Volume 5, Issue 19
May 15, 2020
THIS SUNDAY: May 17, 2020
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary Scripture Readings



ALL ON-SITE CHURCH SERVICES CANCELLED

8:15 - 9:00AM
Online Morning Prayer Service Music*

9:00AM
Online Morning Prayer Service*

*available on the All Saints' website and Facebook page, and via phone, see info below
UPCOMING EVENTS
Easter Season Bible Study
Jonah 4: Jonah's defiance to God, and God's response to Jonah
Tuesday, May 19 th
6:30 - 8:00PM
Those who are interested in joining the Bible Study Zoom Meetings may contact Cami at  Cami@allsaintskauai.org  for login information.
RECURRING EVENTS
ALL RECURRING EVENTS SUSPENDED UNTIL MAY 18 th
Sunday School
Every Sunday, 9:30 - 10:15AM
Memorial Hall

Aloha Hour
Every Sunday, 10:45AM - 12:00PM
Under the big tree

Monday Crew
Every Monday, 8:00AM
Church Office

Laundry Love
1 st & 3 rd Wednesday, 5:00PM
Kapa`a Laundromat
McMaster Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele Concert
Every Wednesday, 6:00PM
Church

Daughters of the King
2 nd & 4 th Thursday, 7:00 - 8:00PM
Memorial Hall

Choir Practice
Every Thursday, 6:00PM
Choir Room
All Saints' Response to COVID-19
ACCESSING SUNDAY SERVICES
Please be advised that Kahu Kawika and Fr. Andrew from St. Michael and All Angel's Church in Lihue are collaborating to provide a special joint service recording for Sunday's worship service.

The recording will be available for viewing on our website,  www.allsaintskauai.org  and the All Saints' Facebook page by Sunday morning. 

Congregants will also have the option to listen to the recording by calling the church office, (808) 822-4267, and following the prompts provided through our new auto attendant feature .
Reflection from Kahu Kawika
Unmasking God’s Smile
The earliest childhood memory I have is when, around the age of three, I had to have a procedure done at the hospital that served the Air Force base at which we were stationed in Illinois. It required my staying there overnight, and so I was in a room with another little boy about my age. It was just the two of us in the room that evening – no parents or family members could be there until the next morning. The lights in the room were dimmed so that we could fall asleep more easily. All of a sudden, the door to our room opened up, and in came a “figure” whose face was covered up. I became quite afraid of who or what was coming into our room. The other kid’s bed was situated closer to the door, so the “figure” made its way toward him, to both my relief and to his dread. He started crying profusely as the “figure” approached him. After looking at the other boy for a little while, the “figure” started walking toward my bed. I grew fearful again, but all of a sudden, the “figure” removed his face mask and revealed a male doctor with a friendly and welcoming broad smile, asking me how I was feeling. Once the mask was gone, my fears disappeared, and I knew that the doctor was there out of concern and care for my good.

As we join the Apostle Paul in our reading from Acts 17:22-31, we find him at the great city of Athens – certainly a prominent center of scholarship, trade, and commerce in the ancient world. Paul is waiting there for his traveling companions Silas and Timothy to join him, so he decides to take in the sights and sounds. He notices that the city was full of idols (17:16), and begins to talk story with both Jewish leaders and Greek philosophers.

Paul then shows us his skills as an ambassador and a rhetorician. Noting all the idols, he cleverly commends the Athenians for being so religious, even to the point of having an idol altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” Presumably, the Athenians worshipped so many deities that they wanted to cover themselves by making sure they didn’t leave any out. Using this link to their culture as a basis, Paul then goes on to explain to them the God of Jesus Christ, previously unknown to them, although they have had hints at this God’s existence by looking at and living in the created order. Indeed, Paul notes that God made all people and that they all spring from the same common ancestors originally.

In our present perplexing and uncertain times, perhaps many of us are like the Athenians – having a glimmer of God as someone who in many respects remains “unknown” to us or stuck on the backshelf of our lives. Yet we also know that God is really there and we have the yearning to get to know God better. We wonder where is God in the mess our world is in – with the spread of the coronavirus with its detrimental health effects, the economic havoc in its wake, the way the virus is highlighting many of the built-in inequities in our society – such as many front-line employees being people of color and living paycheck to paycheck and thus cannot afford to quarantine at home. We even wonder how we will conduct our federal election this November if, as is still the case in many states, people are forced to make a choice between casting a vote in person or staying at home for safety. All this besides the continuing questions of climate change, built-in economic disparities and trade imbalances, regional and racial strife, and the threat of wars and famines around the world.

Where is God in all this? In writer Mary Bryden’s book analyzing Samuel Beckett’s works in Samuel Beckett and the Idea of God , Bryden observes that "the hypothesized God who emerges from Beckett's texts is one who is both cursed for his perverse absence and cursed for his surveillant presence. He is by turns dismissed, satirized, or ignored, but he, and his tortured son, are never definitively discarded." Bryden thus describes a rather unknown God with the face mask still on.

However, Paul takes off the “face mask” of the Unknown God. He shows the Athenians, and us, a God who is living, vibrant, and fully engaged with all creation and especially with all people made in the very image of God. This God lives in nature by sustaining it, and lives in us as well by showing we belong to God and that we as human individuals are made uniquely to one another but also meant to complement each other – that if we work and live together productively, then we take great strides at unmasking the loving God in our midst. This God shows us who we are by showing us whose we are.

Certainly, we live in a scary time in which we are all literally wearing face masks out of health concerns, so no wonder that even God’s face may seem “masked” to us right now. Things happen in life, but we know the One who walks through them with us. By knowing that God has knit us together as a human family and that God is both big and good, we see beyond the “face mask” to find a Face of eternal love smiling back at us.

I ka mahalo o ke Akua,
Kahu Kawika+
For the aged and infirm, for the widowed and orphans, and for the sick and the suffering, especially ​Jenni, Richard, Mikey, Netta, Bill, and those we name silently or aloud, let us pray to the Lord. ​Lord, have mercy. 

For all who have died, especially those affected by the COVID-19 virus and those we name silently or aloud, in the hope of the resurrection, and for all the departed, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. Amen.
All Saints' Tree of Love
Send Your Love and Messages of Hope
Tree of love
Update: The first cards have been hung on the cross. You still have a two weeks to add yours!

For this Easter Season, All Saints’ invites the congregation to send their love and messages of hope. 

Similar to the Japanese “Wishing Tree,” members may fill in an order form online with a short message and names of those they want to dedicate it to. 

The messages will be written on Lily cards like the one pictured above and hung on the wooden cross in front of All Saints' Church. 

This “Tree of Love” will be up through the Easter season (until May 31 st ). 
Feel free to invite your friends and family members outside of All Saints’ to participate. 
 
Those who also want to include a love donation may send their checks to All Saints' or visit our Paypal site with the memo “Tree of Love.” 
 
Thanks! 

-Cami Pascua Baldovino
Bible Study for the Easter Season
Zoom to the Rescue!
Aloha kakou,

I do miss seeing all of you on a regular basis! Hope you all are doing well, considering our social circumstances.

We're going to have a Zoom bible study during a portion of Tuesday evenings, 6:30PM - 8:00PM, in the Easter Season. We will focus on the prophet Jonah - the fifth of the twelve so-called "Minor Prophets" found toward the end of the Old Testament. Although this book was probably written later than the storyline of the 8th century BCE (some biblical scholars estimate that it was even written as late as the 3 rd - 2 nd centuries BCE during the Greek occupation of Palestine), the story of Jonah is one filled a profound message of God's love for all peoples within a narrative framework that is action-packed with touches of humor.

It is a short book (just four chapters). We will dig into the book as such:

  • Tuesday 19 May: Jonah 4 (Jonah's defiance to God, and God's response to Jonah)

Depending on the level and depth of our discussions, we may flex what material we end up covering in any one Zoom meeting.

Those who are interested in joining the Bible Study Zoom Meetings may contact Cami at  Cami@allsaintskauai.org  for login information.

Looking forward to our talk story and to learning more about God and each other!

-Kahu Kawika+
This Week In Sunday School
Going to Church
Sunday School has been suspended until the Diocese gives us the OK to return to the All Saints' campus for worship. Until that time, the Sunday School article in The Epistle will include more information so the parents of our keiki can share the lesson with their children.
Wondering and Learning

We talk about “going to church.” But in a more important way, we—all of us— are  the Church. The church is more than a building, and it is more than the destination where we end up on Sunday mornings.

So when we “go to church,” where are we going? What are we going  to ? And what makes the church so special? In fact, what makes the church a church?
Growing in Faith

In some ways, the church is much like God’s universe. The more we know and understand it, the richer and more wondrous it becomes.

Young children are hungry for an understanding of how the world is put together. They want to make sense of the world. Perhaps that is why they like puzzles pieced together, Legos® made into grand structures, blocks stacked into buildings.

In some ways, a child—or an adult—will eventually intuit the workings of the church. After some time in church, we will understand at some level how its worship flows, why we do certain things, what the important elements of church worship and church life are. But the more that we clearly understand, the more we can enter into church life with joy and encounter God with a joyful heart. That’s how we, along with Paul, can say, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice.”

We were made in the image of God, created as God’s beloved beings. We are made to be in loving relationship with God. The church helps make that happen by being a gathered community for this purpose.

Jesus, the Son of God, proclaimed the reign of God to us, and we recognize Jesus as our savior and our redeemer. The church helps us to be agents of transformation, to promote the reign of God in this world as Jesus calls us to do.

So in church, we learn to love God and to love our neighbors, which Jesus called the two greatest commandments.

Why do we come to church?

We come to church to worship God. In large part, we think of worship in terms of the word of God and the Eucharist. But our worship of the Lord includes not only the words but also the whole experience of the liturgy: the ritual and music, the gathered community of the faithful, and the giving of ourselves in love and praise to God. Worship is not limited to the words that we hear; it encompasses the whole experience of being with God.

Worship is an experience of being with God in an environment that engages all our senses: we  see the stained glass, we  hear  the music and the word, we sing and say our responses to God, we  feel  the passed offering plate, we  taste  the bread and wine of communion.

And worship is the experience of being the people of God gathered together for an hour to focus on God and God alone. This is the time that we are allowed to spend  not  thinking about how our friends treated us, or meals, or homework, but on renewing our relationship with God, talking to God, listening to God, getting to know God better.

What do children learn about being in church?

We may not see the “results” of regular worship attendance for young children right away, or ever. The children may never articulate their experience and may never even think consciously about it. But the assumptions and the foundations of their faith being formed at this time will be ingrained into their hearts and minds and will stay with them throughout their lives.

As young people and adults, they will always remember being welcomed at the table of the Lord. They will always remember that as children, they were accepted and loved in church by the adults. And they will see the church as a place where they can take their own children, because their own children will be welcomed and accepted, just as they were.
Click here for the donation form.

 Lovely Mothers' Day Gifts
All Saints' `Ohana Delivers Lunch to Kupuna
Mothers' Day Delivery
Several All Saints' members participated in an island-wide (Kekaha to Kapahi) Mother's Day Kūpuna Lunch delivery. The All Saints' deliveries were organized by Chris Wataya and food was donated by several Kaua'i restaurants. The All Saints' deliveries included communion wafers that were blessed by Kahu Kawika. In photo are Carolyn Morinishi, Chris Wataya, Kahu Kawika, Jan Hashizume and Jean Nakamoto. Kahu Kawika also blessed the food and drivers before they departed. A huge thank you to Chris for organizing the All Saints deliveries!

-Carolyn Morinishi
A Happy Mothers' Day from the Ke Akua Youth Group
"To all our mothers, Mahalo and Happy Mothers' Day."
Please enjoy this Mother's Day Video brought to you by the All Saints' Ke Akua Youth Group.

From Bishop Bob Fitzpatrick
The Bishop announced on May 11, 2020, the moratorium on public worship in Episcopal Churches in this Diocese will continue at least until May 17. He will continue to re-evaluate the situation on a week to week and county by county basis.   

There is no indication that gathering people is prudent without social distancing, face masks, and a limitation on the number of people. Public worship is still imprudent. Churches should not be open for public gatherings or worship until approved by the State and the County of the church, and with the permission of the Bishop.

We might have local county variations, but a Sunday will be set for a major Diocesan celebration when we can all gather in our churches across the State in a healthy way.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE
TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN TO THIS SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE FROM OUR BISHOP!!
BISHOP'S MONDAY MESSAGE
During this time of separation, Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick will be sharing video messages on Mondays and Wednesdays. The Wednesday message will be a lesson/reflection. He invites all to join him over the next few weeks as he continues to discuss the First Letter of Peter. To watch the video, click on his image above, or visit the Diocesan website  HERE .
BISHOP'S WEDNESDAY MESSAGE

FROM THE EPISCOPAL CAFÉ
Remember, We Love You

May 12, 2020

A cup of coffee in one hand and my laptop in another, I set the computer on a small white table in the living room. I place it atop other books, colored pencils, and half-drawn pieces of artwork. Behind me at the train table, I hear, “No, no, no, you can’t do that,” Isaac yells in Charlotte’s face and simultaneously takes a block out of her hand.

I raise my voice above their fighting, “It’s time for Ms. Lucy. Come over here and wait for her.”
It’s been our weekday tradition since staying at home. At 10 am, Charlotte’s preschool teacher comes on Facebook live to share stories, nursery rhymes, bible verses, and most importantly, her presence. It’s our new normal rather than three day a week preschool.

Some mornings the kids will keep playing while we listen to Ms. Lucy’s voice and other mornings Charlotte sits in front of the computer holding up her latest art work and answering Ms. Lucy’s questions.

I’m learning right along with Charlotte and Isaac – new songs, books, nursery rhymes, and Bible verses. I’m hearing the reminders to play and read, not just for my kids, but for me. I’m listening when Ms. Lucy talks about honoring our feelings, and remembering to be kind. I’m giving thanks for technology that connects us from living room to living room. I’m delighting in the silliness.

It’s not just my kids that need these playful reminders and for 15 minutes every morning I’m taking notes. Perhaps most importantly, we’re all hearing the final blessing that Ms. Lucy offers. It’s the same as if they were all gathered in the classroom for the end of the day. When everyone is ready to leave, the teachers offer one final reminder: Remember, we love you.

From the computer screen, I hear Ms. Lucy’s voice: “Now remember, we love you.” Charlotte makes a heart out of her hands and smiles back. I smile, too, letting the words wash over me.
So much is different right now and so much uncertainty exists, but underneath it all, the most important fact remains: we are all loved.
Kimberly Knowle-Zeller is an ordained ELCA pastor, mother of two, and spouse of an ELCA pastor. She lives with her family in Cole Camp, MO. You can read more at her  website , follow her work on  Facebook or  sign up for her monthly newsletter
Pandemic to Reshape How Congregations Worship as Dioceses Prepare to Resume In-Person Gatherings

By David Paulsen

Posted May 11, 2020
The Rev. Angela Cortiñas is seen in a Facebook video of a recent online service at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in College Station, Texas. Photo: Angela Cortiñas

[Episcopal News Service] Get ready. The pandemic could change everything that Episcopalians once took for granted about attending church.

A reservation could be required to worship in person. Services might not even take place in the church, if the parish hall or an outdoor area can better accommodate social distancing. “No” to handshakes at the peace. “Yes” to wearing masks. Singing is a conflicted “maybe.” Communion – if offered at all – could be received as wafers dropped from above into cupped hands, with hand sanitizer always close by. And don’t expect coffee at coffee hour.

Another option: Keep watching the livestream at home and continue to forego attending church in person, while the deadly coronavirus is still spreading.

With  more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases daily  and around 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 each day in the United States, Episcopal dioceses are proceeding cautiously, even in states that have eased their stay-at-home orders to restart their economies. At the same time, church leaders have begun discussing and planning for the day they reopen, with tight limits on attendance. In some dioceses, churches can resume some form of in-person worship as soon as this month.

“Government officials have different standards than we do. Their metrics are keeping the health care system from getting overwhelmed and keeping the economy going,” the Rev. Alex Dyer, canon to the ordinary for the Episcopal Church in Colorado, told Episcopal News Service.

In Colorado,  one of the states partially reopening , the diocese won’t resume any in-person services until certain public health criteria are met, such as a sustained reduction in COVID-19 cases, sufficient capacity in the health care system to test and treat all patients, and the ability to track patients’ contacts. Church leaders there, as elsewhere, say their caution is partly fueled by demographics: Older Americans are more vulnerable to severe coronavirus symptoms, and more than a third of all Episcopalians are 65 or older, according to the Pew Research Center’s  most recent Religious Landscape Study .

“Our standards are different,” Dyer told ENS. His diocese’s actions are based in love, not fear, he said, and following that Christian framework, “the number of acceptable deaths as a result of our actions is zero.”

Most Episcopal congregations across the United States haven’t gathered publicly in their churches since mid-March, when governors and health officials began urging residents to stay mostly at home and to take other precautions, such as social distancing and wearing face masks in public. Such efforts were meant to help slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Many congregations now only come together online, but that hasn’t meant a loss of liturgy. At  St. Thomas Episcopal Church  in College Station, Texas, the schedule actually has expanded during the pandemic: Every weekday morning, Morning Prayer. Every weekday evening, a brief Compline. Every Sunday morning, the Liturgy of the Word, sometimes followed by Communion.

What parishioners have lost isn’t the liturgy but rather the experience of worshipping side by side in the pews. They miss each other’s physical presence, said the Rev. Angela Cortiñas, rector of St. Thomas, but they know it’s best to wait. “The majority of them, as much as they long to get back together, they understand the seriousness of what’s going on,” she told ENS in a phone interview.


David Paulsen is an editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org .
Anglican Mission Agency Chief Undertakes World Preaching Tour – in 24 Hours

Posted May 13, 2020
The Rev. Duncan Dormor, CEO of United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG)
[Anglican Communion News Service] The general secretary of the Anglican mission agency USPG has completed a 24-hour marathon missionary tour addressing churches in 22 countries over the Zoom digital conferencing platform. During his tour, the Rev. Duncan Dormor “traveled” some 60,000 miles from Aotearoa to the Windward Islands; the equivalent flights would have emitted 15,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

“At a time when the world is facing a common threat, albeit the impact of COVID-19 varies in different in parts of the world, now is a really important moment to reach out and express our global solidarity as sisters and brothers in Christ,” he said. “As a global mission agency, USPG is seeking to do that via its general secretary bringing greetings to churches, offering biblical reflections and preaching across the world.”

Jerusalem Church Leaders Urge Israel to Halt West Bank Annexation Plans

Posted May 13, 2020
Archbishop Suheil Dawani, Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem
[Anglican Communion News Service] The Anglican archbishop in Jerusalem, Archbishop Suheil Dawani, is one of 13 senior church leaders to put their names to a statement calling on the state of Israel not to unilaterally annex land in the West Bank. The statement, issued by the Council of the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, says it views the plans “with the utmost concern” and that they “would bring about the loss of any remaining hope for the success of the peace process.”

The statement also calls on the United States, the Russian Federation, the European Union and the United Nations “to respond to these unilateral annexation plans with a time-delimited and phased peace initiative in line with international law and United Nations resolutions on the matter, in order to guarantee a comprehensive, just and long-lasting peace in this part of the world that is considered holy by the three Abrahamic faiths.”

IN BRIEF . . .
These news briefs were featured in previous issues of "The Epistle"

Please submit your story ideas to the Epistle Staff at news@allsaintskauai.org .
KUPUNA SHOPPING ASSISTANCE MINISTRY
Any of our All Saints' kupuna who need assistance with grocery shopping can contact Carolyn Morinishi (808-651-2061) to set up a delivery.

ALL SAINTS' VIRTUAL SWAP MEET
If any ministry has an unmet need, reach out to put it in the All Saints' Virtual Swap Meet and it will be published in the Epistle . Contact Bill Caldwell at news@allsaintskauai.org .

PASTORAL CARE CONTACT INFORMATION
Whenever you have a need for support, please call (650) 691-8104 and leave a voice mail. The system will immediately forward the information to the Pastoral Care Committee who will respond to each request. If you prefer, you may send an electronic pastoral care request via email to pastoralcare@allsaintskauai.org .

PRAYER CHAIN MINISTRY
Individuals who want to participate in the Prayer Chain Ministry must re-enroll to continue receiving the email communications . To re-enroll, please visit the newly established   Pastoral Care web page  or contact the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.

SUBMITTING A PRAYER REQUEST
Prayer requests will now be   submitted online   or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Names can be added to the Prayers of the People petitions by using the  Prayer Chain Request form  or by contacting the Church Office at (808) 822-4267. Names will remain in the Prayers of the People for a maximum of four Sundays before a name must be resubmitted.