Weekly News of the Church

Rock’n Bowl
All ages are invited to bowl to Rock’n Roll music!
This Friday, June 30, at 7 p.m.
Come early to get your shoes and a ball!
Lihue Bowling Center
4303 Rice Street in Lihue
 
The cost is $14.
Please contact the church office to sign up.
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SUMMER BOOK GROUP Kahu Akana will lead our summer book group at the parsonage, 3281 Waikomo Road in Koloa, on Wednesday evenings, beginning June 14. The group will gather at the parsonage at 6 p.m. for dinner and then discuss the book Convictions: How I Learned What Matters Most, by Marcus Borg. In this book, Borg reflects on his life and how he developed his most bedrock convictions–and why they matter. Please pick up your book on Wednesday for $10, and sign up on the bulletin board so that Kahu knows how much food to prepare. Kahu suggests that you read chapters 5 & 6  for June 28.

PRAYERS & SQUARES Contact Angela Dressel if you would like to get involved in praying for people in crisis or helping to make quilt squares for those in crisis.

SAVE THE DATES…..

July 4, Church Office Closed (Happy 4th of July!)

July 24, Monday: “Plantation-style Living: An Afternoon of Art, Stories and Refreshments” at our Smith Memorial Parsonage, 3281 Waikomo Road.  We need volunteers to host and serve refreshments.

July 29, Saturday: Parade, “Many Cultures, One Community” 10 a.m.  We need volunteers for decorating, wear and/or carry items representing your family background in the parade.

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“Weekly News of the Church” is provided by Koloa Union Church, a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference. Join us at 3289 Poipu Road in Koloa!

A Message from Kahu Alan Akana

Welcome.007

 

Happy Anniversary United Church of Christ!

On Sunday, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the United Church of Christ. I shared with the congregation how I came to the UCC during a time of searching, disappointment with my former denomination, and self-reflection. In the denomination in which I was originally ordained, certain individuals were not welcome…or, shall I say, their welcome was limited. LGBTQ people were told, “You are welcome to worship with us, but you may not hold office or be ordained.” People who held theological viewpoints and opinions that were different from those of the denomination were not allowed in certain positions.

When I first began attending a UCC worship service in Salt Lake City, I heard the words, “No matter who you are or where you have been on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” The people of this church not only said these words, but they meant them. They lived them in their extravagant hospitality and language. I later attended a very large UCC church in Dallas and saw those same words being lived out by the pastors and people who attended. Within a year, I was working as an associate pastor at that church and began the process of transferring my standing (ordination) into the UCC.

Our denomination’s motto is: “That they may all be one.” The idea is that we can be united in our love for God, each other and the world, even amidst our vast differences in lifestyles, beliefs and ways of seeing the world. I shared on Sunday that we may not always do this perfectly, and sometimes we do not feel very united. However, the motto comes from Jesus’ final prayer for his disciples when he was with them at the last supper. In her book, That They May All (Finally!) Be One, Mary Susan Gast (my former Conference Minister), writes, “Jesus’ prayer is an expression of yearning for the continuation…of the community that is one in the love of the Holy.” What she is saying is that Jesus is stating his deepest longing for his disciples and the disciples that would follow, that we would all be united in our love for God and for all that God loves, which includes every person and expands to include all of creation. This too can be our longing and, in fact, is our longing if we are truly followers of Jesus.

May we all long for a world where all are loved and invited to share their love with others!

Aloha nui!

Kahu Alan Akana

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Videos of Kahu’s sermons are uploaded onto YouTube most weeks. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to our church. You can also subscribe on YouTube ; that way you can receive a notification when a new sermon is posted.

“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.

A Message from Kahu Alan Akana

gift of love

“A Gift Rising from the Chaos”

 

On Sunday, I shared several stories about the chaos that we sometimes encounter in our lives. We’ve all been there, and probably not for the last time. We look within us and all around us, and things that once made sense no longer do; these times are often accompanied by darkness, confusion, uncertainty about how to move forward; and we might even wonder, “What good can come out of this?” And yet, there are often amazing gifts that rise from chaos. This is a theme throughout the entire Bible, beginning with the very first chapter where God created the gift of the universe out of chaos.

One of the stories I shared was about a very special gift given to a girl named Anne on her 13th birthday, exactly 75 years ago (June 12, 1942). It was a diary, in which she began writing almost immediately. For the next two years, her family hid from the Nazis in a secret annex above her father’s place of business in Amsterdam. Those two years were extremely difficult, but nothing compared to what happened to Anne, her family and the others who were hiding in the annex: they were all taken to concentration camps. Anne, her sister and mother all died in the camps. Miraculously, her father survived and later came across her diary. That book, The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank, has become one of the most beloved pieces of literature of all time. What a gift it was to the world, not only to see inside a young girl’s heart, but to see the effects of human cruelty and to learn from them.

Another story I shared was about one of Elie Wiesel’s final nights in a Nazi concentration camp. The war was coming to an end as Russian troops were gaining ground and Nazi guards began piling Jewish bodies, dead and alive, on top of each other. Elie was on top of his young friend Juliek. Somehow, Juliek slipped out from underneath Elie and began playing a moving piece by Beethoven on his violin. When Elie awoke in the morning, he saw that Juliek had been killed and his violin crushed to pieces. However, many years later, he wrote of the special gift of that song on a very dark and scary night.

Although the chaos we experience might seem mild or even insignificant compared to the chaos of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel, the very important lesson I learn from these stories is that there is always the possibility that an amazing gift can rise out of even the deepest and darkest chaos of our human experiences. I encourage you to look for the gift when you are in the midst of chaos…and to be the gift-bearer and even the gift for others in their times of chaos.

Aloha nui!

Kahu Alan Akana

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Videos of Kahu’s sermons are uploaded onto YouTube most weeks. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to our church. You can also subscribe on YouTube ; that way you can receive a notification when a new sermon is posted.

“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.

Weekly News of the Church

SUMMER BOOK GROUP Kahu Akana will lead our summer book group at the parsonage, 3281 Waikomo Road in Koloa, on Wednesday evenings, beginning June 14. The group will gather at the parsonage at 6 p.m. for dinner and then discuss the book Convictions: How I Learned What Matters Most, by Marcus Borg. In this book, Borg reflects on his life and how he developed his most bedrock convictions–and why they matter. Please pick up your book at church or at book group for $10, and sign up on the bulletin board so that Kahu knows how much food to prepare. Kahu suggests that you read the first two chapters for June 14.

FATHER’S DAY LUNCH Please join us for our Father’s Day lunch after Sunday service, June 18.

CHURCH COUNCIL  The Council will meet in Kahu’s office on Sunday after Aloha Hour.

JULY NEWSLETTER Deadline for articles for our July newsletter is Monday, June 19.

ROCK & BOWL Friday, June 30, 6:30-9 p.m. $14.  Please sign up so we can reserve lanes.

PRAYERS & SQUARES Contact Angela Dressel if you would like to get involved in praying for people in crisis or helping to make quilt squares for those in crisis.

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“Weekly News of the Church” is provided by Koloa Union Church, a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference. Join us at 3289 Poipu Road in Koloa!