by admin | Sep 20, 2019 | Message from Kahu
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made our capital campaign celebration this past Sunday such a great success! After four years of generous giving, hard work and prayers, our money has been raised and, except for a few “smaller” projects that Dan Giovanni is still working on, all of the work is done! It was an honor to dedicate the capital campaign plaque, which mentions all donors as well as each special gift that was given in memory or in honor of a loved one or special group of people! The plaque now permanently hangs above the Deacon’s cabinet and is made of glazed aluminum in a beautiful wood frame made specifically to match the cabinet below.
I am grateful for the special music by Debbie and Chris, Doug, Kathleen and our choir, as well as the beautiful hula by Rose! We welcomed and honored The Rev. Dr. David K. Popham, our brand new Conference Minister of the Hawai`i Conference of the United Church of Christ on his first day on the job, and enjoyed a message he delivered.
Our Deacons showed up early and made the sanctuary especially nice. Missy made another exceptional floral arrangements and lei for Rev. Popham and capital campaign leaders. Our Aloha Hour ladies and Kiawe Roots did a great job on the special luncheon.
Thank you to all who helped and participated on Sunday and to everyone for your love and commitment to God and to our church!
Aloha nui!
Kahu
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Click HERE to see a video of a recent message by Kahu Akana from Sunday morning. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, an Open & Affirming (ONA) congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.
by admin | Sep 10, 2019 | Message from Kahu
Maika`i Hana Hou
(Creating Goodness & Beauty Once Again)
I look forward to our capital campaign celebration this coming Sunday with great anticipation! After four years of generous giving by members, family, friends and the Vidinha Family Trust, our capital campaign is finally coming to a close. We have accomplished so much together! The overall appearance both inside and outside of our church has truly transformed into a place that is welcoming and inviting to everyone! I hope all of our members and friends of the church who are in town on Sunday will make every effort to come and celebrate! Come and join us for a festive worship service and a delicious catered luncheon afterwards.
During our worship service, there will be special music and dance, a time to give thanks to all who donated to the capital campaign, and much more! I am especially excited to introduce the congregation to the Rev. Dr. David K. Popham, the brand new Conference Minister of the Hawaii Conference of the United Church of Christ. Sunday will be Rev. Popham’s first day on the job, and I feel very honored that he has chosen to spend it with us at Koloa Union Church. We will welcome him to Hawaii with a lei and special gift from our congregation. I also look forward to dedicating our beautiful new capital campaign plaque, which will hang on the wall inside the sanctuary. There are also a few final touches that our capital campaign chair Dan Giovanni is finishing up this week that I am certain we will all notice!
Koloa Union Church is really in a great place to move into the future as our new vision unfolds. Our successful capital campaign is a major reason why this is the case! The greatest reason, however, is because people keep showing up every Sunday to worship God and consider how we might carry God’s love with us into our homes, neighborhoods, communities and the world. Once again, I feel truly blessed this week to be the Kahu of such a generous and caring congregation of God’s people. Thank you for your love and your commitment to God and to the Church of Jesus Christ!
Aloha nui!
Kahu
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Click HERE to see a video of a recent message by Kahu Akana from Sunday morning. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, an Open & Affirming (ONA) congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.
by admin | Aug 28, 2019 | Message from Kahu
“Sacred Mountains”
On Sunday, I shared with the congregation about my experience on the top of Mauna Kea with my son Palani. The photograph above is one I took near the top while facing east (away from the sunset, if that helps you get grounded). I was taken aback by the shadow of the great mountain, which extended even into the sky beyond the horizon. I had no idea that such a shadow was even possible: it was just so big, and definitely the biggest shadow of any mountain I had ever seen. Soon, Palani and I were at the summit and we watched the sun set into the clouds below us. It was a spectacular sunset! Then the stars came out and soon lit up the sky. At one point, I said to Palani, “It’s just too bad there are so many clouds up here. I wish I could see more stars.” He responded in his gentle and kind way, “Dad, that’s the Milky Way you are looking at.” I was looking at so many stars—I thought they were clouds! I had no idea what the sky looked like at 14,000 feet above sea level. And I was in awe, and grateful beyond words.
For thousands of years, people have gone to the mountaintops to experience awe and gratitude, to experience God, to experience “More.” In out Old Testament reading from Isaiah, chapter 58, the prophet tells his hearers what it takes to “ride upon the heights of the earth” (the mountaintops!). It is not about religious observances alone. It takes loosening the bonds of injustice, freeing the oppressed people in our land, and feeding the hungry. In other words, we must not just show up to worship God while people are suffering. We must also change systemic injustice and help people right now who are hungry and in pain.
Do these things, and your reward will be a ride among the mountaintops! Perhaps it is not so much a reward as a result: when you do these things, here is what naturally happens. When you do something to change unjust systems in the future, and when you help suffering people right now, and when you pause to consider awe, gratitude and God—the result is that you will bask in God’s presence, because that’s just what happens.
May we each ride upon the mountaintops each day this week, and may we ride there together. The view is spectacular!
Aloha nui!
Kahu
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Click HERE to see a video of the message from Sunday morning. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, an Open & Affirming (ONA) congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.
by admin | Aug 23, 2019 | Message from Kahu
Kahu’s Sabbatical
On Sunday in church, Kahu shared with the congregation about his sabbatical in Europe and his recent book he wrote during his sabbatical called Beauty, Art & Spirituality. Kahu then shared more about it and showed a slideshow of his 3 months in Europe at an afternoon reception.
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Click HERE to see a video of the message from Sunday morning. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, an Open & Affirming (ONA) congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.
by admin | Aug 7, 2019 | Message from Kahu
The Greatest Miracle
On Sunday, we took a look at the first miracle of Jesus, according to John’s Gospel, when Jesus turned water into wine. Since I am allergic to wine, for most of my life I just figured that this was another miracle that didn’t really apply to me. After spending 3 months in and around Bordeaux this past spring, perhaps France’s most popular “wine country,” the miracle is starting to make more sense to me…and there are definitely some lessons in this parable even for me.
First of all, it occurred to me that a welcome miracle to one person might be a very unwelcome miracle to another. To someone who would spend $225,000 on a prize-winning bottle of Chateau Margaux—or even a more moderate $7,000 Petrus—this might actually be their favorite of all of Jesus’ miracles. But for people like me who get physically ill just from the vapors of a glass of wine, it takes a little extra thought and effort to embrace this as a great miracle—or even a good one.
A second lesson is that Jesus was constantly surprising people. Changing water into wine in order that the best was served at the end was a radical change from standard behavior in that culture. This miracle sets the tone for the teachings and actions of Jesus that constantly challenged his followers to expect the unexpected and to change their behavior from what was standard, normal and expected, to behavior that is completely unexpected:
- Loving your enemies
- Welcoming strangers who show up in your community—even if they are from another culture and religion and speak a different language
- Taking care of the poor and the sick—even if they don’t have the means to pay you back for your kindness
- Touching the “untouchables” in society
- Turning the other cheek
- Breaking the law in order to help people
It’s as if Jesus did this first miracle to say to his disciples and his “would-be” disciples: “Your world is going to be very, very different if you choose to follow me. So expect the unexpected, and be ready for your world to be turned upside down.”
And then Jesus went around doing miracles of compassion that helped people—people who were not being helped by anyone else and and people who gave up all hope because no one ever helped them. Yes, indeed, those who would follow Jesus found that they were living in an entirely different world than the one they were living in before they met him…and that continues to be the case today.
Of course, the greatest miracle of all is God’s deep, deep love for people. Even when people ignore, disobey and outright rebel against God, it doesn’t stop God from loving them. In fact, when people betrayed and denied Jesus, when they beat and crucified him, he returned to love and forgive them—and offered them a life of love in abundance. Indeed, the best wine is saved for the end. No wonder John’s Gospel tells us that the disciples believed in Jesus. May the miracle of God’s kind and tender love find its way into the deepest part of our hearts and lives. May we fully embrace it, and may we freely share it with others.
Aloha nui!
Kahu
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Click HERE to see a video of the message from Sunday morning. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, an Open & Affirming (ONA) congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.
by admin | Jul 31, 2019 | Message from Kahu
“Hospitality Above and Beyond”
On Sunday, I told the congregation that I was just finishing a book called The Anza Trail and the Settling of California, by Vladimir Guerrero. I had the opportunity to meet Vladimir and his wife Deidre in May at their home in the beautiful town of Lectoure in southern France while I was on my sabbatical. His son is Chris Guerrero, Kei and Penny Osuga’s son-in-law. Juan Bautista de Anza was a Spanish explorer in the mid-1770’s, who traveled on horseback from Mexico through Arizona and California. On his first expedition, de Anza traveled with soldiers, scouts and interpreters through unchartered and sometimes dangerous territories in order to find a route between the Mexico-Arizona border and the coast of California. On his second route, de Anza took 32 soldiers and their families to resettle in a place called San Francisco. Some of the missions, founded by Father Junipero Serra were already established along the coast, and de Anza spent time in many of them.
One of the things that stands out most for me in the book is the hospitality that was shown to de Anza and his fellow travelers in the various mission outposts along El Camino Real in California. When they would arrive at one of the Spanish missions, the bells would toll to celebrate their arrival; there would also be a special religious service; and then the hosts would throw a feast and offer the best of what they had. By the way, many of the native people of California were also extremely hospitable to de Anza and his party, and eagerly shared food, gifts, knowledge, and some of the indigenous people even journeyed with them to show them routes that they and their ancestors had traveled for generations.
Imagine traveling nearly 2,000 miles in new places days on end back in the time before there were roads, bridges, ferries, or rest stops. The travelers crossed deserts during hot days and lay awake shivering at night when they traversed snowy mountains. They sometimes had very little water; sometimes they had barely enough food to survive. Imagine finally arriving at a mission outpost after weeks of traveling like that and being welcomed with open arms. Imagine the mission bells tolling to greet your arrival. Imagine people celebrating that you are there. And imagine a great big feast!
This “above and beyond” kind of hospitality is the same theme I see over and over again when I read the stories in the Bible. And that is certainly the theme and the context for Sunday’s Old Testament reading in Genesis 18. When you read chapters 18-20, there is no doubt that hospitality is the overriding theme, and Sodom was most likely destroyed because the people of that city intended to harm the strangers that came to their town rather than offering hospitality, as Lot and his family did. At some point in time, for some reason, many people in the Christian Church decided to ignore the clear theme of hospitality and decided that today’s passage is about homosexuality. They decided that the sin of Sodom was not the lack of hospitality but rather homosexual behavior. In fact, the word “sodomy” comes from this passage. It is all based on one word: the word “know.” The men of Sodom told Lot to bring his guests outdoors “so that we may know them.” It is clear from the passage that the men of Sodom meant to do harm to the strangers. It is clear that violence was their intent. Perhaps sexual violence was in their plans, but there is no question that the men of Sodom meant to hurt the visitors who were in Lot’s house.
This passage lines up with so many others in the Old and New Testaments that God is so very happy when we show “above and beyond” hospitality to people who show up at our doors, in our communities and on our nation’s borders. May God guide us as we figure out how to best do so.
Aloha nui!
Kahu Alan Akana
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Click HERE to see a video of the message from Sunday morning. You may see the Koloa Union Church YouTube channel to see many of his past messages and subscribe in order be notified when a new message is posted. Please share these videos with friends and invite them to church. Please feel free to “Like” any of the videos you see and share them on social media, such as Facebook, so that others will notice them.
“A Message from Kahu Alan Akana” is provided most weeks by the Kahu (Pastor) of Koloa Union Church, an Open & Affirming (ONA) congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.
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