Bishop's Thanksgiving Message 2022

November 23, 2022

Na ke aloha o ke Akua ma loko o Iesu Kristo, e aloha iā ʻoukou ā pau!

I’m writing this Thanksgiving message from home on Monday afternoon, November 21, 2022.

I woke up yesterday morning (Sunday, November 20) with a slight sore throat, sluggishness, and runny nose. It was the fifth day after a Church Pension Group gathering for clergy and lay employees. Everyone who attended the gathering received an email on Friday (November 18) informing us that someone at the gathering had tested positive just after returning home. I felt uncomfortable enough for me to go, “oh, no!” I had tested negative and felt fine on Friday after the warning email, and then again on Saturday (November 19) morning. But after waking up on Sunday, at Bea’s urging, I immediately tested again twice, and both tests were clearly positive.

I otherwise didn’t feel bad and, if it hadn’t been for the pandemic and home test kits, I wouldn’t have likely stayed home from the Cathedral and the Feast of the Holy Sovereigns. With the test, the only right thing to do was stay home and isolate for the requisite five days. The staff of the Cathedral – especially the preacher -- covered for me on very short notice. Mahalo!

So, after all the vaccines and boosters, and living with others in the household who have had bouts with the virus, I had my first positive test through this pandemic. As of today, I don’t feel much more than the symptoms for a cold. I continue a bit sluggish, achy and a very slight headache. I’ve been in touch with my doctor. All is well. I won’t be into the office this week at all and, if all clears up, I’m off to Guam next week.

Today, I’m listening to Christmas music by Mannheim Steamroller and reading for fun (And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meachum [Random House, 2022] and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park [I am a Fanny Price fan – other Austen readers will understand the controversial nature of that statement]). I am following doctor’s advice by isolating, resting, and drinking plenty of liquids.

It does give me a moment to say to you – God’s people in the Diocese of Hawaiʻi – how thankful I am for you and all the blessings of my life. Thank you and thank God for you! I am blessed to live in Hawaiʻi and to be the Bishop of this Diocese.

This Thanksgiving, I hope you can joyfully join with me in praying “A General Thanksgiving” from page 836 of the Book of Common Prayer:

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love. We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side. We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us. We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone. Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom. Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.