LCH children and families gathered Saturday morning, April 24, in the church garden to celebrate and recognize Earth Day. Vicar Bree helped the children learn about caring for creation as they explored and tended the garden beds and all the creepy crawlers in them. They learned about the work of gardeners—seeding, weeding, watering, harvesting, and learning about soil and insects. It was a chance for everyone to get their hands dirty, to give back to creation that gives to us, and to mālama ‘āina.
The slideshow below gives you and idea of all the fun and learning that took place.
Join us for the 60th Anniversary celebration of Hawai’i Youth Opera Chorus (HYOC), featuring a rich assortment of solo and ensemble performances by the talented members of this celebrated ensemble. The program will feature excerpts from HYOC-commissioned youth operas, small ensemble and solo works by western composers, and compositions by Hawaiian monarchs that pay homage to this beautiful island home and culture.
The month of March included two great volunteer days! The second bed, at the front of the church facing Punahou Street, is now complete and has even a few plants—some basil, chard and squash. We also planted an exciting variety of seeds from the Seed Lab at University of Hawai‘i. The seeds included Paukea cauliflower, U.H. Mānoa lettuce, kai choy, Koba green onion, Komohana grape tomatoes, Hawaiian chili peppers, and Ka‘ala bell peppers! So far, the peppers and a few green onions are peeking above the soil! Thank you gardeners! Look for upcoming volunteer days in April.
First Mondays Chamber Concerts continue with an evening of authentic Middle Eastern music featuring the talented ensemble Island Oasis, lead by Kip McAtee. Enjoy danceable melodies from throughout the Balkans and Middle East, featuring the lute-like oud, an end-blown flute called the ney, clarinet, percussion, and other instruments.
The Lamentations of Jeremiah are five poems in the form of laments for Jerusalem and Judah, invaded and devastated by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. These moving elegies have inspired composers for centuries, perhaps most famously English Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis.
Please join us for streaming midweek Lenten services. Holden Evening prayer will begin at 7:00 on Wednesday evenings during Lent with the theme “From Darkness into Light.” Each service will approach the theme from a different perspective including spirituality, care of earth, and mental health using music, imagery, art, and proclamation to draw us deeper into God’s presence. Members of Writers’ Workshop will provide much of the proclamation texts.
The seedlings planted just a few weeks ago on Martin Luther King Day (right) had flourished, and it was time for them to be “up-potted” so they would continue to grow. Once again, members of the congregation (below) joined Vicar Bree on the lanai to get their hands dirty and move the garden along
At right, Vicar Bree and Peggy Andersaon check out the planting bed ready ro be filled with soil to receive the plants have gotten a bit bigger.
The season of Lent begins with a very special worship on Ash Wednesday. This beautiful evening service begins the Lenten season of reflection, prayer, and preparation as we hear the words from Genesis 3:19, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Physical distancing keeps us from receiving ashes, a sign of mourning and repentance, on our foreheads this year. But we are reminded of our mortality through the cross, a sign of promise, and life, and hope. Ash Wednesday—and the whole season of Lent—calls us to reflect and remember the precious gift of life and love that God has given us in creation and community and to re-center our thoughts and spirit on what truly matters. We recall that our mortality is joined to God’s forever in Christ, and remember that together we share the joy of life with all of God’s world.