Hawai‘i Conference UCC

6.18.24// It’s first session of PAAM tonight! The blowing of the Pu’ohe officially welcomed our evening together. Mahalo Ke Akua. Thanks be to God.

Caring for our ohana at MCC 💒

We observe Juneteenth which honors the effective end of slavery in the United States. June 19 marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The Emancipation Proclamation had been signed two and a half years earlier.

Did you know that the Hawaiian Kingdom banned slavery in 1852? Hawaiians, being aware of the way America slaughtered Native tribes and enslaved Africans, outlawed slavery in their constitution and decreed that any slave that arrived in Hawaiʻi would be emancipated.

May we recommit ourselves to work for the liberation of all.

🙏🏾 Prayer of Thanksgiving for Juneteenth

We give thanks to God for freedom and emancipation
of the enslaved people.

Cheated of their lives and livelihood by oppressors
beyond the pale of human rights and dignity.

Because of their skin they were deemed less than farm animals these African and African American people made in the image of the Divine, praying to God to loosen their chains.

We give thanks and praise to God for the full emancipation for these human beings.

From the shacks and plantations of Texas they sang:
“God, we thank you for saving our lives.”

“All persons henceforth shall be free”
were the words spoken in 1863.

Today we reinforce with thanksgiving God’s life, love and liberty.

From the depths of our hearts we cry:
“God, we thank you for deliverance.”

-Prayer excerpt by Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia A. Thompson
for Living Psalms 3rd Sunday after Pentecost, Juneteenth, 6/18/2023

👉🏾Read the full prayer here: https://ow.ly/rpBS50SlxRA

👉🏾 Add your prayers to the People's Prayers for Peace: https://ow.ly/kyqC50SlxRx

We are grateful to have had our General Minister and President with us for our first in-person ‘Aha Pae‘āina in five years!

Over the past three days, we have worshiped, conversed, shared meals, sang, danced, debated, laughed, cried, learned, listened, reflected…

Though there are differences and disagreements among us, “We are one ‘ohana: a unified, radiant, transforming expression of the body of Christ,” as our vision statement proclaims.

Mahalo to all the delegates who took the time to represent their local churches and share in the work of our wider church, to all the guests and visitors who took part, and to our hosts at Central Union Church of Honolulu! It was so good to be together in person again after five years.

Pray for our youth (and chaperones) who are still going strong until tomorrow!

In our business session today, the 202nd ‘Aha Pae‘āina approved (with some opposition) the resolution of witness: “A Call to Education and Action Regarding the Crisis in Gaza”

Originally sponsored by six of our churches, this resolution calls on our churches to:

(1) Publicly pray and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Palestine;

(2) Call for an end to the blockades of humanitarian aid preventing critical food and medical supplies from getting into Gaza;

(3) Commit to educating ourselves about the history and current conflict in Palestine and Israel.

Read the full resolution here:https://centralunionchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/A-Call-to-Education-and-Action-Regarding-the-Crisis-in-Gaza-resolution-for-HCUCC-Aha-Paeaina-2024.pdf