CROSSROADS INTO THE NEXT CENTURY

Our “$100,000 for 100 Years” campaign honors our past while moving Crossroads forward. We’ll do so by:

• thoughtfully replacing our beloved Banyan;

• upgrading the church’s new multimedia reach;

• building a youth-drawing, on-campus Environmental Center;

• installing non-a/c sanctuary cooling, and;

• giving voice again to our organ and church-tower carillon.

Thus far, Crossroaders have brought us nearly 2/3 of the way to $100,000! With your help, we can reach the $100K goal by Summer’s end.

Meanwhile, your Council has taken many actions over the past two months. In these and indeed all matters, the Council welcomes both your suggestions and direct involvement. Council members will meet with Kamehameha Schools to better understand planned construction on their next-door Varsity site. A mission-teams combined group will strategize on how to expand member time and talent participation in church activities. We are advertising to recruit replacements for both Paul Horiuchi and bookkeeper John Keys, who sadly passed away earlier this year.

We approved Treasurer Stephen Chang’s suggestion to name Ted Demura-Devore as Assistant Treasurer and moved church financial transactions to direct deposit of checks, automatic payment of bills, and email transmission of signatures. Finally, we paid for sanctuary roof repair and approved Kahu David’s September 5 to November 15 sabbatical.

If you would like to give to our “$100,000 for 100 Years” campaign, here’s how:

1. Use this QR: 

2. Donate at the Crossroads’ website:

 https://www.churchofthecrossroadshawaii.org/centennial-fundraiser

3. Drop your check in the offering bowl on Sundays or mail it to: Church of the Crossroads

1212 University Ave., Honolulu HI 96826

Aloha,

Galen Fox, Moderator

Mo‘ili‘ili Hongwanji (Shin Buddhist) holds their Obon festival on July 1^st from 5-10 PM in the large parking lot makai of our church. Obon festivals commemorate one’s deceased ancestors; the belief is that during Obon, their ancestors’ spirits temporarily return to this world to visit their relatives. Food and drink and dancing are plentiful, delighting the spirits and the living.

Many of our founding members were Japanese students whose parents were Buddhist. Although these young people converted to Christianity, Buddhist traditions were still celebrated as part of one’s Japanese culture, like the season of Obon. We continue this tradition by enjoying a potluck picnic and games on our church campus, and then, for those who would like to, attend Obon dancing and festivities next door.

We start with games at 5 PM. Please come early and help us set up volleyball, bocce and Ping-Pong! We will play for about an hour then enjoy our potluck picnic dinner at 6 PM. (Bring your own recyclable plates, cups, and utensils if you can). When it gets dark, head over to the Obon festival to shop the booths and try some dances! 

A few years ago, our church school keiki and ‘opio were taught an Obon odori (dance) by Cheryl Ho. Tanko Bushi (the Coal Miner’s Song) hails from Kumamoto, on the southernmost island of Kyushu, Japan. (Kikue Kaneko Takagi’s ancestors are from Amakusa, an island off Kyushu.) Originally sung by coal miners to get through their hard and monotonous days in the coal mines, it is a very popular Obon odori. Even if you don’t remember all the motions, simply follow the dancers in the innermost ring, who have studied and practiced all the dances.

•  4:30 PM  Early arrivals set up volleyball net, bocce, Ping-Pong, etc.

               INVITE friends to come!

•  6:00 PM Potluck picnic dinner (bring your recyclable plates, cups,

utensils)

• 7:30 PM Sun has set. Bring in volleyball net, etc. Head to Obon festival

to dance!

(Obon festival lasts until 10 PM so you can go anytime up to then. We’ll clean up and lock up Weaver Hall/kitchen by 9 PM.)

Questions? Lee Takagi (ltakagi1@hawaiiantel.net) or Pastor Malia (associate@churchofthecrossroadshawaii.org)

Sometime in that first year of Pandemic adjustments, when our worship services were all online, the name MacArthur Flournoy began to appear weekly on our zoom screen. He had just arrived on Hawaii’s shores and was looking for a church that was Open and Affirming and intentionally welcoming. Crossroads fit that bill for him and blessedly soon he was more and more integrated into the life and wonders of our church.

When we could finally begin to gather again in-person, it was with great joy that we were able to embrace this person of immense warmth, with his deep commitment to social justice and the needs of the often forgotten and neglected, and a powerful and abiding grace-filled faith. MacArthur followed in the footsteps of fellow Crossroaders Terry Yasuko Ogawa and Irene Willis Hassan and became the chaplain for IHS; and he also entered into the process of Discernment for Ordained Ministry with Crossroads as his sponsoring church.

To say we have all been blessed by his presence is an understatement. He has been a gift who will soon be connecting with us from afar rather than in-person. In mid-July, MacArthur will be returning to his home state of California where he will be reuniting with his family of many generations. He will begin, in the Fall, the course work necessary for Board Certification as a Chaplain and he will be spreading his humor, good will and faith in a new setting.

We wish MacArthur God’s grace and blessings as this new chapter of his life unfolds. On July 9, he will be our preacher on Sunday morning. Please come and listen to his story and join him afterwards at our Second Sunday Lunch. 

Aloha,

Kahu David