HAWAII

Stars to shine in Damien Legacy event

A fundraising event to support the Father Damien De Veuster canonization celebration has grown into a musical gala featuring top entertainers.

“;A lot of entertainers jumped on board because of the cause,”; said Paul Cunney of the planning committee for the Father Damien Legacy Dinner July 18 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.

The group organized the banquet and auction to raise funds to pay travel expenses for Kalaupapa residents to attend the Oct. 11 canonization in Rome. Donations are also sought to underwrite the cost of celebrations on each island after the 19th-century missionary priest is declared a saint. A third goal of the fundraising effort is to endow a scholarship program for native Hawaiian medical students in the name of the late Richard Marks.

“;A Legacy of Love and Service”; is the theme of the July 18 program, which will include presentations by Kalaupapa residents and physicians who have worked with patients there.

Cunney said the entertainers who will perform at the event include Mihana Souza and Puamana, Henry Kapono, Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom, Marlene Sai, Danny Kaleikini, Jimmy Borges and Frank De Lima.

Tickets are $200, of which $135 is tax-deductible. For reservation information, call 349-9900. Information and reservation forms can be found on the Web page www.fatherdamien.com.

Haugen covers bon dances on HPR

The history and meaning of the Buddhist Obon season and the bon dance phenomenon in Hawaii will be the topic of a Hawaii Public Radio special program at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

Musician and teacher Keith Haugen will host the program on KHPR-FM at 88.1. He will discuss the spiritual, cultural and communal aspects of the season, which began this month and will be observed each weekend throughout the summer at island Buddhist temples.

Haugen will play and translate traditional and local Japanese folk songs used at the dances, which attract hundreds of island residents, both non-Buddhist and Buddhist.

Spirituality workshop scheduled

A workshop on “;The Spirituality of Listening and Speaking”; will be presented June 23 at the Newman Center at University of Hawaii.

The Rev. Randy Roche, director of the Loyola Marymount University Center for Ignatian Spirituality, will lead a shared reflection on ways people can minister to one another through their manner of listening and choice of words. Roche, a Jesuit priest, is former director of the UH Catholic campus ministry.

The workshop will be at 7:30 p.m. June 23 at the center, 1941 East-West Road. The cost is $10. For registration information, call Catharine at 988-6222.

NATION

Wikipedia blocks Scientology editing

LOS ANGELES » Popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia has banned Scientology's more vocal friends and foes from editing articles about the religion, a move that worries some in the Internet community.

Wikipedia has blocked contributions from computers at the Church of Scientology's Los Angeles headquarters, as well as some critics of the religion. The move is aimed at diminishing a long-running war of words between the two groups, said Dan Rosenthal, a spokesman for English Wikipedia.

Some bloggers worry the site is stifling free speech. Rosenthal said it is standard practice to ban users found violating rules designed to keep people with an agenda from propagandizing.

The decision to shut out the Scientology computers was made after hundreds of articles became virtual battlefields. The case was reviewed by Wikipedia's arbitration committee, a body of volunteer editors elected by users to resolve disputes. Several Scientology computers and about 40 users from both sides of the debate were locked out.