Your voluntary donations help to support the banquet.

Please use the PayPal button to the right and include the names of those who will be attending the banquet.

Anniversary Book Reservations

Donation for the anniversary book will benefit the Mission Fund.

Please PayPal using the button to the right and include the number of copies desired. PayPal will ask for your mailing address so the book can be mailed to you.

The Mission Fund will further the Welcoming and Safe Environment and Silver Tsunami (Caring for our Kūpuna) priorities identified in our ‘ohana group meetings held in 2024. We intend to set aside $50,000 for much-needed improvements to our campus to create a welcoming and safe environment, and $4,000 will be used as seed money for programming for our kūpuna. As is our practice, we will set aside a tenth of what we raise ($6,000) as a tithe to the synod.

More information about the priorities to be supported by the Mission Fund is available in our earlier post about the 125th Anniversary Mission Fund Plans.

Donations may be made by check (made out to Lutheran Church of Honolulu with “Mission Fund” in the memo line and mailed to 1730 Punahou St., Honolulu, HI 96822) and sent to the church (1730 Punahou Street, Honolulu, HI 96822) or via PayPal using the button to the right.

Beckerath organs are renowned for their craftsmanship and historical significance. The Beckerath company, founded by Rudolf von Beckerath in Hamburg, Germany, has been creating exquisite pipe organs for over 75 years, influencing both the soundscape of sacred and secular spaces and the evolution of organ building. Hans Erbslöh and the Beckerath Organ Company continue to innovate while respecting traditional organ-building techniques. This future-oriented perspective might include the integration of new technologies, expanding the musical repertoire of their instruments, and maintaining their commitment to quality and artistic excellence. Whether through restoring historic organs or designing new ones, the Beckerath Organ Company remains a beacon of musical craftsmanship, resonating well into the future.

Our Beckerath Organ is currently being cleaned and renovated. Through the generous donations of members and friends of LCH, we have reached our $65,000 fundraising goal! All of us at LCH are both grateful and overjoyed in your generosity to both this congregation and the organ. This is your instrument, and it leads beautifully in services week after week and year after year.

The new Salicional 8′ stop has been added to the Swell division of the organ. A new Trompete 8′ stop has replaced the TrichterSchalmei 4′ in the Pedal division. These two enhancements help the Beckerath Organ to be more complete in both voices; it did not have a string sound, nor a fundamental unison-pitched sound in the pedal. Even J.S. Bach requested a string stop be placed in his organ at Weimar. The trumpet stop in the pedal will help in Bach chorales, which require an assertive sound for the cantus firmus, and also to develop the plenum of sound in the full pedal with the Fagott 16′.

Please join us for a celebratory weekend on Friday, June 6, at 7:00 pm for Dr. Barry Wenger’s recital featuring the new sounds of the organ and then again on Sunday, June 8, at 5:00 pm for a choral Pentecost service featuring the LCH Choir and organ. Be ready to sing with the new sounds of the organ in a service of fire and joy. Don’t forget to wear red to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit in wind and fire!

The target departure date for this trip is May 24,, 2026, and the return date is June 5. It will start in Berlin and end in Prague. Travel will be by private motor coach. Between Berlin and Prague, we will spend time in Wittenberg, Torgau, Leipzig, Eisleben, Erfurt, Eisenach, and Dresden. It will be a pilgrimage filled with interesting stories and history from a couple of pastors as well as local guides. Besides walking in Luther’s footsteps, we will visit other significant religious and historical sites, museums, churches, and castles and see some beautiful countryside. We will hear organ concerts compliments of Dr. Barry and possibly other organists or a choir. Details and registration information will be available in the next few weeks, as we continue our planning with the tour company.

Space is limited! Our current plans are for a group of 30 participants. Once registration is open, we will operate on a first come, first served basis. LCH ‘ohana members will have priority, but we will open the tour up to others should we have room. Cost is based on the number of participants and for 30 is $2800/person for double occupancy. Included in the cost is ground transportation, hotel accommodations, and most meals, entrance fees, and tips. It does not include air fare to and from Europe. A non-refundable $1,000 deposit will be required upon submission of the registration form. Deadline is still to be determined. Full payment is due 10 weeks prior to departure. Payments are to be made to the Lutheran Church of Honolulu.

Participants are responsible for their own travel arrangements to and from Europe. Randy Christensen has kindly offered to help with flight arrangements for those who wish it and will book a desired flight for $25. Should you choose to book a flight he finds, there is no charge.

A couple of notes up front: Participants may consider purchasing trip insurance to cover health, including medical transportation, if necessary, trip cancellation, and loss of baggage. You will need a passport (check your expiration date now). Also, please note that there will be a certain amount of walking involved as we tour the small towns of Luther. Some hotel accommodations may not have elevators and steps may be involved as well.

Before worship, the Adult Form will welcome Dr. Jonathan Scheurer to speak on water rights at 9:00 am in the Boardroom. Dr. Scheurer has twenty five years experience in public policy and land management in the public, non profit, and private sectors, in the Native Hawaiian and broader communities. He works with clients to develop strategies designed to avoid, manage, and/or resolve deep and complex conflicts over the control and management of natural resources.

In addition, sharing tables will be set up in the Hörmann Courtyard for members and friends to share nature’s bounty (plants, flowers vegetables, fruits, nuts, and crafts made of natural materials). The photo at the right shows one of the sharing tables from last year’s celebration.

Read about the history Earth Day, forms of climate activism, ways to get involved, and LCH’s commitment to creation care in the April HeartBeat.

Wednesdays, March 12, 19, and 26 and April 2 and 9 • 5:45 pm in the Hörmann Courtyard

Please join in this wonderful time of fellowship and prayer, beginning each Wednesday of Lent with a simple soup and salad supper. Suppers are served at 5:45 pm, prior to 7:00 pm Lenten services in the Nave. A sign-up sheet will be available in the courtyard for contributions to each week’s meal and for help with set-up and clean-up. See Jeanne Castello or call the LCH office for more information.

Worship: Holy Lament

Join us mid-week during Lent as we share Holden Evening Prayer. The sung prayer service begins at 7:00 pm preceded by a soup-and-salad supper at 5:45 pm in the church courtyard. This year’s Lenten theme is Holy Lament.

All are welcomed and encouraged to share this intimate prayer service and supper with us this Lenten season.

Music for the concert includes J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 38, “Out of the Depths, I Cry to Thee” and Ruth Watson Henderson’s “From Darkness to Light.”

We mark this five-month anniversary of Pr. Jeff’s passing through the beauty of music. Please invite friends and family to this beautiful concert of music to remember our sorrow and also to remember our joy!

We ask everyone to remember that Pr. Lesley is severely allergic to scented flowers, incense, and perfumes. She has been in the Emergency Room in anaphylaxis, so all are asked to honor her allergy issues whenever you come to the LCH campus.

Pastor Lesley Radius grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Hope Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. When she was 13, “Mr. Lesley Radius” was invited to attend a program that fast tracked participants through high school, college, and seminary. With her invitation to that program,Lesley received a brochure entitled “So, you want to be a pastor!” Oddly enough, when Lesley was packing for Lutheran School of Theology, 30 years after she had received the brochure, she found the brochure in the very bottom of the last box she was sorting. This reinforced for Lesley her call to pastoral ministry, even if it took her a long time to know her call and be in a denomination that would allow her to be a pastor.

Lesley is trained in interim ministry, church planting, and church redevelopment. She has served churches in Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee, Maryland, Texas, and now Hawai‘i.

Lesley is very excited to be on this journey with LCH as we discover together what God is up to in our church, the greater community, the state, the nation, and the world. “God is loose in the world,” as Peter Mayer sings. During this transition time, we get the privilege to discern how we will be about doing God’s work, with our hands. May God bless our time together and continue the work of transformation each and every day in each of us. Always remember, Jesus loves you.

The areas the congregation identified as the most important are:

• Welcoming and Safe Environment
• Liturgy, Music, and the Arts
• Silver Tsunami

The area of liturgy and music is being covered by the money being raised for the organ and a generous $79,000 bequest from the Thomas Hilgers Trust that is to be spent on the music program, but specifically for items not in the ongoing budget, such as concerts, new musical commissions, and other ways to expand the music program.

To cover the Welcoming and Safe Environment and the Silver Tsunami, we propose the following:

• Welcoming and Safe Environment—$50,000
• Presenting a more welcoming face to the world (cleaning up the front of the church, painting the exterior and interior of the church, removing old playground equipment, repairing the rose window)
• Landscaping, including creating a dog run for neighbors
• Murals to capture the spirit of the church
• Silver Tsunami—$4,000
• Seed money to help determine the most beneficial programs for seniors and their caregivers.
• Tithing to the ELCA through the Pacifica Synod—$6,000
• Yes, tithing is part of our culture.

We will create task forces to oversee these efforts and make sure the congregation is involved in the planning. If you want to be part of one of these task forces, please talk to Olivia Castro.

As of publication, we have raised $9,000 for the mission part of the 125th anniversary celebration. We narrowed the focus and are now concentrating on raising funds. If you would like to contribute, we ask that you do the following:

• Write a check and mail it in or give as your offering. Please designate 125th Anniversary Mission Fund on the description line.
• Contact Brenda in the church office (808-941-2566 or lch@lchwelome.org) to start initiate a monthly EFT donation to the 125th Anniversary Mission Fund through Simply Giving or to add a new donation to your current contributions via Simply Giving
• Go to the LCH website and click the Donate link. From the pulldown menu and click on 125th Anniversary Mission Fund.

If you have any questions, please contact Mary Fastenau, Olivia Castro, or Dan Dennison.