MESSAGE FROM OUR INCOMING MODERATOR, GALEN FOX
I was moderator-elect last year, working under Lee Takagi and Kahu David Turner. I know our church is in good hands. Both past moderator Lee and Kahu David are back for this year. And Mano Nguyen is joining us as moderator-elect, since Council by acclamation voted him to become moderator next January. We still need a clerk!
Lee has been part of Crossroads since her teen years, where she met David Takagi and his family. Her marriage to David has kept both involved with Crossroads since they returned from college — they have become the congregation’s First Family. Lee was moderator in the early ‘80s, when Crossroads regained its footing under Tony Robinson, with David and Lee, and Tony and Linda Robinson raising their families together here. More recently, Lee was staff—unpaid—as Church School and Youth Coordinator.
Lee was an outstanding moderator. Her creativity, initiative, and hard work kept us on top of campus goings-on. She implemented changes that will benefit the church in our 100th year, including a council retreat to go over the excellent Crossroads Council book Ellen Carson worked hard to assemble, making the Chimes shorter and more frequent, with its more readable format, advancing 100th-Year planning, and working on staff transition.
As moderator in the Church’s 100th year, I contribute a historical name. Galen Weaver was our founding minister. I was named after him in Crossroads’ 20th year and stand here 80 years later. My family knew the Weavers and were close to them, even though we lived in Hilo in 1943 when I was born. The family was back in Honolulu and Crossroads from 1945.
I was fortunate to be here during Delwyn Rayson’s early years. His sermons were part of my life education. He married Carol Fox and me in California on a trip to the Mississippi Delta, delivering a powerful homily that would, if followed, have held any marriage together. Sharon Moriwaki was part of the 1960s “Youth for Rayson” fan club. So Sharon and I (married by Neal MacPherson) share our Crossroads background.
Now we all share opportunities to serve. Paul Horiuchi’s deeply mourned passing leaves us without a groundskeeper. Trimming shrubbery needs to be done. A Greening Congregation Day will temporarily help, and volunteers could cut grass. Perhaps U.H. students could earn Service Learning credits for helping.
There will be other workday opportunities. Campus Cleanliness Day will be on April 29, two weeks before our planned 100th anniversary luau. It’s a chance for volunteers to prepare Crossroads inside and outside for our welcomed guests. And we need a different day when everyone focuses on storage areas and closets, a de-clutter task on different dates before the cleaning day. We must first plan storage space for stuff we keep, then organize folks to sort stuff — kitchen, education materials; etc. — and also dispose of hazardous stuff.
These work ideas came up through Council, but this congregation-based church means you, all of us, have a vote and all share responsibility. David Takagi said to me he always works by consensus. That seems the Crossroads way, and it’s how, as much as possible, the Council and church, led by Kahu David, will be operating. We hear you, we need you, we work and worship together.
| 
