THIS SUNDAY: December 6, 2020
Second Sunday of Advent
|
ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICES
with COMMUNION
8:00AM
Linda Crocker (EM)*
John Hanaoka (U)
Diane Sato (AG)
Muriel Jackson (DM)
9:30AM
Mario Antonio (EM)
Mary Margaret Smith (U)
Nelson Secretario (LR)
Faith Shiramizu (AG)
Mabel Antonio, 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
|
|
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"
"Rahab (Joshua 2)"
Tuesday, December 8th
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.
Ministry Council Meeting
Saturday, December 5th
9:00 - 10:00AM
Zoom Meeting
Those who are interested in the Ministry Council Meeting may contact Linda Crocker at lmc1va@aol.com or Jan Hashizume at janhco@hotmail.com for login information.
Daughters of the King
Thursday, December 10th
7:00 - 8:00PM
Memorial Hall
|
|
For the aged and infirm, for the widowed and orphans, and for the sick and the suffering, especially Glen, Jody, Milfred, Linda, Larry, Bill, Nancy, Maka, Nathan, Kellen, the Lauretta 'Ohana, the Telles 'Ohana, 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.
|
|
We Need Your Help!
Please Donate a Meal for the Organ Crew
|
|
The Organ Crews are flying to Kauai`i from Los Angeles to install the new organ. They will be 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.
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
Well Worth the Wait
|
|
Mark 13:24-37
Isaiah 64:1-9
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Advent 1B
29 November 2020
All Saints’ Church, Kapaa
There once was an old TV ad for Heinz ketchup. It featured two boys around age 11, and they’re sitting at the kitchen table about to eat their hamburgers. One of them grabs the glass bottle of Heinz ketchup (they were glass in those days!), twists open the top, turns the bottle over, … and then the boys keep waiting and watching for the ketchup to slip out of the bottle onto the waiting hamburger patty. As they are waiting, the Carly Simon song “Anticipation” plays in the background. The ad cleverly makes the point that Heinz ketchup is “well worth the wait.”
Well, here we are at the start of another church year, according to our liturgical calendar, and we’ve entered the season known for waiting. Today is the first day of the Advent Season – and it is tempting of us to think of it as simply the four-week countdown time to Christmas, as if Advent were a mere afterthought. We could be forgiven for assuming this, given our society’s earlier-and-earlier promotion of Christmas shopping and materialism – I saw Christmas ads this year even before Halloween!
In actuality, the word “Advent” comes from the Latin meaning literally, “until the coming.” It gives us a three-fold, trifocal anticipation of the coming of Christ: (1) the Past = predictions of the coming birth of the Messiah to save the world; (2) the Present = a renewal of the spirit of Jesus’ self-offering as we enter into our own offering of ourselves to each other and especially to those in need; and (3) the Future = the prospect of the Second Coming of Christ, to usher in a time of both judgment and justice, leading to the ultimate restoration of our world.
The Bible describes this future aspect of the return of Christ in language that declares both bad news and good news – even our own Gospel reading today from Mark 13 suggests a complete and uncomfortable shakeup of the world order as a sign of Christ’s imminent return to make things right on earth, which is great news for those on the low end of things but bad news for those trying to hold on to their status of privilege.
The Advent Season also reminds us that we live in what I call “the parentheses of history.” Jesus has come before, but will come again. This world used to be a Garden of Eden, and one day when Christ returns will become so again. And, in the words of St. Paul in that well-known passage of 1 Corinthians 13, we now look through a glass darkly (or dimly), but will one day see God face to face – we know now in part, but later we will realize all things in full.
There is a story about Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic saint of Calcutta, India, and the founding leader of the Sisters of Charity, who work in the slums of the big cities of our world. She had a terrible fever and got delirious, and in her delirium she had a vision of approaching Heaven and telling St. Peter she was ready to leave this earthly life to go into the next. But Peter refused her entry to Heaven, and perplexed Mother Teresa asked why. Peter replied, “Because there are no slums in Heaven.” In short, Peter’s message to Mother Teresa was that it was not yet her time to enter Heaven, since God still had work for her to do on earth.
Indeed, the Advent Season is about waiting, but as I have said in previous sermons this kind of waiting is not merely sitting on our hands – it is about being on high alert for Jesus’ presence and purposes and thus acting constructively for the good out of that motivation. Like Mother Teresa, it is about realizing that God has given each of us a purpose on this earth and that we are to be actively about God’s business.
Our Gospel reading from Mark 13 repeats this emphasis, showing Jesus saying three times to “keep alert” or “keep awake.” If Jesus felt he had to tell his disciples the same thing three times within a few sentences of conversation, then that tells me it must be pretty important for us to take on board.
Maybe Jesus has to say this so much because he knows our human tendency to “sleepwalk” through life, to settle for an “automatic pilot” approach to our days and activities. This reminds me of a time after I had just become a Boy Scout and our troop was away at summer camp. There was a fire pit that the camp kept burning, which the camp leaders referred to as “the Eternal Flame,” in memory of the original founder of the camp. The leaders gave the task of watching and tending to the Eternal Flame to two Boy Scouts each night overnight. Sure enough, the task fell on me and another Scout. So, we had to begin our shift at 12 midnight and keep watch until 6am. Even though it was summer camp, we were high up in the mountains, and so the nights would still get rather cold. So here we were, two young Boy Scouts shivering and ropey-dopey from sleepiness, trying to make sure that the flame didn’t dwindle down to embers and ashes. We decided at first to stay up together rather than take turns, in the hope of keeping each other awake. The night seemed long and to drag on! As sunrise gradually broke through, we both together became aware that we might have drifted off to sleep in the past hour or so, with the result that the flame was barely flickering! We instantly threw kindling, dry pine needles, and smaller pieces of wood on the fire in order to stoke it up again. Thankfully we got there before the camp leaders saw how anemic we had allowed the “Eternal Flame” to get.
Jesus wants us all to keep alert and to keep awake, to be aware of the needs of this world and to respond to them as our way of watching out for Jesus’ presence, both in this life and whenever he might come back in the future to set things right on earth.
What are some of the things for which we should be alert? Back in 2011, the rock star and social activist Bono from the group U2 highlighted three things to look out for and to tend to – and these three things are timely for us as well as we are about to transition from 2020 to 2021:
-
Extreme Poverty: In Advent and Christmas Seasons that feature Mother Mary and the Christ child, we recognize that extreme poverty especially hits hard women and children in our world. In recent years, though, there have been wonderful business initiatives to promote fair trade in the Developing World and in our own country, addressing the underlying structures that otherwise would perpetuate cycles of poverty.
-
Extreme Ideology: If anything, this has gotten worse since Bono highlighted this trouble in our society. It seems that discourse and compromise have become things to be avoided and shunned, perceived as signs of weakness rather than strength. As God calls us to “wait and watch,” we are to engage actively and listen attentively across the aisle, rather than to talk AT other people to browbeat our own point of view. Part of this involves listening and engaging in a spirit of empathy for someone else’s situation and humility as we present our own. In the words of the well-known 20th-Century New York City preacher and pastor, William Sloane Coffin:
Love is the answer to legalism on the one hand and to lawlessness on the other. Love hallows individuality. Love consecrates and never desecrates personality. Love demands that all our actions reflect a movement toward, and not away from nor against, each other. And, love insists that all people assume their responsibility for all their relations.
-
Extreme Climate Change: This last one contributes to the first two “extremes” of poverty and ideology. Certainly, part of this is the tendency in our countries and in other Western economies of “using up and throwing away,” as opposed to renewal, recycle, and refurbishment. Addressing the reality of climate change can only happen when nations and societies work together for the common good of our planet
Martin Luther King had a word that we can apply to our task to “watch and wait”:
Agape (God’s love in biblical Greek) is not a weak, passive love. It is love in action. Agape is love seeking to preserve and create community. It is insistence on community even when one seeks to break it. Agape is a willingness to go to any length to restore community. It doesn’t stop at the first mile, but it goes the second mile to restore community. It is a willingness to forgive not just seven times, but seventy times seven, to restore community. The Cross is the eternal expression of the length to which God will go in order to restore broken community. The Resurrection is a symbol of God’s triumph over all the forces that seek to block community.
This year of 2020 has been a rough one for many of us in so many ways. We may understandably be eager to turn the calendar page and get to 2021; however, if we look too much ahead, we miss out on what we can be doing in the present moment to “watch and wait” and to “keep alert and keep awake.” It means our engaging in the here and now, listening for God’s still small voice in the cacophony of noise around us, and making our positive mark in small incremental ways in the lives of those around us. But living in a way that we invite Jesus’ daily presence in our lives, and working toward a day when God’s kingdom will come to fruition on earth as it is in Heaven, will make Christ’s return in all its dimensions “well worth the wait.” Amen.
|
|
Another Successful KIA Thanksgiving Interfaith Service and Luncheon
Many Thanks to All the Contributors and Volunteers
|
|
Thanksgiving is over and now it is on to Advent and Christmas. But first we want to thank everyone, and there are a lot of you, who made The Kapa`a Interfaith Thanksgiving free luncheon happen even during a pandemic.
Mahalo Mark Oyama, Mark’s Place and Contemporary Flavors and their entire crew who so wonderfully prepared the meals. Thanks to all of the wonderful volunteers; especially Diane and Scott Sato who organized all the delivery locations, made the maps and put it all together without a hitch. Thanks to Kahu Kawika for planning a beautiful interfaith service with seven of the churches participating. Thanks to the ladies who make 750 floral bouquets to go with meals. Thanks to the 37 sets of drivers who delivered 725 meals to over 300 locations from Puhi to Anahola, the dozens who packed the meals, both at the Hongwanji Mission and All Saints' Gym, and everyone who directed traffic and handed out over 700 meals at All Saints'.
There are too many volunteers to name individually but know we love you. We also thank those who so generously gave money and donations, especially Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawai`i, East Kaua`i Lions Club, Kaua`i Independent Food Bank, The Secretario Family, Luis Soltren Construction, Safeway, and everyone who collected and donated bags.
Without all of you this could not happen, it is truly a community event. You have our sincere gratitude.
-Mary Margaret Smith and Sarah Rogers
for the Kapa`a Interfaith Association
Please enjoy a slideshow of our hard-working volunteers by clicking on the video link below.
|
|
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. 8: Rahab (Joshua 2)
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+
|
|
The Organ Crew Has Arrived!
Welcome Aaron, Morgan, and Toby
|
|
L to R- Toby, Aaron, and Morgan
Aaron Doyle, Morgan Byrd, and Toby Washburn arrived recently on Kaua`i and began installing our Rosales Opus 41 Pipe Organ on December 1. A glance in the sanctuary will tell you this is no small task. We are pleased to present these short biographies of the crew members to learn how they gained their organ building expertise.
Aaron Doyle
Aaron's introduction to the world of organs and organ building began with a love for music and a dedication to craft. He studied classical saxophone graduating with a degree in music performance from the University of Texas, El Paso in 2006 after which he moved to Los Angeles where he helped launch a digital organ manufacturing company. Aaron spent the next 7 years getting an advanced degree in "all things manufacturing" with a Minor in organ. In early 2019 Manuel Rosales reached out to Aaron with an offer to join his team and in May of 2020 Aaron and Kevin Cartwright partnered to purchase Rosales Pipe Organ Services Inc. from Mr. Rosales.
Morgan Byrd
Morgan Byrd studied organ at the University of Michigan, graduating summa cum laude in 2015. Even before graduation the organ building fever had taken hold; he departed his native southeast Michigan for Tennessee to build organs, and among other things studied as a voicer under Brad Jones. In very early 2020 Morgan moved to Los Angeles, where he is currently the foreman at Rosales Pipe Organ Services.
Tobias Washburn
Tobias Washburn became entranced with the organ after an early experience with the Paramount Iceland organ in Paramount CA (home of the Zamboni). He first started his career in the pipe organ industry back in high school where he volunteered his time at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse releathering note actions. He became a docent at the Nethercutt collection in Sylmar, CA in 2015 to gain a more in-depth experience with the workings of these musical machines. In 2017 Tobias was invited to work with Rosales Pipe Organ Services.
|
|
|
Happy Thanksgiving from the All Saints' Preschool
Performance by the Kolea Class
Dedicated to loving and caring for ourselves, the earth, the animals, and each other. Mahalo ke Akua for Your creation and bounty.
|
|
Schedule of Christmas Services
Mark Your Calendars and Join Us
|
|
December 24th
- 3:30PM Keiki Service led by the Ke Akua Youth Group
- 5:50PM Festive Eucharist
- 10:30PM Carole Prelude and Festive Eucharist
December 25th
|
|
Zonta of Kaua`i Foundation Christmas Fund Kicks off Its 30th Year
Donations Assist Kauians in Need
The following is excerpted from The Garden Island, Nov 27, 2020
|
|
Cyndi Ayonon, new Zonta of Kaua`i Foundation Christmas Fund Committee Chair, Yoshiko “Dimples” Kano, Honorary Chair and Marge Akana, Co-Chair planning for the 2020 campaign.
The annual partnership between The Garden Island Newspaper & The Zonta Club of Kaua`i Foundation is kicking off and celebrating its 30th year.
For the past 25 years, the organizations have teamed up to raise funds for people in our community in need of support through various non-profit agencies.
In 2019, it received $30,570 in donations which included the $5,000 donor match through the Hawai`i Community Foundation. With the help of nine agencies providing stories of families and individuals that could use help during the holiday season, 749 keiki and kupuna had a brighter Christmas and all through the support of our community and friends of Kaua`i!
Through Christmas Eve, The Garden Island will share daily, front-page stories about families (we don’t use their real names) facing challenges and who would appreciate a little help.
The Christmas Fund is an avenue for everyone to provide that assistance. Donations are used by Zonta Club members to purchase gift certificates that are in turn distributed to families and individuals through the social service agencies.
|
|
New Men’s Online Grief Support Group Starting
Hosted by Dr. Joseph Eppink, Volunteer Coordinator
& Grief Support Groups, Bristol Hospice
|
|
This Grief Support Group began as in person meetings but during the pandemic has been revived online in a Zoom format. The group is open to all men who are in the grieving process. The meeting is planned to last 1 hour. Dr. Eppink encourages this information be shared with anyone who may benefit from the group.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 7PM, December 9th and future meetings will be held every other week.
|
|
#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 4 - Fellowship
December 5 - Glory
December 6 - Speak
December 7 - Comfort
|
|
December 8 - Patient
December 9 - Mercy
December 10 - Baptize
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.
|
|
Second Week of Advent: Journeying with Family and Friends
December 6, 2020
|
|
As we continue our Advent walk, we invite you to see the Way of Love as a journey that can expand to include family and friends. Mary said “yes” to the call to birth Jesus, God’s Word, into the world and immediately went in haste to share her good news with her cousin, Elizabeth—a four-day journey into the Judean hills. Isn’t that what happens when we hear good news? We are driven to go and tell others. The Way of Love is good news that demands to be shared.
|
|
Sunday, December 6
WORSHIP
What part of gathering for worship fills your heart with hope?
Monday, December 7
GO
Read or watch your local news. Where is reconciliation needed? Pray for healing.
Tuesday, December 8
LEARN
Read Luke 1:45. Consider how your faith is a blessing. Share your faith story with a friend.
Wednesday, December 9
PRAY
Offer a prayer of thanks for each person you encounter – both stranger and friend – silently or aloud.
|
|
Thursday, December 10
BLESS
Call or write a family member with whom you desire a closer relationship. Share with them how they are a blessing.
Friday, December 11
TURN
Reflect: Where have I fallen short this week? How can I make amends? Give thanks for the gift of fresh starts that we have through God’s grace.
Saturday, December 12
REST
Set aside 30 minutes to rest, pause, and breathe deeply with a friend or family member. Give thanks for the restorative power of love in relationship.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
The Cross is the instrument of Jesus' death and the central symbol of the Christian faith. It represents Jesus' offering and sacrifice of his life in love for us and our salvation. The cross thus symbolizes the Christian life, especially in terms of love, generosity, and sacrifice.
The cross itself was a vertical stake in the ground which often had a horizontal piece attached at the top or just below the top of the vertical piece. Death on a cross was both execution and extreme torture. The victim to be executed on the cross would be attached to it until death. At times an inscription would be attached to the cross to state the victim's crime. Crucifixion was a shameful death that carried with it a considerable stigma in Jesus' day. Jesus' death on a cross is described in the NT gospels (Mt 27, Mk 15, Lk 23, Jn 19).
The cross has been the traditional focus of Christian piety. The practice of making the sign of the cross on the forehead dates from the second century. Devotion to the cross was spurred by the alleged finding of the true cross of Jesus' crucifixion in the fourth century. Use of altar crosses dates from the fifth century, and use of processional crosses dates from the sixth century. During the middle ages, large crosses, or roods, were placed on beams at the dividing point between the chancel and nave of the church. Designs for crosses became very ornate, and some crosses were decorated with jewels.
Crosses are used in Christian art and architecture, and worn as an expression of personal piety. Crosses are found in a variety of shapes and sizes. A crucifix is a cross with a figure of the crucified Christ. A Christus Rex is a cross with a figure of the risen Christ in glory. A Jerusalem cross is a cross with four small crosses in between the arms of the larger cross.
The Prayer Book Good Friday service allows a wooden cross to be brought into the church after the solemn collects. The cross is placed in the sight of the people, and appropriate devotions may follow (BCP, pp. 281-282). Hymns in The Hymnal 1982 that express devotion to the cross include "When I survey the wondrous cross" (474), "In the cross of Christ I glory" (441-442), and "Lift high the cross" (473).
|
|
Yes But What About The Crucifix?
|
|
A crucifix (from Latin cruci fixus meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is an image of Jesus on the cross, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the corpus (Latin for "body").
The crucifix is a principal symbol for many groups of Christians, and one of the most common forms of the Crucifixion in the arts. It is especially important in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, but is also used in the Eastern Orthodox Church, most Oriental Orthodox Churches (except the Armenian & Syriac Church), and the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as by the Lutheran, Moravian and Anglican Churches. The symbol is less common in churches of other Protestant denominations, and in the Assyrian Church of the East and Armenian Apostolic Church, which prefer to use a cross without the figure of Jesus (the corpus). The crucifix emphasizes Jesus' sacrifice—his death by crucifixion, which Christians believe brought about the redemption of mankind. Most crucifixes portray Jesus on a Latin cross, rather than any other shape, such as a Tau cross or a Coptic cross.
Western crucifixes usually have a three-dimensional corpus, but in Eastern Orthodoxy Jesus' body is normally painted on the cross, or in low relief. Strictly speaking, to be a crucifix, the cross must be three-dimensional, but this distinction is not always observed. An entire painting of the Crucifixion of Jesus including a landscape background and other figures is not a crucifix either.
Large crucifixes high across the central axis of a church are known by the Old English term rood. By the late Middle Agesthese were a near-universal feature of Western churches, but are now very rare. Modern Roman Catholic churches and many Lutheran churches often have a crucifix above the altar on the wall; for the celebration of Mass, the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church requires that "on or close to the altar there is to be a cross with a figure of Christ crucified".
|
|
A Cross And A Crucifix: Is One A Better Symbol Than The Other?
|
|
Both the cross and the crucifix are the two of the most identifiable symbols of Christianity. No matter the setting, the country, the building, a cross or a crucifix marks that place as Christian. To see someone wearing a cross or a crucifix also identifies them with faith.
Yet, there are differences between a cross and a crucifix, ones so distinct that even a small child can manage to point them out. Even more distinctly, a crucifix is generally identified with the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, and a cross with Protestant. So, why the difference?
For non-Christians, these symbols can seem odd, at the very least. The cross is an instrument of death. It seems, to non-believers, the same as wearing a small electric chair on a chain around one’s neck. Even the early Christian community preferred not to use the cross as a symbol of faith because it was still being used in the torture and death of people. With the passage of time, though, the cross ultimately stands as the instrument of our salvation. It is the beginning of the end of death’s eternal hold on us.
Eventually the Christian community came to grips with the cross, but initially only as a symbol of triumph. In this form the cross had no corpus (figure of Christ) but was elaborately decorated and often even jeweled to represent Christ’s victory over death that made an object of shame into a beautiful thing. This type of cross is called a crux gemmata, and it was the first widespread form of the cross in Christianity.
The most marked difference between a cross and a crucifix is the corpus or body of Christ on a crucifix. Some Protestants object to the crucifix because of the belief that Christ is resurrected, not still on the cross and thus, He should not be depicted that way.
|
|
Maori Anglicans Tell of Turning Grief to Joy During ‘Planetary Crisis’ Webinar
Four-part Advent webinar series runs through Dec. 21
By Egan Millard
Posted Dec 1, 2020
|
|
A group of Maori people sings a song about the spread of the gospel in New Zealand in a video prepared by the the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia for the “Prophetic Indigenous Voices on the Planetary Crisis” webinar on Nov. 30. Courtesy image
[Episcopal News Service] Themes of Indigenous values, environmental stewardship and Christian theology coalesced into one clear message during the “Prophetic Indigenous Voices on the Planetary Crisis” webinar on Nov. 30: All of creation is connected, and everyone must help care for it.
The webinar, the first in a four-part Advent series organized by the Anglican Indigenous Network, the Anglican Communion Environmental Network and the Anglican Alliance, featured contributions from Indigenous Anglicans in New Zealand and Polynesia. The series is designed to elevate the voices of Indigenous Anglicans around the world, highlighting their unique perspectives on the natural world and the disproportionate impact that the climate crisis is wreaking on their livelihoods and cultures.
Anglicans should look to Indigenous peoples for a deep, ancient understanding of the natural world and learn from their practices to forge holistic solutions to environmental problems, said National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald of the Anglican Church of Canada.
“It is desperately important to the future of our planet” that Indigenous rights and cultures be respected, MacDonald told attendees.
“This is a critical piece in the communion’s beginning to understand the full dimensions of the environmental crisis that is upon us.”
The centerpiece of the webinar was a video presentation from the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Intercut with the natural sights and sounds of the South Pacific islands, the video showed how the reverence that the Maori (the Indigenous people of New Zealand, which they call Aotearoa) have for nature connects with the Anglican value of caring for creation. Click the video link below to see the presentation.
|
|
Archbishop Emeritus Winston Halapua shared a reflection on the strength shown by Mary even in the midst of her lament at Jesus’ crucifixion, as depicted in John’s Gospel. Tears of grief – loimata in Samoan – can actually be a transformative, clarifying gift, Halapua said, and can become tears of joy in the sight of the resurrection.
“Loimata is God’s gift to Aotearoa, to the Anglican Communion, and to the world,” he said. “Our guardianship of such a gift … no one can take it away from us. It is given to be shared with God, the whole creation, including humanity.”
Attendees were introduced to Maori concepts of nature and spirituality, including kaitiakitanga, which refers to the interdependence of humans and the rest of creation. Kaitiakitanga means that all elements of the natural world are sacred and must be protected.
The term “mana” refers to the spiritual power inherent in natural features – even inanimate ones, like lakes or shorelines – that can be received by humans. It is similar to the word “Maori,” which itself refers to the life force that exists in all creation.
“While the Indigenous concept of kaitiakitanga certainly predates the arrival of missionaries and Western Christianity, there are significant resonances between kaitiakitanga and the Christian concept of relationality within creation,” one speaker said.
“As Christians, we affirm that human existence is intrinsically, inescapably inseparable from God. Life without God is simply impossible. God is the source of our existence, our beginning and our ending. The same way that our existence is profoundly dependent upon God, so too we have been dependent upon the Earth.”
Attendees were encouraged to adopt “an attitude of restraint” with regard to how their lifestyles can impact the natural world, similar to the practice of honoring the Sabbath.
Such an attitude, the speakers said, might “enable healing and restoration for all God’s creation, breaking the pattern of unfettered progress and unquestioning consumption of its resources. It is a reminder of the imperatives of justice, so that all creation might flourish and have abundant life.”
Fe’íloakitau Kaho Tevi, a member of the Anglican Diocese of Polynesia who is from Fiji and Tonga, shared “a story of a journey of hope” in the face of ecological crisis. Knowing that these South Pacific islands are increasingly vulnerable to flooding and wind damage from tropical storms, in 2017, the young people of the diocese took a training course from the University of the South Pacific on how to assess vulnerabilities in Tonga.
They used satellite imagery to map out the places in their communities that were most at risk from flooding and storm damage, and they made a list of the elderly people, widows, single mothers and others who might need extra help in the event of a cyclone. They also raised $300 to buy and distribute basic emergency supply kits.
That meant that Tongans were more prepared in 2018 when Tropical Cyclone Gita swept through, the most intense tropical cyclone to impact Tonga in modern recorded history. Again, the young people of the diocese stepped up to help.
“The young people did the assessment of the damages in the areas that they covered. They went about quickly cleaning up the communities, cleaning up the houses, pulling down the broken branches, and also in the process, they crafted a report about the damages in their communities,” Tevi said.
With this damage assessment, they were able to apply to international partners for aid, which arrived in the form of two shipping containers’ worth of building materials, tools and emergency supplies.
“Our story is about building resilience in our communities,” Tevi said. “Our responsibility and our culture will continue to remind us that we are the guardians of God’s loimata, God’s tears. As reflected by Archbishop Emeritus Winston, Mary’s tears turned from tears of sorrow to tears of joy, a sense of resilience that in her decision to step up through her vulnerability, God reached out to her as a child.”
The next webinar will focus on Indigenous Anglicans in Africa, featuring Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya of Swaziland. It will be held on Zoom at 1 p.m. GMT in English and Portuguese. The series continues with South America on Dec. 14 and the Arctic on Dec. 21.
– Egan Millard is an assistant editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at emillard@episcopalchurch.org.
|
|
Episcopalians in Honduras Face Daunting Task of Rebuilding After Unprecedented Back-to-Back Hurricanes
By Egan Millard
Posted Nov 25, 2020
|
|
Hondurans stand on top of a roof in an area flooded by hurricanes in November 2020. Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Honduras
[Episcopal News Service] Before November, Honduras was already one of the most troubled areas served by The Episcopal Church, beset by poverty, violence, political corruption and COVID-19.
On top of all that, the country this month experienced the unthinkable: not one but two Category 4 hurricanes in less than two weeks.
“This is the story of a poor country that suddenly got poorer,” said the Rt. Rev. Lloyd Allen, bishop of the Diocese of Honduras.
Allen told Episcopal News Service by email that his diocese and his country are still assessing the damage from hurricanes Eta and Iota, and frequent power outages are making it more difficult to gather information. Hurricane Eta came ashore in Nicaragua on Nov. 3 with winds up to 140 mph, battering coastal areas. However, the worst damage was caused not by the wind or storm surge but by the severe flooding from massive amounts of rain dropped by the storm as it moved slowly inland over Honduras and Guatemala. Over several days, parts of Honduras received more than 20 inches of rain, inundating towns and cities, some of which were inaccessible. Landslides devastated the region, including one that killed about 100 people in Guatemala.
|
|
Hondurans remove damaged items from a home in an area flooded by hurricanes in November 2020. Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Honduras
On Nov. 15, Hurricane Iota made landfall just 15 miles south of where Eta hit, an unprecedented occurrence in nearly 170 years of weather records, according to The Washington Post. Parts of Honduras were still underwater from Eta as the torrential rains returned, this time from an even more powerful storm.
Some places received a year’s worth of rain in just two weeks, the Post reported. Tens of thousands of people were left homeless, and Honduras’ main airport was underwater for the second time in two weeks, causing damage that will keep the passenger terminal closed for more than a month. Roads, utilities and other infrastructure received widespread damage, further complicating any relief efforts.
The floods and landslides “wreaked devastation on a vast scale, leaving death, destruction and missing people everywhere, and over 3.5 million temporarily dependent on emergency aid,” Allen said. The two storms have killed about 100 Hondurans and caused an estimated $10 billion in damage there, the Associated Press reported, and many more people are still missing or unaccounted for.
Allen said that all the clergy in his diocese – which includes 156 parishes and a network of schools – are accounted for, and most are helping with relief efforts. One deacon’s home was flooded, and some church members have lost everything, he said. He has not received any reports of damage to churches, some of which are now being used as shelters. However, the diocese’s Holy Cross Camp and Conference Center was heavily damaged.
Episcopal Relief & Development is working with the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras, as well as the dioceses in the neighboring Anglican Church in Central America, to offer financial and logistical support to the recovery effort. Along with Episcopal Relief & Development’s local partners, the diocese is purchasing essentials like clothing, bedding, fuel, food and more.
To read the entire article, please click here.
|
|
Steps of Gratitude
December 3, 2020
Karla Koon
|
|
There I stood, transfixed in wonder in the heart of Rome, in one of many glorious churches. In this sacred space, adorned with sacred art centuries old, I was captured by amazement at two marble steps leading up to a chapel off the left side of the church. As I gazed through the shadows of the sanctuary, each marble step seemed to reveal a perfect half-moon cut out in the tread of the step. I began to walk with increasing haste towards these marble steps with very American thoughts of practicality and concerns about safety. My concerns were affirmed upon closer inspection. Not only was there a divot from right to left in each step, but a dramatic slope from front to back, that if not careful, could be tricky to navigate.
There I stood, inspecting these two marble steps, as if I were going to look for the Sexton to fix them, or take it up with the church’s Buildings and Grounds committee. I was so entwined by my own thoughts that I did not notice that Mass in that chapel had just ended and throngs of people were heading my way. With a quick slide to the side, I made way for the faithful to descend those two steps. My traveling companions quickly ascended into the chapel and made their way to a specific icon of interest, urging me to following. Suddenly, I realized something about those two marble steps. They were not broken, in need of fixing, but rather evidence of footsteps of the faithful who had come before me.
The faithful ascending and descending those two steps over centuries had worn them down, but also exposed a clear path. I tried to imagine all those entering that chapel before me, some of whom were believers and seekers; Italians and tourists; grief-stricken and healed; rich and poor; powerful and oppressed; sinner and saint. Each person with their own story of faith and reasons for entering the chapel. I knew that many entered to pray, worship, and glorify God, but I recognized that some may have come doubtful, angry, and wounded, as a last-ditch effort to find elusive peace.
There I stood, about ready to wear just a little more marble off of those steps. My foot rooted itself to that marble, as the Holy Spirit grafted my soul into all those who had passed before me and to those yet to come. I paused in prayer, in communion and in gratitude.
This memory resurfaced in my heart upon reading today’s scripture passage of 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10, specifically verses 2-6:
We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.
With my foot poised to take those steps of gratitude, I ascended in thanksgiving with a deliberate stride into the chapel. The path was made imperfect, but God’s perfect love and faithfulness endures.
|
|
Karla Koon is a Worship Leader and Eucharistic Minister at St, Andrew’s Episcopal Church, in the Greenlake neighborhood of Seattle. When not serving at church or working as the Director of HR Operations and Administration for Catholic Community Services of Western Washington (Catholic Charities), you can find Karla, reading, quilting, golfing, hiking, kayaking, and gathering with friends and family.
|
|
Hale Ho`omalu Accepts Donations
All Saints' Restarts Donation Collection
|
|
COVID-19 changed our ability to collect donations since on-site church services were canceled. Now that we are open for on-site worship, our Hale Ho`omalu donations will be collected again for delivery to this worthy program. We are grateful to our wonderful Monday Crew that takes the donations to Hale Ho`omalu each week.
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.
|
|
All Saints’ has had a long relationship with Hale Ho`omalu, a Child and Family Service program that provides families with the tools and resources they need to create meaningful and lasting change in their lives. Over the years, our `Ohana has collected donations specific to requests provided by Hale Ho`omalu.
|
|
IN BRIEF . . .
These news briefs were featured in previous issues of "The Epistle"
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|