A Message from Kahu Alan Akana

by admin | Feb 3, 2018 | Message from Kahu

On Sunday, I shared the story of Kalaupapa, the peninsula on the north shore of Moloka`i. I have known of the place since I was in 5th grade at Catholic School in California. My teacher told the story of Father Damien (now Saint Damien) who arrived there in 1873. As she told it, uneducated Hawaiian people with leprosy had been living there with no sense of community, nor church, nor respect for one another; then Father Damien arrived with the Gospel and nearly everyone became Christian, learned to read and write, developed a strong Christian community and had tremendous love and respect for each other. That’s the story I believed growing up until moving back to Hawai`i the second time.

I recently read Holy Man by Gavan Daws and also did some research on my own; and I learned that the story I was told was not actually the story that everyone remembered from Kalaupapa. The Hawaiian government sent the first 12 people with leprosy (later to be known as Hansen’s Disease) to Kalaupapa in January of 1866. They were eight men, three women and a small boy. Some of the earliest settlers, including the small boy, were the first kokua, which means “helper” in Hawaiian. They were the people without leprosy who voluntarily went to Kalaupapa to take care of beloved family members. Na kokua (the helpers) were people of incredible courage and love. In June that first year, there were 35 Protestants (23 men and 12 women) who were members of Congregational Churches throughout Hawai`i, and they decided to write letters to their home churches, asking to be released from membership so that they could start their own church at Kalawao on Kalaupapa’s eastern shore. They became charter members of Siloama Church, the first church to be established there.

Of the 35 people who were charter members of Siloama and the hundreds of people who later attended worship services there, many proved to be wise and courageous leaders of their church and community during times of great hardship and diversity. They told stories of their deep faith in God and of the strength they found in their community of faith. The reason we know their stories is because they kept minutes of all their church meetings—all of the important things they did as a church and their ministry in the community. In 1938, someone found the church minutes from 1866 to 1928 in a vault below the church. They were written in Hawaiian and many (all?) in their church were literate in both Hawaiian and English. Those minutes told a completely different story about Kalaupapa than the one I was told as a young boy.

As I learned about Kalaupapa I felt that their story just had to be told. It was too good to keep it to myself! So I shared the story with the congregation on Sunday. We also read the story in Mark’s Gospel of Jesus healing a man with leprosy and asking him to not tell anyone about it. Yet, this man could not keep quiet. He walked around telling everyone what Jesus had done for him. It too was a story that was too good to keep to oneself. I am guessing that we all have stories that are just too good to not share with others. I encourage you to tell your stories that are too good not to share! Tell people of your blessings! Tell people about our church! Tell people what we are doing in the community! May your stories bless others in ways you cannot even imagine!

I hope to see you in church on Sunday as we celebrate Holy Communion and continue to share our stories of life and faith!

Aloha nui loa,

Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. Click HERE to see a video of this week’s message. You may also 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

by admin | Dec 27, 2017 | Message from Kahu

Happy New Year 2018

Join us on Sunday morning

as we give thanks for our blessings in 2017

and as we welcome 2018

and ask for God’s blessings

in the year ahead!

I have really enjoyed the seasons of Advent and Christmas with the people of Koloa Union Church. I was inspired by the lighting of the Advent candles by some of the artists among us and their sharing of their art as it pertains to the themes of Advent: hope, peace, joy and love. I also immensely enjoyed our Christmas Eve service, including the wonderful music and the reading of the Christmas stories, as well as our Christmas Day communion service. Click HERE if you would like to watch on video any the messages from the past week.

We have been truly blessed this past year and have much for which to give thanks! Most importantly, I am grateful for God’s loving presence among through the ups and downs, joys and griefs, rhythms and patterns of the year. On Sunday, we will give thanks and ask for God’s blessings in the New Year. We will also take a look at a couple of stories in the Gospel of Luke, in which a couple of elderly holy people meet the infant Jesus and share their joy with the world.

I look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday and wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Aloha nui!

Kahu Alan Akana

A Message from Kahu Alan Akana

by admin | Dec 20, 2017 | Message from Kahu

“For unto us a child is born”

(Isaiah 9:6)

This is such a special time of year as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. As I think about our world and people I know who are struggling in life, it is more important than ever to remember that God sent Jesus into the world to show us how to hold onto love and hope. In the midst of troubling news in the media, personal crises we encounter, and poverty and hunger on our island, we are reminded at Christmas that there is always a place for love and hope. Just as Jesus arrived during a troubling time and showed everyone new possibilities and new ways of being in the world, we too are able to do the same!

As we gather on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, may we all feel God’s love and hope for the world; and may we commit ourselves to being part of God’s dream for us all! I invite you to join us for our worship services on Sunday morning, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as we celebrate God’s loving presence which came to us as an infant in Bethlehem…and which continues to come to us in unexpected and surprising ways!

Aloha nui!

Kahu Alan Akana

Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. 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

by admin | Dec 13, 2017 | Message from Kahu

“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

(The Angel Gabriel, Luke 1:28)

On Sunday I shared a story about Benjamin Zander, the conductor for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a professor of music. One year he decided to begin class by telling all of the students that they would receive an “A.” All they had to do was write a letter to him explaining why they deserved such a high grade. They had to date the letter the following May and write about what happened during the year, including goals, benchmarks, successes and celebrations. They also had to focus on who they had become. It was an amazing year for Zander and his class. His students let go of their fears and anxieties over making mistakes, not measuring up, and not being as good as others; and they all acted like “A” students! Furthermore, they made music with more life and passion than ever before!

Benjamin Zander offered grace to his class that year. Grace is something good that is offered simply out of kindness. It is not earned or deserved, offered as payment or reward. It is simply given because the giver is kind and compassionate. This is how God treats us! We all get an “A” even before we do anything to deserve any grade at all! In God’s eyes we are already perfect. If we would only believe that God’s grace is already ours, I think we would act like Benjamin Zander’s students: we would live and act together with more life and passion than ever before…and we would be at peace with everyone; for there would be no reason to compete! Why compete with someone when you are already guaranteed an “A”?

As we contemplate the meaning of Christmas, I hope we can hear the words of God, spoken through the angel Gabriel: “Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you.” For these words were not just for Mary. They were intended for each of us. We all receive God’s favor, whether we deserve it or not (grace!), and God is always with us. For me, this is the real meaning of Christmas. May we allow God’s grace to come to us and may we share it with others during this Advent season as we prepare our hearts for Christ to enter in surprising and unexpected ways!

Aloha nui!

Kahu Alan Akana

Our Kahu (Pastor) offers a weekly message in church most Sundays during the year. Click HERE to see a video of this week’s message. You may also 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, a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a member of the Kauai Association and Hawaii Conference.

A Message from Kahu Alan Akana

by admin | Dec 5, 2017 | Message from Kahu

“Hope that Will not Disappoint”

On Sunday, I began my message by sharing about the life of Allan Boesak, the South African pastor and theologian who demonstrated against apartheid in his country. During many difficult years, he continued to fight for the rights of all people, even when others felt like things were hopeless. Allan marched in 1977 with eighteen other demonstrators. In the 1980’s the number of marchers grew into the hundreds of thousands. Even though Allan Boesak was arrested, imprisoned, and threatened, he held onto hope, which he attributed, in part, to reading the Bible and his faith in God. Because he and many others acted upon their hope, apartheid was officially abolished in 1991. I love stories of hope which eventually make a huge difference in the world!

The Apostle Paul wrote that God’s hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts. It is God’s love for us and for all people that keeps hope alive. It is our openness to God’s love that keeps us connected to hope.

I invite you join us on Sunday morning and for the following two Sundays as we continue to prepare our hearts and lives for the many ways Christ comes to us—in hope, peace, joy and love.

Aloha nui!

Kahu Alan Akana

A Message from Kahu Alan Akana

by admin | Nov 21, 2017 | Message from Kahu

“Thanksgiving: The Will of God”

(1 Thessalonians 5:18)

On Sunday we looked at the story of the Jesus and the ten people whom he cured of leprosy (Luke 17). I began my sermon with stories of Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka`i where people with leprosy were once banished. I read last week that over 8,000 men, women and children were sent there in order to keep leprosy from spreading to others throughout the Hawaiian Islands; and some 95% were Native Hawaiians. As was the case for over a thousand years throughout the world, Hawaiians with leprosy lost just about everything that was important to them: health, comfort, family, community, employment. They were even told that their condition was because of sin in their life. As if it wasn’t bad enough to lose everything else, they were made to feel that God had abandoned them too!

When Jesus healed the ten people of leprosy in the Gospel story, one of them returned and threw himself at Jesus’ feet. Luke pointed out that the man was a Samaritan. I find two important lessons in this. First of all, Jesus healed this man who was different in terms of ethnicity, culture and religion. Jesus didn’t try to convert him first. He simply healed him because he had compassion for him. Secondly, Jesus accepted the man’s gratitude. These two lessons compel us to show compassion to people who are different, especially to people on the margins of society. They also remind us that God accepts our gratitude—no matter who we are.

The final words of Jesus in the story are: “Your faith has made you well.” Even though all ten people were cured, Jesus pointed out the faith and wellness of the man who expressed gratitude. I believe that there is something truly healing when we express our gratitude, and I also believe that our faith is strengthened. Gratitude must be God’s will for us because God wants us to have lives that are whole and experienced with deep faith. May we find healing and faith as we express gratitude on Thanksgiving Day…and on every day!

Aloha nui!

Kahu Alan Akana

P.S. Please see “Weekly News of the Church” to learn more about making a gift to Pacific School of Religion where I serve on the Board of Trustees.