by admin | Jun 8, 2017 | Message from Kahu
“A Generous Invitation”
We had a wonderful celebration on Sunday as we gave thanks for all that we have accomplished during the last two years of our capital campaign, “Maika`i Hana Hou!” (“Creating Goodness & Beauty Once Again!”). It was an honor to have the Rev. Dr. Charles Buck assisting in our worship service, as well as the Rev. Caroline and Tad Miura and Caroline’s mother in attendance for this special day! It was also a pleasure to have Lori Dill dance hula to “Aloha Aina” for us. Lori is a descendant of the Rev. Dr. James and Melicent Smith, who arrived in Koloa in 1842 to serve as the missionary doctor for Kaua`i and Ni`ihau.
Our text for the morning was the second chapter of Acts, in which the disciples of Jesus spoke in the tongues of all the people who gathered in Jerusalem to present their offering to God. Rather than speaking in Hebrew or Greek, which most of the visitors knew, the disciples spoke in all of the common languages of the vicinities from which the people came. This was an act of radical hospitality and inclusion, which has always been the nature of God and of the Christian Church.
As the people of Kōloa Union Church have spent two years offering gifts, prayers and service to the capital campaign, I know that we understand radical hospitality and inclusion. After all, the reason we decided to have a capital campaign in the first place was to be more welcoming and inviting to all people.
The Holy Spirit invites us into a community of radical welcome and inclusion; and then we invite others. It is a very generous invitation!
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
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Click HERE to watch a video of a recent sermon. Videos of Kahu’s sermons are available most weeks. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to our church. You can also subscribe on YouTube anytime you watch a sermon; that way you can easily watch any past sermon and even 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.
by admin | Jun 7, 2017 | News
OFFICE CLOSED Monday, June 12, for King Kamehameha Day.
SUMMER BOOK GROUP Kahu Akana will lead our summer book group at the parsonage on Wednesday evenings, beginning on 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. Here is an excerpt from the book: “Imagine that Christianity is about loving God. Imagine that it’s not about the self and its concerns, about ‘what’s in it for me,’ whether that be a blessed afterlife or prosperity in this life. Imagine that loving God is about being attentive to the one in whom we live and move and have our being. Imagine that it is about becoming more and more deeply centered in God. Imagine that it is about loving what God loves.” Please pick up your book at church 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.
CAN YOU ASSIST A UCC MINISTER? Kahu’s friend, the Rev. Sarah Rentzel Jones moved from Lana`i to Kaua`i last week to begin her new position as chaplain at Wilcox Hospital, and her family (including kids) will be joining her in a couple of weeks. For the past few years, Sarah has been an Associate Conference Minister in the Hawai`i Conference and Pastor of the UCC Church on Lana`i. She is in need of bedroom furniture for the house they will be renting in Lihu`e. If anyone has any furniture that is no longer needed or can sell it to Sarah for a reasonable price, please contact
Kahu Akana. Mahalo!
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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!
by admin | May 30, 2017 | News
SALVATION ARMY LUNCH Our church will be serving lunch at Salvation Army in Hanapepe on Wednesday, May 31. A couple more volunteers are needed. Please contact the church office if you can help serve.
TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION! Join us on Pentecost Sunday, June 4, to celebrate the second anniversary of our capital campaign “Maika`i Hana Hou” (Creating Goodness & Beauty Once Again). We will celebrate our accomplishments during our MORING WORSHIP SERVICE at 10:30 and then move out to the lawn for an OLD-FASHIONED CHURCH PICNIC and POP-UP TALENT SHOW! Bakers are encouraged to bring a pie and people who would like to share their talent can sign up on June 4th. We will also have special guests joining us for the celebration, including our Conference Minister, the Rev. Dr. Charles Buck. Come and celebrate all we have accomplished in the last two years! You are also invited to join us in our church tradition of wearing the color RED, which is the liturgical color of Pentecost.
STRENGTHEN THE CHURCH OFFERING On June 4 we will collect the special mission offering called “Strengthen the Church.” This is a special mission offering to reimagine and build the future of the United Church of Christ. Shared at the conference and national levels, STC largely supports youth ministries and full-time leaders for new churches in parts of the country where the UCC voice has not been heard. As God calls our congregations to be the church in new ways, your generosity will plant new churches, awaken new ideas in existing churches and develop the spiritual life in our youth and young adults.
CAN YOU ASSIST A UCC MINISTER? Kahu’s friend, the Rev. Sarah Rentzel Jones will be moving from Lana`i to Kaua`i this week to begin her new position as chaplain at Wilcox Hospital on June 1, and her family (including kids) will be joining her in a couple of weeks. For the past few years, Sarah has been an Associate Conference Minister in the Hawai`i Conference and Pastor of the UCC Church on Lana`i. She is in need of furniture for the house they will be renting in Lihu`e and also a car for the first few weeks until the rest of the family arrives. If anyone has any furniture that is no longer needed or can sell it to Sarah for a reasonable price, please contact
Kahu Akana. The same goes for anyone who has a car that Sarah can borrow for a few weeks at most. Mahalo!
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!
by admin | May 30, 2017 | Message from Kahu
“God’s Love Has Been Poured Into Our Hearts”
Romans 5:5
On Sunday, I talked about Jonathan Franzen’s novel, The Corrections, which is about a very dysfunctional fictional family by the last name of Lambert. There’s the elderly Dad Alfred, who is retired, very ill and suffering from dementia. His wife is Enid, who becomes more obsessive, manipulative and nagging as time goes on. Alfred and Enid’s three grown children are all coming home for Christmas to the tiny house where they grew up…in a little midwestern town called St. Jude. And they are pretty sure that this will be the last chance to spend Christmas with their father. Denise is the girl of the family, who is quite a bit younger than her two brothers, and she once was very happy.
In the final pages of the book, something transformational happens to Denise. Although she had been the adored baby of the family, throughout her entire adulthood she never believed that her father–or anyone else, for that matter–would truly love her if he knew some of the things she had done. But on Christmas Eve Alfred let Denise know that he had known her deepest and darkest secret, and he had loved her anyway. It hit Denise like a bolt of lightening: her father had known about the most shameful thing of her past—and he had loved her and adored her even with all of her faults and shortcomings. She always thought that her father loved his idea of her…but not the real her that she truly was…the Denise who had an affair with a married man when she was just a teenager…the Denise who made some bad choices in her life…the Denise who carried shame around with her like a ball and chain. It was on Christmas Eve…the last Christmas Eve her dad would be alive…that she realized that he truly loved her for who she was. And at that moment, her life began to change for the better.
In the book of Romans, we read that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” God, who knows everything about us still loves us like crazy. I wonder how many of us go through life like Denise wondering if God or anyone else would love us if they really knew all about us. The good news is that God does know all about us—and still loves us. And God invites us to accept that love and to share it with others. I am pretty confident that there is someone each one of us will encounter this week who really needs to know and feel that kind of love. I invite you to be the one to show them that love.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
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Click HERE to watch a video of Sunday’s sermon. Videos of Kahu’s sermons are available most weeks. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. You can also subscribe on YouTube anytime you watch a sermon; that way you can easily watch any past sermon and even 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.
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