View from the Pew
A look inside Hawaii's houses of worshipBy Mary Adamski
Saturday, November 24, 2001
Picture the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with ranks of white-clad singers ascending like angels almost to the vaulted ceiling. A resounding Sunday at
the LDS tabernacleThat's not a reminiscence of a televised concert from Salt Lake City, but an actual sighting, a Mormon Tabernacle Choir up close and surrounding 800 listeners with astounding sound. It was close enough to spot Genoa Keawe among the 80 singers.
Choral music is an important facet of worship in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the Sunday performance was beyond the average weekly expectation at the Beretania Street Tabernacle. Members of eight choirs joined under the director of Craig Young for the semiannual Honolulu Stake Conference. It was attended by members of wards from Hawaii Kai to Pearl City, not to mention Mormon leaders including one from headquarters.
"Up close" is the operative expression. Unlike previous attempts to be an unobtrusive visitor, this was a View from the Front Row. There was Eye Contact with each speaker at the podium just a few feet away. It was Crick in the Neck time from watching the array of people bearing titles of president and elder, facing the crowd from a raised enclosure reminiscent of the Supreme Court.
My genial host, Jack Hoag, undid any attempt at anonymity by introductions right and left. Then he served as a guide for someone in previously uncharted waters of a Mormon service.
This being a conference, the talks tended to be more speech than testimony. But on an average Sunday, an LDS congregation would hear people tell anecdotal life stories in which they found affirmation of their religious beliefs. Sometimes it's a president or bishop, and sometimes it's just John or Jane Doe, and even their teenage kid can step up to give testimony.
On an average Sunday, they would partake in the "sacrament" -- Jesus' Last Supper symbolized in shared bread and water. Water is a variant of the wine drunk by other denominations since alcohol is taboo in this church.
And I'm told, the two hours spent sitting in the Front Pew was a short stay compared to the usual Mormon Sunday, in which service follows Sunday School follows separate meetings for men, women, youths and kids.
They're very serious about church, these folks who come in nice dresses and white shirts and ties and listen solemnly. Visiting speaker Sister Harriet Uchtdorf generated restrained laughs with her testimony about a German citizen adapting to life in Salt Lake City.
Some modern churches break the traditional ban on applauding the choir, and if ever there was a choir to stimulate such a response ... but not here. There is something restraining about having ward, stake and even national authority watching you from on high.
Speaking of wards and stakes -- local church and area combo of churches -- this is another religion, which separates itself by a language all its own. "Each of us must use our own agency," said a speaker telling how people have inner resources to make choices. The Book of Mormon and the Covenants of the LDS Church were the scriptures quoted in testimony.
The printed program underscored that men hold the authority in the church, which has a multilevel hierarchy and an array of titles that would match the complexity of churches much older than its 171 years. A man may be apostle, president, bishop, general authority or elder; a woman is called "sister."
The tabernacle with its colorful mosaic of Jesus Christ at the top of Kalakaua Avenue is a landmark, different from the ubiquitous low-rise, broad-roof cement block design that blends into island neighborhoods.
For years after its 1941 opening, its lighted tower served as a beacon for ships, but a surrounding forest of high-rises long since ended that distinction.
It will be the setting of free Christmas concerts at 7 p.m. Dec. 22 and 23.
There will be no restraints on applause for that spectacular island version of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
RELIGION CALENDAR
Mary Adamski covers religion for the Star-Bulletin.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.
