View from the Pew
A look inside Hawaii's houses of worshipBy Mary Adamski
AYUMI NAKANISHI / ANAKANISHI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kaimuki High School students attended a teen pregnancy prevention program July 12 at the Youth Center at Central Union Church. Jason Hong, 14, left, and Daniel Chong, 15, checked a battery box on the back of the baby doll.
All other action in the club ceased as everyone cleared away furniture and then threw body and soul into the Latin dance class on July 12. New Youth Center
enlivens Central UnionMore boys than girls stepped and postured through the intricacies as teacher Kim Bermudez told them, "You're good. I'm not giving you the easy steps. You'd pay $50 an hour to learn this."
For post-rehearsal decompression, the teens took to pool tables and computer terminals inside and basketball hoops outdoors, or headed for the snack table and refrigerator.
It was just another afternoon at Central Union Church.
The Youth Center is one of the recent changes that have raised the pulse rate at the historic Makiki church. The church has partnered with Boys & Girls Club of Honolulu to operate the clubhouse as a summer and after-school program for middle school and high school students, nevermind where -- or if -- they go to church.
The one-room center is one feature of the new $8 million Parish Hall and Family Life Center to be shown off in public tours from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.
The facility also houses an Adult Day Care Center, operated by Arcadia Retirement Home five days a week. Like the Youth Center, it opened without fanfare in April.
Central Union has taken a page from the "new" nondenominational organizations, moving its contemporary worship service to the 800-person auditorium, complete with stage and sound system that, neighbors are happy to know, is contained within the soundproofed hall. There are meeting rooms and Sunday school classrooms, as well as a high-tech telecommunications classrooms for a continuing series of Chicago Theological Seminary classes and lectures.
All those features of the three-story structure -- hardly visible behind the tall trees and landmark church -- are fine, but it's the Youth Center that shoots down my previously held stereotype of Central Union as staid and stuffy.
These youngsters are generations apart from folks who get a thrill experiencing the architecture, the message from the imposing pulpit, the comforting music, the faces in the crowd.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
At Central Union church July 12, instructor Kim Bermudez, center, taught Latin dance steps to students, from left, Karen Nakamura, Shana Giron, Richard Ahn and Sarah Ahn.
Kids from six public and private schools were on the dance floor rehearsing for a performance they gave yesterday at the Honolulu Boys & Girls Club "Teen Bash."
Earlier that day, full-time youth outreach coordinator Mikiala Lidstone distributed "babies" to 30 Kaimuki High School students in the "Baby Think It Over" teen-pregnancy awareness and prevention program. The students embarked on a three-day parenting experience, taking responsibility for the 7-pound dolls, whose battery-operated innards were guaranteed to wail nine or more times during the night and demand attention all day, just like the real thing. And to record whether the surrogate parent did anything about it.
Lidstone, with a YWCA and Aha Punana Leo background, told the youths about a planned hike on Kahanahaiki Gulch trail. The Leeward trek would include removing vegetation to protect native species, work that qualifies as community service required by some high schools, she told the kids.
Speakers are also brought in. Roger Higa of Zippy's recently talked about what employers are looking for, and handed out application forms.
The weekly schedule features Movie Madness every Tuesday and "Smart Pool," combining trivia questions about drug myths with the game, on Fridays. The youths will babysit at the center on monthly "Kids Night Out," giving parents a chance to eat out -- and contribute to the club's snack fund.
Lidstone said there is no proselytizing, but there's a standing invitation to Sunday school or the ramped-up worship service. The viewpoint of the host can be expected to prevail in limiting the violence, sex and language of movies and video game choices.
"Wednesdays and Fridays, I show up here and chill," said Walter Thomas, a Roosevelt High School sophomore.
"I come four days and week. I'm usually on the computer," said Richard Ahn, also of Roosevelt.
"It's a regular place to come and shoot pool and watch movies when you don't have anything else to do," said Iolani School graduate Dallas Walker. "The best thing, it's free."
RELIGION CALENDAR
Mary Adamski covers religion for the Star-Bulletin.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.
