Island churches join
forces to give spiritual
thanks

Churches around Oahu will hold services next week as an opportunity for prayerful thanksgiving before the traditional holiday feasting. All are open to the public.

» Nuuanu area churches and temples will continue a 42-year tradition with a Wednesday Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. The 7 p.m. Wednesday service will be at Temple Emanu-El, 2550 Pali Highway, followed by a reception at First Unitarian Church, 2500 Pali Highway.

Choirs and participants will represent a dozen Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Bahai, Catholic and Protestant Christian congregations. The service will feature a massed choral performance of "We Are One" and a film presentation, "Faces of Nuuanu." The voluntary offering will benefit Project Dana outreach to seniors and relief efforts for refugees fleeing Darfur, Sudan.

» Ten Christian churches will join in the Windward Coalition of Churches Community Thanksgiving service Wednesday night. The 7 p.m. service at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 780 Keolu Drive, Kailua, will include music by a bell choir and sacred dance by the Emmanuel hula halau. Attendees are asked to bring canned goods to be dispensed by St. Anthony Church food pantry. Voluntary monetary donations will be accepted for the Women's Prison Scholarship Fund.

» Two Mililani congregations will combine their thanksgiving at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Mililani Presbyterian Church, 95-410 Kuahelani Ave. Christ Lutheran Church Pastor David Kieffer will speak and the choirs of both churches will sing at the service, which will include Communion. Child care is available.

» Another long-standing tradition is the ecumenical Thanksgiving Day Worship at Central Union Church, 1660 S. Beretania St. The event at 9 a.m. Thursday will include participants from several Christian churches. The Honolulu Boy Choir will perform at 8:45 a.m., and music during the service will be presented by the Kawaiaha'o Church Choir, the Advent Pentecostal Young Adult Singers and the Samoan Seventh-day Adventist Men's Gospel Heralds. The Rev. Curtis Kekuna of Kawaiaha'o Church will speak.

Donations of canned goods and money will be distributed to food pantries serving the needy.