View from the Pew Mary Adamski

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Finding peace in war pieces

There's a bell at St. George's Episcopal Church near Hickam Air Force Base, but it isn't the mellow call-to-vespers kind of bell. It doesn't have the joyful pealing tone that draws a Sunday crowd.

The historic quarterdeck bell has such a strident voice that it is rarely struck. It's rolled to the side of the small A-frame church.

It is treasured by church members, however, because it is from the USS Arizona.

Two crosses in the church also give the congregation of mostly Navy families chicken skin. The chrome-plated cross on the altar and a roughly crafted dark steel cross used in processions into the church are both made from metal salvaged from the battleship Arizona.

The processional cross, shaped to combine the Christian symbol and an anchor, carries an inscription identifying it as made of deck plate from the ship sunk Dec. 7, 1941, in the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was made by Chuck Swanson, a former Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard commander, in the 1970s, according to the parish records.

How the quarterdeck bell came to belong to the church is a mystery, and so is the identity of the altar cross creator. But the records show that a rear admiral was a congregation member in 1956. He approved a past pastor's idea to use the nautical altar cross in the "new" church building that replaced a Quonset hut used for worship since 1948.

The current congregation and pastor think that people who will gather Thursday to remember Pearl Harbor might be interested and satisfied to know that relics of the war are now in use in their church.

The Rev. Mark Juchter will lead a brief memorial service at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday. The sanctuary will be open during the day should visitors want some quiet meditative time after the formal events at the Navy base marking the 65th anniversary of the attack.

The Arizona state flag will be flown outside the church at 511 Main St. It is reached by taking Valkenburgh Street from Nimitz Highway. It is at the end of the road that also leads to Chester W. Nimitz Elementary School and three other churches.

Juchter said visitors are also welcome at the Sunday service at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Episcopal Bishop Richard Chang will preside at the service on Dec. 10.

The pastor said the usual Sunday crowd is about 50 people, nearly half of whom are children. "Family is a big word here," said Juchter, vicar since September 2005. The school operates a preschool which is often a point of introduction for newly assigned military families who were referred by parents reassigned elsewhere.

The congregation is in a constant state of turnover because of reassignments. Three families of Navy retirees and a single senior citizen are the only ones not subject to Navy orders to move.

"It's unusual in a church, there is no long-term memory," said Juchter. That is a mixed blessing which some pastors might envy; there's no balking at change because no one remembers "we've always done it this way."

The constant influx of new members who want to contribute to their new community makes for an energetic congregation. "We are very volunteer oriented. In the military if you ask for something to be done, they go off and do it," said Juchter, who is a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve. "We are interested in outreach that involves us actually being there doing it." Families recently joined the River of Life Mission Hunger Walk, and adults dodged Nimitz Highway traffic to collect donations for the Hawaii Foodbank.

This morning, the volunteerism was to be focused at home, with church cleaning, painting and yardwork planned to make everything shipshape for next week's events.

St. George's is considered a mission rather than parish because it is financially supported by the Episcopal diocese. "The diocese sees this as an outreach to the military," Juchter said, and it pays the $27,000 land rent imposed by the landowner, the Navy. A plaque at the door identifies the church as the national denomination's Pearl Harbor memorial.

Other than the World War II artifacts, there is little decorative art in the simple building where louvered side walls open to the tradewinds. A bank of flags takes the place of statuary or stained glass. The flags of the United States and all military branches are there, as well as the state flags of Hawaii and Arizona and the banners of the Episcopal Church and St. George.

The church's namesake, a warrior who slew a dragon, is depicting doing that deed in a small wooden wall hanging. Reputedly beheaded in the Roman Empire's persecution of early Christians, he was a popular hero of medieval stories and is the patron saint of soldiers -- and of Great Britain.

"St. George is now considered a legendary figure," Juchter said. "He was taken out of the liturgical calendar." Nevertheless, the image of a warrior as saint resonates within the military. Juchter said there are churches and chapels near military bases around the world who still bear the name.