RELIGION

By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Taido Kitagawa, bishop of Shingon Mission, prays as he tends
a fire in the Buddhist temple. The fire is part of a cleansing process
that allows worshippers to start the year with a clean slate.

Some greet new
era with quiet
reverence

Prayers of many faiths are
offered as a way of ushering in the
new year, the new century
and millennium

By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

Reyn Tsuru hopes the Year of the Dragon will give members of his temple a smooth ride after a rough year of millennium anxiety.

Tsuru, president of the Shingon Shu Hawaii Betsuin Buddhist temple on Sheridan Street, said he had no wishes for himself as he entered the new year.

"I'm pretty satisfied with my life. I'm hoping all of our members find the same satisfaction in theirs. That's my wish for the new year," he said.

Members attending last night's ceremony primarily sent wishes for good health along with offerings to Buddha.

As the century ended yesterday, local religious groups held services, offering hope for the future.

Bishop Taido Kitagawa burned the offerings -- packets of sesame seeds, oils and prayer sticks -- on the temple's altar. This goma ceremony is a purification ritual symbolizing the start of a new life.

"Basically you're turning back the wheel and forgetting about your misdeeds and misfortune and looking forward to a new year," Tsuru explained. "It's starting off with a clean slate."

At Central Union Church, worshippers also looked ahead in a traditional "watch night" ceremony. Leigh Ann Braley explained that the ceremony started at a Philadelphia Methodist church in 1770, when worshippers gathered to watch the old year pass and the new year begin. "It was a time for prayer, hopes and plans, hoping for something better in the new year," she said.

"Although two centuries have already passed, it is hoped that this 1999 watch night experience as we enter a new year, a new century and a new millennium will be just as spiritually uplifting as it was then," Braley said.

The Rev. Steve Nguyen of Sacred Hearts Church on Punahou Street said in his message for the new year that this is the start of the third millennium and a jubilee year.

Jubilee years occur every 50 years, he explained. According to the Hebrew scriptures, they are a time to restore justice to the social order.

His sermon covered four themes: fallowness, or doing something for the community; forgiveness, or being in right relationships; liberation, or helping others free themselves from addiction; and justice, through getting involved with the local community.

At the Daijingu Temple of Hawaii in Nuuanu, a Shinto shrine, the new year celebration will last until midnight and blessings will be given throughout the week.

The Rev. Akihiro Okada said the new year's celebration is a time to honor the year's deity, mytoshi kami, the god of prosperity. "Shinto purify themselves, then welcome the mytoshi kami," he said. The god is asked to protect the family throughout the year.

In addition to prayer, food and money offerings are given, and the traditional dance, urayasu, is performed as a prayer for everlasting world peace and harmony.