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26 December 2013

Announcement | Sunday before Epiphany and the Great Blessing of Water

The Maui Orthodox Christian Mission has the honor of hosting a visit by Reverend Father Ion Coman of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Father Ion will celebrate the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, January 5th, the Sunday before Epiphany, with the Great Blessing of Water afterwards.

25 December 2013

Christmas Day
Christ is born! Glorify Him!

This past year the Lord has blessed our small parish in many ways, beginning with a visit by His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos, Chancellor Father Apostolos and Father Theodore last January for Theophany.

We are thankful for the opportunity to have communion on Maui Island with our Lord and are thankful for the many new friends we have made over the past year, including many who live around the world.

All the clergy who served our mission parish on the Island of Maui this past year include:

• Metropolitan Gerasimos
• Chancellor Father Apostolos Koufallakis
• Father Theodore Dorrance
• Father Photios Dumont
• Father Luke Palumbis
• Father James Retelas
• Father Timothy Chrapko
• Father John Kuehnle
• Father Alexander Leong

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

10 November 2013

The Maui mission parish would like to thank Father Timothy Chrapko for celebrating Matins and the Divinity Liturgy today, on the Eighth Sunday of Luke, during his vacation to the Hawaiian Island of Maui. We also express our thanks to Dobrodijka Julie for her willingness to chant with us during Orthros. We had a wonderful time with Father Timothy today. It was indeed a blessing for us that Father Timothy could celebrate with our mission parish.

It was indeed a gift for us that His Grace Ilarion of Edmonton and His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos blessed this opportunity for service between the respective jurisdictions.

Here is a photo from today. Most all the chairs in the hall were all filled up! And this seems to happen for visiting priests -- for example, when Fr. Photios celebrated the Divinity Liturgy last July there was standing room only too.

We hope and look forward to seeing Fr. Timothy again and the opportunity of praying with him in three years time when he plans to make his second visit here, the Lord willing.

1 October 2013

Announcement | 3rd Sunday of Luke

We are blessed with an additional Divine Liturgy Service on the 3rd Sunday of Luke, October 6th, with visiting priest Fr. James Retelas from the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in California.

30 September 2013

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has blessed our small parish in many ways, including greatly during your second visit along with His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos and Chancellor Father Apostolos in January for Theophany.

Since that time this small mission has undergone a number of transitions and changes. One major change was how we conduct our services in English, and more about that particular change below. One major transition was the assignment of a new priest, Father Alexander Leong, now serving at Sts. Constantine and Helen on Oahu and monthly too at our small mission parish. We had our first Matins and Divine Liturgy service with Father Alexander on September 28th, remembering Chariton the Confessor. We are very thankful for such a gentle and kind priest and look forward to worshiping the Lord with him in the months to come.

Our parish has had several visiting priests. First Fr. Photios Dumont, served Divine Liturgy on July 14th, the Sunday of the Holy Fathers, and Matins and Divine Liturgy on July 21st, the 4th Sunday of Matthew. This was the first time our parish had an Orthos service -- it was as awe inspiring as it was deeply educational. Second, Fr. Luke Palumbis, served Matins and Divine Liturgy on August 25th, the 9th Sunday of Matthew. These extra services had been genuinely uplifting and a great inspiration beyond words for me to adequately express -- so to anyone who may have played a role in Fr. Photios' and Fr. Luke's choice to vacation on Maui and to celebrate here with us, we are so very thankful. With these visiting priests, we have seen firsthand how the Holy Spirit works through faithful servants of the Church. For example, there was standing room only during Fr. Photios' visit, an apt occurrence for such a humble and faithful sermon! Additionally, Fr. James Retelas is scheduled to serve on October 6th, the 3rd Sunday of Luke. And from your recent e-mail this week, it appears the Lord may be blessing our small parish again, with a visit in November by Father Timothy from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada. Father Timothy would be our first visiting priest from another jurisdiction.

Over the past year, we have conducted all our services entirely in English. And we have strived to make it as easy as possible for parishioners and visitors alike to follow along and participate. Yet, we learned that creating an easy English version is not at all an easy undertaking. We have created a sequential hymnal for each daily service -- and we now regularly post typeset versions on the parish website. These compilations contain two versions of the service of the day, a text only version and a text plus music version. As there are multiple jurisdictions represented in our mission, we have tried to find an optimal English representation that can suit everyone. As already mentioned, this is not an easy task -- yet we found a way forward. In our quest for Byzantine chant, we explored and draw from many sources, including from Holy Cross seminary, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Department of Religious Education, New Byzantium Publications, The Monastery of St. John of San Francisco, St. Anthony's Monastery Divine Music Project, eMatins, Fr. Seraphim Dedes, St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church, and Eikona. After a year, the small parish is a small choir.

During the last Eastern Orthodox Church year, we celebrated Divine Liturgy seventeen times, Matins four times, Typika six times, and a Thursday Evening Passion Service. The Parish Council of Sts. Constantine and Helen graciously provided our mission parish a gift so that families from the Maui Mission could visit Oahu for the Holy Week and Pascha services. Two families were able to attend St. Constantine and Helen.

All our services last year were held at St. Theresa Church in Kihei. On Saturdays in the large sanctuary and on Sundays in smaller venues on the Church campus. We had many visitors join us for services. Last year, thirty eight families visited the Maui Orthodox Christian Mission (including from Arizona, Australia, California, Vancouver Canada, Windsor Ontario Canada, Richmonds British Colombia Canada, Greece, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Oregon, and Washington) to attend our parish services and fellowship hour afterwards. During some services we had standing room only, for example as mentioned above.

There have been some new young Orthodox Christian families that have moved to Maui this year and who have attended services. The Maui Mission parish had been pruned back over the previous years. So today it is a very small planting, but is has green shoots. We are thankful for the opportunity to have communion on Maui Island with our Lord and are thankful for the many new friends we have made over the past year, including many who live around the world.

We have a handful of dedicated families -- enough for starting anew. Our church finances are sound. We look forward to a vibrant new year as we seek to continue to grow. In light of the experiences over past year, a few of the beginning verses of First Corinthians 13 particularly stand out to me now:

If I speak with tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and have all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing.

In many ways, this past year of mission parish life -- a first birth year so to speak -- had many lessons and equally many blessings. Despite any difficulties, we remain encouraged. We are in a very remote location, yet we have been spiritually fully nourished. We do not feel inclined to give up, nor to look back. During the coming new Church year, we seek to care more for others in our island community and broader ohana, to trust the Lord even more and to continue to wait for Him. We now have a beautiful mission parish for our neighbors to attend. Worldly events, neither furlough nor shutdown for example, impede us too much. We seek to keep going to the end, with His continued blessing. We remember Isaiah 40:31 and keep this particular scripture close in our heart:

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

We would like to express our love and admiration to His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos and Chancellor Father Apostolos and Reverend Father Theodore. We hope to have the great honor again to see them all during future visits to Maui!

21 August 2013

Announcement | 9th Saturday after Pentecost and 9th Sunday of Matthew

Last month we had a wonderful time celebrating two Sunday Divine Liturgy services with Fr. Photios Dumont, who visited from St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle, Washington. We are scheduled to have our regular Saturday Divine Liturgy Service on August 24th. The 9th Saturday of Pentecost will be Fr. John's last regular service with the Maui Orthodox Christian Mission, so we invite you to come and join us for a luncheon afterwards to express our warm appreciation to him. We are blessed with an additional Divine Liturgy Service on the 9th Sunday of Matthew, August 25th, with visiting priest Fr. Luke Palumbis from the Nativity of Christ Greek Orthodox Christian Church of California. We are planning to have the Service of Matins at 9:30am and Divine Liturgy at 10:30am. These services on August 25th will be held in the Saint Cecelia Room at Saint Theresa Church (just next to the Saint Rafael room.)

Also, Fr. Alexander Leong will begin his service as pastor at Sts. Constantine and Helen on September 1st. We are thankful that Fr. Alexander plans to continue the monthly service schedule of our mission parish. He looks forward to meeting all the parish members. More information about Fr. Alexander is available in the August 2013 Bulletin. The hymnals for the upcoming Divine Liturgy Services are posted on the parish website: www.mauimission.org/hymnal.

8 July 2013

The Maui Orthodox Christian Mission has the honor of hosting a visit by Reverend Father Photios Dumont, Proistamenos, the Treasurer of the Commission on Orthodox Missions and Evangelism (COME), in July 2013. Father Photios will celebrate the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, July 14th and Sunday, July 21st. This is a blessing for our parish ecause we will have Divine Liturgy Services for three weeks in a row. We hope all parishioners can attend.

6 March 2013

Announcement | Saturday of Souls

Our upcoming Divine Liturgy service is on March 9th at 10:00am at Saint Theresa Church. March 9th is a Saturday of Souls, one of several Saturdays set aside to commemorate the departed.

If one family would like to offer to make Koliva for the upcoming Saturday of Souls, then please let me know. Traditionally, Koliva is made with boiled wheat, nuts, seeds, raisins, and spices and decorated with powdered sugar and Jordan almonds (which are a type of dragée candy decoration). Below is a recipe sent by Fr. John.

Please e-mail the first names of departed relatives to be compiled for the parish and included in the upcoming service. You can also complete this form to bring to the service and there will be forms available to fill out on Saturday morning too.

Greek Koliva

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of wheat berries
• 1/2 cup of anise seeds
• 1 and 1/2 cups of walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1 and 1/2 cups of slivered blanched almonds
• 1 and 1/2 cups of golden raisins
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 large fresh pomegranate
• 1 and 1/2 cups of honey
• 2 cups of whole blanched almonds for decoration

15 January 2013

Announcement | Typika Reader Service

We hope you and your families are doing well.

We are very happy to announce our first Typika Reader Service, scheduled for this Saturday, January 19, 2013 in the St. Rafael room at 10:00 AM at St. Theresa Church. The St. Rafael room is across the grassy common area from the church office.

We had a very special time with His Eminence. After spending time with His Eminence over a couple days and by correspondence, we can tell you -- in the most heartfelt way we know how -- we are indeed blessed as a parish to have Metropolitan Gerasimos as our spiritual leader. He is indeed a remarkable witness and example for us to follow in our walk in Christ.

It was also a great blessing indeed to have three Fathers with us too, Reverends Fr. Apostolos, Fr. Theodore, and Fr. John, celebrating the Divine Liturgy service during the Eve of the Theophany of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Great Blessing of Water.

5 January 2013

The Maui Mission had a wonderful celebration on the Eve of Theophany. It was indeed a blessing for His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos to spend time with our mission parish.

 Metropolitan Gerasimos performed the Great Blessing of Water in Kihei, Maui

1 January 2013

We hope you and your families have a peaceful day today and a joyful new year. Below is a schedule of events for this upcoming weekend's celebration and Hierarchical Divine Liturgy service with Metropolitan Gerasimos. Fr. John Kuehnle, Fr. Theodore Dorrance, and Fr. Apostolos Koufallakis are coming to Maui to be part of His Eminence's visit. Fr. Theodore is arriving earliest, on Wednesday at 4pm, to spend time with parish members. He is planning to facilitate a study on Thursday at 7pm on the topic of the Feast of Theophany. Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Schedule of Events

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Date	Time	Event	Location
Thursday, January 3	7:00pm	Workshop with Fr. Theodore	Kihei
Friday, January 4	5:30pm	Welcome Metropoliton Gerasimos	Kahului airport - meet in the baggage area for United Airlines Flight 194
Friday, January 4	7:45pm	Dinner at home	Kihei
Saturday, January 5	9:00am	Orthros service	Main sanctuary of St. Theresa Church
Saturday, January 5	10:00am	Hierarchical Divine Liturgy service	Main sanctuary of St. Theresa Church
Saturday, January 5	12:00am	Vasilopita cutting during Fellowship hour	Youth Room of St. Theresa Church
Saturday, January 5	1:00pm	Great Blessing of Water*	Waiohuli Beach (adjacent to St. Theresa Church at the end of Lipoa Street)

* Please plan to bring swim suits for your keiki (little children) following the Divine Liturgy to retrieve the Cross after it is tossed into the ocean water by His Eminence.

This is an historical listing of some of the announcements and news reported by the Maui Greek Orthodox Christian Mission for the year selected.