Religion Briefs
Catholic Charities plans bicycle tour fund-raiser
The Labor Day weekend fund-raiser planned by Catholic Charities Hawaii is not for the lazy or friendless.Before participants even start on the three-day bicycle tour on Kauai, they must raise $650 in donations for the social services agency.
The $150 registration fee for the Hidden Hawaii by Bike tour covers air fare for rider and bike, catered meals and medical, mechanical and communications support along the tour routes.
Registrants who collect $1,000 or more in donations will get an extra two days at the Hanalei Colony Resort.
Catholic Charities is also recruiting a support crew for the event. Crew members must have a current first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation certificate. They will also operate rest stops and transportation service along the route and make minor bicycle repairs. A $75 registration fee will cover air fare and meals.
For registration information, call Vicki Suyat at 524-8911.
Ukrainian monk to hold icon-painting sessions
A four-session painting course on the ancient religious art form of icons will be sponsored by the Spiritual Life Center and Holy Trinity Church.The Rev. Damien Higgins of Mount Tabor Monastery in Mendocino, Calif., will present the "Holy Thou Art" Iconography School on July 27 and 28 and Aug. 3 and 4. The stylized, gilded images of Christ and saints are traditional in Orthodox and Eastern Christian churches.
Reservations for the course must be made by July 15 by calling Nancy Conley at 239-9851. The cost is $320.
Higgins, a monk in the Ukrainian Catholic Church, will present a free public lecture at 7 p.m. July 26 at Holy Trinity Church, 5919 Kalanianaole Hwy.
Windward United awards memorial scholarships
More than 30 years have passed since the late Jerome and Eva Holmes held offices at Windward United Church of Christ, but they will be the center of a celebration next weekend. The Kailua congregation celebrates Holmes Sunday annually, a memorial to the former pastor and his wife, by distributing college scholarships funded by the Holmes Memorial Fund.The Rev. Kekapa Lee of the Hawaii Conference of the United Church of Christ will be guest preacher at the 9 a.m. service June 23. The Kaimalino Serenaders directed by Gail Blache-Gill will provide music, with hula by Jeannie Shaw.
Recipients of the $750 scholarship grants this year are Kalaheo High School graduates Jennifer Duque, Ericka Mench, Cheyne Gilman-D'Amato and Chelsea Taito, Kahuku High graduate Shanel Vivas and Castle High graduate Rindy Ito.
Church suspends cleric over sex-change surgery
BALTIMORE >> A United Methodist minister who had a sex change operation will be put on a leave of absence while the church reviews an internal complaint against her.The Rev. Rebecca Ann Steen, formerly known as the Rev. Richard Zamostny, was a pastor in Rockville, Md., before the 1999 operation.
Bishop Felton May of Washington, D.C., discussed the complaint against Steen, which could take months to settle, in a closed session at an annual regional meeting. No details were released.
Ehime Maru memorial service features Japanese float ceremony
A memorial service for victims on a Japanese fisheries training ship at Kakaako Waterfront Park last Sunday included a traditional Japanese "Dashi" float ceremony.Fifteen people, including city government officials, and 20 high school students from Uwajima city, Ehime prefecture, lifted the float in the shape of a bull demon called "Ushioni" and moved it around near the monument at the park for victims who were aboard the Ehime Maru.
The Ushioni is a mythical character famous in the region around Uwajima city.
The Ehime Maru belonged to Uwajima Fisheries High School. Nine Japanese, including four teenage students, aboard the ship died when the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville hit and sank it last February.
The members also placed 1,000 paper cranes made by elementary school students in Uwajima near the cenotaph and offered a silent prayer.
Takao Matsumoto, an Uwajima city government official and one of the participants in the performance, said, "We dedicated our home area's Ushioni with a wish that such a tragic accident will not occur again."
Isle Methodists travel to conference
Island members of the United Methodist Church will travel next week to Redlands, Calif., for their California-Pacific Annual Conference.The 160 local delegates, representing 37 Hawaii churches as well as ethnic ministries, will be among 3,000 attendees at the meetings Tuesday through June 23.
The Youth Choir of Honolua United Methodist Church on Maui will perform Friday for the conference.
The Rev. Barbara Grace Ripple, Hawaii District superintendent, said a major concern this year is the escalating cost of health care that is provided for all active and retired clergy and their families.
United Church of Christ holds annual isle meeting
About 240 delegates from 125 United Church of Christ congregations around the state will gather for the annual convention of the denomination's Hawaii conference next week on Oahu's North Shore.Waialua United Church of Christ and Liliuokalani Church in Haleiwa will host the Aha Pae'aina, a traditional gathering started in 1822 by the first New England Congregational missionaries to Hawaii.
Convention business will focus on the New Creation Initiative crafted over the past four years by design teams of church members working with consultants from the Center for Parish Development in Chicago. The next phase will be to meet modern-day needs and integrate changes into existing ministries "while being faithful to our calling as a church of Jesus Christ," said the Rev. Vernon Tom, project manager.
Pastors will attend meetings beginning tomorrow, followed by sessions Monday and Tuesday for Hawaiian churches in the conferences. The main convention will start Wednesday and continue through Saturday.
The congregants will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Hawaii Mission to Micronesia at a Thursday banquet prepared by Micronesian members at Waialua United Church of Christ.
The Rev. Kosuke Koyama, who has been a missionary to Thailand, Singapore and New Zealand, will be keynote speaker at sessions Thursday, Friday and Saturday. His wife, the Rev. Lois Koyama, will speak Wednesday at the Women's Board of Missions' annual meeting.
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