Dear St. Augustine's 'ohana,
Advent begins with a deep longing as we read Isaiah’s dream of swords becoming ploughshares and spears becoming pruning hooks. This is an improbable vision by the world’s standards, but it is a hope we hold at a soul level. Isaiah invites us to imagine a world where tools of harm become tools of nourishment. In this hopeful vision, the ways of war and division are transformed into ways of connection with the 'āina and love for all.

Bringing his message home, Isaiah says, “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” These words soothe and calm us, providing Advent hope. They invite us to remember that we don't have to wait for the light. We can choose it, trust it, and walk in it now. We can live as though this hopeful vision is already breaking into the world through us.

The season of Advent ushers in the new church year. We enter a time of quiet and reflection, keeping both clock time and soul time as we wait with anticipation. As Paul says, something new is already stirring. It's time to put aside the weight we’ve been carrying and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” the garment of a new humanity. Many of us carry a profound weight today while recognizing the injustice of weight heaped inequitably upon those who can least afford to carry it.

This week, Jesus offers a teaching that sounds like warning but is actually invitation to champion justice by paying attention to what's happening in the world right now and acting on it in daily life. He urges us to live each moment as though God has arrived in our midst. Advent calls us to the kind of wakefulness that helps us see that God is already here, flowing through our ordinary daily actions of kindness, inclusion, compassion, and love.

On this first Sunday in Advent, I wonder: What are the swords in our lives that God is inviting us to lay down? What are the ploughshares we are being asked to take up? Where are we being invited to move from fear to trust, from guardedness to generosity, from sleepwalking through life to living awake?

Observing a holy Advent season entails more than just counting down to Christmas. It is the beginning of the turning, the process of new life emerging through Christ's coming birth. This is a season of inner reflection during which we are invited to embrace our kuleana. In the turning, we see that the light we long for is already rising within us, reshaping our minds, and guiding our steps. We begin our Advent journey with the same words Isaiah offered thousands of years ago: Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

With gratitude and blessings,
Vicar Jennifer
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​P.S., Mahalo for reading this message! I send my thoughts on the coming Sunday's scripture lessons in our weekly e-newsletter. If you'd like, you can sign up here to receive it. My e-message is usually a sneak peak of the coming Sunday's sermon, so if you're curious to hear more, head to our Facebook page for our livestream or go to our YouTube page to view past services. As always, I would love to see you in person on a Sunday! And please let me know if you'd like to talk about anything I've written here.

Please feel free to pass along this message or use what I've written. Please ensure proper attribution to the author, whether that's me or another writer. I often quote folks whose wisdom I admire! Blessings on your explorations in Spirit, and I look forward to walking with you on your journey!

Dear St. Augustine's 'ohana,
Please join us this Sunday for a Holy Eucharist in commemoration of the Holy Sovereigns, Queen Emma and King Kamehameha.

In his recent address to the annual meeting of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai'i, Bishop Bob opened his remarks with these words:

"I take this moment as your Bishop to honor and give thanks for the founding patrons of our Diocese, King Kamehameha IV (Alekanetero ʻIolani Kalanikualiholiho Maka o ʻIouli Kūnuiākea o Kūkāʻilimoku) and Queen Emma (Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke).

"I write from the land on which our Cathedral stands that was entrusted to the Church by the Holy Sovereigns. I acknowledge the trust they committed to our Church in 1862 to care for their people – Kānaka ʻŌiwi – and all of the children of these Islands, and for our responsibility to care for all of creation. As the Bishop of the Church invited to these islands, I deeply regret that we have not always fulfilled our responsibility through these many decades. We have often failed and turned a blind eye to those around us. For those things which we as the Church and as individual Episcopalians have done and the many things we have left undone that contributed to the harm inflicted on nā Kānaka ʻŌiwi and these islands, I offer our collective lamentation. I ask God’s forgiveness. I ask the prayers of our blessed ancestors and you, God’s people, that we, God’s Episcopal Church in Hawaiʻi, will have the will and courage to better fulfill our responsibility – kā mākou kuleana – to the people of these Islands and to God’s creation.

"On this my penultimate report to you as Bishop, I do so with the following in mind: Our Diocesan motto is “HE LANAKILA MA KE KEʻA” (Victory through the Cross). Our Diocesan ʻohana is united by faith in Jesus Christ and that is what we share with the world. We take seriously our commitment to incorporate “the Native Hawaiian Christian spiritual concepts of mana, malāma and pono into the overall life and work of the Church in all areas of ministry in the Diocese.” Ministry here must seek to care for others, creation and all that God has given us (malāma), to live righteously and in respect one for another (pono), and to find the holy (mana) that comes from God in all creation and all of God’s children."

I am grateful to Bishop Bob for articulating our ministry so clearly! I hear his words as clear instructions to us at St. Augustine's. Our commemoration this Sunday involves so much more than a simple head nod to Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV. It is more than a mere check box to complete once a year and then forget for the other 51 Sundays.

It's important to pause to reflect on why St. Augustine's is here, why we seek to serve our community, and how that's connected to the initial invitation from Queen Emma and King Kamehameha that allows us to be here now. This is an opportunity to acknowledge the past wrongs of the Church by recommitting to our sacred responsibilities to our Hawaiian founders today and actively working to uphold those responsibilities in the coming years.

As I think about the work we do together in North Kohala, I believe we are indeed committed to and actively working toward fulfilling these responsibilities! The ministries we carry out in our four missions (see below) show how we are directing our hearts and our daily work as a church. Let's continue this work, which benefits all people in our community, while also being mindful of how our efforts relate to our commitment to the Kānaka 'Ōiwi. We have much more to do and, at the same time, we can be grateful for the work of each person in this community of faith.
Please join us this Sunday for a Holy Eucharist in commemoration of the Holy Sovereigns, Queen Emma and King Kamehameha.

In his recent address to the annual meeting of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai'i, Bishop Bob opened his remarks with these words:

"I take this moment as your Bishop to honor and give thanks for the founding patrons of our Diocese, King Kamehameha IV (Alekanetero ʻIolani Kalanikualiholiho Maka o ʻIouli Kūnuiākea o Kūkāʻilimoku) and Queen Emma (Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke).

"I write from the land on which our Cathedral stands that was entrusted to the Church by the Holy Sovereigns. I acknowledge the trust they committed to our Church in 1862 to care for their people – Kānaka ʻŌiwi – and all of the children of these Islands, and for our responsibility to care for all of creation. As the Bishop of the Church invited to these islands, I deeply regret that we have not always fulfilled our responsibility through these many decades. We have often failed and turned a blind eye to those around us. For those things which we as the Church and as individual Episcopalians have done and the many things we have left undone that contributed to the harm inflicted on nā Kānaka ʻŌiwi and these islands, I offer our collective lamentation. I ask God’s forgiveness. I ask the prayers of our blessed ancestors and you, God’s people, that we, God’s Episcopal Church in Hawaiʻi, will have the will and courage to better fulfill our responsibility – kā mākou kuleana – to the people of these Islands and to God’s creation.

"On this my penultimate report to you as Bishop, I do so with the following in mind: Our Diocesan motto is “HE LANAKILA MA KE KEʻA” (Victory through the Cross). Our Diocesan ʻohana is united by faith in Jesus Christ and that is what we share with the world. We take seriously our commitment to incorporate “the Native Hawaiian Christian spiritual concepts of mana, malāma and pono into the overall life and work of the Church in all areas of ministry in the Diocese.” Ministry here must seek to care for others, creation and all that God has given us (malāma), to live righteously and in respect one for another (pono), and to find the holy (mana) that comes from God in all creation and all of God’s children."

I am grateful to Bishop Bob for articulating our ministry so clearly! I hear his words as clear instructions to us at St. Augustine's. Our commemoration this Sunday involves so much more than a simple head nod to Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV. It is more than a mere check box to complete once a year and then forget for the other 51 Sundays.

It's important to pause to reflect on why St. Augustine's is here, why we seek to serve our community, and how that's connected to the initial invitation from Queen Emma and King Kamehameha that allows us to be here now. This is an opportunity to acknowledge the past wrongs of the Church by recommitting to our sacred responsibilities to our Hawaiian founders today and actively working to uphold those responsibilities in the coming years.

As I think about the work we do together in North Kohala, I believe we are indeed committed to and actively working toward fulfilling these responsibilities! The ministries we carry out in our four missions (see below) show how we are directing our hearts and our daily work as a church. Let's continue this work, which benefits all people in our community, while also being mindful of how our efforts relate to our commitment to the Kānaka 'Ōiwi. We have much more to do and, at the same time, we can be grateful for the work of each person in this community of faith.

Blessings,
​Vicar Jennifer

P.S., Mahalo for reading this message! I send my thoughts on the coming Sunday's scripture lessons in our weekly e-newsletter. If you'd like, you can sign up here to receive it. My e-message is usually a sneak peak of the coming Sunday's sermon, so if you're curious to hear more, head to our Facebook page for our livestream or go to our YouTube page to view past services. As always, I would love to see you in person on a Sunday! And please let me know if you'd like to talk about anything I've written here.

Please feel free to pass along this message or use what I've written. Please ensure proper attribution to the author, whether that's me or another writer. I often quote folks whose wisdom I admire! Blessings on your explorations in Spirit, and I look forward to walking with you on your journey!

Dear St. Augustine's 'ohana,
Isaiah paints God's vision that shimmers with possibility: “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth.”

This isn’t a promise for someday; it’s an invitation for now. Creation is still unfolding—through our hands, through our prayers, through every small act of love that ripples outward. What Isaiah saw in prophetic poetry, we live out in our daily choices.

When we look around, it can feel as if everything is unraveling—wars, storms, divisions, and exhaustion. But Isaiah and Jesus both remind us that what looks like chaos to us can also be the labor of new life. Even if we can't see it, God transforms disorder into divine order. The old structures must crumble so that something truer, more compassionate, and more loving can rise.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus warns that even the most beautiful temples will fall. The disciples are stunned; they’ve been conditioned by society to place their faith in stones and systems. But Jesus calls them—and us—back into relationship with Spirit. God’s dwelling is not limited to buildings or institutions. God lives within and among us, steady in the swirl of change for all of time.

The early Christians described two kinds of time: chronos and kairos. Chronos is clock time—our schedules, our deadlines, the rhythm that keeps us moving in harmony as community. Kairos is sacred time—the spacious moment when Spirit whispers, helping us discern right action at the right time. We need both. chronos helps us organize our lives; kairos helps us listen for the pulse of God beneath it all. Every day invites us to balance the two: to coordinate in collaboration as community and also to pause long enough to sense when the Holy is nudging us toward a new way of being.

At St. Augustine’s, we practice that balance through our shared work. We create a safe and inclusive spiritual home. Through our Thrift Shop, we offer relief from financial uncertainty and recycle what can be renewed. We feed our neighbors. We gather in unity to enjoy one another's company and make meaningful connections. We come together through art and music. These aren’t just tasks to keep us busy; they are the living edges of Isaiah’s vision—where heaven and earth meet in ordinary acts of love and care.

Through our shared work, we listen for the whispers of the Holy Spirit to help us discern how love can flow through our next actions at just the right time. I think this is what Paul meant as he reminded the Thessalonians not to grow weary in doing what is right. Faith is not passive waiting for rescue; it is the daily choosing to embody love. As our community lives this out, Christ’s coming isn’t a distant event but a reality already unfolding through us.

When life feels uncertain, remember the words we've said throughout this season in our Prayers of the People: "In the beginning, God was. Here and now, God is. In the future, God will be." This holy thread runs through every moment! What matters most is not predicting what comes next but practicing mindful presence in the here and now and trusting that even in the chaos, the Creator’s love is moving through us, renewing all things.

Blessings,
Vicar Jennifer

P.S., Mahalo for reading this message! I send my thoughts on the coming Sunday's scripture lessons in our weekly e-newsletter. If you'd like, you can sign up here to receive it. My e-message is usually a sneak peak of the coming Sunday's sermon, so if you're curious to hear more, head to our Facebook page for our livestream or go to our YouTube page to view past services. As always, I would love to see you in person on a Sunday! And please let me know if you'd like to talk about anything I've written here.

Please feel free to pass along this message or use what I've written. Please ensure proper attribution to the author, whether that's me or another writer. I often quote folks whose wisdom I admire! Blessings on your explorations in Spirit, and I look forward to walking with you on your journey!