First Mondays: Island Oasis • April 5 at 7:00 pm

Island Oasis group photoFirst Mondays Chamber Concerts continue with an evening of authentic Middle Eastern music featuring the talented ensemble Island Oasis, lead by Kip McAtee. Enjoy danceable melodies from throughout the Balkans and Middle East, featuring the lute-like oud, an end-blown flute called the ney, clarinet, percussion, and other instruments.

The concert will be livestreamed on the our streaming page and the LCH Facebook page April 5 at 7:00 pm and then archived on the LCH Facebook page.

The concert is free; donations to support the concert series are gladly accepted (details below). Concert Program (PDF in a new window)

The First Mondays 2020–2021 Concert Series





Help Make “First Mondays” a Success by Becoming a Sponsor

Your tax-deductible donations make it possible for us to offer these free concerts to the community. Please consider a donation by sending a check (payable to “Lutheran Church of Honolulu”) to the church at 1730 Punahou Street, Honolulu HI 96822 or using the button to the right to make a secure donation via PayPal. Mahalo for your support.

Holy Week and Easter Worship at LCH

Celebrating the Cross and Resurrection
HOLY WEEK AND EASTER
at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu


Christ showing wounds

PALM SUNDAY   †   Sunday, March 28

10:00 am

PROCESSION WITH PALMS AND HOLY COMMUNION

The service moves from the commemoration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to the reading of the story of Jesus’ passion and death in the Gospel according to St. Mark. Music by Georg Friedrich Händel, Juan Bautista Comes, and Ginés Pérez. List of music for this service


robe and wash basin for Maundy liturgy

MAUNDY THURSDAY   †   Thursday, April 1

7:30 pm

CHORAL EUCHARIST AND MAUNDY LITURGY

A joyous celebration of the Eucharist meal quickly changes to one of love through humility in the washing of feet. The service concludes with the stripping of the altar, dramatizing Christ’s betrayal, stripping, and mocking by his captors. Music by the Taizé Community, Peter Hallock, and Johann Michael Haydn. List of music for this service


crown of thorns

GOOD FRIDAY   †   Friday, April 2

7:30 pm

GOOD FRIDAY LITURGY AND ADORATION OF THE CRUCIFIED

This service celebrates the triumph of the cross. The service features the singing of the Passion Gospel and concludes with prayer around the cross. Music includes Zachary Wadsworth’s setting of the St. John Passion and motets by Sergei Rachmaninov and Nikolay Kedrov. List of music for this service


empty cross and Paschal candle

EASTER EVE   †   Saturday, April 3

7:30 pm

EASTER VIGIL AND SOLEMN CHORAL EUCHARIST

Kindling of a new fire, the story of deliverance from the Hebrew Scriptures, and renewal of Baptismal promises lead to the proclamation of Easter Victory and a joyous celebration of Holy Communion. Music by Alexander Gretchaninoff and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. List of music for this service


Chi Rho and empty tomb

EASTER SUNDAY   †   Sunday, April 4

10:00 am

FESTIVAL CHORAL EUCHARIST

We celebrate the empty tomb, the central mystery that through death comes new life. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Festive music for Easter including A Little Jazz Mass by Bob Chilcott. List of music for this service

7:30 pm

EASTER COMPLINE

Contemplative Easter meditation offered by the LCH Men’s Schola. Candlelight illuminates the Nave for this short service of prayer, chant, and a cappella singing. List of music for this service


The Reverend Jeff Lilley, Pastor   †   Bree Lloyd, Vicar   †   Scott Fikse, Director of Music and Liturgy

First Mondays: The Lamentations of Jeremiah • March 1 at 7:00 pm

Loss, a sculpture by Jane Mortimer, photo by Mitch HodgeThe Lamentations of Jeremiah are five poems in the form of laments for Jerusalem and Judah, invaded and devastated by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. These moving elegies have inspired composers for centuries, perhaps most famously English Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis.

A sextet of singers will bring the Lamentations to life for our March First Mondays Concert. Accompanied by organist Mark Wong and joined by Duane Padilla (violin) and Aris Doike (cello), the ensemble will perform the first section of Tallis’s lush setting, as well as Charles Gounod’s composition inspired by the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). Other laments and works of consolation will make up this strikingly beautiful program.

Our sextet is made up of Georgine Stark and Naomi Barrett, sopranos; Sarah Lambert Connelly, mezzo-soprano; Bowe Souza and Tomás Ramos, tenors; and Scott Fikse, bass-baritone.

The concert will be livestreamed on the our streaming page and the LCH Facebook page March 1 at 7:00 pm and then archived on the LCH Facebook page.

The concert is free; donations to support the concert series are gladly accepted (details below). Concert Program (PDF in a new window)

The First Mondays 2020–2021 Concert Series





Help Make “First Mondays” a Success by Becoming a Sponsor

Your tax-deductible donations make it possible for us to offer these free concerts to the community. Please consider a donation by sending a check (payable to “Lutheran Church of Honolulu”) to the church at 1730 Punahou Street, Honolulu HI 96822 or using the button to the right to make a secure donation via PayPal. Mahalo for your support.

Midweek Lenten Vespers • Wednesdays at 7:00 pm

prayer graphicPlease join us for streaming midweek Lenten services. Holden Evening prayer will begin at 7:00 on Wednesday evenings during Lent with the theme “From Darkness into Light.” Each service will approach the theme from a different perspective including spirituality, care of earth, and mental health using music, imagery, art, and proclamation to draw us deeper into God’s presence. Members of Writers’ Workshop will provide much of the proclamation texts.

You are encouraged to prepare for the service ahead of time by setting your worship space with a candle to light during evening prayer. We pray you will join us each week as we prepare for the joy of Easter.

The Midweek Lenten Vespers will be livestreamed on our Worship Services page and the LCH Facebook page.

LCH Community Garden—February Update

The seedling planted in January have flourishedThe seedlings planted just a few weeks ago on Martin Luther King Day (right) had flourished, and it was time for them to be “up-potted” so they would continue to grow. Once again, members of the congregation (below) joined Vicar Bree on the lanai to get their hands dirty and move the garden along

Peggy Anderson and Vicar Bree up-pot some of the seedlingsPaula Wheeler up-pots some of the seedlings

Josie Bidgood up-pots some of the seedlingsPeggy Anderson and Vicar Bree check out the planting bedAt right, Vicar Bree and Peggy Andersaon check out the planting bed ready ro be filled with soil to receive the plants have gotten a bit bigger.

Ash Wednesday Worship • Feb. 17 at 7:30 pm

Ash Wednesday cross graphicThe season of Lent begins with a very special worship on Ash Wednesday. This beautiful evening service begins the Lenten season of reflection, prayer, and preparation as we hear the words from Genesis 3:19, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Physical distancing keeps us from receiving ashes, a sign of mourning and repentance, on our foreheads this year. But we are reminded of our mortality through the cross, a sign of promise, and life, and hope. Ash Wednesday—and the whole season of Lent—calls us to reflect and remember the precious gift of life and love that God has given us in creation and community and to re-center our thoughts and spirit on what truly matters. We recall that our mortality is joined to God’s forever in Christ, and remember that together we share the joy of life with all of God’s world.

While we are not able to gather for our traditional Lenten soup and salad suppers this year, we look forward to a time when we will be able gather in person again.

The Ash Wednesday Liturgy will be livestreamed on our Worship Services page and the LCH Facebook page.

First Mondays: Tradewinds—A Chamber Concert for Winds • Feb. 1 at 7:00 pm

Tomás Ramos (clarinet) and Brian Kavolius-Matherne (horn) combine forces with pianist Maika’i Nash to present an exciting concert of music for winds and piano written by a diverse collection of composers, some well-known and others under-appreciated. The combination of horn and clarinet will showcase their range, timbre, and lyricism in a First Mondays concert you won’t want to miss.

Featured Composers are Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757), Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936) Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), David Maslanka (1943–2017), Béla Kovács (b. 1937), and Brad Edwards (b. 1963).

The concert will be livestreamed on the our streaming page and the LCH Facebook page February 1 at 7:00 pm and then archived on the LCH Facebook page.

The concert is free; donations to support the concert series are gladly accepted (details below).

Concert Program (PDF in a new window)

The First Mondays 2020–2021 Concert Series





Help Make “First Mondays” a Success by Becoming a Sponsor

Your tax-deductible donations make it possible for us to offer these free concerts to the community. Please consider a donation by sending a check (payable to “Lutheran Church of Honolulu”) to the church at 1730 Punahou Street, Honolulu HI 96822 or using the button to the right to make a secure donation via PayPal. Mahalo for your support.

LCH Community Garden Begins to Take Shape

Vicar Bree and Jazz assemble the frame for the gardenSeven hearty souls gathered on a windy and rainy Martin Luther King Day to begin work on the LCH Community Garde. The garden, which fits into February’s Stewardship theme, Stewards of Creation, also meshes with the goals of Blue Zones.

Working on the nursery lanai because of the wind and rain, Josie Bidgood and Chuck Pearson, Peggy Anderson, and Phyllis Hörmann and Carol Langner (below) planted a variety of seeds in seeding flats. Once they begin to grow, the seedling will be transplanted for better growth.

Working on the concrete next to the lanai, Vicar Bree and her wife, Jazz, assembled the first of two raised planting beds (right). All the pieces had been precut to facilitate assembly. A second bed will be built at a later date.

In spite of the weather, this initial gathering we quite a success and got the community garden off to an auspicious start. In the weeks to come, the hopes are to periodically gather individually or in small groups to help with seeding, planting, or watering

Josie Bidgood and Chuck Pearson plant seedsPeggy Anderson plants seedsPhyllis Hörmann and Carol Langner plant seeds

LCH Community Garden

In anticipation of the Stewardship theme for the month of February—Stewards of Creation—and in tandem with the goals of Blue Zones, Vicar Bree will begin her internship project mid-January. The project is a small community garden at LCH.

Construction will begin this month! Thus far, the plans are for two, 4×10 foot raised garden beds on the site of the playground that fronts Punahou Street. If you have sources for healthy soil, 2x8x10 boards, 4x4x4 posts, or any garden tools like trowels, hoses, gloves, or seeding flats, let the vicar know. Additionally, if you have alternative ideas/suggestions or would like to help with the project, let the vicar know this too! Just email her at vicar.bree@LCHwelcome.org.

We’ll be limited to a small, outdoor group (under five people or a family pod), but we can find ways to work safely at a distance. After construction finishes, the hopes are to periodically gather individually or in small groups to help with seeding, planting, or watering—maybe even filling out our Blue Zones pledges along the way. Let’s grow (maybe something more than kale…)!

Compline • January 3 and 17, 7:30 pm

prayer graphicWe warmly invite all people in all places of faith and life to Compline. Offered on the first and third Sundays of each month, this beautiful candle-lit service is a meditative experience of a cappella singing and chanting to commemorate the day’s end, featuring the LCH Men’s Schola. Musical selections include Gregorian chant, Taizé chant, Renaissance polyphony, and more.

Access on the Worship Services page, or on the LCH Facebook page at facebook.com/LCHwelcome.