THIS SUNDAY: February 28, 2021
Second Sunday in Lent
|
ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICE
WITH COMMUNION
8:00AM
David Crocker (EM)*
Linda Crocker (U)
Dee Grigsby (AG)
Mark Cain (DM)
9:30AM
Mario Antonio (EM)
Mary Margaret Smith (U)
Joan Roughgarden (LR)
Jan Hashizume (AG)
Vikki Secretario, Mabel Antonio (HP)
Jan Hashizume, Carolyn 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
|
|
UPCOMING EVENTS
ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICES WITH COMMUNION
8:00AM and 9:30AM
Aloha Hour
Every Sunday
10:45AM - 12:00PM
Tent
Friday/Monday Crew
Every Friday/Monday
8:00AM
Church Office
Workday to Clear Storage Container
Sunday, February 28th
12:00PM
Behind the church
Adult Formation Series
Revive Lent
Tuesdays
5:00PM - 6:00PM
Zoom
March 2, Session 2: Telling your spiritual story
March 9, Session 3: What is prayer and how do we pray?
March 16, Session 4: Making space and praying the Lectio and Visio Divina
March 23, Session 5: Praying through the hurt
March 30, Session 6: Death and dying, and praying with Jesus in the garden
T
Ke Akua Youth Group Meeting
Wednesday, March 10th
5:00 - 6:00PM
Zoom
Contact Cami for login information.
|
|
Save the Date!
Spring Training 2021 is Coming in March
|
|
The Diocese's annual Spring Training event is coming and will be held online, Saturday, March 13, 2021. Workshops being offered will cover a variety of topics including grant writing, Safe Church, youth ministry, communication tools and much more! Participants can sign up for three sessions. Be sure to mark your calendars and save the dates for the Spring Training. Registration and details coming soon!
|
|
Gift from the Diocese: Bishop Akiyama's Cross
|
|
I promised to share news about the gift of the Diocese of the pectoral cross to Diana Akiyama at her ordination as Bishop (of Oregon). I also told Diocesan Council that I would invite donations to off-set the cost of the cross. Now, the cross has been in the works for well over three months, but it literally was completed the day of the ordination (January 30, 2021) arriving at the Cathedral in Portland at 11:00AM for the 2:00PM service.
Jan Gordon, a Portland artist who designed and fabricated the pectoral cross shared the following with me on Saturday: The waters of baptism and Christ as the Vine are emphasized in the design. Inspired by a Japanese stencil design of ocean waves, and the Lilikoi vine, it depicts ocean waves across the horizontal cross of the arm and a climbing vine on the vertical arm. The ocean waves resonate with the waters of baptism; the Lilikoi vine reflects Jesus likening himself as the “Vine.” An amethyst is set at the center of the cross, and Oregon-mined sun-stones are set at the ends of the cross. The intricate design includes carefully placed depictions of ocean spray droplets on the top edges of the horizontal arms of the cross.
Diana asked me to share: “I'd love for the folks in my Hawai`i `ohana to know how central you and they have been in my vocational journey. The symbols in the pectoral cross are inspired by my time in the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai`i. When you told me that you wanted to gift the pectoral cross to me, I was deeply moved because it means that whenever I wear it (which is daily) I will have the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai`i near my heart. Words fall short in describing how life-changing my ministry in Hawai`i has been. I am and will be forever grateful for the ways in which the Holy Spirit brings abundant life in Hawai`i.”
Should you wish to make a donation to offset the cost of the cross, please send it to me (with checks made out to “The Episcopal Church in Hawai`i” noting “Akiyama cross” in the memo). I apologize for not sharing sooner. I had hoped to share what the cross would look like in the design phase and its meaning. The artist could not be rushed. I am just thankful that it made it to the Cathedral in time for the ordination. (Mail to: Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick, 229 Queen Emma Square, Honolulu, HI 96813)
Aloha ma o Iesu Kristo, ko makou Haku,
+Bob
The Right Reverend Robert L. Fitzpatrick,
Bishop Diocesan of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai`i
|
|
As we are called by God to care for creation, we support policies that protect the natural resources that sustain all life on Earth. The Church calls for policies that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, promote sustainable energy, the safe and just use of natural resources, and support communities impacted by a lack of environmental stewardship.
EPPN Creation Care Series
To make an impact at the magnitude required to slow the damage humans are doing to the environment, action is required on a larger scale than what we can achieve on our own. Sound policy can make the large-scale impact required. The educational pieces below outline evolving policy, from various proposals on carbon pricing to focusing on renewable energy. Our hope is that this series, however limited, will help spur a movement for greater study, reflection and conversation across the Church.
|
|
Churches in the Nation’s Capital Seek to Balance Welcome and Security
February 25, 2021
By Edie Gross
|
|
The artists of Washington, D.C’.s, P.A.I.N.T.S. Institute spent Sept. 5, 2020, creating vivid, social justice-themed images on the plywood-covered stained glass windows at St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House. Photo: Rachel Jones/Faith & Leadership
Editor’s note: P.A.I.N.T.S. Institute founder John Chisholm, who is quoted in this article, died unexpectedly before publication.
[Faith & Leadership] A war-weary Abraham Lincoln sought solace in one of its weathered pews, and Franklin D. Roosevelt prayed for guidance inside its domed sanctuary. In fact, every sitting president since James Madison has attended at least one service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, earning the Greek Revival-style house of worship its nickname: “the Church of the Presidents.”
Since its opening in 1816, St. John’s has also amassed a long tradition of community engagement and equal rights advocacy, something the Rev. Robert Fisher wanted to emphasize when he became rector in June 2019.
|
|
The Rev. Robert Fisher and John Chisholm stand in front of a painting of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Photo: Rachel Jones/Faith & Leadership
|
|
So he asked his congregation: How can we let our neighbors know that St. John’s is as much a sanctuary for them as for any president?
It’s safe to say that barricades and boarded-up windows were not the look they were going for.
Unfortunately, that’s been the reality for St. John’s since June 2020, after someone set a fire in the church’s basement amid protests over the murder of George Floyd. Even then, the church pledged to serve as a safe space for protestors, hosting prayer vigils and providing water, food and hand sanitizer to the thousands who filled the streets in support of racial justice.
But several weeks later, after acts of graffiti and a growing encampment on church grounds, St. John’s reluctantly agreed to the district’s plans to erect 8-foot fencing around the property.
Although the church’s history, location and recent events make it unique, churches in cities across the country struggle with the same issues: how to make the physical space both secure and welcoming.
|
|
Church leaders reluctantly agreed to security measures such as fencing around the church property. Photo: iStock/miralex
“All of us — the bishop, the wardens, me — hated the idea of a fence and reluctantly said OK because we felt it was the responsible thing. The buildings are a ministry, and we didn’t want to see that building go away. It’s important to me that it lives to serve future generations,” Fisher said. “But it was an extremely uncomfortable thing.”
Since then, Fisher and his congregation have done their best to get out from behind that fence, reaching out to neighborhood activists with offers of support and solidifying relationships with organizations that can help them better serve their community.
That includes a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that recruited local artists of color to paint images of healing and hope on the plywood that conceals the church’s stained-glass windows.
Eight months after the barriers went up — Fisher still comes and goes through a padlocked gate — the stunning works created by artists affiliated with the P.A.I.N.T.S. Institute are like a salve on an open wound.
|
|
Artist Shawn Perkins created two murals, including this serene pastel Madonna, during the painting day at St. John’s. Photo: Rachel Jones/Faith & Leadership
Having barricades around the church has been heartbreaking, Fisher said. But it has also forced the congregation to build bridges where they hadn’t previously existed, an effort Fisher called a “heart-opening experience.”
What relationships does your organization have that are better than fences?
“Relationships are better security than fences, and we now have deeper and more meaningful relationships than a year ago,” Fisher said. “Those bless us and help us be a better church serving the community.”
To read the entire article please click HERE.
|
|
Much Obliged
February 25, 2021
Leslie Scoopmire
|
|
Jesus called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me….” –Mark 8:34
Just over a week ago, on Ash Wednesday, we had the sign of the cross placed on our foreheads by someone else, and we then wore that sign of shame and mortality into a world that denies the very existence of both shame and mortality—and if you don’t believe we have lost our sense of shame, you haven’t stared slack-jawed at an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians or Judge Judy as people parade their worst versions of themselves on TV simply so they can say they’ve been on TV. In fact, the amount of time the Kardashians spend obsessing about perceived flaws in their appearances is also wrapped up in our culture’s denial of mortality, as well.
Another thing we have turned into an article of faith in our society is our lack of obligations to others. This has been especially pronounced in the last few years, especially in American political discourse: the same people who used to tip their hats and say, “Much obliged,” now would sooner chop their right arms off than acknowledge that they have an obligation to anyone but themselves. And yet the more they isolate themselves from their neighbors, the more vulnerable they feel. And rightly so.
The time in which Paul and Jesus lived was a time in which the vast majority of people in the Roman Empire lived in abject, crushing poverty. Scarcity and want were real and pressing concerns. And the thing about living in a scarcity mindset is that it heightens one’s sense of disconnection and competition against one’s neighbor.
Being willing to appear weak in front of others has NEVER really been considered to be a desirable situation, whether in first century Palestine with its rigid cultural and honor barriers, or in 21st century America. We live in a culture awash in “rugged individualism,” in which any need for someone else is portrayed in the public American ethos as a failure. And ironically, the same people who extol individualism fear the power of the community even while they decry the loss of those “good, old-fashioned American values” that supposedly existed somewhere back in the mists of time, but in actuality have NEVER provided equal benefits for all people.
Remember that each of the Gospels was written for a particular community of Christians. The community for which Mark writes is undergoing persecution itself at the time that the gospels being written. Thus, in a way, these are words of comfort for them, because it lets them know that their suffering was foreordained by the words of Jesus himself. It reminds then that their suffering was shared by Jesus.
However, it doesn’t just go to suffering. The core of discipleship is self-denial. It is at this point especially that Jesus makes it quite clear that the gospel is certainly counter-cultural. However, one could take “losing your life” more than one way. Losing your life can also be seen as shedding the old way of living that was in harmony with the values of the world.
The cross in Jesus’s time was shameful, yet for us it is a sign of faith and hope—and so it is important to remember how shocking and brutal the cross was as a symbol but more importantly as an instrument of execution. If we remember that, it is indeed shocking that we now regularly make the sign of the cross over ourselves as we are blessed or absolved. The cross itself was not then a sign of hope, but a sign of shame.
From our side of history, we know that the cross led also to the resurrection. What if we understood that denying ourselves and taking up our cross is meant to remind us that we are called as Christians into obligation with each other, in the name of God? We are called to love each other, be compassionate toward each other, and take care of each other in faithfulness, in good times and bad. What if denying yourself and taking up your cross was understood as giving up something you have a right to, if that would spare someone else pain or suffering? What if denying ourselves and taking up our cross means that instead of using people and loving things, as so much of society tells us to do, we loved people and used things to help us accomplish that?
We are indeed, much obliged to God, and to each other. What if denying yourself actually means being true to what makes us children of God, made in God’s image—that we are called together to live in community, loving our neighbors as ourselves and not trying to draw lines about who are neighbors are, and who are neighbors aren’t. What if it means putting down our solipsism and the fear and anxiety that generates, and instead embrace the beauty of community, held together by love and the hope that gives us the endurance we need for times such as these?
What if we understood what Jesus is saying here as “Take up your love and hope, and follow me in truly loving each other?”
|
|
Bishops United Against Gun Violence Pledge to Work with Biden and Harris on Gun Control
February 25, 2021
|
|
[Bishops United Against Gun Violence] On Feb. 22, Bishops United Against Gun Violence sent the following letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, offering thanks for their support of sensible gun reforms and pledging to support their leadership on this issue. A copy of this letter was also sent to all members of Congress.
Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris:
On behalf of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 bishops in The Episcopal Church representing more than 1.1 million Episcopalians in more than 4,200 congregations spread across 314 Congressional districts, we write to thank you for your longtime support of sensible gun violence measures. We are grateful, especially, for your recent call to Congress to enact background checks on all gun sales, ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminate immunity for gun manufacturers.
Thank you, too, for your pledge to take executive action when necessary to stop gun violence, and to establish a task force to focus on the connection between mass shootings, online harassment, extremism, and violence against women. We applaud these efforts and ask that you and your administration urge Congress to enact the kind of powerful legislation we need to save the lives of more than 37,000 Americans who now die each year from gun violence.
We stand ready to assist your administration in advocating for and serving as champions for policies that can help end what we call the unholy trinity of poverty, racism and gun violence. To this lifesaving work, we bring strong partnerships with national and community gun violence organizations across the country and an engaged network of Episcopalians in our congregations and communities. Together, we seek to witness to our belief in a God of life, even in the face of death.
In our struggle against the evil of gun violence, we offer several contributions:
We provide spiritual support for those living with gunshot wounds, with grief, with fear and with the temptation of hopelessness. We advocate for broader and easier access to mental health services for those at risk of suicide.
We teach, bringing an ethic of Christian compassion and concern for the common good to bear on debates regarding unjust economic and legal structures, public safety, individual rights and our responsibilities to one another as children of God.
We hold public liturgies—vigils, processions, and prayer services—to commemorate the dead and inspire the living.
With the support of the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations in Washington D.C., we are persistent advocates for common sense gun safety measures like background checks, holding gun manufacturers accountable, closing the Charleston and hate crime loopholes, and other policy proposals that you have outlined in your gun violence platform.
Although the last four years have brought little progress toward curbing gun violence, we commend House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro and former chair, the Honorable Nita Lowey, for their perseverance in securing $25 million in the FY2020 appropriations bill for gun violence prevention research following their March 2019 hearing on the public health aspects of gun violence. We encourage this federal investment in public health research that can help safeguard the lives of all of God’s people in the United States while respecting the Second Amendment, and we urge you to allocate more research funding in future budgets even as we work together to enact your legislative agenda to end gun violence.
Thank you for your commitment to this holy work. We look forward to working together.
Faithfully,
The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas
Episcopal Church in Connecticut
The Rt. Rev. Daniel G.P. Gutiérrez
Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania
The Rt. Rev. Steven A. Miller
Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, resigned
|
|
Presiding Bishop’s PSA for the COVID-19 Vaccine
Posted Feb 22, 2021
|
|
Please click on the image above to hear our Presiding Bishop's statement on the COVID-19 vaccine.
[Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations] The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations has developed a toolkit for individuals, congregations, and ministries to facilitate and promote COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the United States. This toolkit promotes the ongoing work that parishes and dioceses have already been doing, shares best practices, and offers ideas for ways that communities can help U.S.- based Episcopalians to facilitate vaccination, overcome vaccine hesitancy, and find information from state and local officials. Churches and church leaders (lay and ordained) can serve as an important trusted bridge between public health officials and communities.
In his public service announcement encouraging vaccination, the presiding bishop says, “This vaccine can prevent the COVID-19 virus. It can help you. It can help those who you love. It can help us all. The Bible says you should love your neighbor as yourself. And getting this vaccine, as well as wearing your face mask, and keeping social distanced, and out of crowds, these are some simple and real ways that we can love our neighbor as ourselves. To love our neighbor, and while you’re at it to love yourself.”
“As a part of our work beyond the church walls, Episcopalians around the U.S. partner with the government all the time to help address problems in our communities, and combatting COVID-19 is no exception,” said the Rev. C.K. Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop for ministry beyond The Episcopal Church. “We can not only encourage our fellow Episcopalians to get vaccinated to help us return to normal, but churches can ask their local health departments how they can best serve their community in vaccine distribution.”
The toolkit includes 10 actions churches can take to help get everyone vaccinated and resources from the U.S. government on vaccine rollout including links to every state and territory’s vaccine resources page, information on overcoming vaccine hesitancy, and even sample messaging.
This toolkit will be updated as new information and plans become available. The Office of Government Relations also continues to advocate for U.S. support in delivering vaccines to countries being sidelined from vaccine distribution channels. To stay up to date on these efforts, sign up for updates from The Episcopal Public Policy Network.
Episcopalians are already doing great work in this area, and the Office of Government Relations wants to hear about it! Share your stories of engaging the COVID-19 vaccine rollout by writing us at The Episcopal Public Policy Network.
|
|
Young Anglicans Urged to Register for Global Environment Event
February 22, 2021
|
|
Photo Credit: Helena Lopes/Unsplash
The Anglican Communion’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jack Palmer-White, is calling on young Anglicans to participate in “Youth 4 Climate: Driving Ambition”, a global environmental event taking place ahead of this year’s COP26 climate change meeting. The youth event will take place in Milan, Italy, between 28 September and 2 October.
“Too often, international meetings of global leaders deprive young people of a voice on issues that will impact their generation”, Jack Palmer-White said. “The inclusion of ‘Youth 4 Climate: Driving Ambition’ as a key event ahead of COP26 is therefore a really welcome opportunity for young voices to respond to the climate crisis and shape the global response.”
Amplifying young voices in the Communion is a key priority for the Anglican Communion’s Working Group for COP26. Jack Palmer-White noted that “young Anglicans all around the Communion are at the forefront of local and national efforts to tackle climate change and other environmental emergencies. They are speaking prophetically and responding practically.”
Organisers of the event are inviting applicants to demonstrate understanding of the main challenges relating to climate change. They are also looking for examples of how innovation can accelerate progress for climate action. Applications should also have experience in youth climate work. They are looking for climate activists who are addressing these issues in their own communities, and who has ideas of how to do more globally.
Applicants must be between the ages of 15 and 29. Selected delegates would be expected to attend the meeting either in person, or virtually, depending on Covid-19 restrictions. Organisers are particularly inviting applications from south east Asia, and small island developing states.
The Italian government, who are co-hosts of this year’s COP26 alongside the UK, will pay for travel and accommodation expenses. The main COP26 meeting will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in November. COP, or Conference of the Parties, is an annual meeting of nations who are signed up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
|
|
Japanese Anglicans and Ecumenical Groups Welcome UN Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty
February 23, 2021
|
|
[Anglican Communion News Service] Religious leaders in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, are welcoming the entry into force of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The treaty is a multilateral legally binding instrument for nuclear disarmament in two decades. It was approved by 122 nations at the U.N. General Assembly in 2017 and came into force on Jan. 22 after Honduras became the 50th nation to ratify it.
The world’s main nuclear powers – the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and France – have not signed the accord, and neither has Japan, the only country to have endured the use of nuclear weapons against it. Japan’s Christian Council says it “regrets” the lack of support from the Japanese government.
|
|
IN BRIEF . . .
These news briefs were featured in previous issues of "The Epistle"
|
|
HALE HO`OMALU ACCEPTING DONATIONS
There is an on-going need for travel sized toiletries and canned goods so these items will be accepted every week. As always, monetary donations are gratefully accepted. Leave them in the red wagon outside the sanctuary.
ZONTA OF KAUAI FOUNDATION CHRISTMAS FUND is accepting donations for Christmas 2020. To donate, click here: Zonta Christmas Donation.
KUPUNA SHOPPING ASSISTANCE MINISTRY
Any of our All Saints' kupuna who need assistance with grocery shopping can contact Carolyn Morinishi at church@allsaintskauai.org to set up a delivery.
ALL SAINTS' VIRTUAL SWAP MEET
If any ministry has an unmet need, reach out to put it in the All Saints' Virtual Swap Meet and it will be published in the Epistle. Contact Bill Caldwell at news@allsaintskauai.org.
PASTORAL CARE CONTACT INFORMATION
Whenever you have a need for support, please call (650) 691-8104 and leave a voice mail. The system will immediately forward the information to the Pastoral Care Committee who will respond to each request. If you prefer, you may send an electronic pastoral care request via email to pastoralcare@allsaintskauai.org.
PRAYER CHAIN MINISTRY
Individuals who want to participate in the Prayer Chain Ministry must re-enroll to continue receiving the email communications. To re-enroll, please visit the newly established Pastoral Care web page or contact the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.
SUBMITTING A PRAYER REQUEST
Prayer requests will now be submitted online or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Names can be added to the Prayers of the People petitions by using the Prayer Chain Request form or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267. Names will remain in the Prayers of the People for a maximum of four Sundays before a name must be resubmitted.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|