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Religion Briefs
Star-Bulletin Staff &
Associated Press
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Methodist church invites all to birthday
First United Methodist Church decided to skip the traditional banquet for its 100th-anniversary celebration and invite the community to a block party instead.
The Family Festival at Thomas Square next Saturday will include a free Kid's Carnival, musical entertainment and food at a bargain price. The party from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. is open to the public. Free parking is available at the church's underground lot on Victoria Street.
Performances will continue throughout the day, featuring singer Kala'i Stern, the Royal Choir of Tonga, Hawaii Pacific University International Vocal Ensemble and church musicians and singers.
The celebration will continue Oct. 9 with a 10 a.m. service led by the Revs. Etuini Kelemeni and Amy C. Wake in the sanctuary at 1020 S. Beretania St. Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, leader of the California Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church, will preach, and the Tongan- and English-language choirs will perform. Lunch will follow in the courtyard.
The church is marking its "100-plus" anniversary. First United Methodist Church was started in downtown Honolulu 150 years ago, closed after a few years, then re-established in 1894. The congregation celebrated the 50th anniversary of its current building last November.
Chaminade, BYUH plan talks about Kalaupapa
Two local universities with church ties are co-sponsoring a lecture next week about Catholic and Mormon missionaries who served leprosy victims in Kalaupapa.
The talk at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Chaminade University's Ching Conference Center is part of the 50th-anniversary celebration this year at the Catholic campus and at Brigham Young University Hawaii, which was established in Laie by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The joint jubilee celebration Friday will include hula by John Keola Lake and his halau and choral music by the BYUH choir.
"Damien and Napela: Yokemates in Charitable Service" will be the topic of Fred Woods, professor of religious understanding at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He has researched the life of Jonathan Napela, a Mormon elder who arrived in Kalaupapa in 1873, the same year as Father Damien DeVeuster, a Catholic priest, went to help the leprosy victims there. Both men worked in the remote Molokai settlement where more than 8,000 people were quarantined until they died from the disease.
The event is free but reservations are requested. Call 735-4827.
Church health fair offers public screenings
First Chinese Church of Christ in Hawaii will be tending body and soul tomorrow at its Medical Fair, offering a variety of health tests to members and the public.
Dr. Jack Zhou and Chen Yen Wang, a nurse practitioner, will provide blood tests for glucose, liver function and lipid profile (cholesterol) during the fair from 8 a.m. to noon at 1054 S. King St. Blood tests require fasting from midnight, with only water taken, no food or other liquids. Fees will be charged.
Other tests, offered free and that require no fasting, include blood pressure and vision testing and screening for body fat and osteoporosis.
A health seminar will follow at 1 p.m. The event is sponsored by the church evangelism committee.
Lecture addresses death in technology age
A perspective on death and suffering in a civilization that expects everything to be remedied by technology will be presented in the Peggy Kai Lecture next weekend at St. Andrew's Cathedral.
The Rev. James Farwell will speak on "Dying, We Live: Christian Approaches to Suffering and Death in a Culture of Progress" in the lecture at 2 p.m. Oct. 9 at Tenney Theatre. The talk is free and open to the public.
Farwell, an associate professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York, taught a course on "Suffering, Evil and Worship" and is the author of "This Is the Night: Suffering, Salvation and the Liturgies of Holy Week."
The lecture series was endowed by the late Ernest Kai in memory of his wife, Peggy Kai. Both were members of the Episcopal cathedral.
Choirs will perform at hymn festival
Church choirs will share their favorite Hawaiian hymns at the annual Lokomaikai Aha Himeni Song Festival on Friday at Star of the Sea Church.
The program at 7:30 p.m. in the sanctuary at 4470 Aliikoa St. is free and open to the public. Choirs interested in participating may call Margaret Peters at 261-3410 or Darlene Ah Yo at 735-0259.
The event is sponsored by the Hawaiian Arts & Liturgical Inculturation Awareness Committee, which was organized to encourage the use of Hawaiian music in worship services.
