Volume 6, Issue 51
December 17, 2021
THIS SUNDAY: December 19, 2021
Fourth Sunday of Advent


1 Samuel 1:19-28
Birth and Dedication of the prophet Samuel by his mother, Hannah. She names him "Samuel," meaning "the God who hears," because God heard her prayer to get pregnant even though barren.

Psalm: The Canticle of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10)
A canticle is a song that is normally chanted rather than sung. This is Hannah's outburst of praise to God for choosing to work through her to bring about blessings for God's people.

Titus 3:4-7
Godʻs saving work through the Sonʻs birth and through the Spiritʻs renewal.

Matthew 1:18-25
Even though Joseph had not yet slept with his fiancée Mary, an angel meets Joseph in a dream and announces that he is to welcome Maryʻs pregnancy and thus embrace the upcoming birth of Jesus, the Savior of his people.
ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICE
WITH COMMUNION

8:00AM
Muriel Jackson (EM)*
John Hanaoka (U)
Lorna Nishi (AG)
Mark Cain (DM)

9:30AM
Mario Antonio (EM)
CeCe Caldwell (U)
Chris Wataya (LR)
Jan Hashizume (AG)
Nelson Secretario, Mabel Antonio (HP)
Carolyn Morinishi, Ron Morinishi (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

Advent Formation Class
The Tales of Mother Mary - Exploring Our Advent Gospel Stories
Advent 4, December 19th: Matthew 1:18-25
Joseph's Support of Mary
8:45 - 9:15AM
Church lanai canopy

Dance Ministry Performance
Sunday, December 19th
9:30AM service
Church

Vestry Meeting
Sunday, December 19th
after the Aloha Hour
Memorial Hall

All Age `Ohana Christmas Service
Friday, December 24th
5:30 - 6:30PM
Church

Christmas Pūpū Potluck
Friday, December 24th
6:30PM
Church lanai canopy

Christmas Midnight Mass with Choir
Friday, December 24th
10:30 - 12:00PM
Church

Christmas Service
Saturday, December 25th
9:30AM
Church


Advent Scripture Readings from
A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church
Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney
"A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church for the Whole Church is a completely new lectionary built from the ground up that includes a new gender-expansive translation of the biblical texts: the four traditional weekly readings..., all of the Principal Feasts of the Church, and the daily readings for Holy Week and Easter Week."
Many of the All Saints' `Ohana know Wil from her frequent visits to Kauai and All Saints'. Wil spends a good deal of her time on Kauai writing her many books and articles. She is a renowned Hebrew scholar and is The Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School.
Recurring Events
Aloha Hour
Every Sunday after the 9:30AM service
Church Lanai

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

Project Vision Hi`ehi`e Mobile Showers
1st and 3rd Thursday, 12:00 - 3:00PM
Church Campus
Laundry Love Go-Packs
1st and 3rd Thursdays, 12:00 - 3:00PM
Church Campus

Daughters of the King
2nd & 4th Wednesday, 6:00 - 7:00PM
Zoom
You care for the sick and suffering in body, mind, and spirit, especially the Tsunami Victims in the Philippines, The Victims of the Midwest Tornadoes, Patti, Cesar, the Morinishi `Ohana, Carol, Larry, Suzanne, and those we name silently or aloud, let us pray to the Lord. ​Lord, have mercy. 

You embrace all who have died in the faith and bring them into your glorious presence. We pray especially for Grace and others we name silently or aloud. We thank you for their example and rejoice in their lives. We pray to you, O Lord. 
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s 2021 Christmas Message
‘In the name of these refugees, let us help all refugees’

December 15, 2021
Please click on the link below to enjoy the Presiding Bishopʻs Christmas message. Feel free to skip the ads.
[Episcopal News Service] “The Christmas stories are reminders that this Jesus came to show us how to love as God loves. And one of the ways we love as God loves is to help those who are refugees, those who seek asylum from political tyranny, poverty, famine, or other hardship.

“In the 1930s, Episcopalians did this to love as God loves, and today, ministries like Episcopal Migration Ministries, the work of this church, have helped to resettle some 100,000 refugees as of December 2021. And that work goes on for refugees from Afghanistan and from other places around the world.

“The Christian vocation as Jesus taught us is to love as God loves. And in the name of these refugees, let us help all refugees.

“God love you. God bless you. And, this Christmas, may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.”

Download full video transcript in English or Spanish.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
How to aid refugee neighbors this Christmas:
Learn more: Find out about Episcopal Migration Ministries’ work and how to get involved at episcopalmigrationministries.org. Sign up for the EMM newsletter or weekly news digest here.
Upcoming Christmas Events
Mark Your Calendars and Celebrate!
December 24th
  • 5:30PM `Ohana Christmas Eve Service in-person and livestreamed
  • 10:30PM Midnight Mass with Choir in-person and livestreamed

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

Livestreaming services are available via links on the All Saints' website: allsaintskauai.org
Christmas Pūpū Potluck
Friday, December 24th, 6:30PM
Weʻre going to have a "Christmas Pūpū Potluck" at 6:30pm on Friday Christmas Eve, just after the 5:30pm ʻOhana Christmas Eve Service, at and around the lanai picnic tables under the canopy. Please bring a dish to share -- beverages and paper goods will be provided. This will be a great time of fellowship and of sharing the Christmas spirit together.

Mele Kalikimaka & a hui hou,
Kahu Kawika+
Reflections from Kahu Kawika
Mary's Manifesto
The Epistle offers both video and text versions of Kahu's sermon presented each Sunday. To watch this week's engaging sermon, click on the link below. To read the text, please scroll down.
Luke 1:46-56
Judges 13:2-7
Psalm 115:9-15
1 John 3:1-3
Advent 3C w/ Women’s Lectionary
12 December 2021
All Saints’ Church, Kapaʻa

Think back for a moment to when you were in high school. Who was your favorite teacher or one you didn’t like so much? Was high school a highlight of your life or a time you would rather forget? What class got you most excited and inspired?

One of the classes I remember most from high school is, believe it or not, “Drivers’ Ed.” That was when schools still used to offer driving lessons to anyone of age at school – and for free! I took it over the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. Even though much of the equipment they used was really old from the early 1960s, nevertheless I was fascinated with what they had to work with. In a time before personal computers, our classroom of devices called “simulators” –individualized chairs with big screens right in front of them and a fake steering wheel and foot pedals. We would practice “driving” a car on the screen with the perspective of actually being behind the wheel of an actual car, and a variety of situations would arise to test our alertness to potential dangers and traffic situations to make us aware of the rules of the road. 

However, the most unnerving thing we had to do was to go out in actual cars with drivers’ instructors and other students. These cars were weird – they had two sets of steering wheels as well as two sets of brake and gas pedals, one set each for the front driver’s side and the front passenger’s side. So the main student would sit in the driver’s side and the instructor in the passenger side, with two or three extra students crammed into the back seat. While the thought of being in a car with duplicate driving equipment raises some anxiety, just try being one of the students stuck in the back seat while all this was going on – a complete lack of control! And yes – we did get into a few hair-raising driving situations out on the roads! I always thought that they phased out these classes at school for economic reasons, but maybe they did it due to how potentially scary such driving situations were.

This morning, we have a very special Gospel reading from Luke 1, which in an unusual way describes the switch-around of “back-seat passengers and upfront drivers” in our world. Many bibles describe this as the Song of Mary – a teenage girl from the backwater of Nazareth in Galilee (remember Nathanael’s words – “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” [John 1:46]) – aka “the Magnificat,” taken from the Latin for the first line in it, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” We hear it each year at this time, and as such its familiarity can dull us to its truly revolutionary intent. Mary follows her pregnant cousin Elizabeth in claiming her place in exercising prophetic ministry (not acceptable in their society for women to claim such spiritual leadership for themselves) by quite literally breaking out into an ecstatic song of praise to God – and not just for any old reason, but praising God for what God is about to do through the yet unborn Messiah of the world, Jesus Christ. God through him will upend the world and bring forward the “back-seat passengers” while demoting those used to being in the driver’s seat with the comfortable privilege of having things their way.

It reminds me of when I have listened to some of the songs of folk songwriter Pete Seeger from the 1950s and 1960s – his music is so melodious that, speaking for myself, it is easy for me to overlook the truly radical nature of his lyrics. “Turn, Turn, Turn,” for instance, is a song Seeger wrote with most of the words straight from the Hebrew Bible book of Ecclesiastes – “To everything (turn, turn, turn) there is a season (turn, turn, turn), and a time for every purpose under heaven.” After quoting scripture about how our lives are filled with times and seasons of contrasts (building vs. breaking down, being born vs. dying, dancing vs. mourning, etc.), his last words are “a time for peace – I swear it’s not too late” – and this at the height of the Vietnam War. Another song of his, “If I Had a Hammer,” is an even bolder statement promoting justice for those who are oppressed racially, socially, along gender and orientation lines, and religiously – “it’s a song about justice, it’s a song about freedom, it’s a song about love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land.” Finally, I even forgot that Pete Seeger popularized the classic civil rights standard and African-American anthem, “We Shall Overcome,” at a time of racial struggles – about not being content with the way things are but working for how they can be.

Like Pete Seeger’s understated songs of revolt and revolution, Mary’s Song is also an exercise in proclaiming God’s discontent with a world of haves and have-nots. Lest you doubt my word for it, hear what others had to say:

  • E. Stanley Jones, the famous American Methodist missionary and evangelist whose ministry led him to be called “the Billy Graham of India,” described Mary’s Song as “the most revolutionary document in the history of the world.”
  • William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the early 1940s during the Second World War, prohibited the reading of the Magnificat in British-ruled India due to its incendiary nature – “it could incite riots in the streets!” Later in 1947, when the British gave up their rule of India, Mohatma Ghandi ordered the reading of the Magnificat in all places where the British flagged was being lowered.
  • Walter Shurden, a Baptist theologian, once said that when you read Mary’s song “you can sniff the powder of dynamite.”
  • During the 1980s, the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala banned this song, the latter thinking the ideas raised by Mary’s proclamation of God’s special concern for the poor was so dangerous and revolutionary that the government banned any public recitation of Mary’s words.
  • The junta in Argentina banned Mary’s song after the “Mothers of the Disappeared” displayed its words on placards in the capital plaza. 

And so on and so on – all over the world, oppressive defenders of Empire have found these words just too explosive for everyday use.

For us today to grasp the full and surprising tenor of what Mary prophetically proclaims, we need to understand the context of Mary’s world. Her homeland is under the bootstrap of the Roman Empire. In a story familiar to us today, we read a little later in Luke 2 that the Roman emperor orders a census to be taken throughout the Empire – this is done for two main reasons: (1) to make lists of all military-aged men; and (2) to update the tax rolls. In other words, such a census is meant to consolidate both military and economic power – at the expense of those who have little or none.

Into this world comes along a courageous young woman named Mary. In a land where people are ordered to call the Roman emperor the “Savior and Lord” who promises peace in the land, Mary off the bat declares that instead, God will be the Savior and Lord to bring peace – and to bring it about in a most uncomfortable way. Those born to military, economic, political, and racial privilege will be the ones to move from the driver’s seat to the backseat, but folks of little or no account like Mary will move up in economy of the Realm of God. God will bring down those who command armies and use them to maintain their oppressive powerful positions and instead raise up those who honor God, promote peace, and fill the hungry with good things.

In the midst of our many Christmas festivities, caroling, parties, and buying of gifts, we don’t tend to hear too much of Mary’s version of Christmas. In fact, it is totally appropriate for us to hear Mary’s Song during this season of Advent because in it we look forward to the day when Jesus will return to restore all things and to bring about the full measure of God’s justice to our world, where indeed as Jesus said “the last shall be first and the first shall be last” (Matthew 20:16). This same Jesus shall come back who fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy of the Messiah entering Jerusalem not on a stallion or in a war-chariot but on a lowly donkey (Zechariah 9:9).

Every year I hear about a “War on Christmas” that would threaten our outward displays of decorations and verbal expressions of “Merry Christmas.” I wonder, though, if the real war on Christmas is being waged by a society that promotes “the mighty, the first, and the connected” rather than “the least, the last, and the lost;” that lifts up power and privilege over humility and enablement; that pushes for societal and political change through force and violence, rather than transformation through prayer and service; a society that vaunts the qualities of being self-made, self-aggrandizing, and self-focused rather than the ancient Christian vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience?

I know how hard it can be to go against the tide, but this morning my Christmas wish is for God to give me the strength and inspiration to be on Mary’s side of the fight, to get to drive the car with God by first being willing to be a back-seat passenger, and to align all that I am and all that I have to live into what we in fact pray for every week: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.

New Advent Formation Class
The Tales of Mother Mary - Exploring Our Advent Gospel Stories
Please join Kahu Kawika and Seminary Intern Suzanne Kobayashi during the Advent Season between our Sunday services (8:45 - 9:15AM) under the canopy as we explore in greater depth our last two Advent Gospel lessons, as follows:

Advent 4, 19 Dec.: Matthew 1:18-25 - Joseph's Support of Mary

This is your chance to discuss with the preacher each sermon, which will all be based on the Advent Gospel accounts. A hui hou!

Sign Up for 2022 Altar Flower Donations Now
Donation Forms Available Online or at Church
Ever wonder where all our beautiful altar flowers come from each Sunday? 

Our flowers are lovingly arranged by Mrs.Tanaka or by JC Flowers. These flowers were all donated by members of the congregation. To participate with a donation in 2022 sign up on the form outside the sanctuary before or after services. You may also contact Pam Sokei at psokei@gmail.com or Kathy Miyake at 808-652-9393 to request a date.
'Tis the Season! Christmas Flower Request
We Need Your Help Decorating our Sanctuary for Christmas
The Altar Guild will be decorating the Sanctuary for Christmas with island flowers of red ginger and anthuriums, adorned with greenery. We are kindly asking for donations of the following: 

  • 50 Medium Size Red Ginger
  • 50 Leather leaf or similar Ferns
  • 50 small ti leaf bunches
  • 8 Potted Red Anthurium Plants.

​You may sign up on our website HERE or call Diane Sato at (808) 651-6484 or Lorna Nishi at (808) 651-1573. The flowers/greenery may be dropped off at the Memorial Hall lanai on Wednesday, December 22. Anyone interested in sharing their talents of arranging flowers, please join us on Thursday, December 23, to work on the arrangements. 
Lost and Found Collection
If You Lost It, We Found It
These items have been found by the Altar Guild. They are in a basket on the table in front of the church on Sunday. There are also a black ladies' sweater, a black children’s jacket and a black men’s jacket. They are kept on the back pews of the church. 

-Diane Sato
Travels with Joan
Alaska 

You are welcome to join in on another fun-filled travel presentation by our own Joan Roughgarden, this time about her trip to Alaska. She is an excellent photographer and is guaranteed to have stunning photos of unspoiled nature. Bring and share pūpūs and beverages. This will be on Wednesday 5 January, 6pm-8pm, in Memorial Hall. A hui hou!
This issue's header photo was taken at 'Iolani Palace, where the Diocesan Support Center team spent part of their annual retreat day attending the tour. From left, the Bishop, Danny Casey, Rae Costa, Steve Costa, Denise Esposito, Norma Chun and Canon Sandy Graham. (Photo by S. Nishioka)
Emmanuel Featured in ERD
Congregations That Inspire
In Episcopal Relief and Development's (ERD) recent giving campaign, Emmanuel was featured as a congregation that inspires! On Easter Sunday, the children supported ERD's "Gifts for Life" campaign by using the eggs they found during their Easter egg hunt. They donated clean water for three people totaling $105! Episcopal Relief & Development asks the world to “transform a life by giving a gift with a lasting impact.” We continued to be inspired by their ministry to the world! (From the Emmanuel monthly newsletter)
"EYC Hawai'i" is the Episcopal Youth Community of the Diocese of Hawai'i
PRAYER HIKE
Diocesan Youth Ministry - Hawai`i

January 15, 2022
9:00am-2:00pm
All Youth (grades 6-12) are invited to participate in one of our Diocesan Youth Ministry-sponsored Prayer Hikes scheduled to be held on January 15, 2022. These hikes will be our first events to host since the COVID pandemic began almost 2 years ago!
 
We are so excited for our Youth to be able
to gather together safely for an outdoor event! 
 
Prayer Hikes will be offered on three of 
our islands (O‘ahu, Kauai, and Hawaii Island). 
 
All three hikes will begin at 9:00 am and end at 2:00 pm.
 
Cost: Free
 
Things to bring: 
 
Hiking/Sturdy Closed-Toe Shoes (no slippers)
Cell Phone
Small Backpack 
Water Bottle 
Sunscreen
Lunch/Snack

Please register by January 12, 2022
O‘ahu Hike
Aiea Loop Trail
99-1849 Aiea Heights Dr, Aiea, HI 

Hike Leaders:
Rev. Jar Pasalo
Darrell Whitaker 
Kauai Hike
Sleeping Giant (West Trailhead) 
5711 Lokelani Rd, Kapa‘a, HI 

Hike Leaders: 
Rachel Secretario
Suzanne Kobayashi 
Hawaii Island Hike
Kohala Institute @ 'Iole
53-580 Iole Road, Kapaau, HI
 
Hike Leaders: 
Kathy Matsuda
Lindy Marzo 
No background

Saint Thomas the Apostle
Also called Didymus, the twin, Thomas is identified as an apostle in all the lists of the apostles (Mt 10:3, Mk 3:18, Lk 6:15, Acts 1:13), and he has an important role in John's gospel. Thomas boldly urges his fellow disciples to go with Jesus to Bethany in Judea, despite the dangers they will face. Thomas says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (Jn 11:16). At the Last Supper, Thomas tells Jesus that he does not know where Jesus is going, and asks, “How can we know the way?” (Jn 14:5). Thomas was absent at the time of Jesus' first appearance to the disciples after the resurrection. Thomas did not believe the other disciples when they told him they had seen the Lord. He has been known as “doubting Thomas” because of his disbelief that Jesus had appeared to the disciples. Thomas needed proof to believe. He did believe when Jesus appeared to him and the other disciples a week later. Thomas responds to Jesus' appearance by clearly proclaiming his faith, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28). Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (Jn 20:29). Several apocryphal works have been attributed to Thomas, including the Gospel of Thomas. He is associated with the Christian mission to Parthia and India. Thomas's willingness to express his doubts and his faith in Jesus has provided a helpful example for many Christians. The BCP collect for Saint Thomas the Apostle prays that “our faith may never be found wanting” (BCP, p. 237). His life is commemorated on Dec. 21 in the Episcopal calendar of the church year.


Forth Week of Advent
Journeying in the World
Sunday, December 19
WORSHIP
Linger before leaving your worship time today. How is God calling you to hear and sing along with Mary’s Song? Read Luke 1:39-55.

Monday, December 20
GO
Go out into your neighborhood today. Where is God at work? Ask God to show you how you can celebrate that good work and name God’s presence in your community.

Tuesday, December 21
LEARN
Read Habakkuk 2:1-4. Does this reading remind you of Thomas the disciple? Why do you think the folks who organized the lectionary picked this reading from the Old Testament for this friend of Jesus?
Wednesday, December 22

PRAY
Pray along with the Collect for Advent 4, found on page 212 in The Book of Common Prayer. Pick three or four of your beloveds to focus your prayers on today. Make sure to leave some silent space for God to offer you some wisdom about what they may need right now.
Thursday, December 23
BLESS
Make sure to pick up an extra present or two — a nice candy sampler or a warm pair of slippers or pajama pants, just in case you have extra friends or guests drop by. Ask God to bless those who travel and those who may be alone in the coming days. Take some bottled water and sports drinks over to your local community cold weather shelter. They will be extra glad to have that during the winter months.

Friday, December 24
TURN
If you are gathering with friends and family today, consider taking time during the meal to turn to the folks on your right, and then on your left, to thank them for their love in your life. See how this might spread some joy and comfort around the table — or maybe even ease some potentially prickly guests.
As we come closer to the joy and promise of the Incarnation, we invite you to continue journeying the Way of Love. Consider this week which of the seven practices captured your imagination this Advent. Which challenged you or brought the most joy? Where did you find blessings or cross boundaries? Where is God calling you to witness to salvation being birthed into the world today?

For more Advent resources related to the Way of Love, visit episcopalchurch.org/wayoflove. There, you’ll find links to the full Advent curriculum Journeying the Way of Love, as well as Living the Way of Love in Community, a nine-session curriculum for use anytime.

FROM THE EPISCOPAL CAFÈ
Waiting Turned to Witness

Leslie Scoopmire
December 16, 2021
Waiting Turned to Witness
When the Word became flesh,
it was the women 
   who knew what expectation meant—
the circle begins as it ends
in the witness of women.
Zechariah heard but bent like a bitter reed, and
was reduced to scratching
out his son’s name in cowed obedience.
It was Elizabeth who bloomed
   as God’s pledge became her promise.
Years of waiting fell away in an instant.
Joseph dreamt, 
absorbed the news of the holy 
without a word. Mutely
he put his shoulder to the wheel,
   while his beloved wove her rebel song
like a garland. This choice was not his.
It was Mary 
who answered Gabriel’s thunder with assent.
After pondering
   how this could be? nonetheless affirmed
“Let it be for me
as you have said,” knowing 
the costs of sacred favor were immediate. Striding 
into the horizon torn wide
as full partner and God-bearer, Mary held
joy and pain in equipoise, resolute.
She hailed Elizabeth 
   exulting, and together
   they were willing to inhabit
   what others called impossible:
the manifestation
of holy wisdom as wholly human,
   vulnerable, radiating mercy.
Waiting turned to witness:
   Sleepers awake!
   God is among us
     pulling down the thrones of injustice,
    filling the bellies of the hungry
    slaking those who thirst for hope. 
Zechariah took notes 
in another room, gratefully.
In time fulfilled, even as the stars danced close,
and strangers followed her song on the breeze,
Mary brought forth eternity
yawning and burrowing
   into his mother’s breast
at his longed-for arrival
The Rev. Leslie Scoopmire is a writer, musician, and a priest in the Diocese of Missouri. She is rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Ellisville, MO. She posts daily prayers, meditations, and sermons at her blog Abiding In Hope, and collects spiritual writings and images at Poems, Psalms, and Prayers.
Join Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Washington Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the Rev. Glenna Huber, and other local and national leaders for a livestreamed celebration of Epiphany, the season of light, from the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C.
 
Thursday, Jan. 6, at 12 p.m. Eastern
 

During a worship service featuring a diversity of voices from across the church, Bishop Curry will invite Episcopalians to commit afresh to looking, acting, and loving like Jesus—in our communities and in our nation. 
May your Christmas be filled with hope and gratitude for the joy Jesus brings to our lives.
 
Merry Christmas from the UTO Board and Staff! As we look toward Christmas and the birth of Christ, we want to say thank you for who you are and all that you do. We hope that your holiday season is spent in the comfort and company of loved ones, and that you are filled with hope as we await the coming of Christ. 
Supporting Parishes Resettling Refugees

The Church of England is setting up a new group to support local churches resettling refugees in partnership with the Home Office.
Domenica Pecoraro and Canon Gareth Jones have been appointed as the Church's first National Representatives for Community Sponsorship.

They will work with a steering group chaired by the Bishop of Bradwell, Dr John Perumbalath, who also chairs the inter-denominational Churches' Refugee Network, and supported by staff from Church of England’s national Mission and Public Affairs team.

This initiative will build on the positive work since the 2015 General Synod which agreed a motion urging “parishes and dioceses to work closely with local authorities and other community partners, to provide practical and sustainable resources and structures for the resettlement of vulnerable refugees and to pray for all those seeking to address the causes as well as the symptoms of this crisis”. 

Since then dozens of parishes have taken part in community sponsorship and welcoming families from Syria with at least 20 serving as lead sponsor.

Canon Gareth Jones said: "I’m looking forward to taking up this roll working alongside colleagues across the Church of England as we seek to make a difference in the lives of some of the worlds most vulnerable people. 

"Christ taught us to love neighbour as self. In putting this into practice through refugee resettlement, we find the stranger among us is in fact our sister and brother and that our lives are intrinsically bound with theirs."

Domenica Pecoraro said: "With Community Sponsorship, I have witnessed first-hand the transformative beauty of welcoming.

"My hope is to help as many people as possible find safety in the UK through Community Sponsorship, and at the same time, help our parishes, our agents of Love and Grace, to experience and be renewed by these encounters." 

Bishop John said: “The recent events in Afghanistan have challenged the churches to increase their support for refugees.

“This follows from our commitment rooted in the belief of the dignity of all human beings who are created equal in the image of God. 

“Churches need to build on the work they are already doing, especially in the area of community sponsorship. 

“Our National Representatives will be available to our dioceses and parishes across the nation for advice and guidance on community sponsorship.”

The new national representatives and steering group are tasked with working collectively to support churches working with refugees, to expand on the work achieved since 2015 and to work collaboratively with partners across the Church and society.
IN BRIEF . . .

These news briefs were featured in previous issues of "The Epistle"
From The Epistle, December 10, 2021


Laundry Love Volunteer Opportunities
Please Support Our Ongoing Ministry
The recent collaboration with Project Vision Hawai`i on our campus has created an opportunity for a small, core group of volunteers who collectively can commit to staffing a table for three hours (noon-3:00) on the first and third Thursday of each month. Your service would include distributing to our houseless population the materials needed to do their own wash. Rolls of quarters will be in your possession and part of the distribution, so comfort with this responsibility is something to consider. Other than that, the only prerequisite is a giving heart, which I know exists in great quantity within the All Saints' `Ohana.

Please contact the office to have your name added to the list. We need to have this team assembled as soon as possible, at which point we can develop a schedule of solo or paired volunteers, however the team members prefer to operate.
 
Mahalo in advance for this contribution of your valuable time.

Blessings,

-Geoff Shields
Laundry Love Ministry Lead
Who Do You Call?

Contact information for All Saints' Ministries and Outreach

Please submit your story ideas to the Epistle Staff at news@allsaintskauai.org.
USHER MINISTRY
If you would like to serve as an All Saints' usher, please contact Cami at church@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.

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.
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