Daily Lectionary Readings
Parish News
25 December 2021
Our Lord and Savior is Born! Let us glorify Him!
We hope you are having a joyful and peaceful Christmas celebration.
"For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. His name will be called the Angel of Great Counsel, for I shall bring peace upon the rulers, peace and health by Him."
-- Isaiah 9:5
Father Alexander has participated in the creation of this beautiful choral piece that should bring you joy and inspiration during this Glorious Nativity Celebration.
"For a new child has been born for us: The God before all ages. Today the Virgin comes to the cave to ineffably give birth to the eternal Logos. Harkening to this: rejoice, O Universe. With angels and shepherds, glorify Him, the God before all ages, who will be beheld as a young child. Today, the Virgin bears Him who is transcendent, and the earth presents a cave to Him who is beyond reach. Angels, along with shepherds, glorify Him. The Magi (were) making their way to Him by a star. For a child has been born for us, the God before all ages."
-- An Orthodox Hymn of the Nativity of Christ (English translation published by Narthex Press)
This coming year, our services are planned to be held in the main sanctuary (and sometime in The Parish Hall) at Saint Theresa Church in Kihei, both of which have expansive in-door spaces. The upcoming services will include Matins at 9:00am and the Divine Litury (or Typika Service) at 10:00am.
The hymnals for these services are available to download for viewing on your own smart phone or tablet. The Menologion services for January and February 2022 are posted on the Maui mission website, including sequential hymnal versions with all the sheet music of the hymns. Please visit the Sequential Hymnal.
The planned service schedule for the Pentecostarion is also posted on the parish website in the Service Schedule. During the new year, we plan to continue to our normal bi-monthly schedule. This consists of middle of the month services and end of the month services, which provides for one service every two weeks.
Thank you once again for your continued participation during our services over this past year as we have been gathering at Saint Theresa Church to worship the Lord, who was begotten before all the ages and born today!
Let us embrace the greatest wisdom of the ages and even before all the ages!
1 September 2021
Orthodoxy in the World
Historic Joint Statement by
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,
Pope Francis, and
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby
on Climate Change
For the first time in two-thousand-year history of Christianity, the Ecumenical Patriach of Constantinople, the Pope of Rome, and the Archbishop of Canterbury have issued a joint statement. On September 1, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, His Holiness Pope Francis, and His Eminence Archbisop Justin Welby of Canterbury published this "Joint Message for the Protection of Creation," calling for urgent action to deal with the worldwide crisis of climate change and environmental degradation. Explaining with pastoral urgency the lessons of Scripture, they issue an urgent call for an effective collective response to this global threat.
July 2021
Orthodoxy in America
☩ Patriarch Bartholomew meets President Biden.
☩ Climate Change: An Ecumenical Imperative University of Notre Dame.
☩ Hear about how an ancient Christian hymn sung by a faithful Cantor can reverberate and resonate within the whole space and breath of the Church Triumphant at www.npr.org.
☩ Watch Archbishop Elpidophoros' keynote remarks at the Ecumenical Prayer Service Lamenting the Reconversion of Hagia Sophia into a Mosque and Celebrating Solidarity and Fellowship between the various Christian traditions at www.goarch.org. This Ecumenical Prayer Services, One Year After Hagia Sophia's Reconversion, was held on July 14, 2021 at the Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Washington D.C.
☩ Learn about Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at stnicholaswtc.org.
26 June 2021
This week was the last week of the Pentecostarion. Our One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church was founded this past Sunday on Pentecost, nearly two millennia ago!
Thank you for your participation during our last service celebrating the Saturday of Souls and for today's celebration with three Reverent Fathers.
The Mission had the honor of hosting the following three visiting priests for Matins and Divine Liturgy services: (1) Father James Retelas from Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Sacramento, California; (2) his son, Father Christopher Retelas from Saint John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Anaheim, California; and (3) his son-in-law, Father Pete Sotiras from Saint Basil Greek Orthodox Church in Stockton, California. We celebrated on Saturday, June 26th, on the Apodosis of The Feast of Holy Pentecost.
Father James Retelas was the celebrant this Saturday. He has been the presiding priest at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Sacramento, California since September 2005. A list of his recent sermons can be found at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church.
Our services (Matins at 9:00am and the Divine Liturgy at 10:00am) were held in the main sanctuary at Saint Theresa Church in Kihei, which has an expansive in-door space large enough to accommodate our parish needs.
Following this special service with the three Fathers, we plan to return to our normal bi-monthly schedule. This consists of middle of the month services and end of the month services, which provides for one service every two weeks. We are also extremely happy to announce that Father Alexander Leong is planning to return to the Mission parish for the fourth week service on July 24th!
Thank you once again for your continued participation during our services over this past year as we have been gathering in the main sanctuary of Saint Theresa Church. Please remember that the current policy at Saint Theresa Church is that all parishioners and visitors in the main sanctuary must wear masks at all times during the service until they exit the church building. Saint Theresa Church is following the current CDC and Maui County COVID-19 safety guidelines.
27 April 2021
Thank you for your participation during our recent services over the past few months as we have been finally able to gather in the main sanctuary of Saint Theresa Church. We have been able to pray to the Lord during this time of otherwise difficult circumstances as we have been confronting the coronavirus pandemic.
We have now entered into the beautiful and awesome mystery of Holy Week! Last week on the Island of Maui, the Jacaranda trees were in bloom. The pictures shown were taken in Kula (up country), which is located on Mount Haleakala a few thousand feet above sea level. This time of year the Jacaranda trees produce a bounty of purple flowers as if for the purpose of helping us prepare for Holy Week. A few photographs of these beautiful trees are shown on the left and right side of this announcement, along with pictures of the sceneries common to Maui at this time.
In addition to our bi-monthly prayer service schedule, I am thankful to announce several services planned for the end of this week, starting tomorrow. There are three upcoming Holy Week prayer services: (1) Thursday Evening, April 29th, Service of the Twelve Passion Gospel; (2) Friday Evening, April 30th, Service of the Graveside Lamentations; and (3) Saturday Evening, May 1st, Reader's Service before the Resurrection. There is also a Midnight Resurrectional Matins held right after the Service before the Resurrection on Midnight Sunday Morning to celebrate Pascha and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Holy Week services will be held in the main sanctuary at Saint Theresa Church in Kihei, which has an expansive in-door space large enough to accommodate our parish needs. The upcoming service meetings will include Holy Week and Matins services beginning at 7:00pm, 8:30pm, and 9:30pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, respectively.
The hymnals for these upcoming Holy Week services are very lengthy (hundreds of pages), so we will not be able to provide printed copies. Instead, we ask that if you can download your own copies of the Holy Week services as PDF files, then please download them for viewing on your own smart phone or tablet. The Holy Week services are posted on the Maui mission website, including sequential hymnal versions with all the sheet music of the hymns: Sequential Hymnal.
The planned service schedule for the Triodion is also posted on the parish website in the Service Schedule. Following these Holy Week services, we plan to return to our new bi-monthly schedule. This consists of middle of the month services and end of the month services, which provides for one service every two weeks. After Holy Week we enter a period called the Pentecostarion.
Let us embrace the greatest wisdom of the ages!
13 March 2021
Our services at the Maui mission parish have restarted last month—glory be to God! Thanks to all who participated and who planned to participate. It was wonderful seeing the parish gathered together again in a spirit of thankfulness and love.
The National Weather Service extended their Flash Flood Warning for the Island of Maui through 8am this morning. After many hours of continuous rain yesterday and all through the night, even in Kihei (which is usually as dry as a desert as it is located in the rain shadow of Mount Haleakala), this morning we thought that because we were receiving so much pounding rain that no one would be able to make it to Saint Theresa Church to attend today's service.
Fortunately, the sky cleared up by 9am right before the start of Matins and all was well here afterwards. The clear sky above the Saint Theresa Church is shown in the photo above on the right along with a photo of the inside of the main santuary. Upon closer inspection, it is possible to see how the pews have wooden bars installed for the purpose of blocking out alternating rows to accomodate safe distancing.
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The recent storm that impacted the Hawaiian Islands was truly a massive one, with an overall size covering a large swath of the Pacific Ocean north of the islands, and with a major diameter (going from North to South) of over a couple thousand miles. The rain front that hit us extended from Maui all the way up to Canada.
The photos on the left show the storm's full extent. These four maps show the storm's wind profile (top left), the cloud cover obtained by sateillite imaging (top right), its extremely long rain front (bottom left), as well as the temperture distribution over Hawaii and the mainland (bottom right).
No one was harmed in the mission parish nor anyone else on island, however one of our parishioners lost the home he was living in along with everything in it, which included all that he had owned! Fortunately, he left home early in the morning right before the rushing waters took away everything. Several homes in that neighborhood and many cars were just washed away into the ocean.
21 February 2021
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has blessed our small parish in many ways over the past years, yet this past year has been a difficult one as we have not held services because of the coronavirus.
Today, during the start of the Triodion on The Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, I am happy to announce the start of a new bi-monthly prayer service schedule. Toward launching our new schedule of bi-monthly prayer services, the first upcoming service for this ecclesiastical year is scheduled for the end of this week on Saturday, February 27th, in Memory of our St. Procopius of Dekapolis. For more information on this service visit the Hymnal.
This prayer service will be held in the main sanctuary at Saint Theresa Church in Kihei, which has an expansive in-door space that is large enough to accommodate our parish needs. The upcoming service will include a Matins service at 9:00am and a Reader’s Typika service at 10:00am, followed by an Aloha Hour fellowship meeting that will be hosted via Zoom at 11:00am.
Anyone arriving at Saint Theresa Church to attend a service will first have to sign into our parish registration book and provide their name, home address, e-mail address and phone number. Following each service event, all the contact information will also be provided to the administrative staff of Saint Theresa Church to facilitate contact tracing if need be.
Some coordination on available dates is still in progress with the office administrative staff at Saint Theresa Church. We are not planning to meet the following week, the week of the Sunday of the Prodigal Son on February 28th. However, we are tentatively planning to meet for The Saturday Before Meat-Fare Sunday: The Saturday of Souls, March 13th. This is the second Saturday of Souls of the Triodion.
So the upcoming Saturdays, February 27th and March 13th are our first planned services of our new bi-monthly schedule. The first is an end of the month service (normally to be held on the fourth week of the month) and the second is a middle of the month service (normally to be held on the second week of the month). Since we are sharing the sanctuary at Saint Theresa Church, we might have to reschedule a normal service time, shifting it by one week, in case there were a unplanned last minute funeral service, for example. The upcoming planned service schedule for the Triodion is posted in the Service Schedule.
Finally, we hope you take The Great Lent as a time to consider the Lord's calling of you to serve His Kingdom on the Island of Maui through our mission parish. Let us continue to embrace the greatest wisdom of the ages!
Wisdom's Invitation
Wisdom built her house,
And she supported it with seven pillars.
She offered her sacrifices;
She mixed her wine in a bowl
And prepared her table.
She sent her servants,
Inviting people to the bowl with a lofty proclamation, saying,
“He who is without discernment,
Let him turn aside to me;”
And to those in need of discernment, she says,
“Come, eat my bread
And drink the wine I mixed for you;
Forsake lack of discernment, and you shall live;
Seek discernment so you may live,
And keep straight your understanding with knowledge.”
