Victims of violence to be remembered

Several local interfaith and cultural organizations will sponsor a Monday prayer service for the victims of recent violence in Mumbai, India, and in Israel and Gaza.

The 7 p.m. service at Unity Church of Hawaii, 3608 Diamond Head Road, will offer prayers for world peace and for the victims of global violence and their families. It is open to the public.

It is sponsored by the All Believers Network, the Interfaith Alliance of Hawaii, the Open Table, Aloha Path Ministries, LOTUS (Lord of the Universe Society) and Milun, an association for promoting South Asian culture.

Church to host forum on teamwork

New Hope Christian Fellowship's annual conference on “;Doing Church as a Team”; will open Wednesday night at the Hawai'i Convention Center.

Motivational speaker and author Mark Sanborn and senior Pastor Wayne Cordeiro will be keynote speakers at plenary sessions at 7 p.m. Wednesday, 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday.

There will also be workshops and seminars Thursday and Friday on volunteerism, building healthy relationships, strengthening the family, “;Reading the Bible to the Max”; and “;Thriving as a Woman in the 21st Century.”; A panel of business and finance professionals will speak Thursday at a seminar on financial and economical planning.

Cordeiro, founder of the nondenominational church, which is one of Hawaii's largest faith organizations, will speak from his newly published book, “;The Encore Church.”;

Sanborn, president of Sanborn and Associates, writes and lectures on leadership training, customer service and planning for change. He is the author of “;The Fred Factor”; and “;The Encore Effect.”;

For registration information call 864-9812 or visit enewhope.org/conferences/dcat/. Costs for nonmembers range from $50 for local residents to $159 for out-of-state attendees.

Church outreach goes Down Under

Unity Church of Hawaii will become a cyberspace classroom with people in Australia and New Zealand participating with local students in a five-day course on teachings of the international Unity movement.

The sessions Jan. 19 to 23 at 3608 Diamond Head Circle are free and open to the public.

The Hawaii initiative is a first for the denomination, which requires people who want to become a licensed Unity teacher or an ordained minister to take specific courses on the Bible and the teachings of Unity founders Charles and Myrtle Fillmore. That usually means training at the Unity Village in Lee's Summit, Mo.

The online classes are the brainchild of the senior pastor, the Rev. Sky St. John, whose visits to Unity members Down Under underscored the scarcity of licensed teachers and the distance and expense required for people to pursue their education, said spokesman David Tasaka.

The topics, to be taught by St. John, the Rev. Lori Fleming and Mindy Tucker, will be:

» 10 a.m.: The Fillmores' teaching on healing and wholeness.

» 1 p.m.: Jesus' teachings in the Bible.

» 3 p.m.: Biblical interpretation of the New Testament books Acts of the Apostles, Revelation and the Gospel of John.

» 6 p.m.: “;The Energy of Money,”; based on the book by Maria Nemeth.

There will be a $25 handling charge per class for people seeking teaching accreditation. For registration information call Mindy Tucker, 735-4436, or write to her at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).