THIS SUNDAY: September 5, 2021
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proverbs 22: 1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Here we are reminded that we honor God by caring for the most vulnerable in society.
Psalm 125
Those who place their trust in God will have God's protection, so they do not have to resort to underhanded ways in order to get ahead.
James 2:1-10, 14-17
True faith in God requires us to be faithful to those in need.
Mark 7:24-37
Jesus is faithful to God by going to places and to people he hadn't considered before, and is thus a role model for how open we should be to live out our faith.
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ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICE
WITH COMMUNION
8:00AM
Muriel Jackson (EM)*
Jeff Albao (U)
Dee Grigsby (AG)
Mark Cain (DM)
9:30AM
David Crocker (EM)
Linda Crocker (U)
CeCe Caldwell (LR)
Jan Hashizume (AG)
Mabel Antonio, Vikki Secretario (HP)
Joan Roughgarden, 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
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Aloha Hour
Canceled
Until Further Notice
Ke Akua Youth Group Meeting
Wednesday, September 8th
5:00 - 6:00PM
Zoom Meeting
Contact Cami for login info.
Daughters of the King
Thursday, September 9th
7:00 - 8:00PM
Zoom Meeting
Contact Mabel Antonio for login info.
Organ Concert
Sunday, September 12th
2:00 - 4:00PM
Guest Organist: Peter Dubois
Church
Project Vision Hi`ehi`e Mobile Showers
Thursday, September 16th
11AM - 4PM
Church Lawn
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Aloha Hour
Every Sunday, 10:45AM - 12:00PM
Under lanai tent
Monday/Friday Crew
Every Monday/Friday, 8:00AM
Church Office
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Laundry Love
1st Wednesday, 5:00PM
Kapa`a Laundromat
Daughters of the King
2nd & 4th Thursday, 7:00 - 8:00PM
Zoom
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For the sick and suffering in body, mind, and spirit, especially Those affected by the Pandemic,Those affected by racial violence, Noah, Patsy, Susan, Maddy, Lori, Peggy, and those we name silently or aloud, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.
For those saints who have gone before us in the Grander Life, especially 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.
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A Prayer Request from Kahu Kawika+
Pray for Those Affected by Recent Tragedies
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In light of several global events that have just occurred in a relatively short amount of time, the following are prayers for Afghanistan, Haiti, and Hurricane Ida. They are adapted from various sources to apply specifically toward these three events. Please use them as an aid for praying for our human family around the world.
Mahalo nui loa,
Kahu Kawika+
Afghanistan:
In the aftermath of the withdrawal of the U.S. and allied forces from Afghanistan, evacuating as many of those Afghanis who supported them as possible, we recognize the uncertainty, desperation, and fear that pervade this moment in history. Please join with me in prayer for our armed forces, allies, and those who seek refuge from harm. And, as our Lord commanded, pray for our enemies.
O God, the author of peace and concord, surround and protect those who work for the rescue and safekeeping of our Afghani brothers and sisters fleeing violence, desecration, and oppression. Give hope to those who despair and passage to those who flee. Turn the hearts of those who would harm them toward restraint and compassion. And, finally, give us a generous and hospitable spirit as those whose lives have been forever marred by war and injustice seek new homes among us, and find a dwelling place in you. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen
Haiti:
We continue to lift up the people of Haiti as they navigate the devastation, death and injury of the recent massive earthquake, on top of a raging pandemic, political chaos, and chronic poverty. Our brothers and sisters in the Central Plateau—Cange and environs—fared better than Haitians in the south, and participate as they can in recovery efforts. Also, the university students supported by some of our congregations are safe. Several Episcopal Churches in Haiti, however, were badly damaged or destroyed, and many Haitians were killed or badly injured. Please continue to pray for the continued safety or healing of those whom we know and love at Summits, Zanmi Lasante, Zanmi Agrikol, Ecole Bon Sauveur, Eglise Bon Sauveur, and for all the people of Haiti.
Most gracious and holy God, send your loving embrace to surround those whom we love and all the people of Haiti in your gracious and healing embrace. Give them hope in the midst of despair and danger, and give us all grace and generosity to support them in their time of need. All this we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our savior and friend. Amen.
Hurricane Ida:
This was the most devastating storm to hit the US in recent memory – even exceeding that of Hurricane Katrina. While the destruction has been immense, the silver lining is that the investment in strengthening the levees and infrastructure in the past 16 years has paid off and resulted in far less devastation than could have occurred. However, Ida was so strong that it maintained much of its force over land as it crawled up from the Southeast to the Northeast of the United States.
Almighty God, all the elements of nature obey your command. Calm the storms and hurricanes, that threaten us and turn our fear of your power into praise of your goodness. We pray for the repose of the souls who have perished as a result of Hurricane Ida, and ask for your comfort and grace for those still suffering in its aftermath. Grant all this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
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Reflections from Kahu Kawika
The Law of Liberty
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Proper 17B
Mark 7:1-15, 21-23
James 1:17-27
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Psalm 15
29 August 2021
As you know, Muriel and I both grew up in Air Force families, moving roughly every year and a half until our teenage years. My family ended up in Southern California, and as I grew up I found out that California is a very litigious state – even if things are written down, there is no guarantee of security of rights, and conversely many people insist on their rights without taking up their corresponding responsibilities. There’s a case I remember when residents of Malibu wanted to build new homes on top of cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and the city council refused their request. So when the residents threatened the council with a lawsuit, the council backed down and granted them their building permits. They built their houses, and then just a couple of years afterwards there were some very heavy rains that resulted in many of the cliffs falling down, taking their new homes with them. The same residents then turned around and sued the Malibu City Council anyhow, but this time suing the Council for allowing the residents to build in the first place! A true no-win situation!
California also has its fair share of crazy laws – many of which came into effect many decades ago when California was a young state. Here are a few examples:
- Wearing a sweatshirt inside-out is deemed a "threatening misdemeanor" in Half-Moon Bay.
- In 1930, the City Council of Ontario (California) passed an ordinance forbidding roosters to crow within the city limits (try enforcing that one around here!).
- In Los Angeles, you cannot bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time.
- Peeling an orange in your hotel room is banned throughout the state of California.
- San Francisco is said to be the only city in the nation to have ordinances guaranteeing sunshine to the masses.
- Redwood City has outlawed the frying of gravy.
- In Santa Clara, it is forbidden to dedicate parking spaces to the patron saint of television (who, as it turns out, happens to be St. Clare of Assis -- Toward the end of her life on Christmas Eve 1252, Clare was upset that her illness was keeping her from Mass in the new Basilica of St. Francis. Suddenly, she was blessed with a vision of the Mass on her wall, both hearing and seeing it miraculously from several miles away!).
- The city of Mountain View proscribes calling pet fish by "names of aggressive content, like ‘Biter’ or ‘Killer.’
- Bicycles may not be ridden without “appropriate fashion accessories” anywhere in Santa Clara County (de facto law – note this is not safety equipment, but fashion wear).
- In Blythe, California, a person must own two cows in order to legally wear cowboy boots in public.
- It is illegal to set a mousetrap without a hunting license in the whole state.
- In L.A. it is against the law to complain through the mail that a hotel has cockroaches, even if it is true.
- It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Blvd. at one time.
Good laws are not frivolous, but meant for the public good. Some regulation is actually necessary in order to promote the improvement of life. Imagine our traffic patterns without stop signs, traffic lights, and speed limits – if everyone could just do whatever they wanted, there would be chaos.
In a similar way, God’s laws in the Bible are meant for our good, just like loving parents have to set boundaries for their children. “Don’t cross the street without looking both ways and only at an intersection with a crosswalk.” “Eat your greenies.” “Don’t stay up too late – get plenty of rest.” In the Torah, the first five books of the Bible and the basis for the rest of the Bible, we have 10 Commandments as the guideline for all God’s ways to live. There is a total of 613 commands in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. Even these are meant for our good and for God’s glory, paying attention to the cultural issues in which they were introduced.
Tom Landry, the former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team, had an interesting take on this: “Most successful football players are free to perform at their best only when they know what the expectations are, where the limits stand. I see this as a biblical principle that also applies to life, a principle our society as a whole has forgotten; you can’t enjoy true freedom without limits.” The best freedom is found within the comforting parameters of guidelines.
All our readings this morning have something to do with the benefits and blessings of following what God tells us. Moses in Deuteronomy 4 urges the people to love God through their obedience and thus to be an example for the surrounding nations. Psalm 15 describes the blessings of living a life of personal integrity and social concern for others. Our Gospel reading from Mark 7 teaches us that our hearts have to change from the inside out for us to want to follow God’s will and directions in our lives.
There were two alternative readings we could have had this morning, from Song of Solomon 2 and Psalm 45, both of which illustrate the desired goal of an ardent, heartfelt love between God and we as God’s people. Song of Solomon, only one of two books in the Bible NOT to mention God, shows a young couple madly in love and who want to please and serve each other in a mutual way. Psalm 45 meanwhile shows the devotion of a people to their good and kind king and that they want to serve him because he serves them!
We thus should follow God not out of compulsion nor out of reluctance as if serving an ogre of a dictator, but instead out of a heartfelt desire to please God and to nurture our relationship with God. As we grow more and more into the person and likeness of Jesus, we increasingly WANT to do the right things rather than feel obligated to do so.
And then we have the book of James as our Epistle reading. By tradition written by Jesus’ half-brother and leader of the Jerusalem church, James is what I call the “Nike Book,” because throughout it he seems to be saying “Just do it!” James says it is not enough to claim a faith in God without loving your neighbors in practical ways nor paying attention to personal holiness and integrity.
However, surprisingly the German pastor and theologian Martin Luther 500 years ago called the book of James “an epistle of straw”, meaning it was totally worthless and unbeneficial for the church, and wanted to cut it out of the new Protestant Bibles that were being printed and circulated – thank goodness that effort failed! Luther went too far to emphasize that only our faith in God saves us rather than anything we do to try to earn God’s favor, and thus he rejected anything that smacked of trying to earn God’s salvation through our own good deeds, as if God were a glorified vending machine who will grant us what we want if we just push the right buttons.
However, Luther’s extreme positions throws out the baby with the bathwater. He thought James contradicted the rest of the New Testament and focused too much on what we do for God rather than on faith in what God does for us. I’m afraid, though, that Luther misread James. James’ message really is, “If you talk the talk, walk the walk.” James explains that true faith in God will show itself in practical ways, and is not just some secret reality we keep to ourselves. James highlights the Law of Liberty over the law of compulsion.
James 1:19 – “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” But we tend to do exactly the reverse: Get immediately angry first, speak out to criticize someone (often behind his or her back), then either not listen at all or reluctantly listen to pick up more points to use against the speaker.
Indeed, true religion for James is at the end of today’s reading from his epistle, where in a nutshell he tells his readers act more and speak less: “Keep a tight rein on your tongues ... look after those on the margins of society and don’t let the selfish values of the culture around us get the better of us.”
Epictetus, 1st-2nd Century Greek Stoic philosopher, taught that philosophy is a way of life and not just a theoretical discipline. To Epictetus, all external events are beyond our control; we should accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. However, individuals are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline. He thus echoes what James says in a famous quote: “Nature has given to people one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from each other twice as much as we speak.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the 20th-Century German pastor who lost his life defying the Nazis in his home country, similarly said, “Whoever can no longer listen to their sister or brother will soon no longer be listening to God, either.”
God places certain people on our path, to bless them and for our own growth. St. Augustine, the Church Father of the 4th and 5th centuries from present-day Algeria, wrote, “Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.”
All these people place an importance on us having a concrete faith that deals with our real world. Seen on a spiritual level, we are faster at bringing before God our shopping lists of what we want God to do for us, rather than first asking who God would have us be and what God would have us do.
How quick are we to listen to God and to those around us? Taking in what someone else (whether God or a human) is trying to tell us is a real skill. It requires us to lower our “me-first” attitude in submission to what we can learn otherwise. What if instead we go to our doctor for a physical problem, only to quibble with the doctor with excuses on why we don’t want to follow her prescription for health? We should listen to the “doctors” in our lives, and measure what they say against our faith’s great commandment: To love God first with the totality of our being, and to love each other as we more naturally love ourselves.
A practical outworking of this is that the Vestry is considering our best response to the grave crisis in Haiti in the aftermath of their devastating earthquake. We definitely want to have a special offering as an expression of thanks for our feast day, All Saints’ Day in early November, through Episcopal Relief and Development. By then the earthquake will be forgotten but the after affects will still be persistent and the need will be even more acute. We’re also thinking about how to help in the shorter term and will let you know.
Finally, in the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India: “You need only ask at night before you go to bed, ‘What did I do to Jesus today? What did I do for Jesus today? What did I do with Jesus today?’ You have only to look at your hands. This is the best examination of conscience.”
Jesus says that we will be known by our fruit, not by what we profess. Let us walk the talk. Real faith does not boast, intimidate, or threaten, but seeks to serve the last, the least, and the lost. Amen.
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Announcing the Inaugural All Saints'
Gift of Music "Makana Mele" Organ Concert
September 12, 2021
First in an On-going Series Supporting Our Community
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Featuring Peter DuBois
Director of Music and Organist
Third Presbeterian Church
Rochester, NY
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Peter DuBois has served as Director of Music/Organist at Third Church since 1991. In addition to his full-time duties at Third Church, he is Host and Producer for the popular nationally syndicated public radio program With Heart and Voice. For 15 years, while serving Third Church, Peter concurrently served on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music as Assistant Professor of Sacred Music and Director of the Sacred Music Diploma program. Prior to coming to Third Church, he served 10 years as Director of Music/Organist at Christ Church United Methodist in Charleston, West Virginia, and taught at West Virginia Wesleyan College and the University of Charleston.
Peter holds degrees in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Peter maintains an active performing career, with recitals throughout the United States and abroad, including at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, Notre-Dame de Paris (twice), the Basilica of Ste. Clotilde in Paris, and the Cathédrale du Saint-Saveur in Aix-en-Provence.
Please join us on September 12th at 2:00PM for what promises to be a spectacular concert performed on All Saints' Rosales Opus 41 Pipe Organ.
This concert will be live streamed at AllSaintsKauai.org. Due to current conditions, live concert attendance in the church is limited to All Saints members. Mahalo!
Mahalo nui loa to David Murray, Bill Brown, and Chucky Boy Chock for putting their heads together to discover the perfect name for the All Saints' organ concert series: Makana Mele - The Gift of Music.
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Project Vision Hi`ehi`e Mobile Showers Coming to All Saints' Campus
Join the Volunteers to Provide Sack Lunches for Clients
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At the Project Vision Hi'ehi'e Mobile Showers (every other Thursday from 11am-4pm, starting September 16), some All Saints volunteers will provide sack lunches for the clients to take with them after they finish their showers. We expect about 20 people to be there each time. Please contact Carolyn Morinishi if you are interested in helping with this ministry, either by making the lunches or donating funds to help purchase supplies. Thank you!
-Carolyn Morinishi
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Welcome Suzanne Kobayashi!
Suzanne Joins All Saints' as Our Intern for the Diaconate
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Suzanne will join us at All Saints' this Sunday. Please welcome her and introduce yourself to our new intern. She will begin her formal duties for the church September 12th. We look forward to having Suzanne serve at All Saints'.
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Keiki Heroes Program
Promoting Healthy Safe Keiki
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Keiki Heroes is a community empowerment initiative that provides Hawaii’s keiki (children) with fun and engaging ways to encourage habits that keep them healthy and safe. To learn more and download resources, visit the Keiki Heroes website HERE.
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Our Schools:
Back in Session!
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`Iolani School, Honolulu
Welcome back, Raiders!
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St. Andrew's Schools, Honolulu
Good Morning, Priory and Prep!
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Seabury Hall, Makawao, Maui
We are the Spartans!
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Holy Nativity, Honolulu
We love learning!
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The Feast of Constance and Her Companions September 5, 2021
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On September 9, The Episcopal Church celebrates the witness of Constance and her companions, remembered along with other faithful Christians as the Martyrs of Memphis.
Yellow fever, a mosquito-borne illness that frequently affected the American South during the late 19th century, had reached an epidemic status in August 1878. Memphis, Tennessee, on the banks of the Mississippi River, had been afflicted by the disease several times before, leading citizens to flee the city en masse at the earliest signs of an outbreak. More than half of the city’s population left, leaving more than 20,000 people behind. According to A Great Cloud of Witnesses, “As cases multiplied, death tolls averaged 200 daily. When the worst was over, ninety percent of the people who remained had contracted the fever; more than 5,000 people had died.”
Faithful Episcopalians and other Christians remained behind in the stifling heat to serve the city in its crisis. Chief among these saints were Constance, the Superior of the Sisters of St. Mary, and several other sisters of the order, who had come to Memphis some years earlier to found a girls’ school at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. The cathedral was located in the thick of the yellow fever epidemic, which provided ample opportunity to minister to the afflicted. They tended the sick, gave rest to the weary, soothed the suffering, and blessed the dying, making a special effort to find and take care of the numerous orphaned children of Memphis.
Constance and her companions knew well the danger and destruction that the fever represented, but would not be deterred from serving God and neighbor in that place. By the end of September, four of the sisters, along with two Episcopal priests and many unnamed volunteers, had succumbed to the fever: Sister Constance, Sister Thecla, Sister Ruth, Sister Frances, the Rev. Louis Schuyler and the Rev. Charles Parsons. Sister Constance’s last words, uttered when she was no longer physically able to serve, are enshrined in the altar at St. Mary’s Cathedral: “Alleluia! Osanna!”
Collect for Constance and Her Companions
We give you thanks and praise, O God of compassion, for the heroic witness of Constance and her companions, who, in a time of plague and pestilence, were steadfast in their care for the sick and dying, and loved not their own lives, even unto death; Inspire in us a like love and commitment to those in need, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Adapted from A Great Cloud of Witnesses’ account of Constance and Her Companions.
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Tennessee youth group finds a pandemic-safe mission repairing homes in their own backyard
EGAN MILLARD
September 2, 2021
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Young volunteers paint a house as part of Operation Backyard. Photo: Sinead Doherty
[Episcopal News Service] An Episcopal youth group in Tennessee has made the most of pandemic-related limits on indoor gatherings and travel by helping to repair homes in their city. The youth group of the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Knoxville has partnered with Operation Backyard, a local nonprofit that repairs the homes of residents in need and takes its name from the mission of helping the poor “in your own backyard.”
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It’s a partnership that benefits everyone involved on multiple levels, youth minister Sinead Doherty said. Clients who can’t afford necessary repairs get to keep their homes, and the parish teenagers learn valuable building skills and lessons about the realities of economic injustice. Beyond that, the program fosters personal connections and a sense of purpose, Doherty told Episcopal News Service.
Operation Backyard is a project of the Knoxville Leadership Foundation, a nondenominational Christian nonprofit that connects volunteers with urban improvement projects, mostly dealing with housing for low-income people. Operation Backyard leaders select projects suitable for inexperienced volunteers – such as building wheelchair ramps, painting or patching roofs – and walk the volunteers through the work.
Doherty has attended Good Samaritan since she was a girl and works part-time as the youth minister in addition to her full-time job as a trauma therapist. She saw in Operation Backyard the perfect opportunity to offer her 60 or so middle- and high schoolers.
“What they had to offer was exactly what I wanted for my youth,” she said. “It’s incredibly relational. You really get to know the people who are leading the volunteer day, as well as the families that you’re serving.”
She and some of the teenagers had a positive experience in 2019 building a wheelchair ramp for a woman who couldn’t get down the two flights of stairs in her public housing apartment. Then the pandemic hit. Suddenly, many of Operation Backyard’s usual volunteers – like college groups on spring break service trips, for example – couldn’t come. The Good Samaritan group was even more needed, and it was one of the few ways that they could gather safely.
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Young volunteers build a ramp. Photo: Sinead Doherty
“I did not want to shut down my youth group, but we needed safe outdoor options,” Doherty told ENS. Even though most of the work was outdoors, much of it was done in masks “in the humidity down here in Tennessee in the summer, which is unreal. We were so happy to be able to do anything.”
The Good Samaritan group completed three projects in 2020 and two this year so far, with more to come in the fall. Usually 30 to 50 kids participate, some as young as fourth grade.
“It’s something my youth asked for,” Doherty said. “They want to go out and sweat in the heat doing manual labor because it means so much to them to connect with the homeowners and to connect with the amazing leadership from Operation Backyard.”
For some of the teens, it’s more than a group project; it’s a way for them to come into their own.
“One of my young men actually was so inspired by the work he was doing with Operation Backyard that he is pursuing construction and contractor licensure while he’s in high school,” Doherty told ENS. “And he’s hoping to serve with them once he gets out of high school and then take the skills he’s learned for a career.”
One 16-year-old loved it so much that she enlisted her school to do its own Operation Backyard day, Doherty added. “She took what we had done and spearheaded it all on her own,” she said.
The most important thing about the program, Doherty emphasizes, is not the construction or leadership skills but the Christian missions of service and witness that it entails. Even small projects can be a godsend for clients, such as a family whose children would have been taken away by the state if they didn’t repair unsafe parts of their house, Doherty said. Clients are always treated with dignity as equal partners, but the volunteers become more aware of their own relative privilege.
“A lot of the kids I [work with] live in a very privileged part of town, and most of the clients we serve through Operation Backyard do not,” Doherty told ENS. “It’s been really wonderful to help my youth, in a very ethical way, get out into different parts of town and get to know people and build relationships with them.”
“Getting our kids getting out into the communities, they’re able to identify all of these different justice issues like food deserts and access to safe and affordable housing, and take home what they learn,” Doherty said. “It’s been so interesting to watch their faith tie into issues beyond just this one day or this one weekend.”
Not every church has a youth program as large or resourced as Good Samaritan, but Doherty recommends that other churches look to partner with similar nonprofits in their areas. They’re often looking for volunteers and eager to train them, so churches don’t need to start programs on their own.
“They’re here, they exist and we don’t have to re-create it,” Doherty said, “but, wow, it meets that need.”
– Egan Millard is an assistant editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at emillard@episcopalchurch.org.
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‘Wild Church’ in Northern Michigan invites spiritual seekers into the woods
BY EGAN MILLARD
Posted Aug 30, 2021
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UP Wild Church meets at various locations around Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Photo: Lanni Lantto
[Episcopal News Service] UP Wild Church, a ministry of the Diocese of Northern Michigan, brings people of all ages and backgrounds into the woods of the Upper Peninsula, or UP, for spiritual experiences. As it enters its third year, it is attracting a growing number of people who are drawn to its mix of outdoor adventures, community, quiet reflection and environmentalism.
Unlike other “wilderness churches,” it isn’t a Eucharist service in the woods. UP Wild Church, a collaboration with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Northern Great Lakes Synod, holds nondenominational nature prayer services and wilderness walks in the area’s abundant natural settings: protected pine forests, inland lakes and the shores of Lake Superior.
But in addition to providing a natural refuge from the chaos of modern life, UP Wild Church also engages with the environmental crises that threaten those places, educating people about past and present industrial destruction.
“We’ve grown [because of] this need in the community to pray in certain spaces for our own healing and for the healing of the land,” said Lanni Lantto, the lay leader of UP Wild Church.
The idea originated during a gathering of Lutherans and Episcopalians in a park, when the conversation turned to the decreasing numbers of young adults in churches.
“What if we created an alternative?” Lantto remembers someone asking.
For Lantto, 41, appreciation and care for creation have always been central to her faith life.
“One of our vocations that God gave us is to not just tend the garden, but get to know the garden. And when you start to fall in love with what God created, you’re compelled to protect it,” she told Episcopal News Service.
After 10 years of working as a “fashion re-designer” – repurposing old materials into new garments to avoid waste – Lantto was hired as the mission developer for the Lutheran-Episcopal collaboration that became UP Wild Church. She began meeting with young adults in the Marquette area and asking them about the kinds of experiences they valued and wanted more of. Three themes emerged: nature, connection and healing from previous bad church experiences.
With the help of grants from the Episcopal and Lutheran churches, UP Wild Church has been meeting since July 2019, when it started with a nature prayer service at a park in Marquette. Lantto and her collaborators developed the format, which involves reading and reflecting on texts about Christian spirituality – including, but not limited to, Scripture – and creation care, a poem or two, collective prayer, some quiet time for individual reflection, a group discussion and tea.
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UP Wild Church meets year-round and has never canceled due to weather, according to curator Lanni Lantto. Photo: Lanni Lantto
The nature prayer services in the park have continued once a month, but UP Wild Church expanded beyond that, offering more services and hikes that bring people out to the Upper Peninsula’s forests and lakes. There are “Holy Hikes” for the more adventurous, as well as easier and more accessible trail walks. There are events for kids, like a foraging outing where they can learn to identify plants. For the fall, Lantto and her volunteer team have planned outings to view the autumn foliage and the migration of monarch butterflies.
For Lantto and UP Wild Church, appreciating the beauty of creation also means protecting it from pollution, extractive industries and climate change – and reminding people of their own complicity in those processes, which have done lasting damage to the Upper Peninsula. UP Wild Church has visited the remains of an old logging camp to reflect on forest stewardship, and in September it will plant trees and go to an abandoned mining village and pray at the mouth of a cave where the miners descended. Participants also have done a “prayer sit-in” on the shore of Lake Superior to draw attention to the effects of industrial pollution on the world’s largest freshwater lake, she said.
Though it was created to meet the needs of young adults, participants have ranged from 3 months to 98 years old, with an average of about 10 people attending each event, Lantto said. They come from a variety of Christian denominations.
“During the pandemic and within this climate of so many unknowns – including climate change – we are steady, and we are growing,” she told ENS, saying that her goal is to make the ministry sustainable. UP Wild Church received a $30,000 “growth grant” from Executive Council in February as a growing ministry, and Lantto is working on a fundraising appeal that can keep the ministry going without relying solely on grants or donations from attendees. (Lantto will pass around an offering plate at services, but she views attendees as “the people we’re serving,” not necessarily a source of funding.)
“We’re pretty excited about the future,” she said. “We’ve really got something where people can find healing. And we all really need to focus on that right now and to get off of our screens for a while and to go to the woods, and to have a community of people doing that together is really important.”
– Egan Millard is an assistant editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at emillard@episcopalchurch.org.
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Anglican Church of Southern Africa launches vaccination campaign
Posted Aug 31, 2021
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[Anglican Church of Southern Africa] The ACSA COVID-19 Advisory Team appointed by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has launched a major new initiative to get Anglicans vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The key elements of the Anglicans Vaccinate initiative are:
• An appeal to bishops across the province to declare a COVID Vaccination Week beginning at services on Sunday Sept. 5;
• A 12-minute video to be played at services and available on YouTube. It is currently available in English but other languages are planned;
• New updated, detailed guidelines;
• The appointment of diocesan vaccine coordinators, as well as archdeaconry champions and parish coordinators.
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What my soul needs
Karla Koon
September 1, 2021
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My soul needs to bask in canopies of green;
My soul needs to hear the running water wash clean.
My soul needs a reminder of majestic endurance;
My soul needs to know new life abound in fullness.
My soul needs to remember the consistency of the tides;
My soul needs to feel the crunch rise with each stride.
My soul needs to reach for the vast horizon line;
My soul needs to experience the new fruit of the vine.
My soul needs to listen for the breeze-whispered song;
My soul seeks this place that is still, clear and calm.
God knows my soul; God knows my needs;
God sits beside me to love and to heal.
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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.
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IN BRIEF . . .
These news briefs were featured in previous issues of "The Epistle"
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From The Epistle, August 27, 2021
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Mary Margaret Smith Moves Forward in Her Formation as a Deacon
Messages from Mary Margaret
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What is a Deacon?
What is a Deacon?
So many have asked me that question. It seems people, even cradle Episcopalians, don’t understand the role of a deacon and how important it is to the spiritual growth of the church community.
A Deacon is:
- A person ordained to lead and live out the Servant Ministry of Jesus Christ in the church and in the world.
- A prophet of social justice and compassionate action, calling all the people of God to live the servant ministry of their Baptismal covenant.
- A leader, teacher, and nurturer of the church’s social ministry.
The Deacon is often called a bridge, with one foot in the church and the other in the world. A bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. This is so that the gathered community is always mindful of, holds up in prayer, and responds to in their life, the pain, brokenness and hunger of the wider world.
The role of a deacon in our worship service best symbolizes the ministry. They proclaim the gospel, lead the prayers of the people, set and clean up the table for Holy Communion, and dismiss us to “Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord”.
A deacon reminds us that our true service starts on Sundays when we leave the church, that our mission field is our community and the world. We are called not only to prayer but to action.
I am humbled and amazed that God has called me to this ministry in God's church.
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The Path to Ordination
The path to ordination is a long process as it should be. It is the journey of formation that one walks with God. I sensed my call to the Diaconate ten years ago and after years of discernment, I finally accepted the call and started the path to ordination three years ago. To start the process, one needs the support of their church. In keeping with the Episcopal Church Canons, in April 2019 the All Saints’ Vestry, on behalf of the entire congregation, wrote a letter of Nomination and Support, which pledged to contribute financially and spiritually in my preparation for ordination, for me to the Bishop. I then started all the paperwork and meetings. Letters of recommendation, psychological and medical exams, a background check, and a meeting with the Bishop and the Commission on Ministry were required. Once that was done and everyone had agreed, the Bishop admitted me as a Postulant (a candidate, seeking admission into a religious order). Then the training started.
I completed Introduction to Formation, a one-year course of study and discernment, and have just finished my first year of Waiolaihui’ia, our local formation program. The Waiolaihui’ia program is structured to enable people with full-time jobs to participate in training one weekend a month for three years. The program uses the curriculum designed by the Iona Center at Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX and we have been able to meet on-line via Zoom. On Friday evenings we met for evening service, for which we took turns preparing, and giving the sermons. The sermons were critiqued by the people attending the meeting. Saturday mornings the first year were spent studying the bible with Fr. Kawika Jackson and in the afternoon we discussed practicum videos we watched from the Iona Center. There were test questions each month and a final at the end of the year. I start my second year September 10th. It will follow the same format as the first year except we will be studying church history and New Testament Greek. That will be interesting, never thought I’d be learning Greek.
It is customary that one is assigned to a different church for your second and third year of internship. As of September 1st, I will be attending St. Michael’s and All Angels in Lihue. This coming Sunday will be my last Sunday at All Saints’. Because of this transition I have had to give up all duties and work at All Saints’. My whole Episcopal life has been at All Saints’, starting twenty years ago. You all are my family and I will miss worshiping with you so much. I have been so touched by the support everyone has given me. I wouldn’t be making this journey without the love you have shown me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please continue to pray for me as I will be praying for all of you.
-Mary Margaret Smith
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Laundry Love Announces New Fall Schedule
We are pleased that we will be on-site every month!
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Laundry Love will be available the first Wednesday of the month at the Kapa`a Laundromat at 5:00PM beginning September 1st. Many thanks to all who support Laundry Love.
If you wish to volunteer for this Ministry please contact the Church office at (808) 822-4267.
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The Daughters of the King Retreat scheduled for Saturday, September 11th, has been postponed. |
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Who Do You Call?
Contact information for All Saints' Ministries and Outreach
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USHER MINISTRY
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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