Religion Briefs
Star-Bulletin staff &
Associated Press
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Gathering will discuss Bikini Atoll nuke tests
The commemoration of the U.S. atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954, will be discussed at a gathering at 5 p.m. today at Harris United Methodist Church, 20 N. Vineyard Blvd.
Carol Brown and Joy Brown of the United Church of Christ's United Black Christians organization will report on the commemoration event they attended in Majuro, Marshall Islands.
Ronald Fujiyoshi and Elma Coleman of the Hawaii Pacific Islander and Asian American Ministries will discuss the continuing health problems suffered by people who were exposed to the radiation, and efforts to support them.
The meeting will be sponsored by the U.S. Japan Committee for Racial Justice, the Harris Committee on Church and Society, and ERUB Survivors, an organization of residents from Enewetak, Rongelap, Utrik and Bikini atolls.
'Dead Man Walking' author will speak
The author of "Dead Man Walking," a best-selling book and Oscar-winning movie about a Catholic nun who is spiritual adviser to death row prisoners in Louisiana, will speak in Honolulu next weekend.
Sister Helen Prejean will discuss the issue of capital punishment in a lecture at 4 p.m. March 11 at Chaminade University's Mystical Rose Oratory, 3142 Waialae Ave. The free talk is presented as part of the Mackey Marianist Lecture Series.
Prejean lectures around the country and has campaigned against capital punishment for more than 20 years. She is often interviewed for news reports on the issue of the death penalty, which is permitted in 34 states as well as in federal and military jurisdictions. A member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, she lives in New Orleans and works with the Death Penalty Discourse Center, the Moratorium Campaign and the Dead Man Walking Play Project.
Her advocacy began when she worked with the poor in New Orleans and was asked to correspond with a death row inmate. She wrote the book about her experiences with prisoner Patrick Sonnier as she became his spiritual adviser, worked to prevent his execution and finally walked with him to the electric chair. She has fulfilled the same role with five other men. She continues to counsel death row inmates.
In a second book, "The Death of Innocents," published in 2004, Prejean wrote of her belief that some men executed in several states had been wrongfully convicted.
"Dead Man Walking" has also been composed into an opera and a play that is performed by high school and college students around the country.
Her books will be sold at the lecture, and she will be available to sign them.
Oahu churches offer free musical events
Music lovers will have several concert choices this month, all presented free by Oahu churches.
» The Concordia University Choir is in town for a series of concerts of sacred choral compositions and favorite gospel songs and spirituals. The 46-member choir will perform at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Chinese Lutheran Church of Honolulu, 1640 Liliha St.; 9 a.m. Thursday at Lutheran High School, 1404 University Ave.; and 7 p.m. Thursday at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1611 California Ave., Wahiawa. Michael Busch is director of the student choir of Concordia University in Irvine, Calif.
» "Bach Vespers for Lent" will be the theme of a March 11 concert at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, 1730 Punahou St. The church choir and compline choir, conducted by Carl Crosier, with the Bach Chamber Orchestra, will perform Bach's Cantata No. 10 and Cantata No. 105 at the 7 p.m. concert. Organist Katherine Crosier will perform Bach choral preludes for Lent. Soloists will be sopranos Sarah Markovits and Georgine Stark, alto Carl Crosier, tenors Ian Capps and Les Ceballos, and bass Timothy Carney. Donations will be accepted.
» A 60-voice choir and soloist Leon Williams will perform a March 17 concert in musical tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. The 4 p.m. event at Harris United Methodist Church, 20 N. Vineyard Blvd., will showcase Williams singing a Leo Hoiby composition based on King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Aaron David Mahi will direct the combined voices of the Ecumenical Chorale and the Harris church choir performing the "Gospel Mass" with New Testament readings on the life of Jesus. Donations will be accepted for the project to erect a King memorial in Washington, D.C.