tuition is $32,800. The school is offering financial aid to offset the remaining costs for the student.

The church expects its first scholarship recipient to be entering the ninth grade, and the annual scholarship will allow that student to complete high school at the private school. After that student graduates, another student will be chosen for the next scholarship.

If the scholarship fund grows, the church may be able to increase the number of students it supports each year, Stanley said. For now, the focus is on raising the initial money through the auction, which is underway this week (lots 436 to 450) through April 8. It is managed by Alex Cooper Auctioneers of Towson, Maryland.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church has an average Sunday attendance of about 180. Some of its 500 members raised concerns about letting go of valuable items connected to the church’s history, but in general, the church’s goal of creating the scholarship has generated support and excitement within the congregation, Stanley said. “To me, there’s a time to do bold action,” he said, and he emphasized that the church isn’t selling everything, only items that haven’t been used in years.

– David Paulsen is an editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
Biden Says VTS COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic is Example of ‘America at its Finest’

By Adelle M. Banks

April 08, 2021
President Joe Biden visited Virginia Theological Seminary on April 6, 2021, to celebrate the seminary’s provision of COVID-19 vaccines. Photo: Elizabeth Panox-Leach/Virginia Theological Seminary

[Religion News Service] President Joe Biden visited a Virginia seminary chapel that is being used as a COVID-19 vaccination clinic as his administration moved up the date when he hopes all Americans will be eligible to get a vaccine.

“We’re in a situation where we — I believe, by the end of this summer, we’ll have a significant portion of the American public vaccinated,” the president said on April 6 at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.

“I think before another 25 days, we’ll probably have somewhere in excess of 200 million shots that have been administered.”

Since early February, the Episcopal seminary has worked with Neighborhood Health, a nonprofit organization focused on health equity in Northern Virginia, to use the school’s Immanuel Chapel as a clinic for distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to patients and family members.

“Our chapel is continuing to share the gospel in this season, although it is taking a slightly different form,” said the Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, dean and president of VTS, in a statement. “The president’s visit to the campus is a celebration of a faith-based organization working in partnership with a neighborhood health association to ensure that people stay well and safe during this pandemic.”

The chapel-turned-clinic has provided an average of 300 vaccinations twice a week.

In remarks from the State Dining Room later in the day, Biden noted that the partnership is one of many such alliances between faith and medical institutions happening across the nation. Two-thirds of patients at such centers live below or at the poverty level, he said, and 60% are ethnic and racial minorities.

“People are coming together across the different faiths to serve those most in need, with a special focus on vaccinating seniors from all races, backgrounds, and walks of life,” he said. ”It’s an example of America at its finest.”

From Oklahoma to North Carolina to Washington, D.C., vaccination clinics have been hosted by houses of worship in conjunction with health professionals to inoculate older adults and others.

Biden said his visit to the seminary coincided with “an important milestone”: The previous day “we crossed 150 million shots in 75 days” — his tenure in office to that date.

But with the country reaching more than 554,000 COVID-19 deaths, Biden urged seniors in particular to “get vaccinated now,” as his new date of April 19 approaches of having all American adults eligible to register for vaccinations. The previous date was May 1.

“To make it easier, my administration is sending aid to community groups to drive seniors to vaccination sites,” he said. “We’re incredibly grateful to all the volunteers, houses of worship, and the civic groups that are helping us in this effort.”

Biden added that his staffers also will continue to link with faith-based and community groups as vaccinations become available to all adults — registering people for appointments, hosting clinics and transporting people to get their shots.

FROM THE EPISCOPAL CAFÉ
Easter

April 06, 2021

Kimberly Knowle-Zeller
Easter
announces itself
under the cover of darkness
a starlit night
animals rustling in the forests
owls keeping sentry in the trees.

Easter
arises with the sun
the small, slow footsteps of women
carrying tears and burdens
cradling lost hope
wondering what could have been. 

Easter
opens to an empty tomb
a discarded blanket
mixed with blood and tears
tossed aside. 

Easter
runs with good news
declares to all who will listen
shouts to the heavens
proclaims the goodness of creation. 

Easter
is like the sparkling of water in shades of blue and green
the dance of green grass
the opening of crocus flowers
the sound of a frog’s chorus. 

Easter
reaches from the emptiness
to find our longing
desires
hopes
and pulls us through
the depths of loss
grief
and death. 

Easter
shows us
our lives
found
in God.
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.
New Anglican Health and Community Network Launches on World Health Day

April 07, 2021
[Anglican Communion Office] A newly authorized official network of the Anglican Communion, the Anglican Health and Community Network, has launched April 7, 2021, on the U.N.’s World Health Day. A proposal for a new Anglican health network was endorsed by members of the Anglican Consultative Council at their triennial meeting in Hong Kong in 2019. Since then, a small international group has worked to develop a network, which was approved by the Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee earlier this year.

The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, and the secretary general of the Anglican Communion, the Most Rev. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, approved the new network’s three co-conveners. The Rt. Rev. Michael Beasley, bishop of Hertford in the Church of England’s Diocese of Saint Albans, is a former epidemiologist at Imperial College, London. He has extensive international experience in issues of health, nutrition and child development. In 2019 he supported churches in the Democratic Republic of Congo in their Ebola response. The Rt. Rev. Luke Pato, bishop of Namibia in the Church of Southern Africa, is a champion of national and regional initiatives for malaria elimination and a lead member and advocate in the Isdell Flowers Cross Border Malaria Initiative with other Anglican dioceses in the region. Janice Tang is a specialist in medical oncology and the honorary clinical assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Welcoming today’s launch of the Anglican Health and Community Network, the deputy secretary general of the Anglican Communion, the Rev. Will Adam, said: “For more than a year the attention of the whole world has been primarily focused on health and health care, as countries across the globe respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. And during that time, the value and appreciation we place on health care workers has also increased, as we rightly recognize the incredible hard work they have done – particularly those on the front line in critical care – to support patients with coronavirus and other illnesses.

“The new Anglican Health and Community Network – launching on World Health Day – will support Anglicans working across the world in health care, whether in clinical settings or in the community. It has long been recognized that, in many parts of the world, churches are best placed to reach ‘the last mile’ in hard-to-reach communities – whether it is in disseminating disease prevention education or organizing community clinics.

“And so on this World Health Day, I am delighted that the new Anglican Health and Community Network is launching, with the backing of the Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee, to connect, prepare and equip Anglicans around the world to provide health care, accompany the sick and advocate for equitable health care, combining trust in science and hope in God.”

Beasley, one of the co-conveners, said: “Anglicans around the world contribute extensively to the health and wellbeing of the places where they live, work and worship. In many places, this is through running hospitals and health centers. Just as much is the role that Anglicans play as trusted members of their communities, able to engage with local health issues so that solutions and ways forward can be found.

“As someone with a background in public health, I’ve been enormously encouraged to see the work that local church members and churches are doing in different places to contribute to this work – from supporting mental health in my own area of Hertfordshire to responding to the outbreak of Ebola that took place in the D.R.C. to supporting efforts to eliminate malaria in Angola and elsewhere in Southern Africa.

“The aim of the Anglican Health and Community Network will be to enable experiences of understanding and everyday practice such as these to be shared, learned from, built on and grown. Our hope is that the work of Anglicans in health around the world can be strengthened and supported.”

Pato, another co-convener, said: “There is an African proverb which says: ‘If you want to walk fast, walk alone; but if you want to walk far, walk with others.’

“The decision by the Anglican Communion to initiate the Anglican Health and Community Network affirms this African proverb. One of the many lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic is that we need one another at the local and international level to support each other and to exchange experiences.

“We need one another to exchange data – theological, pastoral and spiritual. There is nothing painful and uncharacteristic of the essence and fibre of the church like lonely suffering and death. It is my sincere hope that this network will, among other things, strive to achieve this goal.”

More information about the new Anglican Health and Community Network can be found on the website of the Anglican Alliance: anglicanalliance.org; or by contacting the AHCN coordinator, Sally Smith, by email: mailto:ahcn@anglicancommunion.org.
UK Churches Launch Nature Count to Assess Biodiversity Within ‘National Park’ of Churchyards

April 08, 2021
[Church of England] Hundreds of churches have already signed up to a weeklong ‘nature count’ occurring this summer, which will encourage people to visit churchyards and record what they see.

Churches Count on Nature, to run between June, 5-13 is a citizen-science event covering churchyards across England and Wales.

The project will see communities and visitors making a note of the animals, birds, insects, or fungi in their local churchyard. Their data will then be collated on the National Biodiversity Network.

It is being jointly run by the conservation charities Caring for God’s Acre, A Rocha UK, the Church of England, and the Church in Wales.

Read the full story here.
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

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.

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PRAYER CHAIN MINISTRY
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SUBMITTING A PRAYER REQUEST
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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.