“the messenger of love” volume 9, issue 1 ka elele aloha · january 2015 “the messenger of...
TRANSCRIPT
January 2015 “The Messenger of Love” Volume 9, Issue 1
Ka Elele Aloha Christ Church, Uniting Disciples and Presbyterians 1300 Kailua Rd., Kailua, HI 96734-4356 Phone: (808) 262-6911 Worship—Sun.10 am Email—[email protected] Pastor Liz Leavitt Website—www.ccukailua.org www.facebook.com/ChristChurchUniting
from Pastor Liz Leavitt . . .
Aloha CCU Ohana! I hope this finds you well having enjoyed a blessed Christmas season. I am happy to report that I've (finally) made it to Hawai'i. I've spent the last few weeks getting settled in here in Kailua: unpacking, exploring the town and preparing to begin my time with you at Christ Church Uniting. In between trips to Kailua beach to watch the sun rise, I've also been catching up on reading. I've gotten through a few months' backlog of magazines and journals, a book on the history of Hawai'i and the first few chapters of the book Kailua which you were so generous to present to me as a gift at the time of my calling as your pastor. It is a beautiful volume and I thank you. I have also finished a few novels (a favorite pastime of mine) among them The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. The story, set in the 1920s, describes the travails of Tom Sherbourne, keeper of the fictional Partageuse Lighthouse off the coast of Western Australia. It is a beautiful and haunting story and, while reading it, one particular scene captured my attention. It describes Tom's first day as light keeper. As he makes to sign his name in the lighthouse logbook for the first time, seeing there the names of all those keepers who have gone before him, he has a revelation--an epiphany, one might say--about the magnitude of his task. To keep the light burning in the face of all eventualities and thereby to assure safe harbor for those in
search of it is, he realizes, a most serious and holy task. As we enter this season of epiphany, we celebrate the ways in which the light of God's presence in the Christ child was magnified by those who recognized its meaning. And as we enter this new partnership
as pastor and congregation, I hope we will be reminded that we are all of us lightkeepers in our own right. For my part, I will be working diligently to keep the light of God's Word alive in your midst through preaching and teaching and to keep the light of God's hope alive in your midst as I
offer spiritual care and guidance. But God will be working in you too!! This congregation has so many gifts: I am only beginning to understand them. And I trust that as we move ahead, God will use those gifts in ways none of us has yet anticipated. The good news of Epiphany is that God has and will be at work through all of us, making us rays through which others are welcomed into the safe harbor of God's love, grace and justice. Surely, it is a serious and holy task to be God's light bearers in this world. But it is also a most joyful one, and one in which I am happy to join with you. As we prepare to enter a new chapter together, I am honored by your call to serve as pastor and eager to see the new oceans to which God will call us as we journey forward. With warmest regard, Liz
HAPPY New Year!
Page 2
January 2015 CCU Event Schedule:
Key: K = Kitchen L = Lanai O=Ohana Rm PS = Pastor’s Study S = Sanctuary B3=upstairs classroom
Sundays: 10 am, S Worship & Aloha Fellowship 1/3, 8am Men’s Breakfast @ Honey’s Ko’olau 1/4, HI-5 container pick-up 8:30-11:30am @ CCU parking lot 1/10 10:30am Women’s Aloha Fellowship Brunch @ Zippy’s (Kailua) Mon, 1/19 Martin Luther King holiday Church office closed 1/20-27 Dana on vacation. Seeking Volunteers for office coverage
Tues, 1/27 February newsletter submissions due.
This coming Sunday, Jan 4th, 8:30-11:30 pm
HI-5 CONTAINER PICK-UP DAY at CCU. No glass bottles, please.
Please put containers in Heidels’ white pick-up truck, which will be parked in the CCU parking. CCU has chosen to give all recycling collections to the
Institute for Human Services . . . ~ an expression of compassion ~
~ a practice of eco-justice ~ Mahalo!
Seeking Volunteers to man the office while Dana
is on vacation Shifts are 9a-11a 11a-1p or 9a-1p Dates are: January 20, 22, 27 Please call (262-6911) or email ([email protected]) the church office if you are available (sign up also on bulletin board)
Mahalo!
Christmas Eve
Page 3
As the new year of 2015 begins, your CCU deacons (both “old” and “new”) would like to have
our “emergency situation” files checked — and updated, if necessary. The half page sized yellow files will be available in the CCU office and on Sunday’s at the sanctuary door table.
Please check your “emergency situation” information and if necessary, please update. If you have not made such an emergency situation sheet, please do complete one now. These will be kept
in the CCU office and only used by the CCU Pastor, deacons, or elders for necessary help in any family or individual medical, travel, or other emergency.
Please do an “update” as soon as possible so that help can be provided as needed. Prayer chain requests will continue to be shared by both telephone and email.
~Rosemary Allen~
“Light for Lima” Prayer Vigil
People from diverse communities of faiths gathered for prayer vigils around the world to encourage world leaders to take action on climate change at the United Nations Conference of Parties meeting in Lima, Peru held December 1-12. Earlier the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said “the UN believes one big moral call for leadership could motivate our leaders to find a way to agree”.
To facilitate the “moral call”, Our Voices, a not-for-profit project under the auspices of The Conservation Foundation (UK) and GreenFaith (USA) organized “Light for LIMA”, a worldwide, multi-faith prayer vigil held December 7. A contingent of CCUers participated in a prayer vigil at Church of the Crossroads.
Lima was considered to be the last big chance to take necessary and urgent action on climate change in preparation for the Paris Climate Summit in late 2015. Negotiators from 190+ countries strived to reach an agreement that would affect global energy, transportation, and development policies beginning in 2020 and impact policies for decades. As differences abounded between rich and poor countries, the results were less than stellar. According to the UN (as reported by Reuters),
government pledges due in 2015 to cut rising world greenhouse gases will be too weak to avert the worst of global warming, but will be part of a long road to an agreement of much tougher curbs.
The moral call will continue. Let your green moral voice be heard through individual and group actions, letters to legislators, voting with your dollars, and by adding your name to the organized voices at ourvoices.net. Their goal is “for millions of people of
faith and moral belief to SIGN and PRAY in their own tradition for the Paris 2015 UN Climate Summit to succeed where all past talks have failed” and to “express your love and concern for all our children, for vulnerable people and our precious planet”. If you are on Twitter, you can even send prayer tweets (or “preets”!)
at @preets2015.
~Charlene Hosenfeld~
Page 4
JANUARY STUDY FOR ADULTS
A four-session class for adults will begin on January 11 and continue through February 1 that will consider our "end-of-life" choices. While the basic concern certainly has our individual deaths in mind, the primary focus of our discussions will be on the quality of our living; toward the end of our lives and if we face a serious illness. The premise of this study keeps each individual's wishes foremost; at the center of care, in control of your care, and living as well as you can on your terms. Resources for the study will be provided by HMSA and include a book by Dr. Angelo Volandes, "The Conversation: A Revolutionary Plan For End-Of-Life Care"; informational DVDs; documents; and a representative, Mr. Robert Eubanks, who will assist in facilitating the discussions. The sessions will be held on Sunday mornings, 8:30-9:30, in the Ohana Room. If you are unable to attend, books can be ordered from Amazon and documents can be requested. If you have a question, please contact John Heidel at 261-4585 or at [email protected]
Beautiful arrangement by Elayne Cho on December 7 in memory of Pearl Harbor (WW2).
About Presbyterians
by Rosemary Allen
Living—as we do—on the edge of this huge Pacific Ocean, do we take water “for granted”? Not just the ocean of course, but our underground supplies from these rocky isles we live upon.
Almost 25 years ago our Presbyterian Synod of Living Waters “took on” a global mission project to provide clean water systems for various parts of the world. Even now, it is surprising to me that so many areas do not have clean water for their people.
“Operating partners” to install clean water systems grow in a multitude of communities and dual homes, forms, etc. around the world. Many young people (and some a bit older!) have been trained to install and maintain such systems, beginning with Clean Water U sessions at Oxford, Mississippi those years ago — and now clean water systems come to 75 installations per year & probably more coming!
A recent news magazine article told of several LWW projects (now titled Living Waters for the World) in Central American countries. In Cuba, two LWW workers are shown testing water — to train operators when installing such systems. In Nicaragua children are watching as clean water is installed for their homes. A mother and two young daughters in Guatemala are at the door of their home where clean water has just been installed for them.
These are only a few stories of how the Living Waters mission projects have grown and expanded to help literally thousands of people and communities around the world. Presbyterians made a beginning, many others joined in, and clean water countinues to flow for people in many more parts of the world.
Page 5
CHRISTMAS JOY OFFERING CCU’s Christmas gift to our two parent denominations’ totaled $1209.00 Part of it is used to help the several racial/ethnic schools and colleges begun years ago by the Presbyterian Church and is still being supported by us: Menaul School, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Presbyterian Pan American School, Kingsville, Texas; Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Part goes to the Presbyterian Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions, which (in 2012) was able to support the households of active and retired church workers and their families with 322 income supplements, 140 shared grants, 60 emergency assistance grants, and 301 housing supplements.
Half of our gift is going to the Pacific Southwest Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ (of which we are a part) for their ministries: The PSWR is home to over 110 congregations that speak more than six different languages in Southern California, Southern Nevada and Hawaii! Regional ministries include African-American Ministries, NAPAD (North American Pacific Asian Disciples), and Hispanic Convencion. Our PSW Region partners with five units which extend our mission and witness to the world: All Peoples Community Center, Chapman University Church Relations, Eastmont Community Center, Project Impact, and the Disciples Seminary Foundation. It also provides camps for all ages and a conference center, Loch Leven, in the mountains near San Bernardino and Redlands. CCU IS HELPING TO PROVIDE ALL THESE MINISTRIES!
Keiki Sermon by Dianne Brookins on December 28th
Page 6
Memories by Rosemary Allen
At this special time of year I (and I hope you too) enjoy special memories of CCU’s Christmas times. These words by our friend, the late Dave Steele, again brings that wondrous birth to all of us!
Christmas Eve Luke 2:1-14
We place the precious Christmas manager
upon the mantle . . . out of danger. Hand-painted Kings from Hummel lands are putty in young, chubby hands; and glass-blown sheep are too exquisite and fragile for a child to visit. So, while we like them very much we ask the kids to look . . . DON’T TOUCH!
But once, I saw on a low table Mary, Joseph, star and stable, the Babe, some sheep, and several kings . . .
heavy, sturdy, rough-hewn things. Here children dawdled—took their ease, read the sign: “Come, touch us, please.”
And every child produced a fresh arrangement of that Christmas Creche. While donkeys watched the Baby sleep, angels petted woolly sheep. And Mary rested from the noise as Joseph chatted with the boys. Each child knew to some degree just how that scene was meant to be. I watched, with quite a little mirth
them orchestrate the Holy Birth. So God, for her who understands, entrusts His coming to our hands. He urges us now to begin to place ourselves, out kith and kin . . . and choose, among the many choices, where best we’ll hear those angels’ voices;
and join that Hallelujah Chorus knowing God’s at hand . . . and for us.
So, friends, with bright and shiny faces, the King is coming! Take your places!
Page 7
Lay & Elder Worship Assignments for January
If you are not able to fill your assignment, please try trading with
someone and/or notify the church office. * T Prayer = Prayer of Thanksgiving
Date Name Duty 1/4 Liz Leavitt Minister Keith & Peggy Zeilinger Ushers/Greeters Aly Miles Liturgist Julia Miles Scripture Reader Dianne Brookins Keiki Sermon Bill Muench T Prayer/Serve Comm./Bldg Lock-up 1/11 Liz Leavitt Minister Paul & Dottie Brennan Ushers/Greeters Dianne Brookins Liturgist Dianne Brookins Scripture Reader Aly Miles Keiki Sermon Jon Davidann T Prayer/Serve Comm./Bldg Lock-up 1/18 Liz Leavitt Minister Paul Haring Ushers/Greeters Claire Schrader Ushers/Greeters Courtney Nichols Liturgist Courtney Nichols Scripture Reader Kathy Summers Keiki Sermon Susie Jannuzzi T Prayer/Serve Comm./Bldg Lock-up 1/25 Liz Leavitt Minister Rollo Scheurenbrand Ushers/Greeters Charlene Hosenfeld Ushers/Greeters Susie Jannuzzi Liturgist Susie Jannuzzi Scripture Reader Beth Davidann Keiki Sermon
January Birthdays
Marian Heidel ................. 4 Rollo Scheurenbrand ...... 4 Jamie Allen ...................... 6 Wendy Teixeira ............. 7 Bill Muench .................... 24 Donna Bean .................. 31
January Anniversaries
Dwight Morita & Mary Paik ........................ 6
January Tellers: Paul Haring and Rollo Scheurenbrand
January Flower Calendar
Sign up on bulletin board
Jan 4 Brennan Jan 11 Open Jan 18 Open Jan 25 Open
The deadline for contributions for next month’s newsletter is
Tuesday, January 27th.
Mahalo!
Page 8
CC
U J
an
ua
ry C
alen
da
r T
he d
yn
am
ic calen
dar ca
n b
e view
ed a
t: ww
w.ccu
kailu
a.org
/ccu-m
onth
ly-calen
dar/