A Message from Kahu Alan Akana

by admin | Jan 23, 2016 | Message from Kahu

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM DR. KING

On Sunday, I shared with the congregation some words from an essay published shortly after the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in which he wrote:

We have inherited a large house, a great “world house” in which we have to live together—black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu—a family unduly separated in ideas, culture an interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.

In 1967, MLK wrote that we now live in a “worldwide neighborhood.” He claimed that this phenomenon was the result of technology: radio, television, space travel had remade the world and demanded a new and better future of equality, freedom and justice for all.

Think back and consider all that has changed with technology since 1967. The Internet, cell phones, social media… Think about how much more we are connected today and how technology has “remade the world and demanded a new and better future.”

We have a choice as human beings:

• We can choose that “new and better future,” and live together with respect and compassion for each other, including those who are very different from us.

OR

• We can choose to live apart from each other in what Dr. King called “closed tribes,” where we build walls around ourselves and create distance between “us” vs. “them” because we see differences as “evil.” By the way, Dr. King wrote of the dangers of closed tribes as the “great new problem of mankind.”

I am convinced that we must choose the former if we want to survive as human beings, because we now have the ability to destroy each other a thousand times over. We must make sure we never do that…and the only way I know of doing that is to live together with respect and compassion for each other, including those who seem to be very different from us. May God give us the grace and wisdom to do so.

It was wonderful to hear this message affirmed on Monday by the Right Rev. William E. Swing, the founder and President of the United Religions Initiative. A dozen of us from Koloa Union Church attended a gathering in honor of Dr. King, hosted by the Interfaith Roundtable of Kauai, where Rev. Swing spoke about the need to be with people of other faiths and not be afraid of those with differing beliefs. It has been a great week of celebrating similarities and differences among fellow human beings!

Aloha nui loa!

Kahu Alan Akana

A Message from Kahu Alan Akana

by admin | Jan 12, 2016 | Message from Kahu

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN PROGRESS!

I want to take a moment and share my gratitude for our capital campaign progress here at Koloa Union Church. First of all, thank you for the many generous contributions to our capital campaign “Maika’i Hana Hou” (Creating Goodness and Beauty Once Again). A special thank you to Dan Giovanni, our capital campaign chair, who spends countless hours every week behind the scenes—and digging in the dirt!—to keep our progress moving forward.

Because of the generosity of our members and friends, renovations are now being made here almost daily. The most recent and visible so far is the new arbor, which makes an attractive entryway to our church buildings.  There are already two very tall red bougainvillea plants growing on both sides of the arbor, and soon the entire arbor will be draped  in red blossoms, creating a warm and welcoming entrance to our buildings! We are just beginning our landscaping, and you can expect many more changes in the near future. You will also be seeing some major changes inside our sanctuary and hearing the results from the upgrades in our sound system in the next couple of weeks. And this is just the beginning!

I am very proud of what we have done as a church this past year in terms of choosing some major projects which will make us much more inviting and welcoming to all! I look forward to seeing the many results in the coming year. Again, thank you to everyone who has generously given to the success of “Maika’i Hana Hou”!

Mahalo nui loa!!!

Kahu Alan Akana

A Message from Kahu Alan Akana

by admin | Jan 5, 2016 | Message from Kahu

My New Year’s Wish for Everyone….

On Sunday, we took a look at Joseph’s dreams in Matthew’s Gospel: a dream to hang in there with Mary and to name her baby “Jesus”; a dream to flee to Egypt when Herod’s anger and jealousy made it dangerous for Jesus to remain there; a dream that it was safe to return to Israel; and a final dream to NOT go home to Bethlehem where it was still not safe for Jesus, but rather to live in Nazareth where it was safe.

I shared with the congregation four key themes in the Gospel reading (Matthew, chapter 2) that develop throughout Matthew’s Gospel:

1. Matthew wanted his readers to know that God wanted Jesus alive because there was a special mission for Jesus: then Matthew develops that mission in the rest of the Gospel, namely, to bring compassion, justice and inclusion to all people.
2. Matthew wanted his readers to feel the tension between the Empire of Rome and all of the ways that it manifested itself (including King Herod and then his son Archelaus) on the one hand, and an alternative new realm that Jesus was to usher in on the other hand.
3. Matthew wanted his readers to know that the way of Jesus is not always easy…or painless…or the most direct route from Point A to Point B.
4. Finally, Matthew wanted his readers to know that they are never alone, just as Joseph was never alone, and just as Jesus was never alone.

These four themes actually point to God’s dream for the entire world: especially that compassion, justice and inclusion are for everyone…and that God never leaves us alone…none of us…ever!

MY NEW YEAR’S WISH FOR ALL: I hope you will be part of God’s dream for the world this year, and that you will share it with others all year long!

Aloha nui loa!

Kahu Alan Akana